|
|
| (10 intermediate revisions by 2 users not shown) |
| Line 1: |
Line 1: |
| == PlasMate == | | ==Introduction== |
| | ;[[/Introduction|Introduction]] |
|
| |
|
| A complete solution for developing Plasma “widgets”, themes, dataengines, ions and krunners. Lowering the bar for contribution to the KDE community.
| | ==Release Plan== |
| | ;[[/ReleasePlan|Release Plan]] |
|
| |
|
| | ==Development== |
| | ;[[/Development|Development]] |
|
| |
|
| === First Impressions === | | ==Issue Tracker== |
| [[File:Plasmate_screenshot.png|350px|thumb|left|Start page of plasmate]] | | ;[[/IssueTracker|Issue Tracker]] |
|
| |
|
| On launch the window will contain only a "start page". Logo at the top, tagline
| | ==Contact== |
| describing what it does right under that (bonus points for an animation when it
| | ;[[/Contact|Contact]] |
| appears).
| |
| | |
| Beneath that three sets of options: Continue Working On.., Create a New...,
| |
| Open An Existing...
| |
| | |
| Each of those options will then have a list of clickable links to get started.
| |
| | |
| Continue Working On will list the last few projects opened, or be hidden if
| |
| there are no recent projects.
| |
| | |
| Create A New will include options for Widgets, DataEngine or Theme.
| |
| | |
| Open An Existing will provide those as well, but launch a file dialog.
| |
| | |
| The intended user experience is "launch, click, work!" No menu bars, no project
| |
| workspace by default (like a normal IDE tends to) on first launch.
| |
| | |
| Once started, the work flow is: edit, preview, repeat, save point, repeat,
| |
| publish ... repeat. ;)
| |
| | |
| === The Work Interface === | |
| | |
| [[File:Plasmate mainwindow.png|350px|thumb|left|Start page of plasmate]] | |
| | |
| The main work interface will be divided into two area: the editor/viewer as the
| |
| main widget, and toolboxes to provide workflow.
| |
| | |
| The most important toolbox will be the Package Listing. This will be a tree that
| |
| shows the contents of a Plasma::PackageStructure. Given that we know from the
| |
| PackageStructure the mimetypes, etc, of each entry we can use this to make it
| |
| easy to add items.
| |
| | |
| Each directory in the listing will have an "Add.." entry, and the
| |
| metadata.desktop file will also be listed. Behind the scenes, it will use a
| |
| KDirWatch to update based on the filesystem.
| |
| | |
| Other toolboxes will include:
| |
| | |
| * the Widget previewer: with buttons to set the form factor and location as well
| |
| as reload the widget. This way the author can simply preview their widget as
| |
| they go, including interction.
| |
| | |
| * timeline: save point browser and selector
| |
| | |
| * notes/todos: a place for the author to collect their thoughts as they work (<-- very very nice idea)
| |
| | |
| * documentation
| |
| | |
| * widgets explorer (listing of Plasma::Widgets, links to the doc)
| |
| | |
| === Editor / Viewer ===
| |
| | |
| When an entry is selected in the Package Listing, the selected file will be
| |
| shown in the Editor/Viewer. Using KParts for all but a few types of entries will
| |
| allow the user to edit code, view SVGs (we probably don't want the user to
| |
| view/edit svgs with a kpart. dunno if you remember the application i made some
| |
| time ago to help testing themes, but I think that i can integrate that with some
| |
| information taken from plasma, like elements that can be themed... this requires
| |
| some thinking...), etc. without having to write any appreciable amount of code
| |
| ourselves.
| |
| | |
| There are some editors that will need to be written from scratch, however. These
| |
| include:
| |
| | |
| * Metadata: a simple form that lets one fill in the metadata. Plasmagik should
| |
| have some code about this.
| |
| | |
| * KConfigXt: a form to create KConfigXt files; this will be used for both the
| |
| configuration entries in a widget as well as Service .operation files.
| |
| | |
| * SVG theme visualizer (look at ruphy's app)
| |
| | |
| Integrating Qt Designer would also be a goal at some point. Tricky though,
| |
| especially for the code it will generate. Requires further thinking, and not for
| |
| the first releases.
| |
| | |
| === Integrated Revision Control, or the Save-less Interface ===
| |
| | |
| Integrating a simple git-based revision control system will be critical to
| |
| providing both a smooth user experience as well as making publishing and social
| |
| interaction possible.
| |
| | |
| When creating a new widget, it will be automatically saved into the plasmate
| |
| appdata dir and a local git repository started for it. The user will be able to
| |
| create Save Points as they go. This will simply do a git commit of all the work
| |
| done to this point, adding files that are new, etc. The user will be prompted
| |
| for a summary of changes.
| |
| | |
| This will allow the user to then "roll back" to any given save point via the
| |
| timeline toolbox.
