Fancy Tasks

Source (link to git-repo or to original if based on someone elses unmodified work): Add the source-code for this project on opencode.net

Description:

Plasmoid providing fancy visualization of tasks, launchers and jobs for those who need full power of task manager and fresh look.
Developed and tested on KDE 4.8 with Qt 4.8 (Kubuntu 12.04).

Some screen casts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5i2S1xCKPk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wj4W6cqycl8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfqtnncLNcQ

Milestone 1.1 (current) will be last one using libtaskamanager and hopefully will be soon replaced by currently developed data engine based version (which should lower requirements back to KDE 4.6 or maybe earlier, depending on which one shipped first functional version of tasks data engine).

Milestone 2.0 will bring new dock management library which will allow for more advanced features. There will be also new, QML based, applet interface (might be available earlier, depends on progress on library).

Note that included panel was made only for test and could make various problems, use it on your own risk (I'll focus on it later).

This applet uses standard libtaskmanager like other task managers in KDE, so before you report bug check if it also happens in other applets (for example default Tasks applet).

Tips:
- to make applet more usable you can put it on panel with enabled option "Windows can cover" or similar;
- you can use theme with panel background similar to that of dock (for example Sabre Tiger) or modify current one using Desktop Theme Details;
- you can add launchers to applet by drag and drop of URLs and desktop files when Plasma is unlocked or using configuration dialog;
- to show only launchers you need to remove tasks area item from arrangement;
- to show application jobs you need to add jobs area.

Hidden options:
You can set them in applets configuration file (usually located at ~/.kde4/share/config/plasma-desktop-appletsrc), in group containing line plugin=fancytasks or plugin=fancypanel;
- initialZoomLevel - initial zoom level for zoom move animations (value ranging from 0 to 1, default: 0.7);
- paintBackground - decides if background should be painted or not (true or false, default: true);
- paintReflections - decides if icon reflection should be painted or not, note that it won't change icon size because of space allocation for drawing task indicators (true or false, default: true).

Features:
- manages your tasks, launchers and application jobs;
- tasks filtering, grouping (including manual) and sorting;
- keyboard navigation (Tab and Shift+Tab);
- launcher to task transition with custom connecting rules (icons of launchers with running tasks are hidden if sorting other than manual is enabled);
- tool tips with live preview of windows when KWin Taskbar Thumbnail effect is enabled;
- highlighting windows when hovering cursor over task or window preview when KWin Highlight Window effect is enabled;
- dropping files on launchers runs command with parameters or gives option to move, copy or link them (if target is directory);
- visual drop indicator that helps in manual tasks sorting and rearranging launchers;
- possibility to browse directories of directory launchers using context menu;
- possibility to add application menus;
- menu with list of all icons shown after activating keyboard shortcut;
- configurable animations (zoom, jump, bounce, highlight, etc.) and appearance (optional thumbnails and text label);
- fully animated icons (including animations of starting applications, tasks needing attention and application jobs progress).

If you have found bugs or have suggestions you can contact me via email, message or using comments, before you will vote bad.
And remember that not everybody has enough time for fast replying. ;-)

Don't be silly, don't vote bad just for fun!

Last changelog:

8 years ago

1.1.2 (10.06.2012):
- increased task light size a bit;
- fixed label position for zoom animation;
- avoid hijacking of icons with launcher connected to task group (if grouping by program);
- clear thumbnail when launcher looses connected task.

1.1.1 (01.06.2012):
- reuse launcher icons by tasks also when using manual sorting;
- let startups connect to launcher icons (when there is no sorting or it set to manual);
- do not lose connection with launcher when group is created (if grouping by program);
- enable Apply button when configuration values are changed;
- do not propose to drop icon in place which equals its current index;
- enable Add / Remove action buttons;
- many other fixes and changes.

570 comments

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Comments/Ratings

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MilchFlasche
7 years ago

Thanks, ya, "plasma-widget-fancytasks_1.1.2_amd64.deb" this is what I installed on my Kubuntu :)

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Emdek
7 years ago

It seems that this is a bit more complex issue and to fix it properly (and once) I will need to wait for some bigger architecture changes to be done first...

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MilchFlasche
7 years ago

Looking forward to it :) Thanks!

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Contrast
8 years ago

Ubuntu packages: https://launchpad.net/~mikevaughn/+archive/omnilinux

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Emdek
8 years ago

Thanks. :-)

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nowardev
8 years ago

parabolic animation is poor
stability is poor i got a crash just adding the fancy panel

i dunno but like every year i have to remove this panel is not stable and good

btw nice try to ...

cairo dock is the best

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Emdek
8 years ago

You mean wrong positioning of labels? It's a known regression, I'll fix it as as I'll have time.
If you got crash then you should attach backtrace (if there is any), without it I cannot check what exactly caused it so I cannot even try to fix that. Also I remind that panel is still experimental and since Plasma won't play well with custom ones I'm considering its removal - it makes more sense to set custom background for bottom panel in desktop theme details anyway. ;-)

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herrbatka
8 years ago

so this applet looks good on standard panel?

I used older version and It was ugly.

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Emdek
8 years ago

Did I've said somewhere that it is beautiful? :-P
If you don't like defaults (which changed recently) then you can experiment with appearance options including hidden options described in the README.

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dshrek
8 years ago

Hi Emdek,
I really enjoy your plasmoid. Unfortunately I constantly run into the following bug: After a restart of plasma-desktop the "Current entries" in "Arrangement" are all mixed up (every restart I find a different order). Even though all programs still appear in the configuration, not all of them are visible in the plasmoid. After configuring them to be in my preferred order, everything is fine again. I have to do that at every restart...

