tdedocker/README

KDocker
-------
KDocker will help you dock any application in the system tray. This means you
can dock openoffice, xmms, firefox, thunderbolt, eclipse, anything! Just point
and click. Works for both KDE and GNOME (In fact it should work for most modern
window managers that support NET WM Specification. I believe it works for XFCE,
for instance)

All you need to do is start KDocker and select an application using the mouse
and lo! the application gets docked into the system tray. The application can 
also be made to dissappear from the task bar.

System Tray Support
-------------------
KDocker supports the KDE System Tray Protocol and the System Tray Protocol from
freedesktop.org

Tips to use KDocker
-------------------
1. On KDE, right click on K menu and use the menu editor to create a link of
KDocker and create a shortcut (Windows key + Z). You could use the kdocker.xpm
in the src folder as the icon (its an anchor).
Rationale: ^Z on the shell puts processes in the background. On the same lines,
Windows+Z will help you put windows app to the background ;) (thanks to Thomas
McGuire for this suggestion)
2. With KDocker 0.9, there is an option to dock the current active window (-f).
As soon as you press WinKey+Z, the window which has the focus will be
automatically docked. Thanks to Daniel for this neat feature request.

Session Management
------------------
IMPORTANT: Make sure KDocker is in your $PATH for Session Management to work. I
created a link in /usr/bin to point to kdocker. KDocker will automatically dock 
all the programs that you had docked in your previous session when you log on 
the next time (provided they were all docked when you logged out).

When using KDocker in startup scripts, be sure to supply the "-d" switch.
This will disable session management for that kdocker instance. This will
prevent kdocker from docking that application twice (during startup and session
restoration). For the same reason, make sure you use the "-d" switch, when you
undock an application that is in a startup script and then dock it again.

Few programs do not support session management. For example, thunderbird may not
launch itself automatically after you logout and logon. For such applications 
use the "-l" switch (also accessible through the menu as "Launch on startup"). 
KDocker will launch thunderbird on session restoration.

Note that, if you have 4 applications docked using KDocker and you use
Ctrl+Alt+Backspace to logout, nothing will be restored when log back in. (The
shortcut kills the X server and the session is not saved). Hence, it is a good
idea to put the applications that you intend to dock in your starup folder and
use the "-d" switch.

Its a bit confusing, but I cannot find any easy way to satisfy all
combinations. They say you design for the common case, but for KDocker I do not
know (yet) which will be the common case. I fancy launching stuff from console
but I am not so sure about the rest.

QTrayLabel
----------
QTrayLabel is meant to be a reusable class which will help you dock any window.
Have a look.

i18n/Translations
-----------------
If you see the following,
"Sorry, your locale is not supported. If you are interested in providing
translations for your locale, contact gramakri@uiuc.edu"
it means either
a) KDocker could not find the translation files
b) Translation files for your locale dont exist

For a), KDocker looks for the translation files in the following paths,
- install.path/i18n
- app.path/i18n
- curdir/i18n

For b), use linguist to create the translations and provide them to me. Its
really easy. Follow following steps,
1. edit kdocker.pro. Look for TRANSLATIONS. Add your locale in the end. Say,
   i18n/kdocker_zz.ts
2. from the kdocker source base, execute "lupdate kdocker.pro"
3. "cd i18n". you should see kdocker_zz.ts.
4. provide the translations - "linguist kdocker_zz.ts"
5. from the kdocker source base, execute "lrelease kdocker.pro"
6. thats it! Now test it. Make sure $LANG=zz (or appropriate). Run kdocker and
   make sure all your translations are out there.
7. Ship the .ts file to gramakri@uiuc.edu. (I can generate the .qm file from 
   the .ts file)

Reporting Bugs 
--------------
Bugs and wishes to gramakri at uiuc dot edu. Follow the guidelines below , if 
possible and send it to me at gramakri at uiuc dot edu.

* Add the following line in kdocker.pro (in fact just uncomment it)
	DEFINES += ENABLE_TRACING
* Now do a "make clean" and "then make".
* Launch KDocker. Recreate the problem.
- Right Click on the tray icon.
- Choose "About KDocker"
- You should see a button called "Show Trace". Please note that this button
  will appear only when compiled with tracing
- Try debugging yourself or send it to me
- If you send SIGUSR1 to the KDocker process, it will dump all the trace to
  ~/kdocker.trace

Send me a postcard!
-------------------
If you love KDocker and would like to thank me, send me a postcard or some
stamps to

Girish Ramakrishnan
G7, Block No.12, R.K.Apartments,
Hoysala Nagar,
Bangalore,
Karnataka, India

http:://kdocker.sourceforge.net for updates