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| == PlasMate == | | ==Introduction== |
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| A complete solution for developing Plasma “widgets”, themes, dataengines, ions and krunners. Lowering the bar for contribution to the KDE community.
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| === First Impressions ===
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| [[File:Plasmate_screenshot.png|350px|thumb|left|Start page of plasmate]]
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| On launch the window will contain only a "start page". Logo at the top, tagline
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| describing what it does right under that (bonus points for an animation when it
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| appears).
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| Beneath that three sets of options: Continue Working On.., Create a New...,
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| Open An Existing...
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| Each of those options will then have a list of clickable links to get started.
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| Continue Working On will list the last few projects opened, or be hidden if
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| there are no recent projects.
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| Create A New will include options for Widgets, DataEngine or Theme.
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| Open An Existing will provide those as well, but launch a file dialog.
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| The intended user experience is "launch, click, work!" No menu bars, no project
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| workspace by default (like a normal IDE tends to) on first launch.
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| Once started, the work flow is: edit, preview, repeat, save point, repeat,
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| publish ... repeat. ;)
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| === The Work Interface ===
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| [[File:Plasmate mainwindow.png|350px|thumb|left|Plasmate's main interface]] | |
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| The main work interface will be divided into two area: the editor/viewer as the
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| main widget, and toolboxes to provide workflow.
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| The most important toolbox will be the Package Listing. This will be a tree that
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| shows the contents of a Plasma::PackageStructure. Given that we know from the
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| PackageStructure the mimetypes, etc, of each entry we can use this to make it
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| easy to add items.
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| Each directory in the listing will have an "Add.." entry, and the
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| metadata.desktop file will also be listed. Behind the scenes, it will use a
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| KDirWatch to update based on the filesystem.
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| Other toolboxes will include:
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| * the Widget previewer: with buttons to set the form factor and location as well
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| as reload the widget. This way the author can simply preview their widget as
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| they go, including interction.
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| * timeline: save point browser and selector
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| * notes/todos: a place for the author to collect their thoughts as they work (<-- very very nice idea)
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| * documentation
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| * widgets explorer (listing of Plasma::Widgets, links to the doc)
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| === Editor / Viewer ===
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| When an entry is selected in the Package Listing, the selected file will be
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| shown in the Editor/Viewer. Using KParts for all but a few types of entries will
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| allow the user to edit code, view SVGs (we probably don't want the user to
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| view/edit svgs with a kpart. dunno if you remember the application i made some
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| time ago to help testing themes, but I think that i can integrate that with some
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| information taken from plasma, like elements that can be themed... this requires
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| some thinking...), etc. without having to write any appreciable amount of code
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| ourselves.
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| There are some editors that will need to be written from scratch, however. These
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| include:
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| * Metadata: a simple form that lets one fill in the metadata. Plasmagik should
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| have some code about this.
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| * KConfigXt: a form to create KConfigXt files; this will be used for both the
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| configuration entries in a widget as well as Service .operation files.
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| * SVG theme visualizer (look at ruphy's app)
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| Integrating Qt Designer would also be a goal at some point. Tricky though,
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| especially for the code it will generate. Requires further thinking, and not for
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| the first releases.
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| === Integrated Revision Control, or the Save-less Interface ===
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| Integrating a simple git-based revision control system will be critical to
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| providing both a smooth user experience as well as making publishing and social
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| interaction possible.
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| When creating a new widget, it will be automatically saved into the plasmate
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| appdata dir and a local git repository started for it. The user will be able to
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| create Save Points as they go. This will simply do a git commit of all the work
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| done to this point, adding files that are new, etc. The user will be prompted
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| for a summary of changes.
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| This will allow the user to then "roll back" to any given save point via the
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| timeline toolbox.
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| We will then provide an online git hosting system on plasma.kde.org. (based on
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| gitorious?) When the user hits "Publish" they will be prompted whether they
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| would like to create a local package or publish it publicly. If the latter is
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| chosen, a git push will be done and their work will appear on our shared git
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| repo.
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| The hosting system will create Plasma::Packages out of the git repos for
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| download; this is simply a matter of getting rid of any git metadata in the
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| directry structure and creating a zip archive out of that, which is an easily
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| automated task. Consumers will get Packages, creators can push and pull repos.
