Welcome to a new issue of "This Week in KDE Apps"! Every week we cover as much as possible of what's happening in the world of KDE apps.

This week aside of releasing KDE Gear 24.12.0 and Kaidan 0.10.0, we added an overview of all your data in Itinerary and polished many other apps. Some of us also meet in Berlin and organized a small KDE sprint where aside of eating some Crêpes Bretonnes, we had discussion around Itinerary, Kirigami, Powerplant and more.

KDE Itinerary Digital travel assistant

Itinerary has a new "My Data" page containing your program membership, health certificates, saved locations, travel statistics and let you export and import all the data from Itinerary. (Carl Schwan, 25.04.0 — Link)

Calculator A feature rich calculator

Fixed the "History" action not working (Joshua Goins, 25.04 — Link)

Kaidan Modern chat app for every device

Version 0.10.0 and 0.10.1 of Kaidan were released! See the release announcement for the full list of changes.

Kongress Conference companion

Show the speaker's name for each event (Volker Krause, 25.04 — Link)

Kleopatra Certificate manager and cryptography app

Improved the dialog showing results of decrypt and verify operations (Tobias Fella, 25.04, Link)

Fixed a Qt6 regression that causes the dropdown menu for certificate selection to behave in unexpected ways (Tobias Fella, 25.04 — Link)

Improved the messages showing the result when decrypting and verifying the clipboard (Tobias Fella, 25.04 — Link)

NeoChat Chat on Matrix

Fixed web shortcuts not working (Joshua Goins, 24.12.1 — Link)

Improved how colored text sent by some other clients shows up (Joshua Goins, 24.12.1 — Link)

Stop NeoChat from crashing when sending messages (Tobias Fella, 24.12.1 — Link)

Okular View and annotate documents

Improved the look of banner messages (Carl Schwan, 25.04 — Link)

PowerPlant Keep your plants alive

Mathis redesigned various part of Powerplant and added a tasks view. (Mathis Brucher)

Other

More Kirigami applications are now remembering their size accross restart by using KConfig.WindowStateSaver. (Nate Graham, 25.04.0 — Skanpage and Elisa)

…And Everything Else

This blog only covers the tip of the iceberg! If you’re hungry for more, check out Nate's blog about Plasma and be sure not to miss his This Week in Plasma series, where every Saturday he covers all the work being put into KDE's Plasma desktop environment.

For a complete overview of what's going on, visit KDE's Planet, where you can find all KDE news unfiltered directly from our contributors.

Get Involved

The KDE organization has become important in the world, and your time and contributions have helped us get there. As we grow, we're going to need your support for KDE to become sustainable.

You can help KDE by becoming an active community member and getting involved. Each contributor makes a huge difference in KDE — you are not a number or a cog in a machine! You don’t have to be a programmer either. There are many things you can do: you can help hunt and confirm bugs, even maybe solve them; contribute designs for wallpapers, web pages, icons and app interfaces; translate messages and menu items into your own language; promote KDE in your local community; and a ton more things.

You can also help us by donating. Any monetary contribution, however small, will help us cover operational costs, salaries, travel expenses for contributors and in general just keep KDE bringing Free Software to the world.

To get your application mentioned here, please ping us in invent or in Matrix.

This release includes fixes for GreaseMonkey, VerticalTabs, Navigation bar (security icon), stability fixes, does not advertise the FTP support, fixes printing and more small fixes.

GreaseMonkey

1. Fixed loading of sites ending with *.user.js name. (BUG: 467459)
2. GreaseMonkey got a support for running scripts on sites through context menu. (BUG: 469855)

VerticalTabs

1. Enabled switching tabs with mouse wheel when the scrollbar is visible. (BUG: 394066)
2. Pinned tabs are now arranged vertically like a normal tabs in this plugin. (BUG: 452818)

Site security icon

Falkon now display more proper security icon in the url bar based on the state if the SSL certificate exceptions. (BUG: 420902)

