Recoll-Lens: Full Text Search Unity Lens For Ubuntu 11.10 And 12.04 [Updated]

Recoll is a full text search desktop tool which indexes the contents of many file formats including OpenOffice, MS Office, PostScript, MP3 and other audio files, JPEG and more. Besides regular searches, Recoll also lets you perform some advanced operations like searching for the author, file size, file format as well as operators like "AND" or "OR".

Unity Recoll Lens lets you use Recoll from Dash, without having to open any additional GUI. The lens comes with a few filters like Text, Spreadsheet, Presentation, Media or Message, but for more advanced searches, you'll have to manually enter the Recoll search query. Examples:

• author:"john doe"
• metallica OR megadeth
• /2007 (all documents from 2007 or older)
• dir:/path/to/dir (filters content from /path/to/dir directory)

You can learn more about using Recoll, HERE.

Install Unity Recoll Lens

Unity Recoll Lens is available in the Recoll backports PPA for Ubuntu 12.04 11.10 and 11.04. To add the PPA and install Unity Recoll Lens, use the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:recoll-backports/recoll-1.15-on
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install recoll-lens recoll

Update: the lens now works on Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin too.

Once installed, you'll have to start the Recoll GUI (just search for Recoll in Dash) and let it index your files. Once it finishes, log out, then log back in and you should see a new Recoll search lens. The Recoll search results don't show up just on the Recoll lens but also on the home Dash, when performing a global search.

If you're not using Unity, you can use the Recoll Qt user interface - to install the latest version use the same PPA as above, but don't install "recoll-lens" (only install "recoll"). Using the PPA, you'll install the latest Recoll 1.17 released a couple of days ago which brings a new set of dialogs to set up the indexing schedule, file size filtering, non-absolute paths for "dir:" and more.

From the Recoll preferences you can configure which directories Recoll should index, which files should be ignored, set up the Recoll index scheduling (also see THIS comment about indexing) and more.

Thanks to Halil-Cem Gürsoy for the tip!

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Help Test An Improved Unity Files Lens [Ubuntu 12.04]

The Unity Files Lens currently relies on Zeitgeist to display search results, meaning it can't find files you've never interacted with / accessed. But an improved Unity Files Lens is currently in testing, which doesn't rely solely on Zeitgeist. Finally!

The improved Unity Files Lens is available in a testing PPA for Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin users. To install it, use the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:unity-team/lenses-testing
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Once installed, log out and log back in.

Report any bugs you may find @ Launchpad, mentioning that you're using the Unity Files Lens testing PPA.

via popey.com

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YouTube Scope For Unity Video Lens With Support For VLC, Minitube, More

Lorenzo @ Atareao.es has created an Unity video lens and a YouTube scope for it, which lets you easily search and even play YouTube videos in either an external player (and thus, without using Adobe Flash) or your web browser.

The latest YouTube scope for Unity Video Lens comes with a tool which lets you select the external player you want to use for playing YouTube videos and it currently supports yviewer, VLC, Minitube (you'll need the latest 1.7 version) or your default web browser.

By default, the YouTube scope for Unity Video Lens search doesn't seem to work too good and it displays unrelated results, at least that was the case in my test. However, this can be fixed by selecting "Relevance" under "Order" in the lens filter.


To install Unity Video Lens and YouTube scope in Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot, use the commands below:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:atareao/lenses
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install lens-video scope-youtube

To select the default player, search for "scope-youtube-configurator" in Dash.

via atareao.es; thanks to Jorge Ortega for the tip!

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Spotify Scope For Unity Music Lens

After Grooveshark, another music scope is available for the Unity Music lens: Spotify scope.

The new scope lets you search for songs and albums from the Unity Music lens and play them in Spotify and in my test, it only worked using the native Spotify Linux client.

To install Spotify Scope for Unity Music lens in Ubuntu 11.10 or 12.04, use the following commands in a terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:scopes-packagers/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install unity-scope-spotify

Then log out and log back in.


And as usual, remember to report any bugs you may find @ Launchpad with (for this scope, add "[spotify]" at the beginning of your report title).

via G+

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2 Unity Applications Lens Alternatives

The default Unity Applications Lens displays frequently used applications as well as applications available for download along with the installed applications list, and this may seem too cluttered for some. So here are two alternatives to the Unity Applications Lens: Unity Bliss Lens and RunLens.

Unity Bliss Lens

Unity Bliss Lens displays applications in a classic way, using categories: when clicking on a category, all the applications in that category are listed and there's also a back button to take you back to the categories list. And of course, there are no frequently used applications or applications available for download.

If you perform a search, however, the applications show up without their respective categories.

There are a few minor glitches though:

• the icon used by Unity Bliss Lens is the same as the default Unity Applications Lens so this may be a little confusing;
• by default, only 5 categories are displayed (probably an Unity limitation) so make sure you click the "see 5 more results" button to see all the categories.

