Ahem… Are you ready to play with Lens?
One of Unity’s main features is the Dash. The Dash allows the user to quickly search for information both locally (installed applications, recent files, bookmarks, etc) and remotely (Twitter, Google Docs, etc).
The Dash achieves this by having one or more Lenses that each are responsible for providing one category of search results for the Dash. The user may search the Lens either through the Dash home screen (called global search) or through the Lens’ own page in the Dash by clicking on the Lens’ icon on theLens Bar.
On its own, a Lens is not very useful. It can guarantee an icon on the Lens Bar and a page in a the Dash but nothing will happen when the user searches it. This is because a Lens does not actually perform any searches itself. Instead, a Lens will have one or more Scopes which are the actual engines that do the searching for it.
This means that it is possible for new Scopes to supplement results of existing Lenses i.e. a Google Docs Scope can supplement the results of the default Zeitgeist Scope in the Files Lens, with results appearing side-by-side. Also, this means it is now possible for one Lens to have many Scopes i.e. the Music Lens can have a Banshee, UPNP and Spotify Scopes providing results to it. If you want to know more about lens, please visit the Ubuntu Wiki lenses page.
WARNING: For every len you need to log out, but don’t reboot!
1. Social lens (Facebook, Twitter Identi.ca)
-Alternatively, open a terminal (Ctrl-Alt-T) and write the follow command:
sudo apt-get install unity-lens-gwibber
2. Folder with Applications to category
- unzip and copy-paste the folder in your /home directory
- open a terminal (Ctrl-Alt-T) and write the follow commands:
cd unity-lens-bliss-0.1.3 ./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc && make && sudo make install
3. Web history lens
- Add the ppa in your system update-sources: ppa:markjtully/ppa (how to add ppa in your Ubuntu)
- Alternatively, open a terminal (Ctrl-Alt-T) and write the follow commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:markjtully/ppa sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install unity-web-history-lens
4. Reddit lens
- Add the ppa in your system: ppa:markjtully/ppa (how to add ppa in your Ubuntu)
- Alternatively, open a terminal (Ctrl-Alt-T) and write the follow commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:markjtully/ppa sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install unity-reddit-lens
5. AskUbuntu lens
- Add the ppa in your system: ppa:markjtully/ppa (how to add ppa in your Ubuntu)
- Alternatively, open a terminal (Ctrl-Alt-T) and write the follow commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:markjtully/ppa sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install unity-askubuntu-lens
6. Notes lens (Tomboy)
- Add the ppa in your system: ppa:remi.rerolle/unity-lens-tomboy (how to add ppa in your Ubuntu)
- Alternatively, open a terminal (Ctrl-Alt-T) and write the follow commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:remi.rerolle/unity-lens-tomboy sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install unity-lens-tomboy
7. RunLens and see only the installations applications
- Add the ppa in your system: ppa:diesch/testing (how to add ppa in your Ubuntu)
- Alternatively, open a terminal (Ctrl-Alt-T) and write the follow commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:diesch/testing sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install runlens
8. Gdocks lens
- Add the ppa in your system: ppa:diesch/testing (how to add ppa in your Ubuntu)
- Alternatively, open a terminal (Ctrl-Alt-T) and write the follow commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8 sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install unity-lens-gdocs
-Now log in your Google account. Open the terminal again and write:
gksu gedit /usr/bin/unity-lens-gdocs.py
-Change this (in line 124): GDOC_USERNAME, with your Google username
and this: GDOC_PASSWORD with your Google password
Then Save and close
Now, start the len, wih the following command:
unity-lens-gdocs.pysetsid unity
9. Google books lens
(doesn’t work for me)
- Add the ppa in your system: ppa:davidc3/books-lens (how to add ppa in your Ubuntu)
- Alternatively, open a terminal (Ctrl-Alt-T) and write the follow commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:davidc3/books-lens sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install unity-lens-books
10. Torrents and Piratebay lens
- Add the ppa in your system: ppa:scopes-packagers/ppa (how to add ppa in your Ubuntu)
- Alternatively, open a terminal (Ctrl-Alt-T) and write the follow commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:scopes-packagers/ppa sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install unity-lens-torrents unity-scope-piratebay
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