Development/Tutorials: Difference between revisions

    From KDE TechBase
    (→‎Documentation: source code is important, and sometimes best documentation)
    (→‎Python: KNotify)
    Line 358: Line 358:
    :''An introduction to DBus communication using PyKDE''
    :''An introduction to DBus communication using PyKDE''


    ;[[Development/Languages/Python/PyKDE_Knotify_Tutorial|PyKDE KNotify Tutorial]]
    :''An introduction to Knotify (Notifications and KJobs) using PyKDE''


    === Ruby ===
    === Ruby ===

    Revision as of 22:15, 9 August 2010


    Development/Tutorials


    Tutorials are the fastest way of finding out what KDE will do for you, and how to do it. Here is a list of currently available tutorials for KDE4. Material for KDE3 and KDE2 is available on the bottom of this page.

    Introduction To KDE 4 Programming

    Are you interested in writing applications with KDE 4? This tutorial series is aimed at those completely new to KDE programming.

    Hello World
    A preliminary introduction to the very basics of KDE4 programming
    Creating the Main Window
    This tutorial shows you the magic of an application's most important thing: The main window.
    Using KActions
    How to add actions to the menus and toolbars.
    Saving and Loading
    Introduces the KIO library while adding loading and saving support to our application.
    Command line arguments
    Adds the ability to specify which file to open from the command line to our text editor.

    Basics

    Porting Your Application
    Help Porting Applications from Qt3/KDE3 to Qt4/KDE4
    Introduction to CMake
    How to use the CMake build system used by KDE4.
    Common Programming Mistakes
    Various common mistakes made while developing Qt and KDE applications and how to avoid them.
    Using Qt Designer to build user interfaces
    How to create UI files with designer, and how to integrate them into a KDE program.
    Using Qt Creator to develop your KDE program
    How to integrate Qt Creator use into KDE development.
    Creating Libraries to share code
    How to add the library to the buildsystem and how to prepare the source code.
    Session Management
    Make your application aware of X sessions

    Testing And Debugging

    Debugging your application
    Tips, tools and techniques to apply when debugging your KDE application
    Writing Unittests for Qt4 and KDE4 with QTestLib (Original link)
    Tutorial by Brad Hards that describes how to write unit tests using the QTestLib framework. It is presented as an example based tutorial, and is still under development.
    Semi-automatic ways to detect code errors
    Techniques you can use to detect errors in KDE code

    Managing Configuration Data With KConfig

    Introduction To KConfig
    An overview of the KConfig classes and how to use them in your application code
    Using KConfig XT
    Tutorial on how to efficiently use the KConfig XT framework.
    Updating KConfig Files
    Tutorial on how to write an update script to keep changes in your application's config file format in sync with the user's already existing config file

    Services: Applications and Plugins

    Introduction to the Services Framework
    An overview of the services framework in KDE and what it provides the application developer. Covers the system configuration cache (SyCoCa), the source data files and what the indexed information can be used for.
    Finding Services Using Trader Queries
    How to find services, such as plugins or mimetypes, that are indexed in the SyCoCa using Trader Query Syntax
    Creating and Loading Plugins Using KService
    Learn how to define custom plugin types, find installed plugins (including 3rd party plugins) and load them in an easy and portable fashion using KService.

    Localization

    See also Localization portal.

    Introduction To Unicode
    An introduction to what Unicode is as well as how to handle Unicode data in KDE applications.
    Writing Applications With Localization In Mind
    This tutorial covers what localization is, why it's important and how to ensure your application is ready to be localized. A must read for all application developers.
    Avoiding Common Localization Pitfalls
    There are several common mistakes that prevent applications from being properly localized. Find out what they are and how to easily avoid them in this tutorial.
    Building KDE's Localization Module
    Building and installing language support from KDE's localization (l10n) module is a good idea for those working on applications in the main KDE repository. Doing so will allow you to test your application in another language and spot problem areas. Learn how to do just that in this tutorial.
    Incorporating i18n Into the Build System
    Once your application is ready to be localized, the next step is to ensure that translation files are built automatically and kept up to date. This tutorial covers the necessary CMakeFiles.txt additions as well the process of distributing the resulting message catalogs with your application.
    Common i18n Challenges and Solutions
    This tutorial covers challenges that you may eventually run into such as translating handbooks and other data that exists outside of the source code, merging and handling obsolete .po files, dealing with freezes, coding in languages other than English and creating independent releases of or moving applications between KDE modules.
    Semantic Markup of Messages
    To ensure consistent presentation and more meaningful representations of messages in applications, semantic markup can be applied to messages marked for translation using the KUIT system. This tutorial describes how this system works.
    Automated i18n Code Checking
    The Krazy code checker scans KDE's code and reports common i18n mistakes.

