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List:       kfm-devel
Subject:    Progress widgets vs. kget and konqueror ( Was: Re: kiolib and little .. )
From:       Matt Koss <koss () napri ! sk>
Date:       1999-03-18 16:11:37
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Hello,

here are some of my thoughts about how the things should be in the future.

It covers progress widgets vs kget + konqueror integration and subscribing to
the pages ( active bookmarks ).

Displaying of progress :
-------------------
KDE is network transparent and thus allow people to work with files in kfm as
if they were on the local disk. Users click on some GIF file and kview pops up
together with a progress dialog for a copy operation.
This is useful also for many other file types ( e.g. text files ). Progress
dialog for this operation usually has a short life ( I know that it depends on
the speed of connection and the size of this file ).

However, the same progress dialog appears when user copies / downloads
 some file from the remote site. This progress dialog will probably have
longer life then the previous ( again it depends on the size and speed ).

My idea is, that we should make a big difference between showing progress for
these two types of transfers.

As for the first case, I have suggested already creation of the little progress
widget that could be embedded in the statusbar of the app. This little progress
widget would be used also in konqueror when loading the HTML page.
For konqueror it will be a combined widget that shows progress as a total
number for all text + pictures + applets + whatever gets loaded for one HTML
page ( this means many files in the one widget ).
For other applications this little progress widget would be used probably only 
for one file.
Applications that allow network transparent access should all contain a stop
button as in the konqueror. This would solve problem when user wants to stop 
loading of the file from a remote site.

Second case is downloading / copying some file in konqueror.
Some people already suggested creation of the progress widget that would look
like a list, and all transfers would be added to this list. This progress widget
would then allow cancellation of these transfers etc.
I don't want to discourage this idea, but isn't it what kget already does ?

Kget displays a list of the transfers and allows not only cancellation but
also, stopping and later resuming, scheduling etc. These feature could be added
also to these special progress dialog, but why create a duplicate code instead
of using app that has been here for some time and does exactly what we need ?

So instead of creating another semi-functional progress widget, why not use
kget for these transfers ?
Kget uses the same kioslaves as konqueror and thus there is no difference in
the IO operations. Kget has also docked widget and its window can be simply
shown / hidden on the screen.
There were already many suggestions for the close integration of kget and
konqueror and that's why I think that this is the right way to go.

My suggestions do not mean, that apps that allow network transparent access
would not be able to use kget instead of the little progress widget in the
statusbar.
While right now I don't have idea for the app that could utilize it, but I
agree that some could appear in the future.
Kget will then work as a gate for the apps that need something to be
downloaded  and could notify these apps that download has been finished.


Subscribing to the pages ( Active bookmarks )
---------------------------------
You might know the program called kwebwatch.
This program allows user to create a list of the websites that he want to watch
for update.
Kwebatch connects to these sites and checks, whether it was updated.

I have already suggested to the author, that I would really like to see his
program integrated very closely with konqueror.
Instead of creation of the list, user could do something like subscribing to
the site ( that's how it is called in IE, Netscape has a similar feature too ).

IMO, it should be integrated with a current bookmarks. User would then select,
whick bookmark he wants to have watched for an update.
How exactly it should look I leave to the other users, I don't have any special
idea ( maybe some marks / stars in the bookmark menu, or some indicator in the
toolbar which would change when there is something new and by clicking on it
user could select the bookmark from the list of bookmarks that changed )


 Any comments / suggestions ?

 Regards

			Matt

--
Matej Koss	e-mail: koss@napri.sk
Kosice		ICQ#  : 19344305
Slovakia

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