KDE

New Kamion maintainer needed (junior job)

UPDATE: There is a mailing list dedicated to kamion development at https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/kamion2-devel if you want to join the discussions…

Unfortunately, it is not joyful to work on the Kamion anymore. Mainly because of the lack of feedback from the developers community… read on:

For those who [still] do not know what Kamion is, here’s a definition from the webpage:

Simple description: Kamion is a user-friendly user state migration and backup tool created for KDE 4. Meaning - it allows even the most inexperienced user to transfer program related data such as e-mail messages, IM program history as well as the configuration of those programs from one computer to another. It can be used for backup purposes too.

The name Kamion means “The Truck” (see the logo) in my mother tongue (Serbian language).

Longer description: Kamion is a project consisted of the library named libKamion, graphical user interface for QT4/KDE4, and a few console tools. This organization is similar to the one of the Debian’s APT (Advanced Packaging Tool).

The library manages the database about the location of the application data (such as e-mail messages from KMail of Thunderbird…) for each supported application; and creates/restores the Kamion archives.

The GUI represents that database (list of applications and their resources) in a user-friendly manner allowing easy creation and restoration of the data. For those that do not have the ability to run the GUI, there are console based tools that offer the same functions as the GUI but without the user-friendliness.

Things that are finished:

  • libKamion - in working state
  • KDE4 GUI - in working state
  • console tools - broken
  • Gnome GUI - not started

Things that need to be worked on

  • Program support - I have almost no marketing abilities and no will to do the marketing. Kamion itself can not know what files to archive for a specific application. The application developers need to provide Kamion XML data files. I tried to push this format to the FreeDesktop but received no feedback whatsoever (although information needed by Kamion could be used for automatic creating of AppArmor/SELinux policies as well, and possibly for more things that I can not foresee at the moment). This is the main thing that needs to be done.
  • I18n support in the library - the application’s resources are not supported to have internationalized names. It could be done as a part of the GUI, or as a part of the library
  • mature and move from playground

I will gladly help anyone willing to take this task - explain the program and library architecture, explain the kamion archive format, application data XML file format…

If you’re willing to take on the job, put your e-mail address in the comment (in bla AT bla DOT bla format, or similar)

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11 Comments »

  1. Dobro vece…

    I’ve never heard of this applikation before. It’s sad that I finally hear of it when you have lost your motivation to continue the development. This is just what I’ve been needing several times all ready… I’ll just hope for someone to pick up the work :)

    No sorry, I not a developer. Just a Sys.admin. with a need for a truck ;)

    Comment by Hans Hansen — September 19, 2007 @ 7:36 pm

  2. Hey

    How junior could I get away with being to help out with this??

    I would like to discuss getting involved further, mail me andy dot amcrouch (gmail).

    Comment by Andy Crouch — September 19, 2007 @ 8:54 pm

  3. If the xml recipes are what you need the most, and are willing to keep maintaining the c++ code, i’m sure you could organize an army of volunteers which will bother the app developers, and keep the recipes up to date. I for one could talk with the Amarok devs.

    Poz!

    ljubomir dot simin @gmail

    PS. If the recipes are simple enough, you can even rely on users creating them. And exchanging via
    khotnewstuff. That would be _so_ cool!

    PPS. Man,I hate your captchas!

    Comment by ljubomir — September 19, 2007 @ 8:55 pm

  4. Hi,

    This app sounds like a really good idea. :)

    I have been looking for a way to get into KDE development, and this project sounds like it may be of a size that I can manage. I’ve done some QT4 development before, but no KDE stuff, so I’m not really sure of the amount of work involved. With regards to the “marketing” aspect, I’m not quite sure exactly how to push this to the freedesktop.org people, but I do have some experience with similar activities in other contexts.

    I’d like to give it a shot, in any case — if you think it could work out I can be reached at toke AT toke DOT dk.

    Regads,
    -Toke

    Comment by Toke Høiland-Jørgensen — September 19, 2007 @ 8:58 pm

  5. I’ll leave this invitation till tomorrow evening. Then I’ll make a group e-mail so that we all can discuss openly, publicly who will be the next masochist… khm, I meant maintainer :)

    P.S. I find reCAPTCHA funny, and it is for the good cause! :) - the thing I like about it (apart from the good cause) is that you enter real words.

    @Hans
    Dobro vece i tebi!

    Comment by admin — September 19, 2007 @ 9:30 pm

  6. I have nothing to say.. I’m just really amused by the captcha :)

    Comment by Chani — September 20, 2007 @ 6:24 am

  7. May I help with those xml files, maybe with a translation to spanish of the string files (if you have them on english, thats it, serbian is not on my language list)?

    (Haven’t coded for KDE before and last time I coded in C was last century, but I can try…)

    netwalker AT tortugasradioactivas DOT com

    Comment by Dan Fernandez — September 20, 2007 @ 11:02 am

  8. hi! i wanted to help kamion back in the beggining of this year, but RL …

    I really love the concept of Kamion and want kamion to strive so i’m willing to team up with others “juniors” so the task is easier for all.

    leite.carvalho A T gmail D O T com

    Comment by Pedro — September 20, 2007 @ 1:31 pm

  9. Hello, I would like to help with I18n as my first kde junior job. You can contact me at lbell a.t tsc4 d.ot com

    Comment by Luca Bellonda — September 20, 2007 @ 8:16 pm

  10. Umm where’s the code repository? It’s empty on SF

    Comment by foobar — September 21, 2007 @ 4:33 am

  11. The repository is KDE’s SVN (playground/something - there are tho different kamions… the new is the one with libkamion and kamion-gui).

    Comment by admin — September 21, 2007 @ 7:39 am

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