AppGrid 1.9.6

Bug fixes

• Favourited web apps missing from the favourites. Brave and Chromium web apps have no categories in their .desktop file, and some distributions' menus (e.g. Fedora) don't list such apps at all. With "Sort favourites alphabetically" on, a favourited web app then didn't show, and it couldn't be launched from the favourites either. Favourites are now looked up like Kickoff does, independent of the menu, so they always show and launch. The app grid still follows your menu, including entries you removed with the menu editor. (#224)
• "Visible rows" not respected with the category bar off. With the category bar turned off, the launcher showed part of an extra row. It now shows exactly the configured number of rows, with or without the category bar. (#205)
• Dragging could scramble the favourites order. With "Sort favourites alphabetically" on, or on the All tab and the categories, dragging an app that is a favourite quietly moved a different favourite in your saved order. Reordering now only happens on the favourites tab in manual order.
• One column too few. At fractional scaling, the window could end up a fraction of a pixel narrower than the configured number of columns, and the grid dropped a column. It now keeps the configured count.
• Wrong "Snap" or "Flatpak" badge. Any app with "snap" in its file name (e.g. snapper tools) was shown as a Snap, and any app with "flatpak" in its command as a Flatpak; "Manage in Discover" then opened the wrong backend. Apps are now recognised by where Snap and Flatpak actually install them.
• Context menu started the wrong action. For apps with an unnamed action in their .desktop file, the context menu could start a different action than the one clicked. Actions are now started by name.
• Uninstalled apps stayed in "Recently Used". After uninstalling an app (e.g. removing a web app in the browser), its tile stayed in the recents row with the old name and icon until Plasma restarted. It now disappears as soon as the app is gone.

Universal package

• Update notice for pre-releases. The update check compared pre-release versions as text, so e.g. rc.10 ranked below rc.9. It now follows SemVer ordering. Only affects users on the pre-release channel.

Full Changelog: v1.9.5...v1.9.6

AppGrid 1.9.5

Bug fixes

• Applet failed to load with newer Kirigami. Kirigami 6.27+ brought in a new styling system ("union"), and the install-source pill in search results used a part of Kirigami.Chip that this style doesn't have, which took down the whole applet ("Cannot assign to non-existent property labelItem"). The pill is now a plain themed label that works with every style. (#228, #203)
• Applet failed to load on some distributions (e.g. openSUSE Tumbleweed). A type clash inside Kirigami's PlaceholderMessage on some Kirigami builds stopped the search results, and with them the applet, from loading. AppGrid now uses its own simple empty-state message instead. (#218)
• Search field not focused when the panel popup opens. On Wayland, the focus request could happen before the popup was active and get lost, so typing did nothing until you clicked the search field. AppGrid now sets focus again once the popup is active, including on the first open after login. (#213)
• Some apps did nothing when launched (e.g. Wine/Bottles entries). App launches now work like Kickoff: if an app can't start or its .desktop file isn't trusted, you get KDE's standard dialog instead of a silent failure. Apps are also looked up by their menu id first. (#226)

Universal package

• Works on Plasma 6.8. The universal tarball now contains two builds, one for Plasma 6.4–6.7 and one for Plasma 6.8+, and ./install.sh installs the one your system can load. The download name is unchanged. After a Plasma upgrade from 6.7 to 6.8, just re-run ./install.sh from the same tarball. (#217)

Full Changelog: v1.9.4...v1.9.5

AppGrid 1.9.4

Plasma 6.8 compatibility

Plasma 6.8 changed its library versions (libPlasma / libPlasmaQuick .so.7 → .so.8) and removed Plasma::Applet::globalConfig(). Builds made for Plasma 6.7 or older no longer load after the upgrade ("package format is invalid" / "libPlasmaQuick.so.7: cannot open shared object file"), and 1.9.3 no longer built against 6.8. (#229)

1.9.4 builds against both Plasma 6.8 and older Plasma 6 releases. The remembered popup size is stored in the same place as before, so it carries over the upgrade.

Note: Plugins built against one Plasma version won't load after an upgrade that changes Plasma's library versions, so AppGrid has to be rebuilt after such an upgrade. If you build from the AUR, rebuild after upgrading Plasma.

Maintenance

Fixed new clang-tidy 23 lint findings in CI.

