Hello all, I am a newbie here ( though long-time lurker). This is my first journey to make myself useful to KDE. I will start with a *dream* and then the implementation (Hope it doesn't clash with plasma's vision; or better if it is complementary to it, it would be great! )
To start with, please ignore what is called as plasma activity in current KDE version and read this ;) I know, it clashes with the current name of activity in plasma, but I couldn't find another good term that conveys the exact meaning… If needed we can rename it later... Now, "KDreams of system-wide activities" … Term explanation: Activities are a "more casual" term for projects. Imagine a case where projects / activities are handled at system level and applies to both plasma and KDE applications equally. Now that plasma and Kwin (virtual desktop) interaction is planned, this could be achieved by associating an activity with a desktop, and storing that information in a shared space. Vision: When I create a new activity, applications automatically prepare themselves for the new activity. Dolphin creates a new folder for storing activity resource files. Kmail creates a mail folder to store mails corresponding to the activity. Korganiser creates a tag that can be assigned to specific contacts to associate them with the activity. And, when I switch to a particular activity, everything changes as well. Plasma widgets filter content appropriately. Applications focus their context exclusively on the activity-related items, including changing the open/save dialog to default to the folder which corresponds to the activity resources (So that needed files are always just a click away!) Now, suppose I have tons of files for the current activity and I couldn't find the file needed. I just set the global filter as "last 90 days". Every app filters their content to show only those items that fall in that date range. Dolphins only shows files modified within last 90 days. Kmail filters mails accordingly, etc Life is cool and world will be a better place ;) Implementation: Now, back to reality ! Bringing context-awareness to KDE !! I am currently working on a "user context" framework (I badly need a cool codename. Any ideas? ), which supports the different contexts that smart applications might need to be aware of, namely - Activities - Locations - User modes - Global search filter - Sensors (if needed) First things first, why a new framework? - Activities - for context to should be shared between apps and widgets - Location - as a wrapper for geoClue - User modes - Though IM presence can quality already, this adds a semantic dimension to it - Global search filter - for cases where "search with keywords" is not enough - Sensors - for any future or device-dependant contexts It would also serve as a single point of operation for all applications that need context-awareness, without needing to understand all the underlying mechanisms ... Hope it makes sense. So, lets get moving ;) For starters, I would like to start the implementation with "system-wide activities" to nail down the architecture of the framework first , as I find my way around KDE!!! (remember I am new to KDE..!) Before I start, I would like to know whether such a framework would be useful and fits with the overall vision of plasma and KDE. And, further inputs are always welcome and needed ;) Regards, Hari krishna Anandhan _______________________________________________ Plasma-devel mailing list Plasma-devel@kde.org https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/plasma-devel
