How to add manually installed application to 'Show Applications' grid in Ubuntu

In this article we will cover how to add your manually installed application in the list of application list that Ubuntu shows natively. Often time we open such apps with terminal by running sh /path/to/application.sh or by running ./path/to/application.sh.

So lets start with the template that is needed to add your application to the Ubuntu's desktop apps entry. All you need is:

1. Create a launcher for your application with .desktop file extension

2. Place your .desktop file inside ~/.local/share/applications directory or if you want it to be visible to all users then place it under /usr/share/applications.

3. Your .desktop file should have following contents:

# <application_name>.desktop

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Application Name
Comment=A short description of the application
Exec=/full/path/to/application/executable
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Icon=/full/path/to/icon-file

In this example we are going to use RubyMine as an example

1. download the rubymine-xx.tar.gz

2. Extract it and place it under your preferred place, I am placing it under ~/.local/.share directory.

3. And now create a rubymine.desktop file inside ~/.local/share/applications

touch ~/.local/share/applications/rubymine.desktop

4. Now we edit this file with following content

[Desktop Entry]
Name=RubyMine
Comment=RubyMine IDE
Exec=~/.local/share/rubymine/bin/rubymine.sh
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Icon=~/.local/share/rubymine/RMlogo.svg

That's it, you should now be able to see your RubyMine application listed in your "Show Applications" list. If it is not, try restarting your PC and it should be there.