KDE System Administration/PlasmaDesktopScripting

ECMA Script Interaction With Plasma Shells

It is possible to control and interact with a Plasma user interface shell such as a plasma-desktop or (starting in KDE SC 4.5) plasma-netbook session using ECMA Script (aka JavaScript). This scripting mechanism exposes containments (Desktop Activities and Panels), widgets and various other aspects of plasma-desktop configuration using the widely known and used ECMA Script language. The QtScript engine is used for the runtime environment.

This document describes the API that is provided along with how to run such scripts in plasma-desktop.

Examples

A set of examples can be found here that demonstrate the use of various aspects of Plasma shell scripting.

Contributions of additional examples are welcome and an be sent to the Plasma development mailing list (plasma-devel at kde.org) for inclusion if you do not have commit rights to the kdeexamples module.

Running Scripts

There are three ways that scripts can be executed in plasma-desktop:

• on first run: when plasma-desktop is started without any pre-existing configuration, any scripts in $APPDATA/plasma-desktop/init/ with a ".js" suffix are run. If there is more than one script, they are run sequentially in the alphabetical order of the file names.

Note

For security reasons, scripts located in the user's home directory will not be run during this phase.

• on update: when plasma-desktop is started, it will check in

 `kde4-config --path data`/plasma-desktop/updates/ 

with a ".js" suffix for scripts that have not yet been run. If there is more than one script which has not been run yet they will be executed serially in the alphabetical order of the file names.

A record of which update scripts have been run is kept in the application's config file in the [Updates] group. This means that if the plasma-desktop configuraiton file is removed, all the update scripts will be run again.

Note

For security reasons, scripts located in the user's home directory will not be run during this phase.

• interactively: an interactive scripting dialog can be requested either via the KRunner window (Alt+F2, by default, or via the "Run Command" entry in various desktop menus) by entering "desktop console" as the search term. It can also be triggered directly via dbus with qdbus org.kde.plasma-desktop /MainApplication showInteractiveConsole

Note

This method is not available for plasma-netbook.

ECMA Script may be entered directly into this window for execution and output appears in the lower half of the window. Ctrl+E is a shortcut to run scripts, and scripts can be saved to and loaded from disk.

Scripts from files can also be loaded using KRunner with "desktop console /path/to/file" or via dbus with

qdbus org.kde.plasma-desktop /MainApplication loadScriptInInteractiveConsole /path/to/file

Templates

Templates are named packages that contain scripts. This provides a way for common functionality to be easily reused, helping to increase consistency and lower maintenance costs. Templates can be loaded from other scripts by name and they are also used to populate some parts of the user interface, such as the entries in the Add Panels menu.

A template is a small set of files in a specified file hierarchy (or, in Plasma terms, a "Package"). In particular, a Template package contains the following files:

• metadata.desktop: a .desktop file describing the template
• contents/layout.js: a Javascript file containing the actual script

Templates are stored under share/apps/plasma/layout-templates and may be installed using `plasmapkg -t layout-template -i /path/to/package`. Template packages may also be provided as a .zip file with a .plasmalayout suffix.

The metadata.desktop file contains the usual .desktop entries such as Name and Icon but must also contain Type=Service and ServiceTypes=Plasma/LayoutTemplate entries. If the layout is specific to a given Plasma application, such as plasma-desktop, this can be specific using X-Plasma-Shell. X-Plasma-ContainmentCategories defines what kind of layout it is with possible values being panel and desktop. Finally a X-KDE-PluginInfo-Name entry is required to provide a globally unique internal name for the Template. Here is an example of a Template that provides a Panel layout for Plasma Netbook:

[Desktop Entry] Encoding=UTF-8 Name=Cool Panel Type=Service ServiceTypes=Plasma/LayoutTemplate X-Plasma-Shell=plasma-netbook X-Plasma-ContainmentCategories=panel X-KDE-PluginInfo-Author=Aaron Seigo [email protected] X-KDE-PluginInfo-Name=org.kde.CoolNetbookPanel X-KDE-PluginInfo-Version=1.0 X-KDE-PluginInfo-Website=http://plasma.kde.org/ X-KDE-PluginInfo-Category= X-KDE-PluginInfo-Depends= X-KDE-PluginInfo-License=GPL X-KDE-PluginInfo-EnabledByDefault=true

When running a template, two global variables will be accessible in read-only mode: templateName and templateComment. They will contain the Name and Comment fields of the above desktop file, and are translated if a localization is available.

