Niko's Blog

Koala Framework: Open Source Web Application and CMS Framework

2011-11-10T21:25:00.001+01:00

This post is not KDE related, but about Open Source - not entirely off topic on PlanetKDE.

The company I work for recently decided that we release our Framework and CMS as Open Source Software. This is very exciting for all of us and especially me - as I brought that topic on the table again and again. And finally we did it :D

It's a framework to create anything that runs in a browser: from a website or blog to a desktop like web application. It's built on solid grounds: Zend Framework (Php framework) and ExtJS (JavaScript framework).

Screenshot showing an simple example web application [more screenshots]

Screenshot showing the CMS with a text component being edited [more screenshots]

The current state is that the framework is used in our company for lots of different projects, but due to we just got opensource we have no community yet. We are also lacking of good documentation - but we are willing to fix that - if we succeed in building an community around it.

So if you are interested in such a framework visit the Koala Framework website to get more information and join the mailing list.

Marble: elevation profile for route

2011-10-22T11:07:00.000+02:00

I want to present a new feature that got added to Marble recently: an elevation profile generated from SRTM data for calculated routes.
I had personal interest in adding this feature: I do quite a lot of bicycling and when planning routes I need to know the total elevation I have to go up - to compare with alternative routes and to estimate the length of the ride. Additionally a graph that shows the steepest parts of the route is helpful.
But now the obligatory Screenshots:

Viewing the elevation profile of a route

Viewing a detail of the route

Unfortunately Florian worked on basically the same feature in paralell - because my work was "hidden" in my git clone. But we decided to join forces and took his FloatItem and my elevation loading code to have the best from both developments. So all credits of the above screenshots actually go to Florian.

Some words about the elevation data:
I converted the NASA SRTM3 data into png tiles which can be loaded by Marble using the standard TileLoader - so all the caching, scaling, reloading and so on could be reused. I uploaded the tiles to files.kde.org - thanks to the sysadmins for providing this server - so we don't depend on NASA for the data.

On the todo list are features like showing elevation profile for opened tracks and adding more statistics about opened tracks.

Oh, and Happy Birthday KDE!

KDevelop: Browser Like Tabs

2011-06-09T20:28:00.000+02:00

After the very nice week in Randa at the KDevelop sprint - which I enjoyed a lot (big thanks to Mario and his helpers for that) - I'd like to present an idea for a fundamental UI change for KDevelop I had for quite some time.
The problem I want to solve is that due to the very good code navigation features you end up with many many open files - which are displayed as tabs. And tabs just don't scale - the only thing that helps is regular closing.
When "browsing" source code, you normally browse like with a web browser. And I think everybody would agree that opening a new tab for every clicked link would be stupid. In a web browser the user has the choice. Ctrl+Click opens a new tab, a normal click navigates to the link in the current tab. When entering an url the same - by default stay in the same tab, but the user can choose to open a new tab first.
And exactly that I implemented for KDevelop:

by default open in current tab

except: current file as unsaved changes
or: current tab is marked as "Sticky" (as in "Keep it open, I want to edit that file")

Keyboard modifiers for actions that open files

Code navigation in document: Ctrl+Shift+Click (instead of Ctrl+Click)
Ctrl+Enter in Quick Open
Ctrl+Click in Project View

If this sounds interesting for you - give it a try! Checkout the "browser-like-tabs" branch in kdevplatfrom and kdevelop:

git clone git://anongit.kde.org/kdevplatform

 git checkout browser-like-tabs

mkdir build && cd build && cmake .. && make && make install

git clone git://anongit.kde.org/kdevelop

 git checkout browser-like-tabs

mkdir build && cd build && cmake .. && make && make install

Activate the feature in Configuration -> UI Configuration -> Browser like tabs checkbox. (It's disabled by default) Try to get used to it, and send us your thoughts to our mailing list.

TODO:

The history navigation is broken
Modifiers for Filesystem view and Grep view
Find solution for Ctrl+Dbl-Click in project view extends selection

Marble: configurable routing profiles

2010-10-12T19:21:00.000+02:00

Wow, long time since the last blog entry.
This time it won't be about KDevelop - as I found another very interesting KDE project.

I started contributing to OpenStreetMap like two years ago (only local area) and got a Garmin eTrex that can load OSM maps. I use it for bicycling.

The thing that needs improvement is bicycle routing. I mean in general it works, but when using it in practice it matters a lot (a) what bike you use and (b) what kind of driver you are. So it's nonsense to have a single bicycle routing profile. I want:

MTB offroad
MTB shortest route
racing using the shortest route (traffic doesn't matter)
racing using the "nicest" route (cycleways, not too much traffic)
family (cycleways only if possible)

You see my needs are very special, and this I will never get from google maps or a garmin.

What I found are a number of open source routing applications using osm data. The most promising one (for my special needs) is routino - as you can easily create profiles using xml files.

