Improve feedback to users when launching the AppImage while the client is already running

[jnweiger]

Pre-submission Checks

• I checked for similar issues, but could not find any. I also checked the closed issues. I could not contribute additional information to any existing issue.
• I will take the time to fill in all the required fields. I know that the bug report may be dismissed otherwise due to lack of information.

Feature description

• I have 4.2.0 running on Linux Mint
• Downloaded the new appimage
• chmod a+x ~/Downloads/ownCloud-5.0.0.12278-x86_64.AppImage
• ~/Downloads/ownCloud-5.0.0.12278-x86_64.AppImage

gui.platform: Core dumps enabled
gui.main: Already running, exiting...

• This is okay, when starting from the command line, the user is informed.
• This is bad, when clicking the appimage in nemo. -> nothing happens.

Expected behaviour:

• a popuip appear, saying
  ```gui.main: Already running, exiting...``
  (the core dumped message should not be shown. It scares users unnecessarily.)

Proposed solution

Expected behaviour:

• a popuip appear, saying
  ```gui.main: Already running, exiting...``
  (the core dumped message should not be shown. It scares users unnecessarily.)

Alternative solutions you considered

No response

Additional context

No response

[fmoc]

This is not an AppImage-specific "problem", it's just the desired user experience.

[fmoc]

This is the expected UX and there is -s/--showsettings available (which brings the client to the foreground and is used, e.g., in the desktop entries to allow users to open a running client...

[e-renna]

Hey @fmoc,

I'm testing a flatpak I've build (related to #11657), and I'm incurring to the same problem discussed above. This occurs only when the client is not properly quit (e.g. via the Quit entry in the tray icon).

I've attempted to bring the GUI to the foreground using the -s/--showsettings flag, but I incur in this error:

gui.main: Already running, exiting...
kdsingleapplication.localsocket: Connection timed out

I get exactly the same output if I use the --quit flag in an attempt to close the client and restart it. Do you have any ideas that could help me solve this problem?

[TheOneRing]

I have no idea about flatpack but owncloud uses kdsingleapplication which uses a unix socket in tmp for IPC.
https://github.com/KDAB/KDSingleApplication/blob/1.1/src/kdsingleapplication_localsocket.cpp#L99
So you need to use some flatpack portal magic, in anyway I'd assume ownCloud to require full file system access.

---

Background info I wrote down before I properly read your post.

The client runs in the background, and on a fully integrated system you can either access it through the system tray, or through the actions exposed by the desktop file.
The default invocation through the desktop file uses -s to indicate that the user requested the application to be shown.
This behavior has historic reasons, in the past the autostart registration didn't use any arguments and the client couldn't tell whether it was started by a user or the auto start or the session restore, resulting in the client window being shown on every reboot.