Examples of Usage

Creating panels

A good example of the use of templates is the use case that triggered the creation of this feature: the desire to make it easy for users to re-create the default panel that is created on first start. There is a Template called org.kde.plasma-desktop.defaultPanel that ships with the KDE Plasma Workspace which contains the layout for the initial default panel. This is referenced by the default Plasma Desktop init script and, because it is marked as a Panel Template in the metadata.desktop file it also shows up to the user in the Add Panels menu. When selected by the user from the menu, the exact same panel that is created on desktop start up is created for them, complete with Plasma Widgets and configuration.

Automating tasks

Another example of the usefulness of templates is the "Find Widgets" template. This template, which first shipped with Plasma Desktop v4.5, provides a function for finding widgets by name. It appears in the toolbar "Load" and "Use" menus in the Desktop Console in plasma-desktop, and makes finding widgets as simple as:

var template = loadTemplate('org.kde.plasma-desktop.findWidgets') template.findWidgets('systemtray')

Activity templates

Probably the most user visible use of templates are "Activity templates", for such templates the structure is similar to the other use of templates, but we support extra features which can be triggered from the metadata.desktop. Here is an example of such an activity template:

[Desktop Entry] Encoding=UTF-8 Name=Cool Activity Template Icon=user-desktop Type=Service ServiceTypes=Plasma/LayoutTemplate X-Plasma-Shell=plasma-desktop X-Plasma-ContainmentCategories=desktop X-Plasma-ContainmentLayout-ExecuteOnCreation=dolphin $desktop, gwenview $pictures X-Plasma-ContainmentLayout-ShowAsExisting=true X-KDE-PluginInfo-Author=John Doe [email protected] X-KDE-PluginInfo-Name=org.kde.plasma-desktop.CoolTemplate X-KDE-PluginInfo-Version=1.0 X-KDE-PluginInfo-Website=http://john.doe.org X-KDE-PluginInfo-Category= X-KDE-PluginInfo-Depends= X-KDE-PluginInfo-License=GPL X-KDE-PluginInfo-EnabledByDefault=true

The layout itself is still created from the layout.js file as usual, but this template also shows as a precreated activity to the user thanks to the X-Plasma-ContainmentLayout-ShowAsExisting key. Additionally, it startups applications in the newly created activity using the X-Plasma-ContainmentLayout-ExecuteOnCreation key.

That key is a list of commands to execute, and it supports the following variables:

• $desktop
• $autostart
• $documents
• $music
• $video
• $downloads
• $pictures

They all expand into the path toward the user corresponding default folder.

API

In addition to the normal ECMA Script API and the Qt-specific extensions (such as signal/slot support) provided by QtScript, the following API is provided for use by scripts.

All of the API below, unless otherwise noted with a version noticed, appear as below in the KDE Software Compilation v4.4.0 and later. API that is not noted as being part of a given class or object is part of the global namespace.

Note

API compatibility is guaranteed from version to version starting with KDE Software Compilation v4.4.0.

Version Numbers

Starting with KDE SC 4.5, the version number of both the scripting API and the application is available to the script via the following read-only properties:

• String applicationVersion: the version of the application, e.g. 0.3
• String platformVersion: the version of the KDE Platform, e.g. 0.3
• number scriptingVersion: the version of the scripting API; e.g. in KDE SC 4.5 this is 2

Activities

Activities are the desktop layer in a plasma-desktop session and may contain widgts. In sightly more technical terms, they are desktop containments. Activities can be created, enumerated, modified and destroyed.

New Activities can be created using the Activity constructor, like this:

   var activity = new Activity("folderview")

The string passed into the constructor maps to the X-KDE-PluginInfo-Name= entry in the plugin's .desktop file). See the documentation on the Containment object class below.

Read-only properties:

• Array[number] activityIds: returns a list of integer ids of all existing Plasma activities
• Array[String] knownActivityTypes: (scripting version >= 2) a list of types of activities that can be created. This is useful to check if an Activity type is available on the system before trying to construct one.

