Projects/Plasma/Plasmoid-Issues

The following list describe resizing problems (and not only) for all tested plasmoids.

Some thougths

If not already specified, some guidelines should be taken to archieve an uniform behaviour. At least developers should be careful to the following points:

When size has to be proportional (width and height)?
How plasmoids with only an icon (or an icons list) should behave?
When fonts should be scaled with the plasmoid and when not?
Having multiple type of frames (mainly panels and Desktop views), some plasmoid needs to be painted differently according to the frame (a good example is the folder view plasmoids).
A minimum size should be advisable to be set.
When a plasmoid is developed, the developer should think how it should behave in a containment like the panel and in a containment like the desktop. Usually panel doesn't have much height, so in most cases having a small and usable version of the plasmoid should be more advisable. Assuming this, a plasmoid placed in a panel should resize with the panel and the behaviour should be the same for all plasmoid. Usually there are two use cases for enlarging a panel:
1. having objects more big and more readable: this needs scaling plasmoids into the panel
2. having more space: scaling plasmoids doesn't give more space, so plasmoid should stay small, but even if small they are not aligned in a grid, so enlarge the panel for having more space is actually not supported.
An additional problem is that plasma themes could have differents color settings. For example if the text foreground color is white (like in oxygen theme), plasmoids should use it (because the background color is black) but developers should be care of cases like the notes plasmoid which uses yellow as default background color and in this case the note is unreadable.

The list

Activity Bar

Desktop: The gray element of the plasmoid has a minimum height. If you resize too much vertically, the gray element goes out the frame. If you resize horizontally, some arrows appear to move right or left but they haven't a real usefulness: the plasmoid is too much small. Then both vertical and horizontal minimum size could be assumed.
Panel: If the horizontal panel is made less high, the name of the Activity Bar is not centered and fade off as in Pager tabs elements. If the vertical panel is set, the name of the Activity Bar doesn't fade off as in Pager tabs elements.

Analogue Clock

Desktop: It works fine. If the plasmoid is made larger, the applet handler for resizing, rotating, settings and closing the plasmoid is larger than normal.

- This is the correct behaviour.
Panel: It works quite well, exept that in trunk it uses more horyzontal space than needed.

Application Launcher

Desktop: Vertical and horizontal resize shouldn't be proportional like in the panel: it's more useful free resizing.
Panel: It works fine, but when you enlarge the panel the icon doesn't resize: is it the desired behaviour?

Application Launcher Menu

Desktop: It hasn't a minimum size: it should be added.
Panel: When you enlarge the panel the icon doesn't resize: is it the desired behaviour?

Battery

Desktop: Works fine
Panel: Works fine

Bball

Desktop: A minimum size should be adopted because it disappears when the plasmoid is reduced too much.
Panel: Maybe an icon should be introduced in the panel even if the ball goes in the Dekstop: the behaviour of this plasmoid is unpredictable.

Binary clock

Desktop: It works fine.
Panel: It works fine.

Bubblemon

Desktop: It works fine.
Panel: It works fine.

Calculator

Desktop: Font size should scale with the plasmoid.
Panel: Font size should scale with the plasmoid.

Calendar

Desktop: When height or width of the panel is small, the calendar plasmoid in the panel becomes a calendar icon.

The calendar plasmoid could behave in the same way in the Desktop. Currently, it has a minimum size in which the table of the days aren't displayed. There are two solutions:

Set a minimum size with a readable font
Under the minimum size with a readable font display an icon: clicking on the icon will display the "popup" with the calendar.

Panel: It works fine.

Character Selector

Desktop: IHMO, height and width shouldn't be proportional because chars table is less high than large.
Panel: If the panel is enlarged, the icon of the character selector plasmoid does't resize.

Color Picker

Desktop: The icons should resize with the plasmoid. If the plasmoid size is decreased too much, the two icons goes out the frame because they have a minimum size whereas the plasmoid haven't. A minimum size should be taken.
Panel: The icons should resize with the panel. In the horizontal panel, when the icons are put vertical but the panel isn't enought high, the circle goes below the monitor screen.

