Plasma Chani's advantures in PlasmaLand: http://chani.wordpress.com/2008/12/29/adventures-in-plasmaland-part-1/
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The Python Hello World. Note: This may need work. I haven't tested the script and wrote/translated some code on the fly for this tutorial. There may very well be typos. Sorry.
Each scripted Plasmoid shares the same folder layout. The base folder name is, your applet's name. As this is a "Hello World" example let's call it "hello world". This basic layout will look like this:
KDE TechBase
hello-world
metadata.desktop
contents
code
main.py
ui
locale
The base folder contains a metadata.desktop, which should look a little something like:
[Desktop Entry] Encoding=UTF-8 Name=Hello World Comment=This Plasmoid just says Hello to the World Type=Service ServiceTypes=Plasma/Applet X-Plasma-API=python X-Plasma-MainScript=code/main.py X-KDE-PluginInfo-Author=Matthew Adams X-KDE-PluginInfo-Email= X-KDE-PluginInfo-Name=myHelloWorld X-KDE-PluginInfo-Version=1.0 X-KDE-PluginInfo-Website=http://plasma.kde.org/ X-KDE-PluginInfo-Category=Examples X-KDE-PluginInfo-Depends= X-KDE-PluginInfo-License=GPL X-KDE-PluginInfo-EnabledByDefault=true X-Ubuntu-Gettext-Domain=desktop_kdebase-workspace X-KDE-PluginInfo-EnabledByDefault=true
Notice the X-Plasma-API string. from there you can set it to ruby, python, whatever. Ruby is: ruby-script JavaScript: C#: Others:
In Base/contents/code you will have your main script file, named "main.py" This is your main script file. The main.py should have a function called "def CreateApplet(parent):" that returns an object that inherits plasma.Applet. in order to be able to inherit plasma.Applet you will need to include a couple specific headers. Here's the helloworld script:
(I have tested this script, it works in 4.2. Note: In Pre4.2 it was include plasma, then plasma.Applet, in 4.2+ it's from PyKDE4 import plasmascript then plasmascript.Applet for the equiv.)
# Import all the headers for Qt and KDE
from PyQt4.QtCore import *
from PyQt4.QtGui import *
from PyKDE4.kdecore import *
from PyKDE4.kdeui import *
from PyKDE4.plasma import Plasma
from PyKDE4 import plasmascript
from PyQt4 import QtCore, QtGui
class HelloWorld(plasmascript.Applet):
def __init__(self, parent, args=None):
plasmascript.Applet.__init__(self, parent)
self.top = parent
def init(self):
self.text = "Hello World"
self.svg = Plasma.Svg(self)
self.svg.imagePath = 'widgets/background'
# Yes the code for drawing the text directly on to the applet is fairly large
# and ugly. It can be done other ways however, add a layout to the applet,
# then a text label to the layout, then draw the text onto the text label
# Although I've never tried that method. This entire method was borrowed
# From one of the clock applets.
def paintInterface(self,p , options, rect):
pen = Plasma.Theme.defaultTheme().color(Plasma.Theme.TextColor)
plainFont = KGlobalSettings.generalFont()
plainFont.setPointSizeF( max(rect.height(), KGlobalSettings.smallestReadableFont().pointSize()))
p = self.preparePainter(p, rect, plainFont, self.text)
p.drawText(QRectF(rect), self.text, QTextOption(Qt.AlignCenter))
self.svg.resize(rect.left()+rect.right()+1, rect.top()+rect.bottom()+1)
self.svg.paint(p, QRectF(rect), "widgets/background")
self.resize(rect.left()+rect.right()+1, rect.top()+rect.bottom()+1)
def setFont(self, p, rect, font, text, tmpRect, tmpFont):
p.setFont(tmpFont)
tmpFont.setPointSize( max(KGlobalSettings.smallestReadableFont().pointSize(),tmpFont.pointSize() - 1) )
tmpRect = p.boundingRect(rect, Qt.TextWordWrap, text)
return tmpRect
def preparePainter(self, p, rect, font, text):
tmpRect = QRect()
tmpFont = font
# Starting with the given font, decrease its size until it'll fit in the
# given rect allowing wrapping where possible. Thx clock applet!
tmpRect = self.setFont(p, rect, font, text, tmpRect, tmpFont)
while tmpFont.pointSize() > KGlobalSettings.smallestReadableFont().pointSize() and (tmpRect.width() > rect.width() or tmpRect.height() > rect.height()):
tmpRect = self.setFont(p, rect, font, text, tmpRect, tmpFont)
return p
def CreateApplet(parent):
return HelloWorld(parent)
The SVG, The Font, and the Applet have to be made. The SVG is basically the Plasma Theme system (I think) but can be used to draw images. The font is resized to fit inside the bounding rect of the applet (Which can change when the user resizes it), Then the text is drawn to the screen using the resized font. Fairly simple.
CreateApplet gets called at startup, and returns the applet we made. It's paintinterface function is called every so often to have the interface painted (text drawn to the screen), first __init__() gets called, but then the library calls "init(self)" on the object, which is where all the real setup happens.
Once you have it all setup, simply run: cd /path/to/BASE/ zip -r ../HelloWorld.plasmoid * plasmapkg -i ../HelloWorld.plasmoid
Once you have installed you can test with
plasmoidviewer myHelloWorld
Note the name, myHelloWorld. That's defined in the metadata.desktop as the Name= value.
On old kde 4.1.X plasmapkg didn't work with plasmapkg -r ../HelloWorld.plasmoid It does in 4.2X - use plasmapkg -r ../HelloWorld.plasmoid in 4.2X In 4.1.X do rm -r ~/.kde/share/apps/plasma/plasmoids/HelloWorld to remove
There should be example plasmoids for each scripting language available. You can find them from http://websvn.kde.org/trunk/KDE/kdebindings/ (Example: http://websvn.kde.org/trunk/KDE/kdebindings/csharp/plasma/examples/ )
Once you complete a useful or fun plasmoids, you can put it on KDE-Look.org under the scripted plasmoids section, and have it show up in Get Hot New Stuff on peoples computers without them ever opening a web browser.
The differences between Plasma, KDE, and Qt are all very subtle. It is possible and advised to use Qt Designer for the creation of your gui's, and tying them in to your Plasmoid. You can use the output from Qt Designer directly after passing it through pyuic4 without any changes to the output from the .ui file - which means you can design applets so that the gui can be redone and replaced in Qt Designer without touching a single line of code. How is that bad for artists? That's a lesson for another day however. Peace.
