KDE-Forum.org

Hi folks,

in my eyes, a deeper file and folder inspection would lead to much better usability.

Let me give some examples:

When Konqueror finds an .iso file, it shows an iso-file icon. If you have Kiso installed, you have some special actions for the iso in the servicemenu. But That's it.

With the actual implementation of the servicemenues, we can't differentiate between an actual via the loop device mouted iso and a not mounted one when writing new actions.

If konqueror would know if an iso was mounted, it could:
- show an appropriate mounted sign on the icon
- provide a "Unmount this iso file" action in the servicemenu

...and if it even knew about the content of the iso, it could also:
- show an appropriate icon which may say DVD (Video) or VCD or DATA-CD or ...
- provide a "Play as DVD in kaffeine" action in the servicemenu (If it was a video-dvd etc for other CD DVD formats)
- provide a "Add data with k3b to DATA-CD" action in the servicemenu (If it was a data-CD which was found not to be full)
- ...lots of other ideas will find it's home here ;-)

O.K., you see what this is all about?

Much better usability may be the result if possible actions for special folder contents or files are well calculated. - The context menu for a folder which holds a typical dvd-structure could provide an action to "Create Menu for DVD with Qdvdauthor" or "Burn the DVD structure with k3b".

I think the understanding of the daily work has changed from "Doing something with the application XY" to "Doing something with files, folders and streams". And this is exactly what everybody wants when viewing files in konqueror. - Do something with it and at first: inspect it's content before having to open it in an application.

All in one: A more intelligent selection and proposal what could be done to a file with which program could increase the usability a lot.

I could also think of a kind of a xml library of all actions a programs may perform with which filetypes.
An autor of a program could directly add this file to it's programs package or a distributor could add this file to it's installation packages. By adding these files to a special kde "programsactions" folder, which exists in /usr/share and the user's home directory, the appropriate actions may be shown in context menues or file previews. Actions of often used programs will be shown at the top.
Even better: The "programsactions" folder only has symlinks to the real files in the "programsactions_archive" folder and a plugin for kcontrol simply de-/activates actions by deleting the right symlink or creating it.

It would be nice if this could be possible in the future,

yours Henri Schomaecker