Comic strip

Desktop: This plasmoid height and width could be proportional (depending from the ratio of the loaded image).
- It looks that this would introduce some usability issues, ask to mat69 for further details --FiNeX 22:40, 13 September 2009 (UTC)
Panel: Horyzontal panel is ok. In the vertical panel, the configure button is cutted if the panel is too tight. In both it should be resized proportionally.

Device Notifier

Desktop: It works fine.
Panel: When you enlarge the panel, the icon doesn't resize: is it the desired behaviour?

Dictionary

The mouse doesn't change when it's over link. If the word doesn't exist in the dictionary, no message is displayed.

Desktop: It works fine.
Panel: It works fine.

Why this plasmoid is inserted in the panel if you enlarged it whereas for example calculator or character selector doesn't (they ever display the icon when inserted in a panel)?

Digital clock

Desktop: A minimum size should be adopted.
Panel: Relevant font [size] changes in Systemsettings should trigger a resize. mutlu_inek 21:43, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

Eyes

Desktop: It works fine.
Panel: It works fine.

Fifteen puzzle

Desktop: A minimum size should be adopted. Font size should scale with plasmoid.
Panel: If the panel both vertical and horizontal is made bigger, fifteen puzzle is stretched too but it doesn't increase horizontally (or vertically, depending on the panel orientation). It is not possible to play with this plasmoid in the panel and it is too little. Maybe it should behave like the unit converter, for example: if the icon in the panel is clicked the a popup appears and you can play.

File Watcher

Desktop: A minimum size should be taken for the frame because when the plasmoid is reduced too much the file content goes out the frame.
Panel: When the plasmoid is added to the panel the content goes outisde the plasmoid area and goes over the near plasmoid. Is should behave like the calculator plasmoid (an icon in the panel with a popup that appears if the icon is pressed).

Folder view

Desktop: Maybe a minimum size should be appreciated.
Panel: Folder icon should resize with the panel.

Fuzzy clock

Desktop: The plasmoid goes around the Desktop when it's resized. IMHO because there's a maximum height for a specific width and when the plasmoid reaches the maximum height it move up and down instead of increase.
Panel: Text is cutted when the panel is enlarged, because text doesn't resize with the panel.

Incoming Message

Desktop: A minimum size should be taken: when the plasmoid is made smaller, the content goes out the frame.
Panel: If the panel is enlarged it increases horizontally but not vertically, so the plasmoid takes up horizontal space.

In higher horizontal panel, for example:

 "KMail account is changed"

should became:

 "KMail
 account
 is changed"

(three lines) A different solution is to keep the plasmoid as icon on the panel and display the message in a popup.

KGet Barchart Applet

Desktop: A minimum size should be taken: when the plasmoid is made smaller, the content goes out the frame.
Panel: No icon or something like that appears in the panel. An item appears in the Desktop, but something should be present in the panel to remeber that is in the panel.

KGet Panelbar Applet

Desktop: A minimum size should be taken: when the plasmoid is made smaller, the content goes out the frame.

The plasmoid has a maximum size. When you click on the download arrow, a new popup appears. It is not attached to the plasmoid so if it's moved the new popup doesn't move too. The text in the new popup is not centered on the "white" area. I've selected the text so we can read it on the gray background:

Panel: In the vertical panel the plasmoid is not faded (when the panel is too tight). When the panel is too wide or high, the download arrow disappears because it has a maximum height.

KGet Piechart Applet

Desktop: A minimum size should be taken: when the plasmoid is made smaller, the content goes out the frame.
Panel: No icon or something like that appears in the panel. An item appear in the Desktop, but something should be present in the panel to remeber that is in the panel.

KGet Session Applet

Desktop: A minimum size should be taken: when the plasmoid is made smaller, the content goes out the frame.
Panel: unable to test

Kate Session Applet

Desktop: Height and width shouldn't be proportional. Defaults items are 4 and they're larger than high.
Panel: It works fine.

