Quicklaunch: Migrating storage to kio bookmarks

Ingomar Wesp ingomar at wesp.name
Tue Jun 29 23:23:12 CEST 2010


Aaron J. Seigo wrote:
> my first reaction is to be concerned that this will decrease the general
> simplicity and elegance of this widget in terms of usage. but i'm prepared
> to be stunned and converted to the new idea :)

Alright, I'll give my best ;)

No, seriously: I understand and share your concern, but I believe the changes 
I'm proposing can be implemented with minimal impact on the current UI. 

I'd like to use the bookmarks API mainly in order to have a simple way of 
storing the data, but I currently don't think I'll use any of the UI 
components provided by it. As I mentioned in my original post, using bookmarks 
to store the launchers would also have benefits unrelated to the folders 
feature as well.

> how does the user set up such folders? 

I guess adding a single "Add folder..." action to the context menu would be 
sufficient; When triggered, a folder item will be inserted at the position 
where the context menu was triggered. Folders are opened by clicking on them 
and will show a list of the items in them similar to the list of hidden items 
in the systemtray applet. Items will be movable between folders and the main 
area by using drag & drop just like it works now between the popup and 
the main area.

> how will this deal with not having enough room to show all the
> items?

Pretty much as well / as badly as the current approach does ;)

If the user runs out of space or wants some of the icons out of the way, (s)he 
now typically has to

1. Right click the applet
2. Open the settings dialog
3. Check the "enable popup" checkbox
4. Close the settings dialog
5. Move items to the popup by drag & drop

With the folders feature, (s)he would have to

1. Right click the main area
2. Choose "Add folder..."
3. (Maybe) Confirm the dialog that lets her set the name / icon / description
   (pre-populated with defaults).
4. Move items to the folder by drag & drop

If step 3 is implemented, there will need to be an option to change 
name/icon/description of items later, so this would mean another action in the 
context menu ("Properties...") that triggers the same dialog.

It may not be perfect, but at least I don't think it would make matters worse. 
Of course all the traditional functionality (adding / removing items, ...) 
will be there for items in folders as well.

> and yes, anything in kdelibs is fine as a dep. just remember that settings
> would need to be transfered, if any.

Of course.

> you can create a branch in svn and commit there.

Alright. Anything I should know in addition to what it says at 
<http://techbase.kde.org/Policies/SVN_Commit_Policy#Tags_and_branches>?

Oh, and if you are still concerned / disagree with the idea, please 
don't hesitate to say so. I won't run away in frustration just because of a 
little rejection.

Best regards,
Ingo


More information about the Plasma-devel mailing list