Sunday, November 23, 2014

This week update of KDE Connect Indicator

Another week for KDE Connect Indicator, which I am not much doing this week but this week is very special:
  1. KDE Connect Indicator get an article in one of the biggest linux blog, www.webupd8.org
  2. And as a result Github page is more active, and I got more contributor
  3. AUR package is up https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/indicator-kdeconnect-git/ , not much surprised, AUR always have everything!
  4. Fedora too, http://software.opensuse.org/package/indicator-kdeconnect
  5. .rpm distro support is on the way, as .spec is being writen.I wouldn't maintain it myself, so if you are other distro packager, you can start easily later.
  6. I upload KDE Connect 0.7.3 package in my Indicator PPA so Ubuntu and elementary OS user can now have the latest and greatest, with complete functionality
Thats all for this week, thanks for all the contributors and user for this project, and also Albert Vaca for the awesome KDE Connect project.

Sunday, November 16, 2014

KDE Connect Indicator, Now Less Confusing

Its been a week after I introduce KDE Connect indicator to elementary Google Plus Community. In between i have a lot of feedback and issues that hopefully have been resolved in last update. Some user have been confused when they first launch the application, some user have unknown icon and many other weird things.
So this week the indicator get updated and this is some of changes:
  • KDE Connect now have a First Time Wizard. This is the biggest changes so far. I never planed it before, but because i found some people cant get their indicator shown. This one will help to walk through it. Now before some elementary guys said, its oppose to elementary HIG of "application must be easy enough, user don't need help", so screw that. Its because i can't find a better way to tell user, if someone have a better idea, I'll take it into consideration

Saturday, November 8, 2014

KDE Connect Indicator

KDE Connect is awesome right? To see what it can do take a look at omgubuntu.co.uk blog and also the official blog albertvaka.wordpress.com. The fact that it only have an administer tool for KDE make me sad. In the end  I wrote my own indicator which will help Ubuntu and elementary OS user to use this awesome tool.
This Indicator is written to make KDE Connect usable in Ubuntu and Pantheon DE. It's started as an AppIndicator but later i add a binary file to send file and URL easily through KDE Connect.

Features: 

It even have different icon for tablet and phone!
  1. Indicator in the panel which show your devices, with its name, status, and battery.
  2. menu to request for pairing and unpairing
  3. menu to start sftp and open file browser
  4. small program, kdeconnect-send to help sending file and choosing device
  5. a .contractor file, so you can send file from any of elementary OS's applications

How to use KDE Connect in Ubuntu and elementary OS

KDE Connect is tightly designed for KDE Framework. But I'm desperately want it so that i wrote an AppIndicator and a wrapper script which would help me to use KDE Connect in Ubuntu and elementary OS. The result is amazing, you can take take a look at this post.
As its not designed for Ubuntu and elementary OS, I have to overcome some limitation
  1. Notification is Passive

  2. If you send pair request from your phone, a notification will nicely appear in your top right side. But how do you accept it, clicking will make it disappear? (You can't even click on Ubuntu).
    So for now, the only way to pair your device is from desktop and accept it in your phone. In the future elementary's notification will support action button too, so you can accept it from desktop.
  3. Remote Touchpad doesnt work

  4. Ubuntu 14.04 default repository is shipped with KDE Connect 0.5 while for touchpad you will need KDE Connect 0.7.1 which you can get from backport repository or you can download from. Keyboard also not yet working, because you need to have 0.7.3 version of KDE Connect.
    update: I've upload KDE Connect 0.7.3, Ubuntu and elementaryOS user should now have all features