I am running Precise with Compiz 0.9.8 and the latest version of Fancy Tasks.

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Emdek
8 years ago

Thanks for report, I'll try to reproduce that.
But I need some more details, what are you sorting and grouping strategies and it would be best if you could attach list of entries for arrangement (could be screenshot from configuration dialog).
Also, are they in correct order when you open configuration dialog again (this could be an issue with saving or restoring)?

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dshrek
8 years ago

The bug already appears for the standard configuration after adding the plasmoid to the desktop without changing anything in the setup.
I have made four screenshots. Screenshot.png shows a newly added Fancy Task with the configuration menu. You can see that not all programs are visible in the plasmoid. Closing the configuration menu and reopening dosn't change anything.
Screenshot_plasma_restart.png shows the same but after a restart of plasma-desktop. The order of the programs in "current entries" has changed and different programs are displayed in the plasmoid.
I then created a new user and logged in, added a Fancy Task plasmoid and did the same as before (Screenshot_new_user.png, Screenshot_new_user_plasma_restart.png). Although the "current entries" in the "Arrangement" are different by default for the new user and my login, the bug remains the same.

http://depositfiles.com/files/aoozvgj4h

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dshrek
8 years ago

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Emdek
8 years ago

Thanks for comprehensive testing, that part with launchers not showing up is especially weird one but will try to reproduce it anyway.
Can you check if you can reproduce it using plasmoidviewer? By running plasmoidviewer -c panel fancytasks few times. It shouldn't be something Plasma desktop specific but it could be a good idea to check to be sure.
I'm planning to release a bugfix version soon (maybe 01.06.2012) and I hope that I'll be able to fix this issue for that release. There are already some small fixes, you can check in history on github.

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dshrek
8 years ago

Running it with plasmoidviewer leads to the same behaviour. I noticed one more thing. The programs that are visible are the same than with the regular plasmoid. Executing Fancy Tasks with plasmoidviewer a second time shows that set of programs which are also visible after a restart of plasma-desktop. After the third start, the first set of programs is visible again, after the fourth start the second, ... It always seems to toggle between to versions.

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Emdek
8 years ago

No problem. :-)

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Emdek
8 years ago

Seems to be fixed now, can you please check that with current version from github?

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dshrek
8 years ago

Works! Thanks a lot for the fast responses!

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Emdek
8 years ago

OK, I'm able to reproduce it there, it looks like it gets two different sets of arrangement entries which overwrite each other every time applet is initialized.
Pretty weird but at least some clue to start with. :-)

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Emdek
8 years ago

Those are mostly the same specs like on my laptop, except that it was updated to KDE 4.8.3, so I'll try to recreate that issue there.

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Emdek
8 years ago

Interesting observation, maybe something goes wrong when restoring configuration.
What are your exact versions of KDE and Qt? Is your system 32 or 64 bit (I've already seen once an issue with Plasma happening only on 64 bit systems - tool tip of some applet was displayed in wrong place)?

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dshrek
8 years ago

I have a standard 64bit Precise installation: KDE 4.8.2, Qt 4.8.1

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masterdany88
8 years ago

nice job man. Great native dock for kde. I miss that for so long, but it still need much improvment for animation and task managment.
I was thinking that You could take the code of docky and icon task only. Using them You could make some improvements and make fancy task usefull.
please write me back.

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Emdek
8 years ago

Yes, animations needs some work surely, I'm planning to redo UI in QML later, which should help with that case too. You can find more details about my plans in first comment on previous page ("Plans for foreseeable future").
I'm not going to recycle others code especially since they don't have anything better in terms of tasks management (I'm referring mostly to other libtaskmanager based applets, not Docky which is something from different desktop environment).
The only advantages there are plugins to dock which I'm still not sure if those should belong there, such things should be probably done more like letting to embed applets like in systemtray, if at all.
I'll focus on creating task management library designed for use with docks from beginning, first described in my GSoC application from 2009 (well, it changed a bit after implementation started ;-)).

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masterdany88
8 years ago

I really dont like the ide of addons on dock. Kde have they own native plasma-widgets wich surely do grate job. there is a pager to change desktop, some weather and system monitors, so on this point will be enought to implement them as a part of icons on dock. NO need to creat new.
Think I dont like in fancy task is that when I open app from launcher, f.e. konsole the icon to manage it on dock goes on left side to the "task" area (I am not sure how that is called), In docky when I click on konsole icon I will get console, I dont need to think was it already lauchner or not, the konsole window will just pop up. This is the Idea of dock or icon only task manager.
what I miss in docky is that it isnt kde native. And If I have few windows of konsole opened I cant easily manage them, all will show up and all of them will be minimalised, which isnt fine, especially if that windows are on diferent workspaces. Icon only task manager gives them a thunbail to see which window I want to operate. Generally Icon task only have all the thing I would like to see in You dock, cause in icon task manager there isnt any animation. So for me for now docky is the think I am searching for.
One think in all of this task manager is that I miss. It is about the instance of applicationm like for example skype or amarok. I saw that when I have a skype or amarok launcher and when I clicked it, it alway trying to run new instance, but it at first shoul look for process of skype and try to show that window instead of lauching new, there is no sense of that, cause may apps use systray to work in background.
I hope You will understand my
Please consider my thoughs. and write back.

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