Lets say you are writing a article, and you surf the web searching for picures and information for it. you drag'n'drop the info or pictures onto the basket, and when you are ready, you start working on the document - and you can drop the items into it.
But this application has a dis-advantage, at least for me: I just don't use it. why not? copy-paste DOES the job, but its not as powerfull as te basket. drag'n'drop - the same. why do I use these, instead of the basket?
Well, just because the basket is another window. you have to open it, and it stays on top (obscuring another window?) or you have to click it again to get it on top. that's not very easy. its powerfull, but not just there.
I thought about it, and I think the best solution would be a kicker applet. you can drag'n'drop items on it, and drop them later onto an document or a local map.
So check the screenshot (mockup). at the right is a big sidebar, its just a kicker child. yep, you see Styleclock there (also from kde-look.org). and direct above the clock are 2 'basket applets', one empty, the other filled with a few individual pictures, a map, a group of pictures, a piece of text (I just selected text from the article on osnews, and drag it onto the applet). and a document.
On top of the bar is something totally different, and we won't see something like that until KDE 4.0 is out - my idea of a search-applet for kicker. a searchbar, and buttons to select what to show: weblinks or picures, or contacts, todo's or mails. a few things are shown, a todo, a mail, some pictures, weblink, contact.
anyway. this is just a idea, I'm no coder. but I hope this inspires someone
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15 Comments
didnt read carefully. forget my post. ;-)
i can't download...the only thing i get when i click "download" is the preview-picture. could it be you muddled up the links somehow??
Somewhat off topic, concerning that find applet in your screenshot: I recently started work on a program called Katapult (http://www.kde-look.org/content/show.php?content=21149), and the way I designed the application, its catalogs (of programs, bookmarks, and documents) could easily be used other places. After I progress a little further with the main program, I think I will create a kicker applet and/or sidebar for it.
that sounds very cool! hope you can do it. I guess you know for KDE 4 there are quite a few api's and tools planned for searching throughout the desktop? maybe you can join the development of these api's with ideas and probably some code, as you have some experience with it...
OK, so Superstoned mailed me for the suggestion. Here is my response I sent: (sorry, that's quite long) > Maybe you can considder this (for >0.6.x)? In "this" you means "a kicker applet instead of a sidebar plugin"? I don't know if a kicker applet is better than a sidebar plugin... Because kicker is often small and it is more the goal of the sidebar. Anyway, as soon as BasKet will be a KPart, make a kicker applet in addition to a sidebar plugin would not need a lot more work. So, I think I will do BOTH. The only problem is, I *already* tryed to embed BasKet into sidebar. And that's a mess. APIs are bad and very limited. Because the sidebar was primarily designed for Konqueror. It doesn't scall at all on the desktop, nor it scall to embed applications into it. Even in Konqueror the sidebar is limited (it can contain a WEB page, or a program content, but cannot be modified dynamically (think to Win xp Explorer sidebar). I'm hoping KDE 4 will come with better sidebar. Perhapse I will find time to study it and tell about this to kde-core-devel... Finally, I have a lot of ideas to implement in BasKet. And I'm getting more and more slow at program it (I have other projects in parallel). So don't expect the 0.6.0 very soon. In fact it can take one or two years :-( What can be done TODAY: - There is a Ctrl+Shift+W KDE global shortcut to show/hide BasKet window. When dragging, press this shortcut, drop your object into a basket and re-press the shortcut to hide the window. This way, you always have BasKet on hand very quickly and without eating screen place. But yes, it isn't a replacement for the kicker/sidebar plugin: you should be used to keyboard shortcuts. - Check the "Configure -> Global Shortcuts" window, if not already done. You will learn you can Ctrl+C a thing and then press Ctrl+Shift+V to paste clipboard to the current basket, Without have to open the basket window. Idem with Ctrl+Shift+S to paste the thing you just selected! - Finaly, more in the spirit of what you want, I one day tried to embed BasKet in the KDE sidebar. And it was working. *Very baddly*, but it's a start! I've found it on my disk: http://basket.kde.org/universal_kopete_basket-0.1.tar.gz It's a reworked version of "Universal Kopete", foundable at: http://kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=10326 or here: http://kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=10327 And here what's I've said to the person who asked me that: ========================================================== To work: - Hack the BasKet code to do not add the basket name to the titlebar (0.5.0-alpha4 and later). Why ? Because this hack launch basket and search for the window named "BasKet" (exactly) and reparent the window to the sidebar (so, there is a small flick: BasKet window appears shortly and then is reparented). How to do: edit container.cpp, arround line 1362, remove the "setCaption( currentBasket()->name() );". Then re-compile and re-install BasKet. - You should disable the system tray icon BEFORE launching the program. In the cunter case, you will have surprises when hidding the main window: it will be hidden... but the sidebar will never be able to re-grab it (worst: it is lost in the dark of your system ;-D Not visible until you di). - You should have BasKet in ONLY one bar: the universal one (on the desktop) or ONLY one Konqueror window (because BasKet is a single instance application: have two instance isn't wanted and would lead to corrupsted data). - You know what the funniest? UniversalSidebar plugins CAN'T get keyboard focus at all. Choose Edit for an item and but keyboard still associated to the active window. The solution is to disable inline editing to edit items in dialogs (less user friendly...). - I conseil you to hide the toolbar, menubar and statusbar to more eastetic, if you still want BasKet in your sideBar at this stage :oD ... ========================================================== OK, I don't find courage to test if the package I linked on top of this message works (it's late in night and I should go bed :) ). If you want you can test it and say me what doesn't work: I will look at that tomorrow. Concerning your post on the BasKet's page of KDE-apps.org: > (you can't drop on the systray, and not drag either) You *can* drop things to the systray. And if the basket is a stack, you can drag the upmost item of the current basket (as you seen it). Yes it's not a solution.
It would be much easier to use basket this way. But I am guessing you will probably get better results by suggesting the idea to the basket developers.
I posted a message on the basket page, but I don't want to nag them too much...
great superstoned, I like it :-) kism, I would also like to have that possibility, so... anyone's inspired yet?
I propose to modify most of Kicker applets to be nice on a sidebar. For example, the launchers, the pager, the clock or the system tray. I'd like to have the possibility of doing a Longhorn-like sidebar :) (Only the possibility, of course ;) )
well, as you saw in the screenshot, the kicker can be an excelent sidebar... I made a new kicker panel, added the styleclock, and then did the mockup thing. but I don't think the universal sidebar is very usefull... the kicker can do these things itself. I think the other panels should be integrated with the kicker, like the kasbar and the universal sidebar (I'd rather see a kicker applet that can embed the universal sidebar-things)
Agreed! This is desperately needed...
kpager2 works great on vertical panels.
How about integrating this into the Universal Sidebar?
I think its better as a kicker applet. that allows more freedom to place it etc etc.
I think so too