[mpris] DesktopEntry shortcomings

[Conor Curran]

Hey all,

I was wondering what the reason was for the DesktopEntry property on the 
root interface to be
"the basename of an installed .desktop file which complies with the 
Desktop entry specification, with the ".desktop extension stripped".

Why shouldn't it be the full path to the desktop file including the 
extension ?

The reason I ask this is that I found while doing my development that 
the assumption that all desktop file paths are in the same directory is 
incorrect. Take for instance Amarok, on Ubuntu its desktop file lives in 
/usr/share/applications/kde4 while all others I have come across live in 
the parent directory.
Inorder to allow clients work with the sound menu I need access  to 
their desktop file. Not really quite so sure why I need to jump through 
these hoops (placing the extension on the end of a concatenated path and 
attempting to load from two different locations) each time a client pops 
up.

Maybe I'm missing something.

Furthermore why isn't it mandatory to define the DesktopEntry property? 
It's not like its something that any application could be bothered with. 
Allows for proper context to be communicated between server and client.

Thoughts ?

Conor

-- 
Sound Architect
Desktop Experience Team
Product Strategy
Canonical