Adding menu item to MATE main menu via the command line?

Question

Ideally, I'm looking for a generic solution for Linux / Ubuntu, but my minimum requirement is something that will work in Ubuntu MATE 16.

I'm writing a script that takes a newly-installed Ubuntu machine and adds and configures all the stuff needed to turn it into a workstation ready for software development.

I've installed (well, unpacked really) JetBrains IntelliJ and PhpStorm into /usr/local/bin/, and am looking for a way to add those two programs to the main ("Start") menu. All guides I can find show how to do it via GUI, but I want to script it from a bash file. I probably need better search criteria -- or some hints from you folks!

Answer 1

To get things to show on the Mint menu, there are several steps.

First, you need to create the launcher file - these end in .desktop - so intelij.desktop or whatever you like. Content should be something like this - this is for my Netbeans install, done and created manually - Note that you MAY already have an appropriate .desktop file - search for it first!

[Desktop Entry]
Name=NetBeans
Comment=Integrated Development Environment
Exec=netbeans
Icon=netbeans
Categories=Development;IDE;Java;
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Keywords=development;Java;IDE;platform;javafx;javase;

Once you have the file created, put the file into /usr/share/applications and it should show up searching your main menu - if not, you may need to log out of X/Mate and log back in for it to re-read menu possibilities.