Hi Paolo,<br clear="all"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Apr 17, 2012 at 2:03 PM, Etienne Tourigny <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:etourigny.dev@gmail.com">etourigny.dev@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
I think it is a good idea - perhaps agree on a common interface and<br>
add it to the plugin builder?<br>
<br>
This might have been discussed before - but it would be nice to have a<br>
base "QgsPlugin" python class that all plugins would inherit from and<br>
implement this kind of standardization, but I'm not sure if this would<br>
be easy to work with.<br>
<br>
Etienne<br>
<br>
On Tue, Apr 17, 2012 at 4:42 PM, Tim Sutton <<a href="mailto:lists@linfiniti.com">lists@linfiniti.com</a>> wrote:<br>
> Hi<br>
><br>
> On Tue, Apr 17, 2012 at 3:47 PM, Marco Hugentobler<br>
> <<a href="mailto:marco.hugentobler@sourcepole.ch">marco.hugentobler@sourcepole.ch</a>> wrote:<br>
>> Hi all<br>
>><br>
>> And core plugins that ship with the QGIS code should remove the about dialog<br>
>> (currently gdal tools and db manager).<br>
>> For third party plugins it is ok.<br>
>><br>
><br>
> Agreed - any serious objections from the authors?<br>
><br>
> Regards<br>
><br>
> Tim<br>
><br>
>> Regards,<br>
>> Marco<br>
>><br>
>><br>
>> On 17.04.2012 09:03, Paolo Cavallini wrote:<br>
>>><br>
>>> Hi all.<br>
>>> Currently, most plugins do not have an About dialog, and those who have<br>
>>> it are often quite different. Can we choose a layout, make a template,<br>
>>> and ask plugin devs to please use it?<br>
>>> A small thing, but it will sooth out the user experience, and will give<br>
>>> a more integrated ovarall look.<br>
>>> All the best.<br></blockquote><div><br>Since most of this 'about' information is in either the plugin's __init__.py or metadata.txt file, I put together (as a proof of concept) a quick Python plugin to generate a menu of active plugins, which, when clicked, shows an About Plugin dialog with textBrowser widget [0][1][2].<br>
<br>The About Plugin dialog only shows the following basic info: name, version, qgisMinimumVersion, description. These are the base fields in Plugin Builder's __init__.py file. Currently, metadata.txt fields are not parsed in this proof-of-concept version.<br>
<br>Caveat: parsing metadata, whether from __init__.py or metadata.txt files, could present difficulties for translating. I'm not sure how metadata.txt would have a translation setup.<br><br>My point with this plugin is to show only a minimum more may be needed (or required of plugin developers) to create an About Plugins style menu.<br>
<br>I have built a solution for standardization of displaying help and tutorials within plugins, but will post as a different topic.<br><br>@Etienne, I agree, a base "QgsPlugin" python class would be a nice starting point for many standardizations.<br>
<br>[0] <a href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4058089/qgis/about-plugins-menu.png">http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4058089/qgis/about-plugins-menu.png</a><br>[1] <a href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4058089/qgis/about-plugin-dialog.png">http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4058089/qgis/about-plugin-dialog.png</a><br>
[2] <a href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4058089/qgis/AboutPlugins.zip">http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4058089/qgis/AboutPlugins.zip</a><br><br></div></div>Regards,<br><br>Larry Shaffer<br>Dakota Cartography<br>Black Hills, South Dakota<br>