Plasma

Writing Applets

You will find completely documentation and HOWTOs on how to write applets for Plasma as the applet APIs become available for public consumption. Until then, here is a brief preview of what developing an applet for Plasma will entail.

The first step will be choosing which language to write your applet in. C++ and ECMA script will both be available by default with Plasma while bindings for Python, Ruby and Java will be provided as plugins that are loaded on demand. All of these bindings will expose the same API: libplasma.

Once you have selected your language of choice, it will be time to get familiar with the basic API of libplasma. Through this library you will have access to an HTML widget, common graphical components such as buttons, icons and extenders as well as access to utility classes for accessing system information and the network.

Your applet should be designed to have at least two form factors: one for the desktop (which will probably be larger and possibly contain more visible information) and one for use on panels. Examples of how to do this effectively will be provided for your reference.

Once written, you will package up the resulting applet with a .desktop file and any necessary artwork, HTML, CSS or other data into a single archive. For C++ applets, they will need to be compiled for each target platform ABI. For all other languages, the applet will be immediately installable and runnable by the user by simply clicking on the archive. With just one package to distribute creating Plasma add ons for the KDE user base couldn't be easier.