    Documentation

    API Documentation
    This tutorial explains how to document your APIs properly.
    Man Pages
    Writing and Generating Reference Manual Pages.
    Source Code
    http://websvn.kde.org

    Accessibility

    Accessibility
    This tutorial will explain how to make your application accessible.
    Text-To-Speech
    How to utilize KDE's text to speech service in your application.

    Application Automation and Scripting

    D-Bus

    Introduction to D-Bus
    A straight-forward introduction to the core concepts in D-Bus from an application developer's perspective, this tutorial covers what D-Bus is and how it can be used by applications.
    Accessing D-Bus Interfaces
    A step-by-step guide to calling D-Bus methods and connecting to D-Bus signals using QtDBus.
    Intermediate D-Bus
    Tips to make use of QtDBus when faced with problematic real-world interfaces.
    Creating D-Bus Interfaces
    Learn how to expose functionality in your application by creating and using custom D-Bus interfaces. Covers generating the XML descriptions, instantiating interfaces at run time and setting up the build system with CMake.
    Using Custom Types with D-Bus
    Learn how to use your own types in classes exported on D-Bus. Covers marhaling and unmarshaling of objects, the integration of custom types into XML descriptions and registering the custom types with the Qt Meta Object system.
    D-Bus Autostart Services
    Turn your application into a D-Bus autostart service with this tutorial. This D-Bus feature, also known as "D-Bus service activation", will ensure that even when your application isn't running that D-Bus calls made to it will work by relying on the D-Bus daemon itself to start your app if and when needed.
    Porting from DCOP to D-Bus
    Port your applications from DCOP to D-Bus with this handy guide.

    Konqueror

    Creating Konqueror Service Menus
    This tutorial shows you how to create mimetype-specific actions in Konqueror's context menu (aka "servicemenus").

    Kross

    Introduction to Kross
    An introduction to the Kross Scripting Framework.
    Hello World
    A first application with working kross code.
    Calling Functions in Kross
    Simple demonstration of calling scripting functions
    Connecting Signals and Slots in Kross
    Simple demonstration of connecting object signals with script slots
    Scripts as Plugins with Kross
    This tutorial provides a step-by-step introduction how to integrate scripts as plugins into a KDE application.
    Placing script actions in your application menus
    Simple demonstration on how to extend you application menus to execute script files.
    How to use an ActionCollection
    A small Tutorial on How to use Kross::ActionCollections.

    Calligra Plugin Tutorials

    Calligra Overview
    This document shows an overview of the different Calligra plugin types and tells you what each of their purpose and strengths are. If you are new with Calligra plugins, this is the place to start.
    Calligra Plugin Creation
    This gives a technical overview of what it means to write a Calligra plugin.
    Creating Calligra Flake Plugins
    This tutorial shows you how you can build a plugin for Calligra applications to allow you embed content in ODF documents using Flake.
    Calligra Words Scripting
    This tutorial shows how to script Calligra Words with Python, or JavaScript using Kross.
    Calligra Sheets Scripting
    This tutorial shows how to script Calligra Sheets with Python, or JavaScript using Kross.


    SuperKaramba

    SuperKaramba Tutorial
    This tutorial provides an overview of SuperKaramba, theme files and scripting with Python, Ruby and JavaScript.

    System Activity

    Writing script actions for the process's context menu
    This tutorial shows how to add a context menu action to show custom information about a process.

    Plugins and KParts

    Writing kontact plugins
    Kontact plugins are KParts. This tutorial describes how you can write one.
    Using KParts
    Learn how to load a KPart into an application window.
    Writing Qt Designer Plugins
    Add your widgets to Qt Designer and thus make them usable in UI files.

    Search and Metadata

    Strigi

    Writing file analyzers
    File analyzers extract data from files to display in the file dialogs and file managers. The data gathered this way is also used to search for files. KDE4 allows the use of multiple analyzers per file type. This tutorial describes how you can write new analyzers.

