Using vifm to opening a file directly from the Firefox download manager

README.md

Description

A simple daemon implementing freedesktop.org's file manager interface. This interface is used by Firefox download manager to select a downloaded file in the file manager (since Firefox 28).

Paths

The vifm.service file should be put in the ~/.local/share/dbus-1/services directory.

The vifm-service.py file can be put anywhere as long as the same path is used in vifm.service`.

Possible conflicting services

Note that system level service files can interfere with the session level service files. Make sure that there are no other services implementing the same interface: grep -r org.freedesktop.FileManager1 /usr/share/dbus-1/services

Debugging

If there are problems the following commands can be used for debugging:

Monitoring session (user level) dbus messages

dbus-monitor "interface=org.freedesktop.FileManager1"

Sending session (user level) dbus messages

dbus-send
    --print-reply
    --dest=org.freedesktop.FileManager1
    --type=method_call
    /org/freedesktop/FileManager1
    org.freedesktop.FileManager1.ShowItems
    array:string:"file:///home/"
    string:""

vifm-service.py

#!/usr/bin/env python

# This program is free software. It comes without any warranty, to the extent
# permitted by applicable law. You can redistribute it and/or modify it under
# the terms of the Do What The Fuck You Want To Public License, Version 2, as
# published by Sam Hocevar. See http://www.wtfpl.net/ for more details.

"""
This is a simple daemon implementing freedesktop.org's file manager interface
(http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/file-manager-interface/).
"""

from gi.repository import GLib

import dbus
import dbus.service
import dbus.mainloop.glib

import os
from subprocess import Popen

def open_file_manager(uri, select=False):
    # This uses the vifmrun wrapper from vifmimg (which support image previews).
    # If this is not desired, vifm can be used directly instead.
    args = ['alacritty', '-e', 'vifmrun']

    if select:
        args.append('--select')

    path = str(uri)
    if path.startswith('file://'):
        path = path[7:]
    args.append(path)

    if os.fork() == 0:
        Popen(args)
        os._exit(0)
    else:
        os.wait()

class FmObject(dbus.service.Object):

    @dbus.service.method("org.freedesktop.FileManager1",
                         in_signature='ass', out_signature='')
    def ShowFolders(self, uris, startupId):
        open_file_manager(uris[0])

    @dbus.service.method("org.freedesktop.FileManager1",
                         in_signature='ass', out_signature='')
    def ShowItems(self, uris, startupId):
        open_file_manager(uris[0], select=True)

    @dbus.service.method("org.freedesktop.FileManager1",
                         in_signature='ass', out_signature='')
    def ShowItemProperties(self, uris, startupId):
        open_file_manager(uris[0], select=True)

    @dbus.service.method("org.freedesktop.FileManager1",
                         in_signature='', out_signature='')
    def Exit(self):
        mainloop.quit()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    dbus.mainloop.glib.DBusGMainLoop(set_as_default=True)

    session_bus = dbus.SessionBus()
    name = dbus.service.BusName("org.freedesktop.FileManager1", session_bus)
    object = FmObject(session_bus, '/org/freedesktop/FileManager1')

    mainloop = GLib.MainLoop()
    mainloop.run()

vifm.service

[D-BUS Service]
Name=org.freedesktop.FileManager1
Exec=~/Scripts/vifm-service.py

Thank you, works great !!!

Could this also work for the save as window from firefox?

It seems like the script doesn't automatically start on boot, but if I start it manually it still works

The journal says

Activation request for 'org.freedesktop.FileManager1' failed: The systemd unit 'vifm.service' could not be found.

EDIT: I copied the wrong file, and I didn't chmod +x the python file, stupid me.