And, of course I want a proper application - nothing web based. (easier to run, faster, better usability)
Marble fits in perfectly.

So I started writing a routino plugin for marble - was quite easy. The only problem was that marble had only a limited number of routing options - as it supports multiple routing backends (online and offline).

The proper solution are fully configurable profiles - and I just merged this feature into trunk. (I feel very happy about that, thanks to Dennis and Torsten for their help and patience)

The user can easily create new profiles or adjust them. A default set similar to the previous ones set is loaded on first startup. Just see screenshots below...

Using KDevelop for debugging only

2010-02-20T14:21:00.001+01:00

As you might know, KDevelop has an integrated gdb debugger. But it a bit difficult to set up the launch configuration, especially when not using KDevelop for coding.
There is now an easy way to run the kdevelop debugger only:

kdevelop --debug gdb executable --args-to-executable

When running that command kdevelop starts, runs the executable and breaks in main. You then can do the usual debugging.

Another thing I implemented is a resizable variable tooltip, with that you can look even at vallules like this one:

Css Language Support Update

2010-02-16T19:01:00.000+01:00

I'm here at the KDevelop/Kate/Okteta sprint here in Berlin. Having a great time here :D
One thing I made progress on is Css Language Support, it is now supported in style elements embedded in html. Additionally outline navigation works now as expected:

Code completion still works ofcourse:

It's now in a pretty usable state, so you might want to try it.

KDevelop XDebug (Php Debugger)

2010-02-13T21:18:00.000+01:00

Another important part of a Web IDE is a debugger. The KDevelop XDebug Plugin is a frontend for the php debugger xdebug, and just had it's first beta release.
I'll explain in this post how to set it up.

Prerequisites:

Php
XDebug extension
xdebug configured to accept remote connections
- xdebug.remote_enable = 1
- xdebug.remote_host = localhost (yourhost if on remote server)
KDevplatform, KDevelop
The following KDevelop Plugins:
- executescript
- executebrowser
- xdebug
(download here)

Debugging a CLI Script

1. Create Launch Configuration

Run » Configure Launches...
add Launch Configuration (+)
choose Type "Script Application"
enter interpreter "php"
enter script path
activate the new Launch Configuration in Run » Current Launch Config

You may test the Launch Configuration now by executing it (Run » Execute Launch)

2. Start Debugger

Set a breakpoint (Run » Toggle Breakpoint, or rightclick on icon border in editor
Run » Debug Launch
Happy Debugging :D

The debug session is stopped once the script has ended.

Debugging a Website

1. Create Launch Configuration

Run » Configure Launches...
add Launch Configuration (+)
choose Type "Browser Application"
enter server host and path
activate the new Launch Configuration in Run » Current Launch Config

You may test the Launch Configuration now by executing it (Run » Execute Launch)

2. Start Debugger

Set a breakpoint (Run » Toggle Breakpoint, or rightclick on icon border in editor
Run » Debug Launch
Happy Debugging :D

The debug session continues the script has ended, you can navigate in the browser to debug further scripts. To end the session execute Run » Stop Jobs.

Remote debugging is possible too, but that is not described in this tutorial.

If you have problems with configuration, or find any other problem send a mail to kdevelop-devel _at_ kdevelop.org.

KDevelop Php Update

2010-02-07T15:35:00.000+01:00

I finished today the (for me) most missing feature in the KDevelop Php language plugin. It fixes parsing problems that occur when a project is initially parsed and the code makes heavy use of classes together with an autoloader. That means no include() statements for parent classes or static function calls. (Typical when using eg. Zend Framewok)

Previously code completion was broken until you manually forced a reparse, now this reparsing is automatically done once a identifier is not found - the file is added to the parse queue with very low priority - and the base class will be parsed meanwhile - and found correctly in the second pass.

Credits for this should mainly go to Hamish - who implemented that more or less the same way in Java language support.

As KDevelop is currently frozen for Beta8 I couldn't commit yet, until then I created a temporary git repository.

KDevelop/Quanta4 Css Language Support

2010-01-23T19:53:00.000+01:00

I'm currently working on a important part of Quanta4, Css Language support. The only thing supported for now is code completion for standalone css files:

But that is the most useful feature a Web IDE can have.

Still on my todo list is:

validation (should be easy with the existing parser)
Outline navigation (should be not that hard either)
Support <style> tags and inline styles in html files

A few notes on how I implemented the plugin:

I reused WebKit's flex lexer
then wrote a parser using kdevelop-pg-qt based on WebKits bison grammar. A major difference is that it successfully parses incomplete Css - as it is during writing in the editor.
The code completion parses the file on invocation and goes through the Ast (resulting from the parser) to find the correct type to show.
Then, using an XML file borrowed from Aptana's code assist, the shown completion items are determined.

How to test (feedback is very welcome!)

install kdevelop
install trunk/playground/devtools/kdevelop4-extra-plugins/css

Ruan recently recently announced on kdevelop-devel that he will work on html/xml language support. There is hope for Quanta4!

