Projects/Edu/KStars/SkyGuides

 

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Introduction

The SkyGuides feature enable users to create and view interactive sky tours for KStars.

Author: Marcos Cardinot <[email protected]>
Source code: https://github.com/cardinot/kstars/tree/skyguide

SkyGuide Tools

Opening

Both SkyGuide Viewer and SkyGuide Writer can be found on the Tools menu. In addition, they can be opened using the keyboard shortcuts ctrl+k and ctrl+w respectively.

File:Example.jpg

SkyGuide Viewer

The SkyGuide Viewer works like a browser and can be docked to the main KStars window.

File:Example.jpg

SkyGuide Writer

The SkyGuide Writer enables you to create or edit a SkyGuide.

File:Example.jpg

 

Remember
A SkyGuide should have a title, description and one slide at least.

SkyGuide File

A SkyGuide is essentially a zip archive containing a JSON file that must be named as guide.json and the source images (if any).

Warning

The JSON file must be in the root of its zip archive.

JSON File

Fields

Key	Type	Version		Description
		Tool	KStars'
formatVersion	int	1.0.0+	master	Format version
header	Object	1.0.0+	master	Header fields (order does not matter)
slides	Array	1.0.0+	master	Array of objects containing the information of each slide (order matter).
authors	Array	1.0.0+	master	Array of objects containing the information of each author (order matter).
creationDate	String	1.0.0+	master	The date of creation of its SkyGuide in "yyyy-mm-dd" format.
language	String	1.0.0+	master	The language of its SkyGuide.
centerPoint	String	1.0.0+	master	[optional] when this slide is open, select this sky object.
image	String	1.0.0+	master	[optional] path to an image that will be displayed on this slide.
skyDateTime	String	1.0.0+	master	[optional] when this slide is opened, changes the sky date!
zoomFactor	Int	1.0.0+	master	[optional] a number between 250 and 5000000.

guides.json (1)

{
   "formatVersion": 1,
   "header": {
       "authors": [
           {
               "email": "String",
               "name": "String",
               "url": "String"
           }
       ],
       "creationDate": "2015-08-20",
       "description": "String",
       "language": "String",
       "title": "String",
       "version": 1
   },
   "slides": [
       {
           "title": "String",
           "text": "String",
           "centerPoint": "Sky Object",
           "image": "kstars.png",
           "skyDateTime": "",
           "zoomFactor": 0
       }
   ]
}

Installing a SkyGuide

 

Remember
The installation directory must be writable!

GUI

• Open the SkyGuide Viewer tool
• Click on the 'Install' button on the lower toolbar
• Select the guide file (zip archive)

Manually

• Go to the installation directory
• Extract your SkyGuide (zip archive) on the tools/skyguide/resources/guides directory