Removed FTP support

The FTP support in Chomium and QtWebEngine which is based on it was removed a while ago. So with this update Falkon will not advertise to the system that it support FTP protocol and it will instead try to open other program to handle it. (BUG: 494222)

Others

And more:

• Fix printing to real CUPS printer. (BUG: 497051)
• Preferences: Fix crash when un/loading of plugins (BUG: 492023)
• Random fixes

Short changelog

• Do not advertise ftp support to the system (BUG: 494222)
• GreaseMonkey: Add support for context menu (BUG: 469855)
• GreaseMonkey: Check content type of url *.user.js (BUG: 467459)
• VerticalTabs: Fix tab switching with mouse wheel (BUG: 394066)
• VerticalTabs: Arrange pinned tabs vertically (BUG: 452818)
• Set security icon according to certificate error. (BUG: 420902)
• Preferences: Fix crash when un/loading of plugins (BUG: 492023)
• Fix printing to real CUPS printer (BUG: 497051)
• Random fixes

This release fixes some bugs. Have a look at the changelog for more details.

Changelog

Bugfixes:

• Fix displaying files of each message in appropriate message bubble (melvo)
• Fix sending fallback messages for clients not supporting XEP-0447: Stateless file sharing (melvo)
• Fix margins within message bubbles (melvo)
• Fix hiding hidden message part (melvo)
• Fix displaying marker for new messages (melvo)

Download

• Source code (.tar.xz) (sig signed with 04EFAD0F7A4D9724)
• Linux (Flatpak on Flathub)

Or install Kaidan for your distribution:

We finally made it: Kaidan’s next release with so many features that we cannot summarize them in one sentence!

Most of the work has been funded by NLnet via NGI Assure and NGI Zero Entrust with public money provided by the European Commission. If you want Kaidan’s progress to continue and keep more free software projects alive, please share and sign the open letter for further funding!

Now to the bunch of Kaidan’s new and great features:

Group chats with invitations, user listing, participant mentioning and private/public group chat filtering are supported now. In order to use it, you need an XMPP provider that supports MIX-Core, MIX-PAM and MIX-Admin. Unfortunately, there are not many providers supporting it yet since it is a comparatively recent group chat variant.

You do not need to quote messages just to reply to them any longer. The messages are referenced internally without bloating the conversation. After clicking on a referenced message, Kaidan even jumps to it. In addition, Kaidan allows you to remove unwanted messages locally.

We added an overview of all shared media to quickly find the image you received some time ago. You can define when to download media automatically. Furthermore, connecting to the server is now really fast - no need to wait multiple seconds just to see your latest offline messages anymore.

If you enter a chat address (e.g., to add a contact), its server part is now autocompleted if available. We added filter options for contacts and group chats. After adding labels to them, you can even search by those labels. And if you do not want to get any messages from someone, you can block them.

In case you need to move to a new account (e.g., if you are dissatisfied with your current XMPP provider), Kaidan helps you with that. For example, it transfers your contacts and informs them about the move. The redesigned onboarding user interface including many fixes assists with choosing a new provider and creating an account on it.

We updated Kaidan to the API v2 of XMPP Providers to stay up-to-date with the project’s data. If you are an operator of a public XMPP provider and would like Kaidan’s users to easily create accounts on it, simply ask to add it to the provider list.

The complete list of changes can be found in the changelog section. There is also a technical overview of all currently supported features.

Please note that we currently focus on new features instead of supporting more systems. Once Kaidan has a reasonable feature set, we will work on that topic again. Even if Kaidan is making good progress, keep in mind that it is not yet a stable app.

