Development/Tutorials

From KDE TechBase

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.

Getting started

Using Subversion with KDE
A quick KDE-specific introduction how to work with KDE's version control system
KDE 4 Programming Tutorial
You are interested in writing applications with KDE 4? Here you get at tutorial which leads you from the beginners stuff to the advanced techniques.
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.
Using Qt Designer to build user interfaces
How to create UI files with designer, and how to integrate them into a KDE program

Managing Configuration Data With KConfig

Using KConfig XT
Tutorial on how to efficiently use the KConfig XT framework (available in KDE 3.2).

File Access With KIO

Localization

101: Unicode
An introduction to what Unicode is as well as how to handle Unicode data in KDE applications.
110: 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.
115: 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.

Components and Plugins

Application Automation and Scripting

D-Bus

101: 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.
201: Accessing D-Bus Interfaces
A step-by-step guide to calling D-Bus methods and connecting to D-Bus signals using QtDBus.
211: 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.
300: D-Bus Autostart Services
Turn your application into a D-Bus autostart service with this tutorial. This D-Bus feature 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.

Konqueror

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

Search and Metadata

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.

Hardware Awareness

Introduction to Solid
An introduction to using the Solid hardware discovery and interaction system in KDE applications.

Get Hot New Stuff

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.
KNewStuffSecure: a secure way to share resources
Tutorial showing how to share resources in a secured way (KDE 3.4 and later).

Rapid Application Development

Python

KDE-Python tutorial
A python version of Daniel's KDE tutorial by Boudewijn Rempt.

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
Trolltech's fabulous introductory tutorial to Qt, translated to Ruby.

Shell

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

Other tutorials

Using and extending the KDE EDU Plot widget (docbook archive)
This tutorial introduces Jason Harris' KPlotWidget that is part of the KDE EDU package. Contains information about defining your own widget in QT / KDevelop designer and about subclassing widgets and overriding member functions to extend functionality.

KDE2 and KDE3 Materials

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