Functions:

• Activity activityById(number id): return an object representing the activity with the given id
• Activity activityForScreen(number screen[, number dekstop]): returns an object representing the activity currently associated with the given screen and, optionally, the given desktop.
• Array[Activity] activities(): returns an array of all activities that currently exist

Panels

Panels can be created, enumerated, modified and destroyed. A panel object combines both a containment as well as the container itself, allowing for full control of things such as where it appears on screen and the hiding features associated with them.

New Panels can be created using the Panel constructor, like this:

   var panel = new Panel("dock")

The string passed into the constructor maps to the X-KDE-PluginInfo-Name= entry in the plugin's .desktop file).

Read-only properties:

• Array[number] panelIds: returns a list of integer ids of all existing Plasma panels
• Array[String] knownPanelTypes: (scripting version >= 2) a list of types of panels that can be created. This is useful to check if a Panel type is available on the system before trying to construct one.

Functions:

• Panel panelById(int id): returns an object representing the Panel that matches the given id
• Array[Panels] panels(): returns an array of all panels that currently exist

Activities and Panels

Activity and Panel objects, once created by the script, or as returned by activityById, activityForScreen, or panelById) provide the following read-only properties:

• number id: the integer id of this activity
• String formFactor: returns the form factor of the activity, e.g. "planar" for most desktop activities,"mediacenter" for media centers and either "horizontal" or "vertical" for panels.
• Array[number] widgetIds: a list of integer ids of all the widgets in this Activity
• Array[String] configKeys: (scriptingVersion >= 2) a list of all keys that are set in the current configuration group
• Array[String] configGroups: (scriptingVersion >= 2) a list of all the groups in the current configuration group
• Array[String] globalConfigKeys: (scriptingVersion >= 2) a list of all keys that are set in the current global configuration group
• Array[String] globalConfigGroups: (scriptingVersion >= 2) a list of all the groups in the current global configuration group

as well as the following read/write properties:

• number desktop: the virtual desktop this activity is associated with, or -1 for none
• number screen: the screen this activity is associated with, or -1 for none
• String name: the name of this activity
• String wallpaperPlugin: (scriptingVersion >= 2) the wallpaper plugin to use with the Activity
• String wallpaperMode: (scriptingVersion >= 2) the wallpaper plugin mode to use with the Activity
• Array[String] currentConfigGroup: (scriptingVersion >= 2) the current configuration group path, with each entry in the array representing a sub-group. This allows one to access trees of groups with code such as: widget.currentConfigGroup = new Array('topGroup', 'subGroupOfTopGroup'). An empty Array means the default (top-level) configuration group for the widget
• String version: (scriptingVersion >= 2) the version of the Activity or Panel

and the following methods:

• remove(): deletes this activity and all widgets inside of it
• Widget widgetById(number id): returns an object representing the widget with the given id
• Widget addWidget(String name): adds a new widget to the activity; the name maps to the X-KDE-PluginInfo-Name= entry

 in the widget's .desktop file

• Widget addWidget(Widget widget): adds an existing widget to this activity; useful for moving widgets between Activities and Panels
• showConfigurationInteface(): shows the configuration user interface for this Activity or Panel on the screen
• readConfig(String key, any default): (scriptingVersion >= 2) reads the value of key in the config with default for the default value
• writeConfig(String key, any value): (scriptingVersion >= 2) sets key to value in the config
• readGlobalConfig(String key, any default): (scriptingVersion >= 2) reads the value of key in the global config with default

 for the default value

• writeGlobalConfig(String key, any value): (scriptingVersion >= 2) sets key to value in the global config
• reloadConfig(): (scriptingVersion >= 2) causes the Activity or Panel to reload its configuration; reaction to configuration changes made using readConfig are usually activated on script exit, but this can be triggered earlier on a per-widget basis using this method
• Array[String] currentGlobalConfigGroup: (scriptingVersion >= 2) the current global configuration group path, with each entry in the array representing a sub-group, similar to currentConfigGroup. However, global configuration is shared by all instances of panels and activities of the same type.
• Array[Widget] widgets([String type]): (scriptingVersion >= 2) returns all the widgets in the Panel or Activity. If the optional type is specified, only widgets matching that type will be returned.

