[kplato] Re: Google's Summer of Code - KOffice proposals

[Dag Andersen]

On Onsdag 08 juni 2005 21:44, Raphael Langerhorst wrote:
[snip]
>
> I have been a bit active on IRC and right now Adriaan, Lauri and I
> planned to do a summer of code project about KPlato - after all it
> should be included in the next release (IMO). In the process of
> implementing desired functionality I will write down my notes on
> development - thus creating a developers handbook as a side effect
> - an important one ;)
>
> Anyway, if there is anything particular you want implemented in
> KPlato (fitting for a summer of code project) please let me know
> ASAP. Right now I'm thinking of better integration with the rest of
> KOffice, but I'll take a closer look before submitting any
> proposal.
Yes, koffice integration is allmost totally missing. The framework is 
there, since our KPTPart is a KoDocument and KPTView is a KoView, but 
the crucial KPTPart::paintContent() is totally empty and zoom is not 
implemented at all.
AFAICS the main problem is that our views are doing the painting while 
it should have been the document. I suspect this can't easily be 
fixed, but please, someone, tell me I'm wrong :)



A totally different thing: It would have been great to have a 
framework for exchanging *data* between koffice apps. An example is 
reports in kplato. Atm i've looked at kugar which is ok as far as it 
goes. What it's lacking though (from my point of view) are 
possibillities like proper header/footers, graphics (ie kchart, 
gantt), pics (logos) and the possibility to add/edit text. You 
probably noticed kword fits the bill for the additional stuff :)

I've had some initial thoughts of how to implement reports in kword, 
but I've not dug into it, and I'm not really a programmer so there is 
probably vastly superior ways to implement this ;)

Anyway, here are my ideas:
It's based on a combination of a new type of kword variable and 
plugins. The variable will tell kword which plugin to call and with 
what data, the plugin will know how to fetch data from file or 
application. 

When kword starts up it will look for and load available plugins. This 
will result in new entries in the Insert->Variable menu, eg if there 
is plugins for kplato and kspread:
KPlato->Project name
        Project manager
 Task info...
KSpread->Some variable
     Another variable

When selecting a menu item, the plugin will be called with the choise 
and it will respond with the data that shall be attached to the 
variable. This can be simple, as with the Project Manager choise or 
more complex, as with the Task info... choise. In the latter case the 
plugin will come up with a dialog enabling the user to select which 
tasks/properties to include.

Designing a 'report template' will then be a question of entering 
variables into a kword document.

When creating the report, kword will feed each variables data to the 
appropriate plugin, the plugin will fetch the data from file or 
application (somehow the plugin must know where to get it) and return 
it to kword which will present the data in place of the variable.

When creating reports, I see 2 ways to use it:
. Start kword and 'mine' data from one or more file, or
. open kword embedded into eg kplato and have kword fetch data from 
the running kplato.

--
PS. This isn't restricted to koffice apps, of course. Data could be 
fetched from anywhere dependent on the plugin.
>
> > Raphael
> > _______________________________________________
> > koffice-devel mailing list
> > koffice-devel at kde.org
> > https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/koffice-devel

-- 
Mvh,
Dag Andersen