GSoC/2019/StatusReports/FaridBoudedja

KDE ISO Image Writer

KDE ISO Image Writer, which is part of the KDE neon project, is a tool to write ISO images into USB drives. It was forked from ROSA Image Writer and extended using the KDE Frameworks. Currently, the KDE neon website advises to use Rosa Image Writer because KDE ISO Image Writer is still under development.

The aim of this project is to revamp the user interface of the KDE ISO Image Writer following the designs made by the KDE community. I am also planning of packaging the application for various Linux distribution using their respective packaging system as well as Snap and Flatpak, for Windows and eventually for macOS. In addition, I would like to write documentation explaining how to use the application with the aim of including a tutorial showing how to write the KDE neon ISO images on a USB drive using KDE ISO Image Writer which could then be added to the KDE neon download page.

Mentors: Jonathan Riddell and Harald Sitter

Work report

User Interface

Building a new user interface for KDE ISO Image Writer was one of the main goals I set for this GSoC project. The new user interface is based on a design made by the KDE community. Most of the design was implemented by the end of the first coding period and the new user interface can be seen in the following screenshot:

Windows Build

In addition to revamping the user interface, an important goal of the this GSoC project was to make KDE ISO Image Writer run on Windows. I used Craft, which is a cross-platform build system and package manager, to compile the code on Windows. In order for Craft to fetch the necessary packages needed by the application, I wrote a Craft blueprint which is a Python file that describes an application (or library) and list its dependencies.

Links to Blogs and other writing

 - KDE ISO Image Writer – Revamping the UI
 - KDE ISO Image Writer – Windows Build
 - KDE ISO Image Writer – GSoC Phase 2