Hi all,

I believe that this forum is full of awesome and talented people with great ideas, that's why I'm posting this here.

I would like to start working on a new KCM for network configuration, because with the new plasma-nm we have only editor and applet. The reason is that the applet should be used as quick access to connections and most common actions, whereas in the new KCM you should be able to do more technical stuff and manage your devices in some user friendly way. So far I don't have any idea how it should look like or what everything should be there, because previous KCM was only a connection editor and the only inspiration I have is this Gnome variant:

I think we would need some kind of survey to get some data about what people actually need. I can imagine having there some configuration for managing PIN/PUK codes for modem devices, better hotspot configuration and also some advanced device details could be here. I would like to also integrate it with the connection editor if possible.

Is there someone who is willing to help me with this or have any ideas? I kinda hope that guys from user-prompt would help me again as I can't think of anyone better , but also some design help would be needed later and all ideas are welcomed.

Great idea! I think it would be best to include all network modules. In the first reorganization we sorted all network related KCMs into Settings and Connectivity [1]. All stuff below like Shares, Security, IM/PIM Accounts etc. should go into two (browser-like) pages. Every page should consists of a simple preset, in case of Network simple options perhaps. Is this feasible to you?
[1] https://cloud.user-prompt.com/public.ph ... 4b3a8c0eea

I'm not sure I know what do you mean or how it would look like. Do you have some mockup or something like that? I can imagine something like a general page for Network → Settings with some basic configuration for proxy, connection preferences, service discovery and security preferences (SSL), but how it works if you want to go into advanced configuration?

jgrulich wrote:I'm not sure I know what do you mean or how it would look like. Do you have some mockup or something like that?

Not yet (I guess you know the design proposal for Appearance by anditosan). If you are willing to revamp all network stuff it could be a nice proof of concept and the first "new generation" KCM.
How time consuming would this task be? Do we talk about KF5/Plasma 2, or later?

Do you mean this http://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?f=285&t=119951&start=330#p313528? I think there is a misunderstanding, because I was not asking about the network configuration which is in the current system settings, but I wanted to create a new one for plasma-nm (some advanced configuration for NetworkManager) and I also think that this KCM would need a separated page.

Are you talking about moving that stuff to a KCM that now is available through the settings button top-right in the nm-applet?

bjoernbalazs wrote:Are you talking about moving that stuff to a KCM that now is available through the settings button top-right in the nm-applet?

No, in the previous NM applet the connection editor was also as KCM, but with the new plasma-nm applet there is no KCM and the editor is accessible only from the applet. I would like to add it again, but extend it, so it's not just a connection editor. See the Gnome's screenshot above, I would like to have something similar in system settings. The new KCM I would like to write has nothing to do with the current KCMs in system settings.

You are not forgotten. In fact, there is now a reminder on the kanban board (https://todo.kde.org/?controller=board& ... task_id=89).

Great, I assigned it to me if you don't mind. I'm now quite busy with other stuff, but I hope I get to it soon.

jgrulich wrote:Great, I assigned it to me if you don't mind.

You want to do the layout and design work yourself?
(Usually, devs have their own boards.)

How about something like this?
http://i1240.photobucket.com/albums/gg493/pablow/Imagen-0001_zps5fa7f375.png~original
That way it has consistency with the applet.

Sorry, I've only could do it on paper.

@Heiko Tietze: I thought I do the first iteration (some prototype) as I'm still not sure what everything will be there and then that we can give it better shape with your help

@pablow: Well, I think it looks great. I would like to hear opinion from other guys.

jgrulich wrote:I thought I do the first iteration (some prototype)...

We should start with figuring out what features are part of the network settings, how to sort them, and which one should be prioritized. The new KCM intends to separate a simple configuration with the most important stuff from all advanced settings.

So far in KF4 we have KCMs with these features:

* Network Settings (Proxy, Connection Settings, Service Directory)
* SSL Preferences
* Sharing
* Instant Messaging and VoIP (Account, General)

The first idea for Plasma Next was to re-organize KCMs like this
* Settings
** Connection Settings (the current socket settings are IMHO not needed in a KCM, it's rather a cfg; but we should integrate the actual Network Manager settings here)
** Proxy
** Service Directory (I don't know what it does; perhaps we can remove it)
* Connectivity
** PIM Accounts and Ressources (which comes from Common Appearance and Behavior > Personal Information)
** Samba Shares (former Sharing)
** Communication Accounts (IM & VoIP) (formerly Accounts)
** General Communication Settings (IM & VoIP) (formerly General)
I guess you want to implement the first one only (first level = KCM, second level = sub items).

In respect to NM settings we have wireless, wired, and broadband; all with similar options. And furthermore some general options. IMHO we do not need to have all the information in the KCM that is shown in the NM, e.g. signal strength, connection state, current IP address. Your idea is to have PIN/PUK codes too, and probably many more. What is the complete list of features?

pablow wrote:Sorry, I've only could do it on paper.

Balsamiq Mockups is pretty simple to use (http://user-prompt.com/de/how-to-use-balsamiq-mockups/).

Heiko Tietze wrote:Balsamiq Mockups is pretty simple to use (http://user-prompt.com/de/how-to-use-balsamiq-mockups/).

Ok, I'll keep that in mind. I was away from a computer when the idea came up.
In the mockup I've tried to do, I was only thinking in connections. The idea behind 'Active' and 'Available' connections did come from the applet, so maybe there's no need to organize connections in a different way, so there's consistency with the organization the user already knows.

Heiko Tietze wrote:In respect to NM settings we have wireless, wired, and broadband; all with similar options. And furthermore some general options. IMHO we do not need to have all the information in the KCM that is shown in the NM, e.g. signal strength, connection state, current IP address. Your idea is to have PIN/PUK codes too, and probably many more. What is the complete list of features?

Reggarding to this for example the signal strength could still be shown as an icon, it wouldn't hurt it to have. Just like the state being shown next to the name of the connection with another font type/size/color. But yep, there shouldn't be to much noise if you only want to manage connections: Activate-Deactivate, Add-Remove, Edit.
Current IP adress, network traffic, etc, could have another KCM like network stats.

Edit:
And by the way: the new network stats KCM could set up network usage limits. Wouldn't that be nice?

@Heiko Tietze: Yes, I'm interested in implementing the first one including connection settings + other (like PIN/PUK which is HW specific option). I don't have a full list with options I would like to include there, but I think that mockup from @pablow is a good start and I was also thinking about configuration like I implemented last year for Plasma Active (see the right side on [1], [2] ). There are also more connection types then just Wireless, Wired and Mobile broadband, but those three are the most common ones.

[1] - https://jgrulich.fedorapeople.org/active-wireless.png
[2] - https://jgrulich.fedorapeople.org/active-wired.png