Konqueror Profiles

Desktop: Height and width shouldn't be proportional because it's larger than high with standard items.
Panel: IHMO, when the panel is made higher or wider, the plasmoid should be an icon that increase its size otherwise the white rectangle should be made larger as an user wants.

Konsole Profiles

Desktop: Height and width shouldn't be proportional because it's larger than high with standard items.
Panel: IHMO, when the panel is made higher or wider, the plasmoid should be an icon that increase its size otherwise the white rectangle should be made larger as an user wants and it shoudn't have proportional height and width.

LCD Weather Station

Desktop: A minimum size should be taken: when the plasmoid is made smaller, the content goes out the frame.
Panel: The "configure" button goes out of the plasmoid area.

Lancelot Launcher

Desktop: A minimum size should be taken.
Panel: The icon should resize with the panel.

Lacenlot Part

Desktop: How do you setting this plasmoid?
Panel: The icon should resize with the panel.

Leave A Note

Desktop: It works fine.
Panel: The icon doesn't resize with the panel.

Life

Desktop: It works fine.
Panel: When it's added, the panel goes down the bottom of the monitor as the panel takes the plasmoid height (or width if the panel is vertical). It doesn't resize proportionally.

Lock/Logout

Desktop: Vertical and horizontal resize are proportional. It hasn't a minimum size: is it the wanted behaviour?
Panel: When you enlarge the panel too much (both vertical and horizontal panel), icons doesn't enlarge anymore. Moreover the default panel size cuts it off.

Magnifique

Desktop: a minimum size should be considered.
Panel: It should resize with the panel.

Media Player

Desktop: It could have a minimum size.
Panel: KDE 4.3, it display the controls, on trunk it doesn't display anything

Microblogging

Desktop: It works fine.
Panel: It works fine at small panel size. On intermediate panel size the icon is not scaled and on bigger sizes it is fully rendered.

Moon

Desktop: A minimum size should be adopted.
Panel: When the panel is enlarged, the moon is stretched (vertically in the horizontal panel).

News

Desktop: It works fine.
Panel: On small panel size an icon is displayed (and scaled). when the panel is more than ~44 pixels it display the news and two scrollbars. It is unreadable and unusable.

Notes

Desktop: A minimum size should be taken. Moreover if it is placed in a desktop containment (it means that it is probably the monitor of a PC), the font size should not scale with the plasmoid. Probably when an user enlarge a note on the desktop, it is because he needs more space, not for having the text bigger. I suggest to set the fixed size of the font as default setting.
Panel: It is not usable. Probably it should behave like digital clock or any other plasmoid which display an extender when placed in the panel.

Now Playing

Desktop: Font size doesn't resize with the plasmoid, the icons do.
Panel: The plasmoid looks a bit different from plasmoid in the Desktop: only two buttons are displayed (play and play next) and no information is available (author, time etc) and no popup is available to see this contents.

Pager

Desktop: If the default number of desktop is 4, the minimum size of the pager should be coeherent with that number of desktop because with 4 desktops the plasmoid has an empty area. If numbers or names of desktops are displayed, font size could scale with the plasmoid. Height and withd should't be proportional.
Panel: It works fine.

Paste

Desktop: Minimum height shouldn't display the vertical scroll bar. A better minimum width should be choosen.
Panel: It works fine.

Pastebin

Desktop: A minimum size should be taken.
Panel: The icon doesn't resize with the panel.

Picture Frame

Desktop: It looks fine.
Panel: It looks fine.

Previewer

Desktop: A better minimum size should be taken or the dinamic wrapper should be adopted by default (even if the text doesn't scale resing the plamsoid and the line could go out the frame). When the desktop is locked the "collapse" icon doesn't works.
Panel: It should ever behave like calculator (an icon with a popup). When the panel has default size, the popup windows is displayed with minimum size and text aren't fully shown (because it's too long) both on vertical and horizontal panel. The arrow to collapse the plasmoid is not useful because the popup area is not collapsed too.

