Templates

Templates provides a way for common functionality to be easily reused.

Templates are named packages that contain scripts. This provides a way for common functionality to be easily reused, helping to increase consistency and lower maintenance costs. Templates can be loaded from other scripts by name and they are also used to populate some parts of the user interface, such as the entries in the Add Panels menu.

A template is a small set of files in a specified file hierarchy (or, in Plasma terms, a "Package"). In particular, a Template package contains the following files:

  • metadata.json: a file describing the template
  • contents/layout.js: a Javascript file containing the actual script

Templates are stored in:

  • /usr/share/plasma/layout-templates/
  • ~/.local/share/plasma/layout-templates/

and may be installed using:

kpackagetool5 --type=Plasma/LayoutTemplate -i /path/to/package

Instead of installing a directory, template packages may also be provided as a .zip file renamed to have a .plasmalayout suffix.

(cd ~/Code/mytemplate && zip -r ../mytemplate.plasmalayout *)
kpackagetool5 --type=Plasma/LayoutTemplate -i ~/Code/mytemplate.plasmalayout

The metadata.json file contains the usual KPluginMetaData entries such as Name and Icon but must also contain the KPackageStructure entry set to Plasma/LayoutTemplate. If the layout is specific to a given Plasma application, such as plasma-desktop, this can be specific using X-Plasma-Shell. X-Plasma-ContainmentCategories defines what kind of layout it is with possible values being panel and desktop. Finally, a X-KDE-PluginInfo-Name entry is required to provide a globally unique internal name for the Template. Here is an example of a Template that provides a Panel layout for Plasma Netbook:

{
    "KPlugin": {
        "Authors": [
            {
                "Email": "aseigo@kde.org",
                "Name": "Aaron Seigo"
            }
        ],
        "EnabledByDefault": true,
        "Id": "org.kde.CoolNetbookPanel",
        "License": "GPL",
        "Name": "Cool Panel",
        "Version": "1.0",
        "Website": "http://plasma.kde.org/"
    },
    "X-Plasma-ContainmentCategories": [
        "panel"
    ],
    "X-Plasma-Shell": "plasma-netbook",
    "KPackageStructure": "Plasma/LayoutTemplate"
}

When running a template, two global variables will be accessible in read-only mode: templateName and templateComment. They will contain the Name and Description fields of the above json file, and are translated if a localization is available.

In case you have an existing plugin that uses a metadata.desktop file, you can follow the migration instructions from the Widget Properties documentation.

Examples of Usage

Creating panels

A good example of the use of templates is the use case that triggered the creation of this feature: the desire to make it easy for users to re-create the default panel that is created on the first start. There is a Template called org.kde.plasma.desktop.defaultPanel that ships with the KDE Plasma Workspace which contains the layout for the initial default panel. This is referenced by the default Plasma Desktop init script and because it is marked as a Panel Template in the metadata.json file it also shows up to the user in the Add Panels menu. When selected by the user from the menu, the exact same panel that is created on desktop start up is created for them, complete with Plasma Widgets and configuration.

Activity templates

Probably the most user visible use of templates are "Activity templates". The structure of Activity templates is similar to the other use of templates, but a few extra features are provided in the metadata.json file. Here is an example of such an activity template:

{
    "KPlugin": {
        "Authors": [
            {
                "Email": "john@doe.org",
                "Name": "John Doe"
            }
        ],
        "Category": "",
        "EnabledByDefault": true,
        "Icon": "user-desktop",
        "Id": "org.kde.plasma-desktop.CoolTemplate",
        "License": "GPL",
        "Name": "Cool Activity Template",
        "Version": "1.0",
        "Website": "http://john.doe.org"
    },
    "X-Plasma-ContainmentCategories": [
        "desktop"
    ],
    "X-Plasma-ContainmentLayout-ExecuteOnCreation": "dolphin $desktop, gwenview $pictures",
    "X-Plasma-ContainmentLayout-ShowAsExisting": "true",
    "X-Plasma-Shell": "plasma-desktop",
    "KPackageStructure": "Plasma/LayoutTemplate"
}

The layout itself is still created from the layout.js file as usual, but this template also shows as a precreated activity to the user thanks to the X-Plasma-ContainmentLayout-ShowAsExisting key. Additionally, it starts applications in the newly created activity using the X-Plasma-ContainmentLayout-ExecuteOnCreation key.

That key is a list of commands to execute, and it supports the following variables:

  • $desktop
  • $autostart
  • $documents
  • $music
  • $video
  • $downloads
  • $pictures

They all expand into the path toward the user corresponding default folder.

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Examples