Gdb Qt pretty printers updated

2010-01-23T11:58:00.001+01:00

I just commited an update to the Gdb Qt pretty printers, they work now for Qt 4.6. (I didn't test 4.5, but most won't work anymore I guess)

The printers need to poke around in private members, that's why they depend on a specific Qt version.

They are still located in the kdevelop git, instructions on how to enable them see here. (the svn url changed as kdevelop is now in extragear)

Unfortunately my merge request for Qt that would add them directly to Qt got rejected, so it is a bit difficult to support multiple Qt versions - for now 4.6 only is supported. Perhaps in future more people will discover this feature in Gdb and they will get added... You know where to find them.

KDevelop Php Plugin Beta1

2009-11-04T18:19:00.000+01:00

Today KDevelop Beta6 and Php Plugin Beta1 released.
I'm really excited about that as we have been working on it for quite some time now. Not that we are finished - it's just a first useable version. I'll try to do use it for php coding here at work.

» Download now
and give us feedback.

Web Development and KDE4

2009-11-02T20:51:00.000+01:00

KDE3 had pretty good applications for web development, the most prominent and useful Quanta3 (actually I'm still a power user of Quanta3). The KDE4 version of Quanta (Quanta4) will be a major rewrite, based on kdevplatform, the base of KDevelop4.
While KDevelop4 just will have it's Beta6 release soon and is usable for daily work, Quanta4 is unfortunately not.

Well, no problem, you might think - just use Quanta3. But for many people it's not:

Kde3 packages are considered as legacy by distributions and will be dropped sooner or later
some distributions don't ship all packages needed for a full featured Quanta3 (eg missing kio-slaves - no fish://)
a Kde3 application doesn't integrate that well - it's more like a Gtk application in a Kde4 session

Let's look ahead to the future of Quanta4:
As it's more or less a rewrite and not just porting the old code we have a lot of work to do. The major Quanta3 contributors Andras and Eric don't contribute anymore, so development is more or less on hold. But wait - Quanta4 is based on the same kdevplatform as KDevelop4 - right? That means any KDevelop4 plugin is a Quanta4 plugin. And a lot happed for those KDevelop4 plugins:

php language support (that one really rocks)
php documentation (very useful)
script executor (execute scripts within KDevelop; needed for debugger)
browser executor (open external browser; needed for debugger)
xdebug debugger support (upcoming plugin for debugging php)

So active development happens for Quanta4 - we just use all KDevelop4 for testing the plugins.

If you use Quanta3 for php development, give KDevelop4 a try! The first beta release will get released together with KDevelop4 Beta6 the next days.

Gdb Qt pretty printers

2009-10-18T20:23:00.001+02:00

The recently released gdb 7.0 adds a really great feature: python scripting for pretty printers. It makes it really easy to write pretty printers for any class.
Basically it's the same as QtCreator supports, however with a few differences:

also works in plain gdb on commandline
no compiled debug-helper library needed
a gdb-only solution

Example showing a QStringList:

Of course everything can be combined, as seen here:

Currently supported classes are: QString, QByteArray, QList, QMap, QDate, QTime, QDateTime

The code can be found in KDevelop git (gdb plugin uses them by default). For using in cli you need the following in ~/.gdbinit:

python
import sys

sys.path.insert(0, '/home/niko/kdesvn/kde-git/kdevelop/debuggers/gdb/printers')
from qt4 import register_qt4_printers
register_qt4_printers (None)

end
set print pretty 1

Gdb also supports autoloading the pretty printers - they could be included in -dev packages. The merge request that would add it to qt is still pending.

And now I'm off watching an episode of dexter :D

Quanta4 xdebug plugin

2009-10-11T21:07:00.030+02:00

Hi Planet,

first, a short introduction: My name is Niko Sams, I'm from Austria. I have contributed to KDE for a while and ever since I planned blogging about - so here I am.

As a web developer and KDE user I need a good IDE. I use the great Quanta3 for years now, but it's dead now. So I started contributing to Quanta4 - well indirectly though various kdevelop plugins - those all will be used by Quanta4.
Yes - Quanta4 is not dead - we just need time (and developers).

What I've been working on recently is a XDebug (php debugger) plugin.

I started on this quite some time ago by creating a generic debugger infrastructure for kdevplatform - and port the kdevelop gdb plugin to that. In kdevelop3 every debugger plugin had it's own set of toolbars, views and everything - you can imagine how this looks like when you have 3 debuggers installed :D

For kdevplatform the common actions and views are now shared across debuggers.

Another important part was the new launch framework apaku introduced, with that we can have one Run » Launch Debug action that works for all debuggers. (Perhaps someone remembers the "Debug - Not yet working" action we had at the time of our latest KDevelop hack sprint)

You can follow the development here:

trunk/playground/devtools/kdevelop4-extra-plugins/xdebug
(for now only debugging local cli php scripts is supported)