In addition to all of the above properties and functions, Panel objects also provide the folowing read/write properties:

• number length: the number of pixels along the screen edge used
• number height: the height (or for vertical panels, the width) of the panel
• String hiding: the hiding mode of the panel, one of "none" (for no hiding), "autohide", "windowscover" or "windowsbelow"
• String alignment: right, left or center alignment of the panel (for vertical panels, right corrsponds to top and left to bottom)
• String location: returns the location of the activity (only relevant for Panels); valid values include "top", "bottom", "left", "right" and "floating"

Widgets

Widgets may be enumerated by calling the widgetIds property on a Activity or Panel object. With a widget id in hand, a Widget object can be retrieved by calling widgetById(id) on an Activity or Panel object. New Widgets can be created with add addWidget(String) function provided by Activity and Panel objects.

A list of all installed widget types can be retrieved the following read-only property:

• Array[String] knownWidgetTypes (scripting version >= 2)

A Widget object provides the following read-only properties:

• number id: the id of the widget
• String type: the plugin type of this widget
• Array[String] configKeys: a list of all keys that are set in the current configuration
• Array[String] configGroups: a list of all the groups in the current configuration
• Array[String] globalConfigKeys: (scriptingVersion >= 2) a list of all keys that are set in the current global configuration group
• Array[String] globalConfigGroups: (scriptingVersion >= 2) a list of all the groups in the current global configuration group
• String version: (scriptingVersion >= 2) the version of the Activity or Panel

as well as the following read-write properties:

• Array[String] currentConfigGroup: the current configuration group path, with each entry in the array representing a sub-group. This allows one to access trees of groups with code such as: widget.currentConfigGroup = new Array('topGroup', 'subGroupOfTopGroup'). An empty Array means the default (top-level) configuration group for the widget
• Array[String] currentGlobalConfigGroup: (scriptingVersion >= 2) the current global configuration group path, with each entry in the array representing a sub-group, similar to currentConfigGroup. However, global configuration is shared by all instances of widgets of the same type.
• QRectF geometry: the geometry of the widget (settable)
• String globalShortcut: the shortcut sequence (in the format used by QKeySequence, e.g. "Alt+F1") associated with this widget
• number index: the layout index of the widget; in a Panel this corresponds to the order the widget appears in. Changing the value of the index will change the position of the widget in Panels and may do so in some Activities as well.

and the following methods:

• remove(): deletes this widget
• readConfig(String key, any default): reads the value of key in the config with default

 for the default value

• writeConfig(String key, any value): sets key to value in the config
• readGlobalConfig(String key, any default): (scriptingVersion >= 2) reads the value of key in the global config with default

 for the default value

• writeGlobalConfig(String key, any value): (scriptingVersion >= 2) sets key to value in the global config
• reloadConfig(): causes the widget to reload its configuration; reaction to configuration changes made using readConfig are usually activated on script exit, but this can be triggered earlier on a per-widget basis using this method
• showConfigurationInteface(): shows the configuration user interface for this widget on the screen

Screen Geometry

Read-only properties:

• number screenCount: returns the number of screens connected to the computer

Functions:

• QRectF screenGeometry(number screen): returns a rect object representing the geometry of a screen

Wallpaper Plugins

• Array[String => Array[String]] knownWallpaperPlugins(): (scripting version >= 4) returns a list of all installed wallpaper plugins. They keys of the array are the wallpaper plugin names. The values are arrays containing the modes available for that wallpaper plugin. The mode array may be empty, as most wallpaper plugins only offer one mode.

Locating Applications and Paths

• boolean applicationExists(String name): (scripting version >= 4) searches $PATH first, then tries in the application menu system by application storage name (aka the .desktop file name), then Name= entries for apps with installed .desktop files, then GenericName= entries for same
• mixed defaultApplication(String kind [, boolean storageId = false]): (scripting version >= 4) returns the executable (or if storageId is true, then the the app menu system id, e.g. its .desktop file name) of the default app. The "kind" parameter may be a well-known application type including "browser", "mailer", "filemanager", "terminal", "imClient" and "windowmanager" (or any other entry in share/apps/kcm_componentchooser/kcm_*.desktop); it may also be a mimetype (e.g. "application/pdf"). On failure, it returns false.
• String applicationPath(String name): (scripting version >= 4) returns the full local path to a given application or .desktop file if it exists.
• String userDataPath([String type, String path]): (scripting version >= 4) returns the default path for user data. Called with no parameters, it returns the user's home directory. If only one string is passed in, the standard directory for that type of data in the user's home directory will be located; the following values are recognized:
  • documents
  • music
  • video
  • downloads
  • pictures
  • autostart
  • desktop (should be considered deprecated for Plasma workspaces)

