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| == Introduction ==
| | moved to http://techbase.kde.org/Development/Tutorials/Plasma/ShellDesign |
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| To create a full featured Plasma shell, whether it is a full primary user interface such as Plasma Desktop or Plasma Netbook or an application helper like the Plasma KPart of Plasma Media Center, there are a number of components that the application needs to provide and even more that are optional to create a well working experience.
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| This article documents each of these components and how they fit together.
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| == Core Presentation ==
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| === The Base Canvas: Corona ===
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| Corona is a subclass of QGraphicsScene, however provides several additional facilities:
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| * There will be only and only one Corona instance per application
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| * It manages Containments (all items added directly to a Corona are Containments), including saving and restoring the whole layout into KConfig
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| * It manages the association between Containments and screens: the mapped ones will be displayed by a Plasma::View
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| * It manages the concept of available space for screen (reimplementations of screenGeometry() and availableScreenRegion() can take into account position and size of panels for instance)
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| * QActions can be assigned to the corona: they can be visualized by the Containments ToolBox, but unlike the Containments Actions, those are global
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| * It has the concept of /Immutability/: part of the user interaction can be blocked, to prevent accidental data loss or for kiosk environments
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| === Views ===
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| Plasma::View is a subclass of QGraphicsView. It has some peculiarities over its base class:
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| * Its scene will be always the global unique scene: the Corona
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| * It will always have an 1:1 association with a Containment
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| * Its sceneRect() will always be synchronized with its Containment geometry()
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| * It has a /screen/ and /desktop/ property: a view will be associated to a phisical screen and a virtual desktop, and will be syncronized with the Containment. Not all reimplementations need to actually associate physical screens: for instance in an application dashboardthere won't be this physical->logic association of screens
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| * It has its own configuration, of all values that don't depend on scene items, but from actual window geometry/properties (such as panel position, or showing the view on all virtual desktops)
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| === Custom Containments ===
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| === PluginLoader ===
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| == Window Dressings ==
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| === Containment Tool Boxes ===
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| Each containment shown by the Plasma Shell, can have a central place to show the main actions that can be performed.
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| A default set of toolbox actions is present in the base Containment implementation. Containment subclasses, as well as the Corona implementation of the Plasma shell can add their own.
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| The method Containment::AddToolBoxAction(QAction *a) adds the action a to the toolbox.
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| The action can contain metadata about its category, to help the toolbox implementations to visually group together similar actions, to do that call
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| QAction::setData(AbstractToolBox::ToolType)
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| A ToolBox is a subclass of Plasma::AbstractToolBox and is usually loaded as a plugin, whose desktop file will have the entry X-KDE-ServiceTypes=Plasma/ToolBox
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| A Containment implementation can force its own ToolBox implementation, but this is discouraged, especially in containments of type DesktopContainment or PanelContainment.
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| By default, containments will load the ToolBox plugin the Corona tells them. To set a default ToolBox plugin, use the function
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| Corona::setDefaultToolBoxPlugin(const QString &PluginName, Plasma::ContainmentType type)
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| in the constructor of your Corona implementation.
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| === Applet Handles ===
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| === Containment Actions ===
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| == User Interface Management ==
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| === Containment and View Configuration ===
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| === Remote Access Management ===
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| === Dialog Positioning ===
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| If an Applet wants to show a QGraphicsWidget into a standalone window, it can use a Plasma::Dialog. It is a QWidget subclass and must be created without a parent, in order to be a top level window. A QGraphicsWidget (or a subclass) can be associated to a Dialog with Dialog::setGraphicsWidget(widget).
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| The widget will be automatically positioned in an offscreen area of the Corona, with Corona::addOffScreenWidget(widget), that is not necessary to call it manually.
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| === Animation Customization ===
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| == Configuration and Automation ==
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| === Configuration Files ===
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| === Scripting ===
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