Quicklaunch

Desktop: Icons should resize with plasmoid.
Panel: Icons should resize with plasmoid.
- Lukas Applehans is fixing the application launcher behaviour. The default settings will be to scale icons with the plasmoid, the "manual" size setting is optional. It will be implemented the row number setting too. --FiNeX 21:44, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

RSSNOW

Remember The Milk

I can't fully test this plasmoid because I haven't an account.

Desktop: A better minimum size should be taken.
Panel: The "Configure" button goes out the frame.

Show Desktop

Desktop: It works fine.
Panel: The icon doesn't resize with the panel.

Show Widget Dashboard

Desktop: It works fine.
Panel: The icon should resize with the panel.

System Load Viewer

Desktop: Some labels could be displayed (maybe optionally?). A minimum size should be taken.
Panel: It should have a small bottom padding.

System Monitor - CPU

Desktop: The font size doesn't resize when the plasmoid is resized. The minimum size should be larger. The minimum height and width should be the minimum height and width displaying scale values (20%-40%...40%).
Panel: The plasmoid is unuseful because it's impossible displaying all the information in a small area. IHMO, the plasmoid should simply display a value. Alternatively it could behave like calculator: when you click on the icon, a popup appears.

System Monitor - Hard Disk

Desktop: The minimum size should be larger.
Panel: When the panel (both horizontal and vertical) is thin, the labels are cutted. When the panel is enlarged, the plasmoid doesn't scale.

System Monitor - Hardware Info

Desktop: The font size doesn't resize when the plasmoid is resized. The minimum size could be improved.
Panel: The plasmoid in the panel is an icon and you cannot display any information: it has no sense. It should behave like calculator or calendar: when you click on the icon, a popup appears. The icon doesn't resize when the panel is enlarged (both verical and horizontal one). Actually you've to hover the icon for display the information, but it looks not much usable (I've discovered it accidentally).

System Monitor - Network

Desktop: The font size doesn't resize when the plasmoid is resized. The minimum size could be improved: the minimum height and width should be the minimum height and width displaying scale values (20%-40%...40%).
Panel: The plasmoid doesn't resize when the panel is enlarged.

System Monitor - RAM

Desktop: The font size doesn't resize when the plasmoid is resized. The minimum size could be improved: the minimum height and width should be the minimum height and width displaying scale values (20%-40%...40%).
Panel: The plasmoid doesn't resize when the panel is enlarged. The text is not fully displayed and it's not clear: maybe physical and swap area should be reactangular instead of square. It is not so clear the distinction between the two plots.

System Monitor - Temperature

Desktop: The font size doesn't resize when the plasmoid is resized. The minimum size could be improved: the minimum height and width should be the minimum height and width displaying scale values (20%-40%...40%).
Panel: The plasmoid doesn't resize when the panel is enlarged. The text is not fully displayed and it's not clear: maybe physical and swap area should be reactangular instead of square. It is not so clear the distinction between the two plots.

System Monitor

Desktop: When nothing it is displayed, the minimum size should be ok (maybe their height should be equal to the icon height). The icons don't resize when the plasmoid is resized. When an item is selected, the minimum width decreases and plot areas goes out the plasmoid area. No scale values (20%-40%...40%) are displayed.
Panel: The plasmoid doesn't resize when the panel is enlarged.

System Tray

Desktop: In KDE 4.3.1, the system tray doesn't ever display all the items presented in the panel. A minimum size should be adopted. The arrow to collapse the system tray remains larger even if the plasmoid is made smaller.
Panel: The arrow to collapse the system tray remains larger sometimes even if the plasmoid is made smaller.
- Size of the arrow doesn't resize in trunk --FiNeX 22:40, 13 September 2009 (UTC)

How icons are ordered in the system tray?

Task Manager

Desktop: When you increase too much the frame, if not much tasks are opened, the frame bacomes larger than tasks and tasks don't increase anymore. Should icons and text scale resizing the plasmoid?
Panel: It works fine.

