Bug 403232 - Global Menu Widget invisible, but enabled by default -- breaks menus w/o information
Summary: Global Menu Widget invisible, but enabled by default -- breaks menus w/o info...
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: plasmashell
Classification: Plasma
Component: Global Menu (show other bugs)
Version: 5.14.3
Platform: Debian unstable Linux
: NOR normal
Target Milestone: 1.0
Assignee: Kai Uwe Broulik
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2019-01-15 11:58 UTC by arne anka
Modified: 2019-01-24 00:18 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

See Also:
Latest Commit:
Version Fixed In: 5.15.0


Attachments

Note You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.
Description arne anka 2019-01-15 11:58:25 UTC
SUMMARY
Added a new panel ("Default" IIRC) and after that, menu bars were gone in all plasma apps.
It took a long time to figure out what went wrong -- in the end it was the Global Menu Widget that broke things!
In that new panel the Global Menu Widget was enabled by default -- but was invisible!! Only after I knew what to look for I noticed the small space at the left end -- there's no icon, no marker, nothing. This thing breaks menus without the slightest indication and there's no way to figure that out. What's the idea behind that?? 

a) I fail to understand how _any_ widget can exist on a panel without a visual indication as to its existence
b) I fail to understand how a thing with such a huge impact on a user's workflow and productivity can be introduced silently with a seemingly unrelated addition of just a panel!

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. add new panel
2. search in vain for your menu bars 
3. 

OBSERVED RESULT
menu bars gone without any chance to find them

EXPECTED RESULT
menu bars shouldn not be affected by just adding a panel

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Windows: 
MacOS: 
Linux/KDE Plasma: 5.14.3
(available in About System)
KDE Plasma Version: 5.14.3
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.51.0
Qt Version: 5.11.3

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Comment 1 Kai Uwe Broulik 2019-01-15 12:01:02 UTC
Are you sure you added the "Default" panel and not the "Application Menu" panel?
Comment 2 Nate Graham 2019-01-15 22:14:50 UTC
Sounds like it to me too. They are adjacent to one another in the menu after all.
Comment 3 arne anka 2019-01-16 09:11:12 UTC
definitely not the "Application Menu Panel" -- I specifically didn't want that and I certainly would have noticed if there had been an application menu.

But even if -- having the Global... enabled without indication and warning and information of how to get rid would be inacceptable with the Application Menu Panel as well!

It took me several hours or de-/re-einstalling of stuff, reboots, and research before I found out what caused this major breakage.
Comment 4 Kai Uwe Broulik 2019-01-16 09:25:01 UTC
It could perhaps show a notification when a global menu applet is added or something similar to how the desktop explains what to do when you unlock widgets.
Comment 5 arne anka 2019-01-20 16:03:08 UTC
I don't think that's the way to go.
This Global Menu Applet immediatelly breaks workflows and patterns, just a notification is by no means adequate to such a grave change.

As long as the Applet does not provide a way to access the menu by itself (AFIAU the title bar menu button with the sandwich is unrelated and not fully reliably), I consider the Global Menu to be unfit for normal use. And in any case, it cannot be forced upon users!

The Applet _needs_ urgently an icon to be shown in the panel, it cannot stealthily sit there, indicating its existence by only a unusual space. That icon can by itself provide a way to _enable_(!) and disable the global menu and when enabled provide said menu.
Comment 6 David Edmundson 2019-01-24 00:15:46 UTC
Git commit 2fd853aea2ce10bea1e7def393e4da3825709e61 by David Edmundson.
Committed on 24/01/2019 at 00:15.
Pushed by davidedmundson into branch 'Plasma/5.15'.

[applets/appmenu] Show placeholder when configuring and empty

Summary:
Before this patch if you had no active menu and configured your plasmoid
it would be invisible.

After this patch a placeholder is shown in that configuration.

Test Plan:
* Window with menu - menu shown, no placeholder (as before)
* Window without menu - state is hidden so nothing is shown (as before)
* Window with menu whilst configuring - menu shown (as before)
* Window without menu whilst configuring - placeholder shown (new)
* Compact represenation remains the same

Reviewers: #plasma, broulik

Reviewed By: #plasma, broulik

Subscribers: broulik, plasma-devel

Tags: #plasma

Differential Revision: https://phabricator.kde.org/D18481

M  +10   -3    applets/appmenu/package/contents/ui/main.qml

https://commits.kde.org/plasma-workspace/2fd853aea2ce10bea1e7def393e4da3825709e61