Lancleot Part applet is dead…
… long live the Plasma Shelf!
There were two main problems with the Lancelot Part applet.
The first was the name. The name, although it does represent what the applet is technically, it doesn’t really say what the applet is meant for and what it does.
So, it is problematic when you see it in the applet browser, and it isn’t any better to see it when you drag and drop a folder onto the desktop and get the options to show it in the “Folder View” or “Lancelot Part”.
Configuration
The second problem was that a lot of users thought that Lancelot Part does nothing (aka doesn’t work) because when you add it by using the widgets browser, it is just an empty applet. (nobody really bothers reading the instructions these days).
Now, you can use the configuration dialogue to choose what you want to be shown in the applet.
Ideas
I’m currently having some problems wording a couple of things and I would appreciate any help you can give.
The first problem is what to put as a description for the Shelf applet. “Generic list which can hold various types of items” sounds really bad 
The second is the title for the section of the configuration dialogue shown in the image above – the section below “show the search box” option where you can choose which /sublists/data models/ to show in the applet.
Internals
The ‘internal’ name of the applet (as seen in plasma*rc files) hasn’t changed to keep the back-compatibility without the need for hooks in the configuration system to tell plasma about the rename. The other thing I had to watch out while redoing a few things was to keep the old applet configuration structure intact. Surprisingly, I managed it somehow.
The applet’s source code is still located in kdeplasma-addons/applets/lancelot/parts but it will be moved to kdeplasma-addons/applets/shelf soon enough.
Wording: what is the shelf? A readily accessible place to put (or group) menus, apps and documents for a task. A personal (or personalised) menu of things needed for a particular project, job or task. A job-bag.
Settings: I don’t really know what it is referring to. What are places, how do they differ from folders? It seems like Internet references and document folders.
Comment by Purple-Bobby — 21 March 2010 @ 18:03
A work-flow helper.
A cloud condenser…
Comment by Purple-Bobby — 21 March 2010 @ 18:05
@Purple-Bobby: Places is like Dolphin’s places. Folder shows the contents of a specified folder.
I’ll change those names later probably, I just need a title for that section at the moment. The only thing that I could come up with is “Items”
Comment by Ivan Čukić — 21 March 2010 @ 18:08
Actually, it did not work.
Applets thatwont’s do anything when added using the Applet Browser should not be shown there.
It’s good to be able to configure it now.
Also dragging a folder and selecting Lancelot Part did not show anything and should be hidden from this context menu.
I’m a little bit disappointed by KDE because there are still so many things that confuse even experienced users (even users like me that follow the planet closely and in general know most of this plasma stuff).
So aseigo already talked about polishing being a priority in 4.5 – that’s really great and needed.
Comment by Robin — 21 March 2010 @ 18:17
Unfortunately it was not possible to hide it from Applet Browser. But it did sorta work – you could DnD things on it.
You should have reported that as a bug. Dragging a folder is meant to work with
Lancelot PartShelf.If you encounter a confusing thing, file a bug. If you have an idea for a solution, include it in the bug report.
Comment by Ivan Čukić — 21 March 2010 @ 18:26
The empty problem: the empty list could just have a dummy item(s) in it to explain how to use or add more items.
What vision do you have for the shelf, what is its purpose? You seem to have a naming the document problem when your container can hold varied things.
The way version 1.7 works, it only appears to give you menus of applications.
Comment by Purple-Bobby — 21 March 2010 @ 21:01
If it’s going to have a nice icon and’s going to work well with our current system tray, just like other plasmoids do, then I’m not against, and even pro
.
Comment by Livio — 21 March 2010 @ 21:16
I’m trying to drag-and-drop folders in 4.3.4 (Debian Sid) now and i am not getting any options at all. I don’t really understand what this shelf (or Lancelot parts) is. Even after adding with the Plasmoids adder, its just blank. If I need to read your instrcutions, liked above, something seems wrong (especially since i cannot get to them from within the app setup itself). I agreee with Purple-Bobby that the applet should be populated with mini-docs or something to explain it.
Iff to read the instructions now to see what i’ve been missing
Comment by lefty.crupps — 21 March 2010 @ 22:43
Frankly I think your whole approach is wrong. Why even have this Shelf? Isn’t Plasma one big shelf? Isn’t there the Grid plasmoid? Imho you should re-think this and see if you can have these components as separate widgets.
Comment by jospoortvliet — 21 March 2010 @ 22:52
@jospoortvliet: you need a plasmoid to show something in plasma.
The part (or shelf) is a plasmoid to show lancelot content (afaik)
Comment by Robin — 21 March 2010 @ 23:07
@Purple-Bobby: The ‘empty problem’ is now solved like in all plasma applets – with a grayed-out applet with a Configure button.
It can hold much more than just applications, but that /was/ one of the main incentives for making the
Lancelot PartShelf applet.@Livio: I don’t see the connection with the system-tray…
@lefty.crupps: Unfortunately, sometimes there are bugs with folders and DnD – I’m not sure which versions of KDE are affected.
I really have to make a detailed screencast and manual for these things
@jospoortvliet: In many DEs, a button that opens a list of items is called a “shelf” or similar (in Gnome 1.x, they had a “drawer” – I have no idea whether it still exists).
I could have created different applet for “Contacts”, different applet for “Favorite applications”, for “Removable devices” … but what is the point in having a lot of .so files when one can “rule them all”. They differ only in the back-data – the representation is the same.
So, it is not a group of plasma widgets or anything, it is a popup-list of items that can contain many different things.
See http://forum.kde.org/brainstorm.php#idea50294_page1 for example.
Comment by Ivan Čukić — 22 March 2010 @ 00:01
[...] Lancleot Part applet is dead… There were two main problems with the Lancelot Part applet. [...]
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