Please note that in my test, Unity Bliss Lens didn't work properly in Unity 2D: the category icons were shown as unknown icons and clicking any of them closes Dash (I've reported the bug here).

Since there was no PPA to install Unity Bliss Lens, I've uploaded it to the main WebUpd8 PPA so Ubuntu 11.10 users can install it using the commands below:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install unity-bliss-lens

If you don't want to add our PPA, download the .deb from HERE.

Once installed, log out and log back in (if the lens doesn't work try restarting your computer; also, make sure you have the latest Unity!).

If you encounter bugs, report them @ Launchpad.

RunLens

RunLens is a very simple alternative to the default Unity Applications Lens and it only displays installed applications. Also, this lens displays the application description under each application name, a feature that isn't available for either the default Unity Applications Lens or Bliss Lens.

Currently, the RunLens search text is in German (I've already reported the bug), but that shouldn't be problem since you already know that you must type some text to search.

To install Unity RunLens in Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot, use the commands below:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:diesch/testing
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install runlens

Once installed, log out and log back in.

Unity RunLens should work in both Unity 3D and Unity 2D.


Report any bugs you may find @ Launchpad.

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Grooveshark Scope For Unity Music Lens

David Callé has released a Grooveshark scrope for the Unity Music lens which lets you search for music on Grooveshark from Dash. The new scope uses the free Grooveshark API and clicking on a search result opens a new tab in your default browser, playing the selected song.

To install the new GrooveShark scope in Ubuntu 11.10 or 12.04, use the commands below:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:scopes-packagers/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install unity-scope-grooveshark

Then log out and log back in.


According to David, there are a few known issues though, such as:

• the results open in different tabs and aren't enqueued
• results in the local collection are not deduplicated
• some searches don't display any results due to some encoding errors
• sometimes cover art isn't displayed the first time you search for something

If you encounter some other bugs, report them @ Launchpad.

Update: Grooveshark Scope has currently reached the API usage limits. Hopefully, it should work again in a few hours. See this comment.

Via David Callé @ Google+

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Unity Tomboy Lens

WebUpd8 reader Remi Rerolle has created a cool Unity Lens that allows searching and opening Tomboy notes from Dash.

To install Unity Tomboy Lens (only available for Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot), use the commands below:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:remi.rerolle/unity-lens-tomboy
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install unity-lens-tomboy

Then log out and log back in and the Unity Tomboy Lens icon should show up in Dash (it takes a few seconds though). You can then search for your Tomboy notes either by switcing to the new Tomboy Lens or by using the global Dash search.

Please note that by installing Unity Tomboy Lens, the Tomboy Indicator will automatically start (if not already started) when you open Dash.

For bugs or source code, see Unity Tomboy Lens at GitHub.

Thanks to Remi Rerolle for the tip!

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Unity Bookmarks Lens For Ubuntu 11.10

Unity Bookmarks Lens displays your bookmarks in Dash so you can easily search all your bookmarks with a click.

The new bookmarks lens works with the latest Unity available in Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot (tested with Unity 3D) and for now it only supports Firefox (both regular bookmarks and live bookmarks)

You can get the code for both Unity Bookmarks Lens and the packaging via Launchpad. To make it easier to install, I've uploaded it to the main WebUpd8 PPA (both the lens and the packaging have been created by Ted Gould, I've only uploaded it to the PPA) so you can install it using the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install bookmarks-lens

Once installed, run the following command:

setsid unity

And the new Unity Bookmarks Lens should show up in Dash. If the new lens doesn't display any bookmarks, try restarting your computer.

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Unity Google Docs Lens For Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot

Unity developer Neil J. Patel has created a cool Google Docs Unity lens for his Ubuntu App Developer Week session. And even though this was just to show how to develop Unity lenses, Gdocs Unity Lens is functional and Neil will develop it further.

The Gdocs Unity Lens can be used to search in all your Google Docs files, open them in a browser and sort your documents by various criteria such as file type or ownership.

Unfortunately, Google Docs Unity Lens doesn't yet support a secure way of soring your password so for now the password must be stored in  plain text. Hopefully this will be fixed soon.

Install Unity Google Docs Lens In Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot

To make it easier to install, I've uploaded Google Docs Unity Lens to the WebUpd8 PPA so Ubuntu 11.10 users can install it using the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install unity-lens-gdocs

Alternatively, you can download the .deb from HERE.

Once installed, you must enter your password in the "unity-gdocs-lens.py" so open it using the following command in a terminal:

gksu gedit /usr/bin/unity-lens-gdocs.py

And in this file, replace GDOC_USERNAME with your Google username and GDOC_PASSWORD with your Google password (you should find them on lines 124 and 125).

Now, run Unity Gdocs Lens using the following commands:

unity-lens-gdocs.py
setsid unity

The newly installed Unity Gdocs Lens is automatically added to your startup applications list so you're done!

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