[Qgis-developer] Plugins About dialog: make it more uniform

[Larry Shaffer]

Hi Paolo,

On Tue, Apr 17, 2012 at 2:03 PM, Etienne Tourigny
<etourigny.dev at gmail.com>wrote:

> I think it is a good idea - perhaps agree on a common interface and
> add it to the plugin builder?
>
> This might have been discussed before - but it would be nice to have a
> base "QgsPlugin" python class that all plugins would inherit from and
> implement this kind of standardization, but I'm not sure if this would
> be easy to work with.
>
> Etienne
>
> On Tue, Apr 17, 2012 at 4:42 PM, Tim Sutton <lists at linfiniti.com> wrote:
> > Hi
> >
> > On Tue, Apr 17, 2012 at 3:47 PM, Marco Hugentobler
> > <marco.hugentobler at sourcepole.ch> wrote:
> >> Hi all
> >>
> >> And core plugins that ship with the QGIS code should remove the about
> dialog
> >> (currently gdal tools and db manager).
> >> For third party plugins it is ok.
> >>
> >
> > Agreed - any serious objections from the authors?
> >
> > Regards
> >
> > Tim
> >
> >> Regards,
> >> Marco
> >>
> >>
> >> On 17.04.2012 09:03, Paolo Cavallini wrote:
> >>>
> >>> Hi all.
> >>> Currently, most plugins do not have an About dialog, and those who have
> >>> it are often quite different. Can we choose a layout, make a template,
> >>> and ask plugin devs to please use it?
> >>> A small thing, but it will sooth out the user experience, and will give
> >>> a more integrated ovarall look.
> >>> All the best.
>

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].

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.

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.

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.

I have built a solution for standardization of displaying help and
tutorials within plugins, but will post as a different topic.

@Etienne, I agree, a base "QgsPlugin" python class would be a nice starting
point for many standardizations.

[0] http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4058089/qgis/about-plugins-menu.png
[1] http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4058089/qgis/about-plugin-dialog.png
[2] http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4058089/qgis/AboutPlugins.zip

Regards,

Larry Shaffer
Dakota Cartography
Black Hills, South Dakota
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