    Nepomuk

    Nepomuk Quickstart
    How to use Nepomuk resources in a quick and painless way without much fuss.
    RDF and Ontologies in Nepomuk
    An introduction to RDF and the usage of ontologies in Nepomuk.
    Data Layout in Nepomuk
    An overview of which and how data is stored in Nepomuk.
    Handling Resources with Nepomuk
    Nepomuk is the KDE library which provides easy access to metadata in the Nepomuk system. Learn how to make your application create and read metadata using the Nepomuk system.
    Using the Nepomuk Resource Generator
    Nepomuk includes a resource generator which creates convenience classes for handling metadata.
    Using the Nepomuk Query API
    Starting with KDE 4.4 Nepomuk provides a desktop query API.
    Advanced Queries
    The real power of Nepomuk can only be exposed when performing fancy queries on the data repository. This tutorial provides an introduction to semantic and full text queries in Nepomuk.
    The Nepomuk Server and the Architecture of the Nepomuk subsystem
    The Nepomuk Server hosts the main Nepomuk data repository and can be accessed directly via a Soprano API.
    Nepomuk Services
    The Nepomuk Server manages a set of Nepomuk services.
    • Storage Service The probably most important service hosts the Nepomuk data repository using Soprano.
    • Ontology Loader Makes sure installed ontologies such as RDF, RDFS, NRL, or Xesam are loaded into the storage repository.
    • File Watch Service Monitors the file system for changes and updates the file resource paths and URIs in Nepomuk.
    • Strigi Service Controls Strigi, the file indexing tool which extracts metadata from files and stores it into the storage repository.
    • Query Service Provides persistant query folders.
    Nepomuk Tips and Tricks
    A set of tips and tricks for development with Nepomuk and Soprano. This is a must-read if you intend to use Nepomuk in your application or hack on it directly.

    Hardware Awareness (Solid)

    Introduction to Solid
    An introduction to using the Solid hardware discovery and interaction system in KDE applications.
    Accessing Network Information
    How to use the Solid system to get information about the network

    Authorization and Privilege escalation (KAuth)

    KAuth Basics
    An overview of concepts and basic knowledge required to understand and use KAuth effectively
    Using KAuth actions in your application
    How to execute KAuth actions in your application, and how to integrate them tightly into your UI
    Creating a KAuth helper to perform a privileged action
    You will learn how to use KAuth's helpers and escalation facilities, and how to seamlessly make a privileged and non privileged portion of your application interact
    Creating a KCM requiring authorization upon saving
    Learn how to use the high level KCModule API to create KCModules handling authorization, and its UI integration, on their own

    Multimedia (Phonon)

    Phonon
    How to start with the multimedia API
    How to compile and use Phonon and its GStreamer backend on Linux using Qt 4.3.x
    This article gives you a quick brief of how you can use checkout, compile Phonon and its GStreamer backend on GNU/Linux with just Qt 4.3.x. Towards the end, the article also describes how a developer can make use of Phonon to create simple audio and video players. You can read the article here. You can download the editable OpenDocumentText file from here.

    Plasma

    See Plasma tutorials.

    Communication (Decibel)

    Getting started with Decibel
    This tutorial describes how to set up Decibel.
    Handling TextChannels
    This tutorial introduces the basics of handling incoming TextChannels by guiding you through building a simple text chat application.

    Personal Information Management (Akonadi)

    Using Akonadi in Applications
    Displaying and modifying data provided by Akonadi
    Developing Akonadi Resources
    Akonadi Resources are agent programs which transport PIM data between Akonadi and a backend (files, servers, etc)
    Using custom data types with Akonadi
    Akonadi can handle arbitrary data as item payloads through the use of a plugin based serialization framework
    Porting Applications which use KResource API
    Applications using KDE's now deprecated KResource APIs, e.g. KABC or KCal, need to be ported to use their Akonadi equivalents

    Kate / Kwrite

    Getting started with KTextEditor plugins
    Creating your first KTextEditor plugin
    Developing a plugin with configuration dialog
    Adding a configuration dialog to the Time & Date example
    A small Editor
    Create a small application using KTextEditor

    KDevelop

    KDevelop-PG-Qt Introduction
    Information on the KDevelop parser generator, useful for language plugins.

    Printing

    Hello World
    Introduction to the KDE printing system
    Print Dialog
    Using the KDE print dialog

    kioslaves

    Collaboration

    Open Collaboration Services (libattica)

    Introduction to Attica
    In this tutorial a simple widget showing information about a Person on the server is created.

    Get Hot New Stuff

    Get Hot New Stuff 3 - Download
    How to use KHotNewStuff3 in your application.
    Get Hot New Stuff 3 - Checking for Updates
    How to check if updates for installed stuff are available without showing the dialog/widget.
    Get Hot New Stuff 3 - Upload
    How to add an upload dialog to your application.

    Old links for KNS2 and KNS1 content:

    Introduction to Get Hot New Stuff 2
    A short tutorial about how to use KHotNewStuff2 in your application. Deprecated, use version 3
    Introduction to Get Hot New Stuff
    An introduction to the developer-friendly network update system that allows KDE applications to fetch new application data at runtime in a user friendly manner.
    KNewStuff Secure (Original Link)
    Tutorial showing how to share resources in a secured way (KDE 3.4 and later). By András Mantia <[email protected]>.

