Extensions add immense flexibility to the GNOME 3 desktop environment. They give users the advantage of customizing their desktop while adding ease and efficiency to their workflow. The Fedora Magazine has already covered some great desktop extensions such as EasyScreenCast, gTile, and OpenWeather. This article continues that coverage by focusing on extensions tailored for developers.

If you need assistance installing GNOME extensions, refer to the article How to install a GNOME Shell extension.

Docker Integration

The Docker Integration extension is a must for developers using Docker for their apps. The status menu provides a list of Docker containers with the option to start, stop, pause and even remove them. The list updates automatically as new containers are added to the system.

After installing this extension, Fedora users may get the message: “Error occurred when fetching containers.” This is because Docker commands require sudo or root permissions by default. To configure your user account to run Docker, refer to the Docker Installation page on the Fedora Developer Portal.

You can find more information on the extension’s website.

Jenkins CI Server Indicator

The Jenkins CI Server Indicator extension makes it easy for developers to build their apps on a Jenkins CI Server. It displays a menu with a list of jobs and the state of those jobs. It also includes features such as easy access to the Jenkins web front-end, notifications for completed jobs, and the ability to trigger and filter jobs.

For more information, visit the developer’s site.

android-tool

android-tool can be a valuable extension for Android developers. Features include capturing bug reports, device screenshots and screen-recording. It can also connect to the Android device via USB or TCP.

This extension does require the adb package. To install adb from the official Fedora repository run this command:

sudo dnf install android-tools

You can find more information at the extension Github site.

GnomeHub

GnomeHub is a great extension for GNOME users using Github for their projects. It displays Github repositories and notifies the user of opened pull requests. In addition, users can add their favorite repositories in the extension’s settings.

For more information, refer to the project’s Github page.

gistnotes

Quite simply, gistnotes provides easy access for gist users to create, store and manage notes or code snippets. For more information refer to the project’s website.

Arduino Control

The Arduino Control extension allows users to connect to, and control, their Arduino boards. It also lets users add sliders and switches in the status menu. In addition, the developer includes scripts in the extension’s directory to connect to the board via Ethernet or USB.

Most importantly, this extension can be customized to fit your project. An example provided in the README file is the ability to “Control your Room Lights from any Computer on the Network.”

You can read more about the features and setup of this extension on the project’s Github page.

Hotel Manager

Developers using the Hotel process manager for their web apps should explore the Hotel Manager extension. It displays a list of web apps added to Hotel, and gives users the ability to start, stop and restart those apps. Furthermore, the computers icon to the right gives quick access to open, or view, that web app. The extension can also start, stop, or restart the Hotel daemon.

As of the publication of this article, Hotel Manager version 4 for GNOME 3.26 does not list the web apps in the extension’s drop-down menu. Version 4 also gives errors when installing on Fedora 28 (GNOME 3.28). However, version 3 works with Fedora 27 and Fedora 28.

For more details, see the project’s Github page.

VSCode Search Provider

VSCode Search Provider is a simple extension that displays Visual Studio Code projects in the GNOME overview search results. For heavy VSCode users, this extension saves time by giving developers quick access to their projects. You can find more information on the project’s Github page.

Do you have a favourite extension you use for development? Let us know in the comments.