Changelog

Features:

• Add server address completion (fazevedo)
• Allow to edit account’s profile (jbb)
• Store and display delivery states of message reactions (melvo)
• Send pending message reactions after going online (melvo)
• Enable user to resend a message reaction if it previously failed (melvo)
• Open contact addition as page (mobile) or dialog (desktop) (melvo)
• Add option to open chat if contact exists on adding contact (melvo)
• Use consistent page with search bar for searching its content (melvo)
• Add local message removal (taibsu)
• Allow reacting to own messages (melvo)
• Add login option to chat (melvo)
• Display day of the week or “yesterday” for last messages (taibsu, melvo)
• Add media overview (fazevedo, melvo)
• Add contact list filtering by account and labels (i.e., roster groups) (incl. addition/removal) (melvo, tech-bash)
• Add message date sections to chat (melvo)
• Add support for automatic media downloads (fazevedo)
• Add filtering contacts by availability (melvo)
• Add item to contact list on first received direct message (melvo)
• Add support for blocking chat addresses (lnj)
• Improve notes chat (chat with oneself) usage (melvo)
• Place avatar above chat address and name in account/contact details on narrow window (melvo)
• Reload camera device for QR code scanning as soon as it is plugged in / enabled (melvo)
• Provide slider for QR code scanning to adjust camera zoom (melvo)
• Add contact to contact list on receiving presence subscription request (melvo)
• Add encryption key authentication via entering key IDs (melvo)
• Improve connecting to server and authentication (XEP-0388: Extensible SASL Profile (SASL 2), XEP-0386: Bind 2, XEP-0484: Fast Authentication Streamlining Tokens, XEP-0368: SRV records for XMPP over TLS) (lnj)
• Support media sharing with more clients even for sharing multiple files at once (XEP-0447: Stateless file sharing v0.3) (lnj)
• Display and check media upload size limit (fazevedo)
• Redesign message input field to use rounded corners and resized/symbolic buttons (melvo)
• Add support for moving account data to another account, informing contacts and restoring settings for moved contacts (XEP-0283: Moved) (fazevedo)
• Add group chat support with invitations, user listing, participant mentioning and private/public group chat filtering (XEP-0369: Mediated Information eXchange (MIX), XEP-0405: Mediated Information eXchange (MIX): Participant Server Requirements, XEP-0406: Mediated Information eXchange (MIX): MIX Administration, XEP-0407: Mediated Information eXchange (MIX): Miscellaneous Capabilities) (melvo)
• Add button to cancel message correction (melvo)
• Display marker for new messages (melvo)
• Add enhanced account-wide and per contact notification settings depending on group chat mentions and presence (melvo)
• Focus input fields appropriately (melvo)
• Add support for replying to messages (XEP-0461: Message Replies) (melvo)
• Indicate that Kaidan is busy during account deletion and group chat actions (melvo)
• Hide account deletion button if In-Band Registration is not supported (melvo)
• Embed login area in page for QR code scanning and page for web registration instead of opening start page (melvo)
• Redesign onboarding user interface including new page for choosing provider to create account on (melvo)
• Handle various corner cases that can occur during account creation (melvo)
• Update to XMPP Providers v2 (melvo)
• Hide voice message button if uploading is not supported (melvo)
• Replace custom images for message delivery states with regular theme icons (melvo)
• Free up message content space by hiding unneeded avatars and increasing maximum message bubble width (melvo)
• Highlight draft message text to easily see what is not sent yet (melvo)
• Store sent media in suitable directories with appropriate file extensions (melvo)
• Allow sending media with less steps from recording to sending (melvo)
• Add media to be sent in scrollable area above message input field (melvo)
• Display original images (if available) as previews instead of their thumbnails (melvo)
• Display high resolution thumbnails for locally stored videos as previews instead of their thumbnails (melvo)
• Send smaller thumbnails (melvo)
• Show camera status and reload camera once plugged in for taking pictures or recording videos (melvo)
• Add zoom slider for taking pictures or recording videos (melvo)
• Show overlay with description when files are dragged to be dropped on chats for being shared (melvo)
• Show location previews on a map (melvo)
• Open locations in user-defined way (system default, in-app, web) (melvo)
• Delete media that is only captured for sending but not sent (melvo)
• Add voice message recorder to message input field (melvo)
• Add inline audio player (melvo)
• Add context menu entry for opening directory of media files (melvo)
• Show collapsible buttons to send media/locations inside of message input field (melvo)
• Move button for adding hidden message part to new collapsible button area (melvo)

Bugfixes:

