Purpose

There is a wealth of information locked up in the minds of developers and users of KDE software. Userbase provides a place where that information can be shared to the advantage of all, but developing new pages is daunting if you are not familiar with wiki editing.

The aim of this class is to make potential contributors familiar and comfortable with the tools of mediawiki editing and the layout of a typical Userbase page.

The course will last for one week, and will normally be limited to 5 'students'.

Requirements

KDE 4.2 or later
A browser of your choice
You should be a registered user of Userbase (an existing OpenID login may also be used).

Students should be familiar, before the course begins, with the general guidelines found at http://userbase.kde.org/UserBase/Guidelines. Guidelines specific to work are provided as part of the course.

Important - the created page must be in English. Translations of the page will be created from the English document

Content of course

Students will be asked to choose a subject, from a list provided here, where there is currently no existing page. More complex work on a subject of the student's own choosing may follow if desired.

The typical page layout is explained at http://userbase.kde.org/PageLayout and detailed help with syntax
is at http://userbase.kde.org/Toolbox

Assistance will be given throughout. Please keep all communication regarding the class as replies to this message, in order that all can benefit.

Preparation for the course

You should choose a topic from the list below, and tell us your choice.
You should ensure that you have that application installed and can run it.
You will need to have given some thought as to a screenshot that in some way typifies the application, represents it.

Topics suitable for a first attempt
From the Graphics group -

• KColorEdit
• KColorchooser
• KIPI

From the Development group -

• KUIViewer
• KFileReplace
• KCachegrind

From the System Administration group -

• KUser
• Printer_Config

From the Accessibility group -

• KMouseTool
• KMouth
• KTTS

Getting Started

Tip
You could work directly into the userbase page, but many people feel more comfortable drafting their work on their own user page - which is always linked from the navigation panel when you are logged in. Get into the habit of previewing your work frequently, so that you spot a problem while it is easy to fix. It's also a good idea to save your work reasonably frequently, as an accidental deletion of your work is impossible to recover if you have not saved it.

The beginning of every page should be the international language panel. Toolbox shows you how to insert that. After that comes what could be termed the Recognition Panel. This is a two-cell table that consists of a representative screenshot and a descriptive phrase or sentence.

Your first task, then is to upload the screenshot that you have chosen to be representative. In the Navigation panel, Toolbox section, you will see Upload File. Simply follow the instructions.

Tip
There is a maximum image size of 2 MB. In practice your pages will be unworkably slow if you use images of that size. Experiment with re-scaling your screenshots trying to keep them no more than 500KB. Often much less than this will give you all the detail you need.

Code: Select all

{|"text-align:center" cellpadding="2"
|[[Image:YourScreenshot.png|250px|thumb||'''Your descriptive text'''
|}


Don't worry that this feels strange. I have given this in detail, as it embodies a number of the tools that you will learn during the page construction.

Now add sections to your page, following the plan of http://userbase.kde.org/PageLayout, and using code snippets that are fully explained in http://userbase.kde.org/Toolbox

Finally

The toolbox gives you code snippets for just about every situation that you are likely to want. There are thousands of more advanced settings, but you will probably never use most of them. Don't feel that you have to remember everything. Copy and paste. Gradually you will come to remember the things you need regularly.

When you are happy that your preview shows exactly what you want on the page I will show you how to move it into its permanent home.

For the beginning, i'll start with Ksnapshot (well, tomorrow, have to go to nightshift now...).

Cheers,
Steven

Argh!! Someone wrote a KSnapshot page, just after I drafted the Introduction. Sorry about that. KColorEdit is the other missing application from that group. All the others are still correct. I'll change the Introduction - could you please choose a different page?

Sorry for some disgression.

I've to try to catch some decent hardware, since I use Debian Stable on my production box (and that means KDE 3.5.x). An attempt failed, to run some distro with a more recent KDE 4.3.x from within a virtual machine.

So, wish me luck, that I get my dainty paws on some spare hardware 'til Saturday.

Martin

I'll work on KTTS, I looked at the KMag page as well, and there really isn't that much information on it.

annew wrote:Argh!! Someone wrote a KSnapshot page, just after I drafted the Introduction. Sorry about that. KColorEdit is the other missing application from that group. All the others are still correct. I'll change the Introduction - could you please choose a different page?

Ok, it'll be KColorEdit for me then.

martinvi wrote:
So, wish me luck, that I get my dainty paws on some spare hardware 'til Saturday.Martin

No problem - and we are not terribly time-constrained. Follow the posts here, to see how things go, and join in as soon as you can. If you don't make it this week, we'll run the course again in a few weeks, all being well.

MTGap wrote:I'll work on KTTS, I looked at the KMag page as well, and there really isn't that much information on it.

OK - KTTS first, then you can try to improve KMag I agree, it's a bit sparse.

BelaLugosi wrote:

annew wrote:Argh!! Someone wrote a KSnapshot page, just after I drafted the Introduction. Sorry about that. KColorEdit is the other missing application from that group. All the others are still correct. I'll change the Introduction - could you please choose a different page?

Ok, it'll be KColorEdit for me then.

Thanks. Sod's Law - it's the one thing I didn't check before the Introduction was posted.

Starting tomorrow morning (Saturday) I'll try to be around as much as possible, so that you get your questions answered promptly. Meanwhile, did you all find the PageLayout and Toolbox pages? Are there any questions before you get started?

If you haven't already done so, it would be useful to check 'Notify me when a reply is posted' on this topic.

I'll tackle KColorchooser as I use it rather a lot. (But I never knew that the rainbow thingy on the left changes when you choose different colours from the box on the right-- nifty!)

I can live with that and would give myself a try on KUser instead.

irina_r wrote:I'll tackle KColorchooser as I use it rather a lot. (But I never knew that the rainbow thingy on the left changes when you choose different colours from the box on the right-- nifty!)

Hi, Irina. We were fully subscribed for this first course, but since Martinvi currently has hardware problems, you could take his place.

BelaLugosi wrote:I can live with that and would give myself a try on KUser instead.

Instead of KColorEdit? I don't mind which you choose, but it's time to make the decision

So now we have

• MTGap: KTTS
• BelaLugosi: KUser
• Irina_r: KColorChooser
• Algotruneman: Printer_Config
• Fpuelz: KUIViewer
• Alejandro Nova: ?

annew wrote:Instead of KColorEdit? I don't mind which you choose, but it's time to make the decision

Sorry for the "jumping", but as Irina_r said, she is using KColorChooser frequently (sounds like "more than me"), i think it'll be better, if she's doing it. So i'll stick with KUser now.

No problem. Maybe Irina would like to try KColorEdit as her second one but we'll wait and see.