Aplets del panèl

The GNOME desktop features flexible and powerful panels to which users can add any number of small applications, called panel applets. Panel applets can provide all sorts of quick access to all sorts of useful information and functionality. For instance, the GNOME desktop ships with panel applets to switch between windows and workspaces, display the current weather conditions, and display network activity, among many others.

You may provide a panel applet to augment the functionality of your application, or you may provide a simple stand-alone panel applet. If you simply need to display quick notifications, you should consider using the notification area instead, which is also displayed in the user's panel. Panel applets should be used when you need to provide more functionality than that provided by notification icons.

Panel applets are independent processes that use Bonobo to communicate with the panel. Bonobo allows applets to integrate with the panel to provide a consistent user experience. For example, the context menu for every panel applet contains standard items to remove, move, and lock the applet. Each panel applet can then add items to the context menu to perform other actions. The Weather Report panel applet, for example, has context menu items to display a detailed report and to update the displayed information.

Note that Bonobo has been deprecated in favor of D-Bus and other technologies.

For more information on panel applets, see the Panel Applet Library.