• Fix index out of range error in message search (taibsu)
• Fix updating last message information in contact list (melvo)
• Fix multiple corrections of the same message (melvo, taibsu)
• Request delivery receipts for pending messages (melvo)
• Fix sorting roster items (melvo)
• Fix displaying spoiler messages (melvo)
• Fix displaying errors and encryption warnings for messages (melvo)
• Fix fetching messages from server’s archive (melvo)
• Fix various encryption problems (melvo)
• Send delivery receipts for catched up messages (melvo)
• Do not hide last message date if contact name is too long (melvo)
• Fix displaying emojis (melvo)
• Fix several OMEMO bugs (melvo)
• Remove all locally stored data related to removed accounts (melvo)
• Fix displaying media preview file names/sizes (melvo)
• Fix disconnecting from server when application window is closed including timeout on connection problems (melvo)
• Fix media/location sharing (melvo)
• Fix handling emoji message reactions (melvo)
• Fix moving pinned chats (fazevedo)
• Fix drag and drop for files and pasting them (melvo)
• Fix sending/displaying media in selected order (lnj, melvo)

Notes:

• Kaidan is REUSE-compliant now
• Kaidan requires Qt 5.15 and QXmpp 1.9 now

Download

• Source code (.tar.xz) (sig signed with 04EFAD0F7A4D9724)
• Linux (Flatpak on Flathub)

Or install Kaidan for your distribution:

Hey team!

Back with a series of updates on the Plasma Design System work that we are doing. All videos contain English captions.

Leave your feedback or let us know if you have any questions.

This time, it’s a short one: We ported KPhotoAlbum to Qt6/KF6. That’s it ;-)

The port itself has been done by Johannes and me, additional commits have been contributed by Randall Rude and Fabian Würfl. Thanks for working on KPA with us!

One thing that’s worth mentioning is: For the map/geodata functionality, we need Marble. The Qt5/KF5 version of Marble can’t be co-installed with the Qt6/KF6 version, and this one is not released yet. But Marble 24.12.0 (which will be the first official Qt6/KF6 release) will be released in a few days. So just wait until it's out before upgrading to KPA 6, to not lose the map parts.

Maybe, the Qt6/KF6 version contains some regressions. The codebase is quite well advanced in years in some parts, and we had to mess with quite some legacy issues to make the whole thing fit for Qt6/KF6. So if you notice anything, please file a respective bug report and/or contact us via our mailing list or Matrix channel (cf. User support → Communication). Thanks for your participation (hopefully, it won’t be necessary too much).

Have a lot of fun with KPhotoAlbum 6 :-)

— Tobias

Plasma Wayland Protocols 1.15.0 is now available for packaging. It is needed for the forthcoming KDE Frameworks.

URL: https://download.kde.org/stable/plasma-wayland-protocols/
SHA256: e5aedfe7c0b2443aa67882b4792d08814570e00dd82f719a35c922a0993f621e Signed by: E0A3EB202F8E57528E13E72FD7574483BB57B18D Jonathan Riddell jr@jriddell.org

Full changelog:

• Add a request to create a virtual output stream with description
• Add alpine CI
• Add modifier information to keystate
• gitignore: use same as KWin
• Add a destructor to appmenu manager
• Add protocol tests
• Add CI for static builds on Linux

Lots of KDE hacking these days, and that comes with compiling large amounts of code. Right now, I am installing, well building from source Plasma Mobile on an “old” laptop so I can test some patches natively on a touchscreen device. The machine has just two cores (hyperthreaded), so builds take rather long, especially if you build Qt and all that 80+ packages that are needed for a fully working Plasma system.
One of the tools that do an incredible job while being super flexible to use is icecream. Icecream (or “icecc“) allows you to distribute your build over multiple machines, it basically ships compile-jobs with all that’s needed to other machines on a local network, meaning you can parallelize your builds.

