Declarative UI Integration, reprise

[Alan Alpert]

On Thu, 24 Sep 2009 20:38:16 ext Marco Martin wrote:
> On Thursday 24 September 2009, Alan Alpert wrote:
> ...
>
> i'm compiling the branch right now, then i'll be able to give more in depth
> look.
>
> just quickly looking at it 2 things comes to my mind:
> -in the qml the word Plasmoid is used for the main applet. technically it
> indicates more the packages of scripted plasmoids that can contain the
> code, the desktop file, the graphics etc.. could even make sense there but
> maybe PlasmaApplet would be more correct?

Could be. I had the feeling though that we didn't want to use the word 
'Applet' outside of code. The issue here is whether QML files are code - I like 
to think of them as less code like and fully accessible to non-coders (and I'm 
probably being overly optimistic). If we view QML at the same level as the 
other scripting languages though then I agree with you.

> -most important: KineticApplet subclasses Applet, but plasma applets can
> subclass also Containment and PopupApplet, that are in turn Applet
> subclasses, in particular i think about 90% of todays applets are
> PopupApplets, so it should be possible to use it for different types, that
> wouldn't be possible subclassing just KineticApplet.
> A solution that comes to my mind is, (even if still keeping the
> scriptengine to do applets -just- with qml) making a widget that will
> contain more or less the code kineticapplet contains, but usable inside
> normal applets (that could or could not have other standard imperative code
> or other widgets in a normal layout, together that one) this would make it
> yes, more tricky but way more powerful.

Hmm, so you are suggesting a QGraphicsWidget subclass instead? It would mean 
that, in the basic case, you have to setup the layout yourself. People can 
probably live with that though :) .

That's actually a really good idea, since if you want just a QML item you 
probably won't be wanting to write a C++ applet for it. I probably should have 
noticed this since I didn't even use KineticApplet when I wrote my C++ applet 
example (it had to subclass WeatherPopupApplet). The plasma items do need to 
be given an Applet*, but I suppose that can be passed around. I agree that 
this approach is more powerful. 

We actually have a widget that displays QML already (QmlView). But using that 
in Plasma means using a proxy widget and setting up the plasma specific things 
yourself, which is undesirable. Watch out for a PlasmaQmlView in the 
integration sometime soon.

-- 
Alan Alpert (aalpert on Freenode)
Software Engineer
Nokia, Qt Development Frameworks