If a second string is passed in, it is considered a request for a specific path and the following types are recognized:

• • apps - Applications menu (.desktop files).
  • autostart - Autostart directories (both XDG and kde-specific)
  • cache - Cached information (e.g. favicons, web-pages)
  • cgi - CGIs to run from kdehelp.
  • config - Configuration files.
  • data - Where applications store data.
  • emoticons - Emoticons themes
  • exe - Executables in $prefix/bin. findExe() for a function that takes $PATH into account.
  • html - HTML documentation.
  • icon - Icons, see KIconLoader.
  • kcfg - KConfigXT config files.
  • lib - Libraries.
  • locale - Translation files for KLocale.
  • mime - Mime types defined by KDE-specific .desktop files.
  • module - Module (dynamically loaded library).
  • qtplugins - Qt plugins (dynamically loaded objects for Qt)
  • services - Services.
  • servicetypes - Service types.
  • sound - Application sounds.
  • templates - Templates for the "Create new file" functionality.
  • wallpaper - Wallpapers.
  • tmp - Temporary files (specific for both current host and current user)
  • socket - UNIX Sockets (specific for both current host and current user)
  • xdgconf-menu - Freedesktop.org standard location for menu layout (.menu) files.
  • xdgdata-apps - Freedesktop.org standard location for application desktop files.
  • xdgdata-dirs - Freedesktop.org standard location for menu descriptions (.directory files).
  • xdgdata-mime - Freedesktop.org standard location for MIME type definitions.
  • xdgdata-icon - Freedesktop.org standard location for icons.
  • xdgdata-pixmap - Gnome-compatibility location for pixmaps.

The second parameter should be a specific resource to find the path to. An example might be userDataPath("data", "plasma-desktop").

Misc. Global Properties and Functions

Read-write properties:

• boolean locked: whether the desktop shell and widgets are locked or not (settable)
• string theme: (scripting version >= 3) the name of the desktop theme to use for the interface, e.g. default, Air, Oxygen, etc.

Read-only properties:

• boolean hasBattery: whether or not the system has the ability to run on battery power, e.g. a laptop or mobile device
• boolean multihead: (scripting version >= 3) true if the system is running with multiple screens in a "Xaphod" multiple display server configuration
• int multiheadScreen: (scripting version >= 3) if multihead is true, contains the (real) screen id of the current screen

Functions:

• sleep(number ms): sleeps the script for the specified number of millseconds

QRectF

A rectangle class is also provided for use with Widget, Panel and screen geometry properties and functions.

Read-only properites:

• boolean empty: true if the rectangle's width or height is less than, or equal to, 0; an empty rectangle is also invalid
• boolean null: true if the rectangle has both the width and the height set to 0; a null rectangle is also empty and not valid
• boolean valid: true if the rectangle has a width > 0 and height 0.

Read-write properties:

• number left
• number top
• number bottom
• number right
• number height
• number width
• number x
• number y

Constructors:

• QRectF
• QRectF(number x, number y, number width, number height): Sets the coordinates of the rectangle's top-left corner to (x, y), and its size to the given width and height.

Functions:

• adjust(number dx1, number dy1, number dx2, number dy2): adds dx1, dy1, dx2 and dy2 respectively to the existing coordinates of the rectangle
• QRectF adjusted(number dx1, number dy1, number dx2, number dy2): returns a new QRectF with dx1, dy1, dx2 and dy2 added respectively to the existing coordinates of the rectangle
• translate(number dx, number dy): translates the rect by dx, dy
• setCoords(number x1, number y1, number x2, number y2): sets the coordinates of the rectangle's top-left corner to (x1, y1), and the coordinates of its bottom-right corner to (x2, y2).
• setRect(number x, number y, number width, number height): sets the coordinates of the rectangle's top-left corner to (x, y), and its size to the given width and height.
• boolean contains(number x, number y): returns true if the rect contains the point (x, y)
• 'moveBottom(number delta): moves the bottom by delta pixels
• moveLeft(number delta): moves the left by delta pixels
• moveRight(number delta): moves the right by delta pixels
• moveTo(number x, number y): moves the top left of the rect to point (x, y)
• moveTop(number delta): moves the top by delta pixels