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.

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Comments/Ratings

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mikala
10 years ago

you're should install the necessary devel files to compile it for example libxcomposite1-devel (or a package named like this) in order to have the /usr/include/X11/extensions/Xcomposite.h file

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amehc
10 years ago

The hidden option paintReflections=false is not working for me.

I follow your steps and reload the sesion, but the reflection remains.

I'm in arch linux x86, with KDE 4.5

Thanks, and sorry for my English

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Emdek
10 years ago

I've checked that now and it works for me (KDE 4.5.68).
Are you sure that this setting is in correct group?
And can you check if that line is still there (if plasma-desktop was running during configuration change then it could be overwritten)?

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toadhall
10 years ago

Cheers, Emdek!

Not to worry, I don't mind waiting a bit.

And many thanks for your endeavours! I really, really like fancy-tasks - keep up the good work :)

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Emdek
10 years ago

Thanks. :-)

I'll try to finish that new panel as soon as possible.

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toadhall
10 years ago

Hi,

I'm on Arch 64 with state of the art vanilla KDE. Everything works fine, but on reboot my launchers in the panel are reset :(

I'm planning on a cheap workaround but would need to know where these settings are stored - could you advise?

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Emdek
10 years ago

It happens only when using panel?
There will be new panel implementation soon, check previous comments. ;-)
All settings should be stored in ~/.kde4/share/config/plasma-desktop-appletsrc.

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toadhall
10 years ago

Thanks for your prompt reply! Okay, so I rebooted and it wiped the panel settings once again.

I then copied the backed up file from the previous day over but no joy - it merely remembered to centre and auto hide it but all apps are gone.

Hm, any ideas as to where I might look?

Cheers!

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Emdek
10 years ago

I think that these settings might not be saved correctly, sometimes Plasma loaded wrong settings when I've tested hide options with multiple panels, after restart wrong panel was hidden or even location and alignment options were swapped...
Hopefully it will be working fine with new panel.
If you want I can attach current code but there are at least two bugs, custom background is not applied and other applets have wrong height (so it's basically mostly identical to default panel) or wait about one week (I'm really busy now, work and studies).

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marcotangaro
10 years ago

I'm on archlinux 64bit and can't use the panel mode.
FancyPane appears like an enormous panel with the systemsettings icon as great as my monitor...
I'm not able to resize it because the options of the panel appears only for a second with this dimension.

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Emdek
10 years ago

Panel is still marked as experimental only, so bugs can happen...
There is new panel in the works (well, in fact it's done for some time but still has some small bugs), fork of default Plasma panel (so instead of own hacks it uses upstream hacks ;-)). Hopefully it will be released soon (depends on how many free time I'll have for fixing it and testing).

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marcotangaro
10 years ago

Very good...
Are you planning to insert intellihide as gnome-do and awn?

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Emdek
10 years ago

Well, for next release and for final one (1.1) I want to focus on stability and later think about extending it, if possible (panels have really limited possibilities and their API is usable only to create things which works almost exactly like default panels...).
Can you describe how works that feature? Maybe it will doable or worth to try to create patches for upstream or to bug developers for it. ;-)

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marcotangaro
10 years ago

It's a simple behaviour of the panel.
If there is a window that covers the panel, it'll be hidden. But if there's no windows that covers the panel it'll remain visible.
Here a video, a intellihide demonstration is at 2:05
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNvAj8skUNs

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Emdek
10 years ago

Well, for me that looks more like a thing that could be done upstream for all panels.
Maybe you should post a wish to bugs.kde.org or post it on some brainstorm page.

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fannymites
10 years ago

I have been wanting something like the windows 7 launcher/taskbar for KDE and this is the closest I've found so far but I have some issues.

Thumbnails and launcher labels randomly appear at the top of the screen instead of above the taskbar.
Sometimes they DO appear in the right place but 8 times out of 10 they don't.

The window peek/highlight feature is hit and miss, sometimes it will highlight the window, other times it will highlight them after a long delay and other times doesn't highlight at all.

Also, the little snippet you added about removing the reflections doesn't seem to work.
I have been back and looked at the rc file and the entry is still there and still says false but reflections are still there.

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Emdek
10 years ago

1. Wrong tooltip positions.
Are you using 64 bit system? Only reports about these weird positions comes from 64 bit users. Tooltips are managed by Plasma, so this might by bug in it or in Qt itself (64 bit only). I'll need to finally find someone with 64 bits and some free time for testing...
Also is it shown correctly after moving pointer from other applet that has tooltip (I've heard that sometimes there are for example bugs with positioning tooltip of trash applet)?

2. Highlight effect.
It happens with hovering of icon or tooltip (in this case it's again manged only by Plasma)?

3. Disabling reflections.
It looks like there is a typo in option name, try using:
paintReflections = false

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edio
10 years ago

I've just installed the last *.94 version to try this plugin.
There is a problem, I can't see panel background.
I've tried both with custom and default backgrounds, I've edited plasma-desktop-appletrc file, but there is no background at all.

I'm using Archlinux i686 with KDE 4.5

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martosurf
10 years ago

Mmm, Arch x86_64 + KDE SC 4.5 here.
I just downloaded and installed this plasmoid, will check how it works and report back.

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Emdek
10 years ago

This occurs with applet or panel? I can't reproduce this with applet but it's possible with panel which is still in experimental state and regressions can happen...
I'm planning to release soon (maybe during week) new versions which will contain new panel containment (it was supposed to be released with current version but one show stopper bug remains), which will have mostly the same features like default one (most important thing - possibility to add other applets to it).

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edio
10 years ago

This occurs with panel.
Waiting for the next version. Thanks.

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antoniolucas
10 years ago

hi Emdek,

great job on this plasmoid,

I have a suggestion

have you considered use the grouping feature of smooth tasks plasmoid[1]? the grouping of fancy tasks sometimes work, sometimes not (for me at least). And the grouping of smooth tasks seems pretty solid to me. I think it would be great to have something similar on fancy tasks

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Emdek
10 years ago

Thanks. :-)

That's really strange, this applet uses task grouping built in libtaskmanager, so grouping must behave exactly the same way like in default Tasks applet, STasks and Smooth Tasks (I doubt that this algorithm was replaced there).

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antoniolucas
10 years ago

hi,

sorry to ask, but have you already used the smooth tasks?

In smooth, when the windows are grouped, you can close one of the windows without open them (there is a close button in the preview window). And when you pass the mouse over the windows, it highlights the window over the others. fancy tasks does not that (at least, mine don't)

I am using fancy tasks on KDE4.5 in a Arch Linux system

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Emdek
10 years ago

Well, I know that tooltip thingie, I've created first version of custom tooltips, which was reused in STasks and later in Smooth Tasks (however I didn't liked the idea of always visible close button and text over thumbnail) but removed it after my patches that improved a bit (but enough to be usable) built in tooltip features for window previews.
It was removed because it is ugly hack that makes many problems and needs to be adjusted from time to time and synced with original tooltips code and misses some features like consistent move animation etc. It's too big maintenance effort with too small gains. You can compare how big were soucre code files used by theme here:
http://websvn.kde.org/?view=revision&sortby=date&revision=1084060
(these four deleted files)

Only thing that I can do (and in fact should already do) is to extend usage of configurable actions to clicks on previews (then you can use for example middle click to close). I'll add this in next version, hopefully soon.

That highlight feature is also present in Fancy Tasks, but might get broken, I'll check.

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