On Sat, Jan 23, 2010 at 11:57 AM, Yuen Hoe Lim <yuenho...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi guys, > > Would like some of your opinion on this :) There is a comment like this in > Plasmate's code regarding the 'recent projects list' on the start page: > > // Q: TODO Limit to 5? > // A: Before limiting, we need to provide an "Export" feature so > // the developer can save his projects and import it later for > review. > > I think there are problems with this: > > What happens if a user forgets to export? It doesn't make sense that you > never need to worry about saving files in plasmate but yet need to worry > about exporting your project every now and then or risk losing it forever > and ever (unless you dug into the folds of Plasmate's hidden folders, which > is ugly). > Even if you remember to export, Plasmate still maintains a (version > controlled!) copy of the project in it's own hidden folders. Then what > happens if you reimport the exported project? How does Plasmate know that > the project being imported is the same project as the one it maintains in > the hidden folder - especially since the exported project may have been > modified before being imported again? Name checking doesn't sound like a > sensible thing since you could very well be importing an external plasmoid > (via GHNS for eg when that starts working) that happens to have the same > name as a local project but is entirely different. If you always imported as > a new project, then you'll be creating tonnes of obsolete 'garbage projects' > in the hidden folder that never gets referenced again. > > What I suggest is we make it so that the export feature is only for creating > an installable that the user can distribute - he should not need to > re-import what was exported. Instead, Plasmate will be responsible for > managing all 'in-development' projects. What we could have is for there to > be ~5 recent projects that the user can quick-select from the start page, > and then we could have an 'other projects' button at the bottom that brings > up a project selection dialog, which should list all projects that have ever > been created in Plasmate (probably with quick-filter/search > functionalities). The user will be able to load any of his projects from > this dialog, and will also be able to delete off old projects he doesn't > need anymore.
Yes, that is good. But, there should be an option by which the user can 'save' all his/her projects to a file (an archive, maybe) so that it can be used after a system reinstall, or say for backup purposes. I suggest- 1. User clicks on "Backup", chooses a location to save the archive. 2. Plasmate tars/zips the config dir (the plasmate dir in .kde) to the location. 3. Later, the user wants to "Restore", chooses an archive for the task. 4. Plasmate untars/unzips the archive, and if successful overwrites (after a warning/confirmation) the config with those from the archive. All this because not everyone is going to publish on an online repo. Or, is there some other way to accomplish this? > > This way we never need to worry about projects bouncing in and out of > Plasmate - all projects are always "in" Plasmate. At the same time the user > never needs to worry about exporting unless he wants an installable, never > needs to manage his Plasmate project files (since there are none), and > doesn't even need to care about how a project looks like or how Plasmate is > storing his projects - just that it does. It'll also allow the user to > explicitly decide if any project is no longer needed and allow us to delete > off stuff in the hidden folder to save space. > > What do you guys think, does this sound like a sensible solution? > > ---- > Jason "moofang" Lim Yuen Hoe > http://yuenhoe.co.cc/ > > > _______________________________________________ > Plasma-devel mailing list > Plasma-devel@kde.org > https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/plasma-devel > > -- Shantanu Tushar (UTC +0530) http://www.shantanutushar.com _______________________________________________ Plasma-devel mailing list Plasma-devel@kde.org https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/plasma-devel