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| Neither consumer nor user should have to understand what's actually happening.
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| If the user does not already have an account on the shared git repo, they will
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| be prompted to create one at this point. Some basic oversight will be needed:
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| basically, just watching what new stuff goes up.
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| Eventually, we will want to have a widget browser integrated into Plasmate so
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| that the user can see what is already available on plasma.kde.org and, with a
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| click of a button, fork that widget and start working on it locally.
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| The required git functionality is therefore pretty basic on the Plasmate side:
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| * init a repo (milestone 1)
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| * add files (milestone 1)
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| * simple commits (milestone 1)
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| * change to a different commit, aka "roll back" (milestone 2)
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| * push (milestone 2)
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| * diffs (milestone 2)
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| * pull (milestone 3)
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| (what about enabling powerful users to get access to more advanced solutions? hmmm...
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| obviously we should only do that if it doesn't clutter things for the target audience)
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| === User Actions ===
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| Actions will be provided to the user in the work interface through a simple
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| "see and click" interface that will be more like a toolbar or ribbon than a menu
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| bar. These actions will include:
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| * Save Point
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| * Roll back (with history graph provided by the Timeline toolbox)
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| * Publish
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| * Exit / Leave
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| === Code Design ===
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| Classes:
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| * StartPage
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| * Takes a pointer ot the main window
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| * Creates the ProjectBox and other default toolboxes for a given action
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| when selected
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| * ProjectBox
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| * ProjectView tree (maybe just a generic QTreeView?)
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| * ProjectModel
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| * based on Plasma::Package
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| * uses a KDirModel internally to keep sync'd with disk
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| * Takes a pointer to the main window to load viewers/editors with
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| * Hosts the revision control object
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| * WidgetPreview
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| * Provides a Corona and View
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| * Controls for: form factor, location, refresh. Translucent buttons at
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| the top of the Previewer with those labels? Click on FF or L and a
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| list of relevant choices will appear as an overlay?
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| * Actions
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| * Timeline
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| * SaveSystem
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| * Use the git classes from vng?
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| * Application
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| * Creates the main window
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| * Creates the start page
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| === Art / Design ===
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| Artwork and design work required:
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| * PlasMate logo: the Plasma logo with some elegant text
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| * The PlasMate tagline
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| * The layout of the main page. Qt Creator's take on this is very nice; should feel "webby"
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| === Todo / Notes ===
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| Critical
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| * Allow file import, so that e.g. images can be added to a project
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| ** Related: Treeview doesn't support drag and drop
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| * Metadata editor icon setter doesn't actually work.
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| * Proper templates/packaging for runners, dataengines and themes.
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| * Previewing for runners, themes and dataengines
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| Fit and finish items:
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| * Plasmoid previwer control buttons could use better icons, should have tooltips
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| * Metadata editor icon button is missaligned
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| * git directory should not be saved when exporting
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| * the export dialog is a bit full and confusing; perhaps turning it into a wizard might be better?
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| Desired
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| * Show author + version number in project list.
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| * Project description class to hold project related information
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| ** What languages are supported
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| ** What previewer to use
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| ** If publishing is supported
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| * Per-project todo-style notes
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| * Project deletion from project management dialog which removes project from disk
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| * Project search/filter for project management dialog.
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| * Batch import/export
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| * Code auto completion for the script editor
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| Eventually
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| * Per-project window/dockwidget settings
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| * QtDesigner integration
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| * Separate process for previewer
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| Right now the plasmoid use-case is the most complete. What's possible:
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| * Creating projects and importing/exporting projects (to file)
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| * Editting code and metadata, auto-saving, previewing
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| * Creating / reverting to save points
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| * Browsing techbase tutorials and Plasma API references
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| * Publish to/Import from GHNS
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| ==Release Plan== | | ==Release Plan== |
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| ==Development== | | ==Development== |
| ;[[/Development|Development]] | | ;[[/Development|Development]] |
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| | ==Issue Tracker== |
| | ;[[/IssueTracker|Issue Tracker]] |
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| | ==Contact== |
| | ;[[/Contact|Contact]] |
