The .gnorba and .desktop Files

For the applet to be added to the menus, you need to install two files. Your x.gnorba file goes into $sysconfdir/CORBA/servers/ and the x.desktop file goes into $prefix/share/applets/<category>/.

Example files are:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Hello Applet
Comment=An example Hello World type Applet
Type=PanelApplet
Exec=hello_applet
Icon=gnome-hello.png
Terminal=0
            

[hello_applet]
type=exe
repo_id=IDL:GNOME/Applet:1.0
description=Hello Applet
location_info=hello_applet
            

One thing to keep in mind is that the Exec line for the .desktop doesn't actually get executed when the Type is PanelApplet. The Exec line should be the GOAD ID specified in the .gnorba file (the "hello_applet" enclosed by brackets). For a simple applet all you need to do is replace the hello_applet with the name of your applet executable.