How to create a desktop or menu item for an appimage program in Ubuntu

Recently I started using Ray ( An excellent Debugging tool for PHP applications ).

The Linux version of Ray is delivered in .AppImage format and I can use it simply by downloading the recent version and double-clicking it. But this has some downsides as well like what if I want to launch in from the desktop or from the menu and right now I have to go to the folder where I have my AppImage file.

In this post ill explain how you can create a menu or desktop item for AppImage applications in Ubuntu.

Let’s assume the following for this example.

• Location of the AppImage file: ~/AppImages/
• Name of the AppImage file: Ray-1.17.0.AppImage
• Icon: ~/AppImages/Ray.png

Create a new file in the folder ~/.local/share/applications named ray.desktop. You can do it from the Nautilus Filemanager or whatever file manager you are using. Sudo is not required.

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Ray
Comment=Ray
Exec=/home/daniel/AppImages/Ray-1.17.0.AppImage
Icon=/home/daniel/AppImages/Ray.png
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=Development

That is all there is. And now you can search for it in the Applications list: