Projects/KNS2

    From KDE TechBase

    KNewStuff 2

    Who uses KNewStuff2

    API Discussion

    Classes will (mostly) be:

    PolishingWeek-end

    Bugs and regressions from 3.5

    • Unsorted is not needed as there's no other option
    • No feedback when something is downloaded, the user does not know when it is finished. => kmail-style progress bars
      • In CoreEngine::slotInstallationVerification(int result) signalInstallationFinished() and signalInstallationFailed() are emitted but not connected anywhere.
    • No feedback in the dialog that some items are already present (was done in 3.5 in the app by writing in config stuff entries then KNS picked that and displayed a green tick in the list)
      • In KDE 3.5 this code is in void DownloadDialog::install(Entry *e) in downloaddialog.cpp
    • The display of the list is slow, way slower than in KDE 3.5

    To implement

    • Upload
    • Engine Interface
    • fix blocking / simple API

    Programs using KNS for KDE 4.0

    • Edu progs: KAnagram, KHangMan, KLettres, KStars, Parley, KWordQuiz
    • Kate
    • System Settings: used it for background in KDE 3, there's no background module now because plasma came. Plasma's wallpaper configuration dialog integrates KNS2.
    • Kopete is looking into a tight integration for KDE 4.1, KNS is disabled for 4.0 however.

    Generic TODO

    • Rename KNS::Entry, and, consequentially, KNS::CompleteEntry

    What still needs to be done (getting rid of the above section)

    • Merge DXS and GHNS download dialogs. Also check with usability guys.
    • Add networking capabilities to Plasmagik.
    • Finish the code for the metadata generation.
    • The Handler, to locally manage packages.
    • Write a cache removal strategy, that should be the last bit of the networking stuff.
    • The CompleteEntry class, used also by the Handler, used to retrive all the availeable informations from an already downloaded package (needs to be written in a more detailed fashion)
    • Anything else?

    Other

    KNewStuff2 will store all the files in a specific dir. The layout of this dir, and all the related information can be found here.

    Results of the IRC meeting / Tasklist

    TODO

    • NN: link classes directly to tests to prevent unnecessary KNEWSTUFF_EXPORTs
    • NN: use multi-threading in the download dialogue to speed up the display
    • NN: explore KNS::Engine::cleanup() and why it isn't present
    • Josef: indicate entry's status (e.g. installed) in the entry list

    DONE

    • Josef: branches/work/knewstuff2/knewstuff-polishing
    • Josef: re-enable test apps using cmake TEST parameter
    • Josef: move KDXSView class from the library to the tests
    • Dennis: Improve argument parsing for InstallCommand directive in .knsrc files (don't break whitespaces) and quote filename arguments (%f)
    • Josef: add kmail-style progress bars for async download indication
    • Jeremy: hardcode m_localregistrydir as configuring it through *.knsrc is not needed