Dash to Dock

A new extension version (v39) supporting GNOME Shell 3.14 is now available. This release introduces a series of bug fixes and minor visual improvements.

As usual, the extension can be obtained from the extension website upon approval, or downloaded manually from the release page. See the alternative installation methods for instructions.

There are two main visible changes in this version: the running indicator in the built-in theme are now solid light grey dots in place of the old blurred spots and the animating in and out of the overview which now correctly run the spring animation for the application view.

An option to make the message tray insensitive to mouse events has been added. This is a workaround waiting for the message tray complete removal in GNOME Shell 3.16.

Few bugs have been solved – see below for details – the most important is the one that was preventing a smooth update of the extension version which should have finally gone.

IT, who helped with the development, made a video showing the main Dash to Dock features developed so far.

The next step will be the release of an updated version for 3.16 which is almost ready, but I’m also try to find a workaround to make the notification and the dock coexist in GNOME Shell 3.14. Moreover, the video below shows a preview of some of the features IT is working on which will be integrated once tested and polished in the next releases. You can test them from IT’s experimental branch.

Release notes

• Improvement: various improvement to the startup animations.
• Bug fix: fix missing and broken spring animation.
• Improvement: improve animation in and out from the overview.
• New feature: add option for insensitive messageTray.
• Improvement: keep the dock actor below the modalDialogGroup.
• Bug fix: solve bug with wrong icons size in hidpi screen.
• Fix: consider always on top windows for intellihide.
• New feature: embed quit from dash functionalities.
• Improvement: Update running dots style.
• Bug fix: Correct bug on extension update
• Improvement: “first” is “rigth” for RTL languages, this correct the settings effect.

With the release of GNOME 3.16 approaching, I had the time to test the extension with the upstream development code. Everything seems to be in good shape for a painless transition to GNOME 3.16 without delays.

As you can see the extension is already running well in GNOME 3.15.90. You can test it by yourself from the experimental branch on Github. As always, if you spot any bug, please file a bug report.

The extension benefits from the most evident visual change of GNOME Shell 3.16, i.e. the removal of the bottom message tray. Thanks to the new notifications design — notifications are now integrated into the calendar menu — the bottom placed dock doesn’t interfere anymore with any shell element and feel more integrated with the rest of the UI.

The running dots appearance was updated according to the new style, while I’m still thinking if keeping the grey background as in the new theme or reverting to a darker color as in the top panel.

Overall it seems that GNOME 3.16 is promising for Dash to Dock too.

A new extension version (v38) supporting GNOME Shell 3.12 is now available. As many users are still on the previous Gnome Shell version This release is a backport of version 36/37 , which introduced support for alternative dock positioning, including the bottom side of the screen.

As usual the new version can be installed from the extension website upon approval, or downloaded manually from the release page. See also the alternative installation methods for instructions.

For details on the features introduced and if you are on GNOME 3.14 refer to the version 36 release news.

Release notes

• This is a port of version 36/37 to GNOME Shell 3.12

A new extension version (v37) supporting GNOME Shell 3.14 is now available. This release fix a bug introduced by version 36 for GNOME Shell 3.14/3.14.1 users.

As usual the new version can be installed from the extension website upon approval, or downloaded manually from the release page. See also the alternative installation methods for instructions.

Release notes

• Bug fixes: bug fix for GNOME Shell 3.14/3.14.1 (MyDash: call correctly the parent method in Gnome Shell 3.14.1.).

A new extension version (v36) supporting GNOME Shell 3.14 is now available. This release introduces support for alternative dock positioning, including the bottom side of the screen.

An option for positioning the dock at the bottom of the screen has been one of the most requested features since the initial development of this extension a couple of years ago.

I finally had the time to implement the positioning of the dock on all the different sides of the screen, inspired by the work of people who forked this extension (ozonos, Simple Dock ) and helped with the development (itproject).

It’s possible to place the dock also on the right or top edge of the screen. These have to be considered experimental and unsupported: although usable, not too much effort has beeen put in making the result aesthetically pleasing. On the other hand, multimonitor and RTL languages support should have been maintaned as well as any other features available in previous releases in both the default and bottom positioning. However, due to the limited test in these conditions, bugs could be presents. Please report any issue you experience.

As usual the new version can be installed from the extension website upon approval, or downloaded manually from the release page. See also the alternative installation methods for instructions.

As the dock in bottom position interferes with the currrent gnome-shell notification, the use of an extension to move the nofifications (for instance Panel OSD) is recommanded waiting for the new notification system which is expected to be implemented in GNOME 3.16.

Other than few bug fixes, the improvements of this version are a better use of the overview space and the addition of a right menu on the showApps icon to directly access the extension settings, which has been improved in the section related to the theme customization for a better integration with custom themes.

If possible, these features will be backported to GNOME 3.12: an experimental branch named bottom_dock_3.12 is available on Github.

Release notes

• New feature: bottom positioning of the dock. Top and right are available too.
• New feature: add popupMenu with extension settings to the showAppsIcon.
• Improvement: rework workaround for compatibility with 3.14 and 3.14.1 to improve interoperability with other extensions.
• Improvement: reserve space for the dock in the overview.
• Bug fixes: solves bug caused by wrong hover status reported on the dash actor.
• Bug fixes: scrolling workspace break show/hide animation #109
• Bug fixes: remove 1px margin between fixed dock and windows (track structs of the outer dash.actor instead of the inner dash._box).