    Goya

    Introduction to Goya usage
    An introduction for the Goya subsystem usage, which allows you to easily add widgets to your itemviews and connect their signals to your code, as they were real widgets.
    Introduction to Goya usage (part 2)
    The second part of the tutorial, with a slightly more complex example than the first part.

    Other programming languages

    Python

    An Introduction to PyQt
    Starting off
    PyQt by Example
    Another introduction to PyQt
    PyKDE WebKit Tutorial
    A simple web browser application in PyKDE
    101 Introduction to signals and slots
    A simple introduction to Qt's signal and slot architecture.
    PyKDE DBus Tutorial
    An introduction to DBus communication using PyKDE
    PyKDE KNotify Tutorial
    An introduction to Knotify (Notifications and KJobs) using PyKDE

    Ruby

    KDE Ruby Korundum tutorial
    A ruby version of Antonio Larrosa Jiménez's KDE tutorial by Richard Dale. See the Ruby Developers Corner for Qt tutorials and other info.
    Qt4 Ruby Tutorial
    Nokia's fabulous introductory tutorial to Qt, translated to Ruby.
    Creating a Plasma Widget in Ruby
    Tutorial that shows how to create your first Plasma Applet using the Ruby language.
    Developing Qt4 Applications using Qt Designer and Ruby on Kubuntu
    Tutorial that shows how to design a simple User Interface in Qt Designer and then use the resulting widget in a Qt Ruby application we build from scratch.
    Ruby-Qt/KDE Book
    There is also an approach to create an Ruby-Qt/KDE Book under a free license. The content will be created in this wiki.

    Shell

    Shell Scripting with KDE dialogs (Original Link)
    Tutorial by Brad Hards that describes how to use KDE dialogs in shell scripts with kdialog. It is presented as an example based tutorial.

    Graphics Programming

    QPainter Perfomance
    Hints on avoiding common mistakes leading to poor performance when using QPainter

    Using the KDE Games Libraries

    KStandardGameAction
    Using libkdegames to make your game fit the kdegames standard
    Highscores
    Implementing a simple highscore table into your game
    Theme Selector
    Using the libkdegames theme selection dialog
    Palapeli Slicers
    Creating a slicer plugin for Palapeli

    KGLEngine

    installation and your first KGLItem
    start your first kglengine application
    kglpong
    Now use our knowledge to make a pong

    KALEngine

    Play hello word sound
    Using KALEngine for games sound development using openAL
    Play music
    Using KALEngine to play music in a stream

    Using the KDE PIM Libraries

    iCalendar functionality
    Using kcal to manage iCalendar files

    Other tutorials

    2D Plotting (KPlotWidget)

    Using the KDE data-plotting widget
    This tutorial introduces KPlotWidget, which is used for 2-D data plotting. It includes information on simple usage of the widget (including adding and modifying data sets, and customizing the plot axes and labels), and advanced customization (including extending the widget through sub-classing).

    Spelling and Grammar Checking (Sonnet)

    Adding spell-checking or grammar-checking to KDE applications
    This tutorial introduces Sonnet and how one may use it to add language correction to your KDE application. Sonnet's auxiliary features shall be described in a separate tutorial.

    Pixmap cache (KPixmapCache)

    Using the KDE pixmap cache
    This tutorial shows how to use KPixmapCache to cache e.g. pixmaps generated from SVGs or some data.

    Using MarbleWidget (Marble)

    Using MarbleWidget
    This short tutorial describes how to use the MarbleWidget in your project

    Using local SCM for KDE development

    Using Git to develop for KDE
    This tutorial shows how to use Git to develop for KDE

    Kwin effect tutorial (blog)

    blog by Martin Graesslin
    This tutorial guides you through the development of a simple KWin effect

    Implementing KSysGuard sensors and adding them

    Development/Tutorials/Sensors
    This tutorial shows how to write and KSysGuard sensor and connect it to the systray.

    Runners

    Porting an application from KSystemTrayIcon to KStatusNotifierItem

    Development/Tutorials/PortToKStatusNotifierItem
    This tutorials shows how to port an application using KSystemTrayIcon to KStatusNotifierItem

    Using the KDE Wallet API for safe storage

    Development/Tutorials/KWallet
    "Brief introduction to the KWallet API which can be used for storing all kinds of sensitive information."

    KDE2 and KDE3 Materials

    KDE3 Tutorials
    These tutorials cover topics related to KDE3.
    KDE2 Tutorials
    These tutorials cover topics related to KDE2.