| |
| | |
| We will then provide an online git hosting system on plasma.kde.org. (based on
| |
| gitorious?) When the user hits "Publish" they will be prompted whether they
| |
| would like to create a local package or publish it publicly. If the latter is
| |
| chosen, a git push will be done and their work will appear on our shared git
| |
| repo.
| |
| | |
| The hosting system will create Plasma::Packages out of the git repos for
| |
| download; this is simply a matter of getting rid of any git metadata in the
| |
| directry structure and creating a zip archive out of that, which is an easily
| |
| automated task. Consumers will get Packages, creators can push and pull repos.
| |
| | |
| Neither consumer nor user should have to understand what's actually happening.
| |
| | |
| If the user does not already have an account on the shared git repo, they will
| |
| be prompted to create one at this point. Some basic oversight will be needed:
| |
| basically, just watching what new stuff goes up.
| |
| | |
| Eventually, we will want to have a widget browser integrated into Plasmate so
| |
| that the user can see what is already available on plasma.kde.org and, with a
| |
| click of a button, fork that widget and start working on it locally.
| |
| | |
| The required git functionality is therefore pretty basic on the Plasmate side:
| |
| | |
| * init a repo (milestone 1)
| |
| * add files (milestone 1)
| |
| * simple commits (milestone 1)
| |
| * change to a different commit, aka "roll back" (milestone 2)
| |
| * push (milestone 2)
| |
| * diffs (milestone 2)
| |
| * pull (milestone 3)
| |
| | |
| (what about enabling powerful users to get access to more advanced solutions? hmmm...
| |
| obviously we should only do that if it doesn't clutter things for the target audience)
| |
| | |
| === User Actions ===
| |
| | |
| Actions will be provided to the user in the work interface through a simple
| |
| "see and click" interface that will be more like a toolbar or ribbon than a menu
| |
| bar. These actions will include:
| |
| | |
| * Save Point
| |
| * Roll back (with history graph provided by the Timeline toolbox)
| |
| * Publish
| |
| * Exit / Leave
| |
| | |
| | |
| === Code Design ===
| |
| | |
| Classes:
| |
| | |
| * StartPage
| |
| * Takes a pointer ot the main window
| |
| * Creates the ProjectBox and other default toolboxes for a given action
| |
| when selected
| |
| | |
| * ProjectBox
| |
| * ProjectView tree (maybe just a generic QTreeView?)
| |
| * ProjectModel
| |
| * based on Plasma::Package
| |
| * uses a KDirModel internally to keep sync'd with disk
| |
| * Takes a pointer to the main window to load viewers/editors with
| |
| * Hosts the revision control object
| |
| | |
| * WidgetPreview
| |
| * Provides a Corona and View
| |
| * Controls for: form factor, location, refresh. Translucent buttons at
| |
| the top of the Previewer with those labels? Click on FF or L and a
| |
| list of relevant choices will appear as an overlay?
| |
| | |
| * Actions
| |
| | |
| * Timeline
| |
| | |
| * SaveSystem
| |
| * Use the git classes from vng?
| |
| | |
| * Application
| |
| * Creates the main window
| |
| * Creates the start page
| |
| | |
| === Art / Design ===
| |
| | |
| Artwork and design work required:
| |
| | |
| * PlasMate logo: the Plasma logo with some elegant text
| |
| * The PlasMate tagline
| |
| * The layout of the main page. Qt Creator's take on this is very nice; should feel "webby"
| |
| | |
| | |
| === Todo / Notes ===
| |
| | |
| Critical
| |
| * Allow file import, so that e.g. images can be added to a project
| |
| ** Related: Treeview doesn't support drag and drop
| |
| * Metadata editor icon setter doesn't actually work.
| |
| * Proper templates/packaging for runners, dataengines and themes.
| |
| * Previewing for runners, themes and dataengines
| |
| | |
| Fit and finish items:
| |
| | |
| * Plasmoid previwer control buttons could use better icons, should have tooltips
| |
| * Metadata editor icon button is missaligned
| |
| * git directory should not be saved when exporting
| |
| * the export dialog is a bit full and confusing; perhaps turning it into a wizard might be better?
| |
| | |
| Desired
| |
| * Show author + version number in project list.
| |
| * Project description class to hold project related information
| |
| ** What languages are supported
| |
| ** What previewer to use
| |
| ** If publishing is supported
| |
| * Per-project todo-style notes
| |
| * Project deletion from project management dialog which removes project from disk
| |
| * Project search/filter for project management dialog.
| |
| * Batch import/export
| |
| * Code auto completion for the script editor
| |
| | |
| Eventually
| |
| * Per-project window/dockwidget settings
| |
| * QtDesigner integration
| |
| * Separate process for previewer
| |
| | |
| Right now the plasmoid use-case is the most complete. What's possible:
| |
| | |
| * Creating projects and importing/exporting projects (to file)
| |
| * Editting code and metadata, auto-saving, previewing
| |
| * Creating / reverting to save points
| |
| * Browsing techbase tutorials and Plasma API references
| |
| * Publish to/Import from GHNS
| |
