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181 lines
6.5 KiB
181 lines
6.5 KiB
This is the start of documentation for the design of Kicker. Add as motivated.
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Contents
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--------
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1. Kicker Startup
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2. The Extension Manager
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3. The Plugin Manager
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4. Files Important To Kicker That Aren't In tdebase/kicker
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5. Top Level Directories
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6. Class Overview
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7. KIOSK features in Kicker
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1. Kicker Startup
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--------------
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NOTE: This is the design which we are working towards, not the design as it
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currently is, but there's no point in documenting yesterday.
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The class Kicker is a subclass of KUniqueApplication and is where all the
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fun begins. It is always available via the static Kicker::kicker() method.
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Upon creation, Kicker::kicker() ensures that its resources are added to the
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standard dirs. This includes tile, background and various plugin directories.
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Next the global keyboard accels are registered. When registering the "Popup
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Launch Menu" accel, it then references the MenuManager. This creates the KMenu
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and the facilities to update the KMenu when the installed .desktop files
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change. This KMenu is shared by all items that provide access to it to keep
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performance up and memory usage down.
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Next the ExtensionManager (EM), another singleton, is created. The EM loads
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and manages all the KPanelExtension subclasses, or "panels". If
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on load there are no extensions loaded by the EM, then Kicker creates a
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default panel with a default setup. This default setup is based off of the
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template file <TODO: decide where to store this file and what it is called>.
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Kicker then checks to see if the menubar panel has been selected and if so
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sets up a panel at the top of the screen. It uses the kickermenubarrc
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file for this panel, creating it if it does not exist.
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The individual extensions may end up loading various applets and even other
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extensions, which they use the PluginManager (PM) and EM to do.
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2. The Extension Manager
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---------------------
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3. The Plugin Manager
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------------------
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4. Files Important To Kicker That Aren't In tdebase/kicker
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-------------------------------------------------------
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There are two important sets of kicker-related files that aren't in this
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source tree. The first is the kicker configuration panels, the second are
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the applet and extentions classes.
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For historical reasons, the configuration panels can be found in
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tdebase/kcontrol/kicker. When we move to a better RCS (e.g. subversion)
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these files should be moved to tdebase/kicker/kcm
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(... add docu here about the structure of the kcm stuff and how it uses
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DCOP to communicate with the panels ...)
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In tdelibs/tdeui there are two classes that are quite important to kicker.
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The first is KPanelApplet, which is the base class of all kicker applets.
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The other class is KPanelExtension, which is the base class of all kicker
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extensions.
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These classes are in tdeui so that other applications besides kicker may
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use these facilities, either to provide their own applet/extension
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facilities or so as to provide kicker applets/extensions. This strategy
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should be re-examined in KDE4 and the APIs of both classes cleaned up
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extensively.
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5. Top Level Directories
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---------------------
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applets/
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The basic set of applets. Everything here subclasses from KPanelApplet found
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in tdelibs/tdeui. These can be assumed to exist at startup and are allowed,
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if not encouraged to, access kicker internals.
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buttons/
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Anything button-like that you can click on in kicker. Includes the KMenu,
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quickbrowsers and application buttons.
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core/
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As the name suggests, this is the main kicker code. This include the main()
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and various containers and collection classes needed to glue everything
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together.
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data/
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Icons, button tiles, backgrounds and the KMenu side images.
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extensions/
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Extensions, aka panels. Everything here subclasses from KPanelExtension.
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Includes the external taskbar, kasbar, windowmaker doc applet bar, child
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panel and universal sidebar.
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menuext/
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Like buttons, but also like menus. These are plugins that provide both
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a button for the panel and a menu that appear in the KMenu. These are
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generally encouraged over creating buttons in buttons/ that popup menus.
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proxy/
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Small applications that wrap applets and extensions allowing for out-of-
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process execution of these items. This is used to safeguard kicker against
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instiating an applet or extension that may crash, taking kicker with it if
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they were loaded internally.
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share/
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Some basic classes that were meant for use beyond what is in core/. Should
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probably be moved / consolidated with core/ eventually.
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ui/
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Menus and dialogs. Menus tend to contain "_mnu" in the file name. Kicker's
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control panels are not found here, however. Those are in i
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tdebase/kcontrol/kicker.
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taskbar/
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The code that implements the actual taskbar widget. This is wrapped by the
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taskbar applet (applets/taskbar) and the taskbar extension (extensions/taskbar)
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taskmanager/
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Classes representing tasks and collections of tasks. Used by taskbar/
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6. Class Overview
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--------------
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The Building Blocks Of A Panel
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------------------------------
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Fittslawframe, Panner, ContainerArea, ContainerPanel
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Applets
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-------
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KPanelApplet, AppletInfo, .desktop file description, PluginManager/PluginLoader
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Extensions (aka "Panels")
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-------------------------
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KPanelExtension, .desktop file description, PluginLoader, ExtensionContainer,
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ExtensionManager
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7. KIOSK features in Kicker
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------------------------
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Several aspects of the panel can be restricted:
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* Individual elements (buttons, applets, etc.) can be marked immutable.
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This means that they can not be removed and their properties/configuration
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can not be changed.
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How: The configuration group in kickerrc corresponding to the element is
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marked immutable, OR, the configuration file associated with the element
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(ConfigFile= entry, or additionally for Buttons FreeSpace2=) is marked
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immutable.
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* The addition/removal of Applets, Application Buttons, Special Buttons
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and Panels can be restricted.
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How: "General/Applets2" key is marked immutable. If this is done in the
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kickerrc it applies to ALL panels. If done in a secondary panel's rc
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it applies to that one panel only.
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* Panel configuration can be restricted. This affects appearance as wells
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as menu-editing (see below)
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How: ??? "General" group in kickerrc is marked immutable (??? that would
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imply that buttons can't be added either, loss of flexibility)
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How: Use "tde-panel.desktop" control module restriction.
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* Menu editing can be restricted. Kicker offers several menu items in the
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TDE menu beyond the applications menu itself. See "Configure Panel -> Menus"
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How: Restrict action/menuedit (??? Are their cases where you would want to
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restrict editing of the applications menu but not the other elements in
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the TDE menu?
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