Add a VLC Service Menu to KDE For Playback Of Files and Folders

In Linux, as with other operating systems, when you right-click on a folder or file, you'll see a contextual menu appear with different actions you can perform on that item. For audio and video files, you'll see a list of which programs can play them, and with documents such as word processing, spreadsheets and presentations, you'll see all the office programs that support those formats. One of the ways Linux really shines is in the different scripts and other modifications that can be done to those contextual menus to add even more options.

In GNOME Linux, you can add Nautilus scripts (Nautilus is the default file manager), while KDE users can add Service Menus in Konqueror or Dolphin (two KDE file managers). In this article, we'll show how to install and use the VLC Append script, which allows users to open multimedia files – or even folders full of multimedia files – and play them in VLC, with a few options you wouldn't otherwise have.

First, head to the web page.

Next, scroll down the page until you find a list of available download options, and choose the one you want.

When the download is complete (the file is very small, so the download should happen almost instantly), extract the archive to your Desktop, or wherever you like.

You should see two items in the folder, a script to install the Service Menu, as well as a folder named usr which contains the script itself.

Now open up a Terminal (named Konsole in KDE).

Using the 'cd' command, switch your working directory to the recently unpacked archive.

Finally, as the administrator, launch the install script. In Ubuntu, typing sudo ./install will do the trick.

You'll now be asked if you want to install or remove the Service Menu (the install script can do both). When the script is finished, you're ready to begin using it.

So, find a folder with media files inside and right click it. Then navigate to the new menu entry, named Vlc Folder Append and choose the only option: folder-append to vlc.

VLC should now open up. The Service Menu option only appends the folder to a VLC playlist, so it won't begin playback immediately, but all you need to do is hit the Play button and it will begin playing the media from the folder.

If you use the Service Menu on an individual media file (or files), you'll see there are more features to the Service Menu than show up when clicking on a folder. As you can see below, you can append to vlc, as we just did with the folder, or you can also add and play all at once.

There are other options, such as the ability to play a video while rotated (the last few options in the above screenshot, and more. It's really a handy script.

One last note: in order to take advantage of the VLC Append Service Menu, VLC must be configured with the D-Bus control interface turned on. To do so (it may be on already), click the Tools menu in VLC, then select Preferences from the menu.

Now configure the Preferences window so that all settings are shown.

Finally, navigate to the Control Interface settings (under the Interface tab), then click the D-Bus control interface option.

Once this is done (you may need to restart VLC), the script should be ready to go. This certainly isn't Earth-shattering by any means, but if you are a KDE user who loves VLC, this handy Service Menu only makes it more convenient.