Timer

Desktop: If the title is shown, the text is displayed with different font size when seconds are displayed or not. A minimum size with a readable time (and title) should be choosen.
Panel: If the horizontal panel is increased, the title font size scales but the time font size doesn't. In the vertical panel, the title font size scales and the time font size doen't (different behaviour). The resizing behaviour should be the same of digital clock: actually the plasmoid resizes only one dimension (on the horizontal panel it streches its height, on the vertical panel it increases its width).

Trashcan

If the trash can't be emptied (i.e. files without permissions), the plasmoid should display a message like in dolphin.

Desktop: It works fine.
Panel: Both in vertical and horizontal panel, if you enlarge too much the panel, the trash plasmoid doesn't resize the icon anymore.

Unit converter

Desktop: The minimum width has been set like the unit convert would be a single column plasmoid, then if you make smaller the plasmoid, the left column goes outside the frame.

Panel: Combo box are cutted according to the height of the frame both in vertical and horizontal panel bug #207052.

Weather Forecast

Web Browser

Desktop: It works fine.
Panel: It works fine with a small panel, when the panel is enlarged it is transformed from an icon to the full plasmoid. Is this a correct behaviour on the panel?

World Clock

Desktop: When the plasmoid is made at minimum size, plasma-desktop CPU usage increases more than 99%.
Panel: It doesn't resize with the panel.

openDesktop

Desktop: A minimum size should be taken: if the plasmoid is made smaller, the content goes out the frame.
Panel: IHMO, only an icon should be inserted in the panel whereas the frame should be diplayied in a popup.

Common problem summary

Desktop behaviour

Minimum size missing (or that could be improved [IM]) in following plasmoid:

Application Launcher Menu
Bball
Bubblemon
Calendar
Color Picker
Digital clock
Fifteen puzzle
File Watcher
Folder view
Incoming Message
KGet Barchart Applet
KGet Panelbar Applet
KGet Piechart Applet
KGet Session Applet
LCD Weather Station
Lancelot Launcher
Lock/Logout
Magnifique
Media Player
Moon
Notes
Pager [IM]
Paste [IM]
Pastebin
Picture Frame
Previewer [IM]
RSSNOW
Remember The Milk [IM]
System Monitor - CPU [IM]
System Monitor - Hard Disk [IM]
System Monitor - Hardware Info [IM]
System Monitor - Network [IM]
System Monitor - RAM [IM]
System Monitor - Temperature [IM]
System Monitor [IM]
System Tray
Timer [IM]
Unit converter [IM]
Weather Forecast
openDesktop

Suggestions:

Plasmoid displaying an icon could have the same behaviour/minimum size (for example: Application Launcher Menu, Magnifique, Pastebin etc. and Color Picker, Lock/Logout etc.)
Minimum size should display readable contents (for example: Calendar, Fifteen Puzzle etc.) otherwise an icon should be adopted.

Font size should be scaled accordly to plasmoid resizing as default behaviour:

Calculator
Fifteen Puzzle
Now Playing
Pager
System Monitor - CPU
System Monitor - Hard Disk
System Monitor - Hardware Info
System Monitor - Network
System Monitor - RAM
System Monitor - Temperature
System Monitor

Font size shouldn't be scaled accordly to plasmoid resizing as default behaviour:

Notes

Panel behaviour

Icons don't scale resizing the following plasmoids:

Application Launcher
Application Launcher Menu
Binary clock
Character Selector
Color Picker
Device Notifier
Folder view
Lancelot Launcher
Leave A Note
Lock/Logout
Magnifique
Quicklaunch
Pastebin
Show Desktop
Show Widget Dashboard
System Tray
Trashcan

Popups (extender) which could be improved:

Dictionary
File Watcher
Incoming Message
Konqueror Profiles
Konsole Profilesbuff
Microblogging
News
Notes
Now Playing
Previewer
RSSNOW (maybe it coudl solve bug 182517)
System Load Viewer
Weather Forecast
Web Browser
openDesktop

Suggestions:

It could be useful to think about the plasmoid "natural" containment to differentiate when plasmoid in the panel should have a popup (extender) or not. If the plasmoid is thought for staying in Desktop and the minimum size is larger than an icon, it should be useful to use a popup (or an extender) for make it readable.