[PATCH] Adding "forum.kde.org" and "UserBase" to the help menu

[Anne Wilson]

On Monday 08 December 2008 17:03:51 Friedrich W. H. Kossebau wrote:
> Hi,
>
> IMHO we should add two entries to each program's help menu, even for 4.2:
> * for UserBase
> * for forum.kde.org
>
> [Why for 4.2?]
> Fixes two missing but important links between our products and the newest
> social services. Would be sad to have six more month without them,
> especially now with everybody jumping to KDE4. And wasn't the leading idea
> from this year's Akademy to improve community structures? [KCW] Let's do
> it! :)
>
> Would be also sad because such a lot of work has been put into these both
> services.
> But how should Aunt Lilly and all the other users know about it? She might
> use $searchservice, but we should help her and tell what we, the KDE
> creators, do recommend. Especially because e.g. UserBase is not in the
> results for some random search terms of Aunt Lilly (besides userbase) I
> tried.
>
> It also adds to ways to give back (UserBase content, knowledge exchange at
> forum) and might help to increase the community, as it is a (okay, two)
> click away from every menu, which also means discoveribility!
>
Total agreement.

> [Please look at the patch attached]
> It basically adds two more entries to the help menu: One for a link to some
> online docs (UserBase as default) and one for a link to a forum
> (forum.kde.org as default). The basic features are:
> f1) supports KAuthorized::authorizeKAction (with XMLGUI)
> f2) links can be controlled by distributions/admins via KConfig
>     (if they really think they need to provide their own support center)
> f3) general url or parameterized url for program specific pages
>
> [Questions (especially to Anne, Rob, Jayant):]
> a) How can we support f3 with the services?
> forum.kde.org:
> Can there be a service call/url for forum.kde.org which takes the appName
> from KAboutData [KAD] ("kwrite", "okteta", etc.) as parameter and then
> jumps to the proper forum? Something
> like "http://forum.kde.org/forum.php?tag=$appName"?
> UserBase:
> By tradition the program specific pages are to be found at
> http://userbase.kde.org/$UntranslatedProgramName[_(langcode)]. But
> $UntranslatedProgramName ("KWrite", "Okteta", etc.) is not available from
> KAboutData or elsewhere in the code, only the appname or the translated
> ProgramName. So without changing KAboutData, could there be some support on
> UserBase to redirect from http://userbase.kde.org/$appName to
> http://userbase.kde.org/$UntranslatedProgramName? Like adding such redirect
> pages manually?

Since I'm not a developer, I'd need a little help to get started, to ensure 
that what I'm doing is absolutely correct, but I'm willing to help with 
redirects.  Once we have a clear plan of action it shouldn't take too long to 
do.

> b) What would be proper names for the menu entries and the config keys?
> The patch contains:
> menu entries: "Online &Documentation", "Discussion &Forum"
> Group: "Help",
> Keys: "WebDocsGeneral", "WebDocsAppSpecific", "WebForumGeneral",
> "WebForumAppSpecific" c) What about 3-party/non-core KDE programs? Their
> developers might want to use their own forums and wikis. E.g. KOffice and
> Amarok? Where should they control the links? By adding the urls as
> properties to KAboutData, like it is done with the homepage url?

For consistency I'd like the links to be to UserBase.  It is our intention 
that a clear link would exist to the home pages and forums for any application 
where the devs want to keep their own site.  My reasoning is simply that a 
single jumping-off place is preferable, and the devs in question keep full 
control of what goes on their site.

> d) What do you think?
>
> [KCW]
> http://akademy2008.kde.org/conference/presentation/40.php
> [KAD]
> http://api.kde.org/4.x-api/kdelibs-apidocs/kdecore/html/classKAboutData.htm
>l
>
> Adds two strings to translate.
>
Technical questions are best left to others :-)  but count me in for the 
labour.

Anne
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