Plasma/Active/Development/Tasks

Contributing

If you would like to support and become part of the Plasma Active team, you can use the following list of open tasks as inspiration. Please pick one of these tasks, for questions, you can always get in touch with us.

Packaging & Deployment

openSUSE

• profile and optimize boot process (bootchart)
• 2.6.38 by default
• change default font to Droid Sans 12, small to 9, monospace to 10
• clean up startup / login process
• remove unneeded autostart application
• create clean setup to start reviewing applications to offer
• create separate artwork package (kdebase4-workspace-branding-plasmaactive)
• rename plasma-mobile to plasma-active
• install plasma-declarative-widgets by default
• Make TabletBrowser.desktop the default webbrowser
• Active RSS Reader App, install, make visible
• add scripts to kdeprefix/env/ that are sourced on login by startkde to set environment variables to set the desktop shell type
• export env vars from news-tablet.desktop in declarative widgets package to global session
• package Calligra Mobile
• Marble to go

Completed Tasks

• consolidate packages into KDE:Active OBS project
• package Kontact Touch

Meego Packaging

• create installer image
• consolidate packages
• fix up defaults

Hacking

Berlin Desktop Summit "Top 5" Lists

Activity add/configure

• Doesn't show applications (adding an application is unintuitive: go to launcher, long press)

Default Configuration

• Nepomuk Backup Sync -> die die die
• KWallet configuation -> passwordless and no questions for access
• Disable KWin effects that don't matter
• Boot and Contour start QML Splash screen (and no wait on boot?)
• Screensaver -> must be above all items and no password request
• set active-browser as default web browser

Panel

• hardcoded positions of slc and clock (systray)
• hardcded positions of containments (panel containment)
• layouting of plasmoids screwed up
• drag the panel from everywhere w/o confliting with icons
• flickers on closing
• autohiding of entries that go into passive mode

On Screen Keyboard

• Rewrite in QML
• Proper default layout, including application-triggered switching (numbers when only numbers needed etc.)
• KWin virtual keyboard effect
• Layout switching
• Ensure that line edit does not get obscurred by keyboard

Nepomuk Recommendation

• score the recom engines
• pause the film while lights are up
• bus station (gps)
• create activity if the user is doing something new
• change activity based on context (track location when switching activities)

Launcher

• Fix selecting / filtering in tag cloud (doesn't work unless you put in a search and then clear)
• Tag cloud: scrolling higher is not obvious; icon (near search?) to scroll higher
• Sort applications by alpha
• Splitter divider betweeen app rows
• When filter is cleared, reset the view

SLC

• Enabled state is not obvious enough: find better visuals
• Better artwork: connect icon is very odd
• Not matter what is touched, Connect is always shown
• Bigger target invoking popup, and implement dragable
• Show title of URI to be operated on in the context menu

Window Management

• OpenGL ES on MeeGO
• Focus to docks
• Grab to move in Oxygen
• Window switcher
• Screen edge handling

Application workflow

• Not obvious where apps are
• Visual feedback between time when activity is selected and when the activity appears (so we know something is actually happening)
• Keep handle visible for activity switcher

Window Strip

• Remove homescreen from it: swipe from bottom to show? (At least get rid of close button)
  • look at gitorious qt-components/meego/*view* grep for swipe
• Window sorting
  • find solution to get at methods Martin added to kdelibs/*/kworkspace MRU
  • Put new windows after the current window
  • Check out how Harmatan Keyboard works
• Show windows from current activity only
• Sticky windows and moving windows across activities (SLC?)

Recommendations Panel

• Don't show (or at least deactivate) the recommendations dragger

Web Integration

Active Browser

• search in page
• save-as menus (e.g. for images)
• show loading progress even if url bar off top of screen (or scroll up to url bar when loading always? probably too disruptive to user..)
• "open in new window" support
• "back" repositions page to last viewed position

Multimedia

• Create multimedia activity
• Good touch volume applet
• Mediaplayer (minitube? bangarang? tomahawk? Plasma Mediacenter components?)
• Webcam (kamoso?)

Social Networks

• touch-friendly configuration for PIM (email, contacts, events.)
• touch-friendly setup of Facebook via Akonadi
• touch-friendly setup of Google via Akonadi
• Akonadi model for QML plasmoids
• Plasma QML widgets for
  • Contacts
  • Messages
  • Events

Infrastructure

• Geolocation
  • Document and complete API
  • Use geolocation in more widgets
  • Cache geolocation
• libplasma2 & QSceneGraph port
• test GLES backend for kwin
• hovering for close doesn't work on touchscreens (in present windows KWin effect)
• a Plasma::PackageStructure to be used to retrieve the QML UI of complex, C++ applications
• DBusmenu implementation in QML
• KToolBar replacement in QML (using a KActionCollection)
• KXmlGui actions access in QML
• KConfig integration with ownCloud
• Finish porting all KDE applications to the mobile profile (mostly removing deprecated calls)
• Connman backend for network management stack needed (either kded module or Plasma::DataEngine)

Workspace

• For testing: allow dynamic switching of Plasma workspace types, eg from the display manager
• Virtual Keyboard
  • Solution to squash workarea, when virtual keyboard is displayed, while remaining usable.
    • Struts? Might make the workarea so small that layouts break. Also what about large textedits whose minimum size exceeds the workarea. The UI should be good for eg wiki editing
    • Replace the input widget with one integrated into the keyboard while the keyboard is shown (Maemo style)? Disadvantage: loses any context surrounding the original input widget.
  • Integrate virtual keyboard with non-Qt apps and Qt apps using nonstandard widgets that do not support usual input method signals (konsole), or find standard alternatives for these
  • Add a way (systray widget?) to manually show/hide virtual keyboard when IM toggling fails
• Port C++ plasmoids to QML
• Touch friendly login screen for eg touchscreen all-in-one PCs to use
  • PAM integration
• Touch friendly unlock UI for single user tablets

Tools

• Make Plasmate release-ready
  • Improve editor for QML
  • Implement scripting console
  • Fix sizing problems in previewer

Artwork

• Improve Plasma theme
• Plasma Active logo
• Make Contour logo play well with Active logo
• Wallpaper
• Example documents
• Artwork and theming of boot process

Documentation

• Improve QML Plasma docs
• Improve installation docs
• Create user docs (pending UI freeze)

Support and Testing

• Help others with getting Plasma Active runnning on #active and the mailing list
• Test Plasma Active on more hardware, find solutions for problems encountered, document them