Full Changelog: v1.9.3...v1.9.4

AppGrid 1.9.3

Crash fix

Fixed a segfault that could take down plasmashell during a sort (app rescan, settings change, or idle/lockscreen). A stale reference into the sort cache was fed to the collator after the cache moved in memory. (#202)

Full Changelog: v1.9.2...v1.9.3

AppGrid 1.9.2

Patch release. Two rendering fixes.

Fixes

• Result icons: render QIcon-valued search result icons instead of failing to a blank icon.
• Center variant: align the theme-background blur to the panel under fractional scaling. (#188)

Full Changelog: v1.9.1...v1.9.2

▎ Heads up: 2.0.0 is in heavy development, AppGrid is growing up and things will change for the center variant.
▎ The next release is a big one.:
▎ - New foundation — a reworked architecture that lets AppGrid center run as a native standalone launcher, support proper theming out of the box, fixes issues with Better Blur DX, and makes room for more features down the line you all asked for. That means both AppGrid variants will be KDE native.
▎ - Adding some Plasma 6.7 features.
▎ - Virtual Folders for favorites — group your favorites into folders.

AppGrid 1.9.1

A small follow-up to 1.9.0, focused on the Plasma theme background and app icons.

Fixes

• Plasma theme background: "Use Plasma theme background" now renders the theme's rounded corners and drop shadow correctly, matching Kickoff and other popups (#188). A note in Settings flags that a few themes still don't round cleanly.
• Icons refresh on theme change: changing the system icon theme did not update the grid icons right away, instead only the ones you scroll past.

Full Changelog: v1.9.0...v1.9.1

AppGrid 1.9.0

A big step up from the 1.8 series. Alot has went under the hood and more will follow.

New

• Compact mode — opens straight to the search bar with the grid hidden, KRunner style. Bind it to a shortcut like Alt+Space and use AppGrid as a drop-in for KRunner.
• Inline autocompletion — the search field completes the name as you type. Press Right arrow to accept it.
• Smarter search — KDE search-plugin actions and calculator chain-typing, your default apps ranked correctly, results that follow your KRunner plugin order, and a search font that scales with your icon size.
• Redesigned category bar — show categories as text, icons, or icons with text. Open a category on hover, and page hands-free.
• Tidier grid — square cells so long names stop wrapping awkwardly, a 5×4 default, labels that scale with the size preset, and an option for tighter spacing.
• Manage in Discover — update or remove system and Snap apps straight from the right-click menu.
• Reworked settings
• Better theming support — optional Plasma theme background for the Center variant, dividers drawn from your theme, density that scales with icon size, and independent blur and background-contrast toggles.
• One compiled module — the QML interface is now compiled into the C++ plugin and shipped as a single .so. Faster, more reliable loading and a cleaner install.

Upgrading

Because AppGrid is now a compiled plugin, after updating you need to restart Plasma for the new version to load — log out and back in, or run kquitapp6 plasmashell && kstart plasmashell.

Fixes

• The panel popup keeps its size when you switch to it from Kickoff or Kicker.
• Plenty of smaller crash, layout, and Wayland fixes.

Contributors

Thanks to everyone who helped make the 1.9.0 series happen:

• Frédéric Rousseau
• dcog989
• orange-seele
• Kingproone

And a big thank-you to everyone who filed issues, tested the release candidates, and packaged AppGrid for their distro.

Full Changelog: v1.8.0...v1.9.0

AppGrid 1.9.0-rc.7

Added

• Open-on-hover for the category bar, with a slow hands-free arrow re-trigger (#176)
• Optional category-bar icons — text / icon+text / icon-only (#176)
• 5×4 default grid; labels scale with the size preset (#177)

Fixed

• Search results now respect your KRunner plugin arrangement (#180)
• Square grid cells so long app names no longer orphan onto a second line (#177)
• Full-screen blur leak on resume from sleep
• Centred panel sizing off the window (not a stale screen) after wake
• Stale search result counts; a dangling activated-signal lambda

⚠️ Release candidate — please report issues.

Full Changelog: v1.9.0-rc.6...v1.9.0-rc.7

What's Changed

• Backport: fix search arrow nav after hover (#148) by @Caelestis94 in #150

Full Changelog: v1.8.4...v1.8.5

AppGrid 1.8.4

A small bugfix release.

Fixes

• Icon hover animations no longer play on open by default.
• The panel popup keeps your size instead of auto-resizing. (#146)
• "Manage in Discover" appears as soon as the backend is installed.

Performance

• Skip a redundant model refresh when the recent-apps list hasn't changed.

Full Changelog: v1.8.3...v1.8.4