Findex

Findex is a highly customizable application launcher written in Rust and uses GTK3

Table of Contents

• Findex
  • Table of Contents
  • Quick Note
  • Features
  • Installation
    • Supported OS
    • Requirements
    • Automated installation from source
    • Manual installation from source
    • Installation from AUR
    • Hyprland
    • Notes
  • Customization
  • Plugins
    • For users
    • For developers
    • Explanation
      • Prefix
      • Keyboard shortcut
      • init function
      • handle_query function
  • Reporting Bugs

Quick Note

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Features

• Customization using CSS
• Plugin system
• Custom shortcut for triggering plugins
• Shortcut for executing each result(upto 10)

Installation

If you are not using Findex directly from development branch and using latest release, check instructions from the release branch.

Supported OS

• Linux

Requirements

• Gtk3
• libkeybinder3
• Rust v1.66.0 (building from source)

Automated installation from source

• Run ./installer.sh

Manual installation from source

• Set Rust toolchain to stable using: rustup default stable
• Compile it using cargo build --release
• Make /opt/findex directory
• Copy css/style.css to /opt/findex
• Copy target/release/findex to /usr/bin/
• Copy target/release/findex-daemon to /usr/bin/
• Add findex-daemon to autostart/startup applications

  • If using SystemD, enable & start the findex-daemon user service

    sudo systemctl enable --user findex-daemon.service
    sudo systemctl start --user findex-daemon.service
    

Installation from AUR

From repo: findex-git Prebuilt: findex-bin

After that, add findex-daemon to autostart/startup applications

Hyprland

To setup findex for use in Hyprland add these configs to your ~/.config/hypr/hyprland.conf

# Findex
exec-once = findex-daemon
bind = $mod, space, exec, echo 1 > ~/.config/findex/toggle_file
windowrulev2 = float, class:^(findex)$
windowrulev2 = noanim, class:^(findex)$
windowrulev2 = noborder, class:^(findex)$
windowrulev2 = noshadow, class:^(findex)$

Notes

• Findex can't bind hotkey in Wayland. Bind hotkey to echo 1 > ~/.config/findex/toggle_file
• Window decoration settings may not work in Wayland

Customization

Findex can be customized by applying properties to certain css classes. Below is a table containing class names and what they correspond to:

Class	Widget
findex-window	Top level window
findex-container	Top level container of all widgets
findex-query	Text input box where user gives query
findex-results-scroll	Scrollable container containing ListBox that shows search results
findex-results	Listbox containing search results
findex-result-row	ListBoxRow containing single search result
findex-result-icon	App icon of result row
findex-result-app-name	App name of result row
findex-result-app-description	Description of the app
findex-result-app-command	Command of the app
findex-result-trigger-shortcut	Shortcut for running the command in the result
findex-result-icon-container	Container of the icon of each result
findex-result-info-container	Container of the info of each result
findex-query-container	Container of the search box

To customize Findex, edit the style.css file in ~/.config/findex. If there is no such file, run Findex to generate it.

Behaviour can be changed by modifying ~/.config/findex/settings.toml. If there is no such file, run Findex to generate it.

Name	Description	Type
default_window_width	Set default width of the window	Integer
min_content_height	Minimum content height of result	Integer
max_content_height	Maximum content height of result	Integer
name_match_highlight_color	Color of matches highlighted in app name	String
min_score	Minimum Score of app name match	Integer
result_size	Maximum amount of apps to show as result	Integer
toggle_key	Key to toggle Findex(eg. <Alt>space). This doesn't work in Wayland. Check Installation for more info.	String
decorate_window	Show toolbar of window	Boolean
query_placeholder	Placeholder text to show in query input box	String
close_window_on_losing_focus	Close window when it loses focus	Boolean
icon_size	Icon width and height will be set from this value	Integer
entry_icon	Icon displayed beside the searchbar	String
on_monitor	The monitor that findex is opened on (zero indexed). Warning: this feature hasn't been tested on Wayland yet. Contributions are welcome.	Integer

Plugins

For users

• Download the plugin. If it's not compiled, then compile it in release mode using cargo build --release
• Go to target/release folder.
• You'll see a file with .so extension. Copy that to a convenient place.
• Add the following line to your settings.toml and edit it to make findex use the plugin:

PLUGIN = { path = "PLUGIN PATH", prefix = "OPTIONAL USER DEFINED PREFIX", keyboard_shortcut = "OPTIONAL USER DEFINED KEYBOARD SHORTCUT", config = {} }

Property	Description
path	Path to the plugin's .so file
prefix	Optional user defined prefix that'll make findex use this instead of the one specified in the plugin.
config	Plugin's configuration. Please refer to the plugin's documentation for more information.
keyboard_shortcut	Optional custom keyboard shortcut for triggering the plugin(inserts the plugins prefix into the search box). Must be a valid Gtk accelerator.

• For more information, please refer to the documentation of the plugin you are using.

NOTE: always make sure that the plugins you are using are compatible with the version of Findex you are using.

For developers

Only Rust based plugins are supported.

• First make a cdylib library
• Add findex-plugin and abi_stable as dependency
• Add the following code into src/lib.rs

use findex_plugin::{define_plugin, FResult};
use abi_stable::std_types::*;

fn init(config: &RHashMap<RString, RString>) -> RResult<(), RString>  {
    // Set up your plugin using the config if necessary
    // Return RErr if something went wrong

    // Returning this indicates that the plugin initialization is successful
    ROk(())
}

fn handle_query(query: RStr) -> RVec<FResult> {
    let mut result = vec![];

    /* Do stuff here */

    RVec::from(result)
}

define_plugin!("prefix!", init, handle_query);
// or add the following if you want to have custom shortcut for triggering the plugin.
// The following sets the shortcut to Ctrl+Shift+P.
// define_plugin!("prefix!", "<Ctrl><Shift>P", init, handle_query);

• Edit this to create your plugin.
• After writing code, follow user guide to test your plugin

Explanation

Prefix

This is used to invoke the plugin's query handler. This is the first argument of the define_plugin! macro. User can overwrite this by providing a custom prefix like following:

PLUGIN = { prefix = "custom_prefix!", path = "plugin_path", config = {} }

Keyboard shortcut

This is used to invoke the plugin's query handler using shortcut keys. This is the second argument of the define_plugin! macro. Under the hood, Findex inserts the prefix for the plugin into the search box when it's pressed.

PLUGIN = { keyboard_shortcut = "<Ctrl><Shift>P", path = "plugin_path", config = {} }

init function

The init function is the function that Findex calls during startup. Plugins may use this to do necessary initialization. Plugins that do not need any initialization can just return without doing anything. The first argument of the function is plugin specific configuration.

The user may provide configuration in the following format:

PLUGIN = { path = "plugin_path", config = { key1 = "value1", key2 = "value2" } }

As you can see, every key will have a string value. This function is the third argument of the define_plugin! macro.

handle_query function

This function gets called every time a user invokes the plugin by typing the prefix. The first argument is the query the user typed after the prefix. The function is expected to return a RVec containing results(if any). This function is the fourth argument of the define_plugin! macro.

Reporting Bugs

If you find any bugs, please create an issue and include the latest log from ~/.findex-logs.