RKWard 0.6.4 - Usability improvements, fixes, and preparation for porting to KDE frameworks version 5

Monday, 21 December 2015

Shortly before the end of the year, a new version of RKWard is available for download. While the list of changes looks relatively short this time, beyond the usual fixes, with the help of usability expert Jan Dittrich, we have addressed some long standing potential for confusion in several important parts of RKWard's user interface.

Among the changes that do not quite show in our ChangeLog, we continue receiving more and more translations from the KDE language teams. Also we are working to finish our move to KDE.org. Importantly, we now track new issues on the KDE bugtracking system (see Bugs)). A lot of work went into the rkwarddev package to make the plugin generating code much more intuitive. In particular, see the documentation on the new js() function.

Finally, already looking ahead to forthcoming releases, we are making good progress on porting RKWard to the more modular, more modern version 5 of the KDE libraries (aka KF5).

As usual, please don't be shy of contacting us with your feedback, suggestions, and contributions!

The changes in detail:

New features and improvements

  • Plugins check for correct object type, in more places, but allow to proceed with questionable object selections
  • Switch to bugs.kde.org as primary issue tracker
  • Workspace browser gains functionality to search / filter objects by name, making it easy to find objects, quickly
  • Separate globalenv() and other environments in the search path more clearly in workspace browser
  • Complete rework of UI for better usability
  • Some usability refinements to "Import CSV" plugin
  • Disabled the "Import Data"-dialog, as it was considered too confusing. The individual importers are still available from the menu, separately.
  • For multi-item varslots and valueslots, use separate buttons for adding / removing items
  • Don't show (useless) index number in mutli-value varslots and valueslots
  • Make the option to disable / enable editing more visible (in the data editor's toolbar)
  • Add context menu to HTML viewer window, including the ability to open links in a new window
  • Remove dependency on KHTMLPart

Fixes

  • Fixed: Plugin variable slots taking more than one object would not be highlighted in red while invalid
  • Fixed: RKWard package repository would be listed twice on fresh installations
  • Fix some minor toolbar glitches
  • Try harder to honor system locale settings
  • Remove obsolete "Export tabular data" plugin (superceded by "Export Table / CSV")
  • Do not invoke symbol name completion while in the middle (not end) of a word