St.BoxLayout.vertical is deprecated on Gnome 48 [with possible fix]

[damian-aragunde-udc]

Description:
As I boot up the system and look at the journals, I notice this report:

abr 05 16:51:03 mysetup-lin gnome-shell[1135]: The GObject property St.BoxLayout.vertical is deprecated.
                                               0 setWidgetOrientation() ["file:///home/me/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/tilingshell@ferrarodomenico.com/extension.js":184:5]
                                               1 DefaultMenu() ["file:///home/me/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/tilingshell@ferrarodomenico.com/extension.js":5747:25]
                                               2 enable() ["file:///home/me/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/tilingshell@ferrarodomenico.com/extension.js":6324:25]
                                               3 createIndicator() ["file:///home/me/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/tilingshell@ferrarodomenico.com/extension.js":7492:21]
                                               4 enable() ["file:///home/me/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/tilingshell@ferrarodomenico.com/extension.js":7544:10]
                                               5 _callExtensionEnable() ["resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/extensionSystem.js":266:38]
                                               6 loadExtension() ["resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/extensionSystem.js":433:32]
                                               7 InterpretGeneratorResume() ["self-hosted":1417:34]
                                               8 AsyncFunctionNext() ["self-hosted":804:27]
                                               9 anonymous() ["resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/init.js":21:20]

The search:
So when I looked at the code, I found this:

// Compatibility for GNOME 48+ where 'vertical' was deprecated in favor of 'orientation'
export function setWidgetOrientation(
    widget: { vertical?: boolean; orientation?: Clutter.Orientation },
    vertical: boolean,
) {
    if (widget.orientation) {
        widget.orientation = vertical
            ? Clutter.Orientation.VERTICAL
            : Clutter.Orientation.HORIZONTAL;
    } else {
        widget.vertical = vertical;
    }
}

At src/utils/ui.ts

The possible problem:
It seems that with Gnome 48 it always results in the "else" clause being executed.
So with this condition, the value could be 'negative' until 'orientation' is existing.

My fix:
I used the "in" operation instead:

function setWidgetOrientation(widget, vertical) {
//  if (widget.orientation) {
//    widget.orientation = vertical ? Clutter.Orientation.VERTICAL : Clutter.Orientation.HORIZONTAL;
//  } else {
//    widget.vertical = vertical;
//  }
    if ('orientation' in widget) {
        widget.orientation = vertical
            ? Clutter.Orientation.VERTICAL
            : Clutter.Orientation.HORIZONTAL;
    } else {
        widget.vertical = vertical;
    }
}

Also, from my quick look on the web, the deprecation starts at Gnome 46, not 48. Perhaps this could be corrected in the comments. ;)

Information:

• Tiling Shell version: 16.3
• GNOME version: 48.0
• Distro: Manjaro Linux

[domferr]

Hey thank you for sharing this! The official guide to port extensions to GNOME 48 says that the actual removal of the orientation will start in future GNOME versions, but with 48 the orientation will still exist! Do you know if it is better to already switch to the orientation?

[damian-aragunde-udc]

Sorry for the late reply.

A deprecation means that: still exists; still works; but should be removed.

As I can see, could be removed in version 50. So it's better to manage the enum "orientation" instead of the gboolean "vertical".

BUT, there are a lot of people using older versions on LTS and such, so keep that option.
Change:
if (widget.orientation) {
for:
if ('orientation' in widget) {

Because CLUTTER_ORIENTATION_HORIZONTAL, the default, has a value of 0 and causes TypeScript/JS to mean FALSE for your IF statement.

[damian-aragunde-udc]

I also changed the code on my PC to try the solution.
It is still working perfectly (until the next update of the extension).