Icecream has this nice visualization tool, called icecream-monitor which you can stare at while your builds are running (in case you don’t have anyone handy for a sword-fight). In the screenshot you can see manta, the underpowered laptop doing a 32 parallel job build over the network. miro is my heavy workstation, 8 cores and 128GB of RAM, it duely gets the bulk of the work assigned, frame is my (Framework) laptop, which is also quite beefy, gets something to do too, but not taxed as heavily as that build monster in my basement office.
Icecream can be used with most environments that have you run your compiler locally. Different distros are no problem! Just a matching CPU architecture is needed. Icecream does its job by providing its own g++ and gcc binaries, which will relay the build jobs transparently to either your local machine or across the network. So you basically install it, adjust your PATH variable to make sure icecc’s g++ is found before your system’s compiler and start your build. Other machines you want to join in for the fun just need to run icecc-scheduler and they will be automatically discovered as build slaves on your network. If you want to further speed up builds, it works with ccache as well.

Please note that you only want to do this in a trusted environment, we’re shipping executables around the network without authorization!

KStars v3.7.4 is released on 2024.12.05 for Windows, MacOS & Linux. It's a bi-monthly bug-fix release with a couple of exciting features.

Technology isn't just for people in technical fields like computer science or IT; it's for anyone with a technical mindset, a passion for technology, and a visionary outlook. Whether you're a beginner or an expert, there are countless opportunities in the tech world for those who think critically and want to make an impact. One of the best ways to get involved and grow in the tech field is through tech communities. These groups provide valuable networking, learning, and collaboration opportunities that can help you expand your skills, connect with like-minded individuals, and reshape how you view both technology and the world.

A Quick Story

It all started in my final year of university, just after the lockdown ended and everyone returned to campus. As I got back into the swing of college life, I couldn't help but notice the seniors and some students from departments like CS and IT. They were involved in some really cool projects and seemed to be living the kind of tech-driven lifestyle I aspired to. What stood out to me even more was the confidence and swag they had, which sparked my curiosity.

This curiosity led me to explore further, and thats when I discovered tech communities. I realized these communities were not just for students in tech departmentsthey were spaces where anyone interested in technology could grow, build networks, and access amazing opportunities. They also hosted some incredible tech events that provided a unique atmosphere to learn and experience tech in ways I hadnt before.

And thats how my journey into the world of tech communities began. Lets dive into what these communities are all about, how they can help you grow, and how you can get involved.

Understanding tech communities and why they matter.

Tech communities are groups of people who share a passion for technology, innovation, and digital trends. These communities exist across nearly every field in technology, from software to hardware, providing a space where individuals can connect, collaborate, and grow together. By joining a tech community, you gain access to a platform that helps you expand your network, deepen your knowledge, and share your own ideas and experiences. This, in turn, accelerates your personal and professional development.

Now that we know what tech communities are, lets explore why theyre so important. These communities offer valuable networking opportunities, allow you to develop new skills, and expose you to exciting career opportunities in tech. They also foster open-source collaboration and innovation, helping you contribute to meaningful projects. Ultimately, tech communities are an essential part of your growth, offering both a learning environment and a supportive network for anyone passionate about technology.

My Personal Journey with Tech Communities

Heres a bit about my journey. I dove into online communities, starting by joining their social channels on platforms like Discord, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Slack, wherever they were most active. I became a member of communities like WeMakeDevs, GrowInCommunity, Keptn, GlassKube, CNCF, and KubeSimplify. I contributed to their open-source projects, took part in weekly calls, and collaborated with other members to share and discuss thought-provoking ideas.

This screenshot is from GrowinCommunity Discord call, showcasing the weekly calls and providing details on how to engage with them for the best experience in tech communities.

How tech communities have helped me grow and advance my career in tech.

My involvement in tech communities has been a pivotal part of my growth, both professionally and personally. It not only helped me advance in my tech career but also provided unique opportunities and perks, like receiving swag. These communities have been key to my overall development. For instance, I gained the confidence to speak in front of large audiences and even had the chance to present a talk on stage, which significantly improved my communication skills. Participating in hackathons pushed me to learn new skills in a short amount of time, resulting in rapid personal growth. Along the way, Ive also made some amazing friends who share the same passion for technology.

To summarize, heres how tech communities have helped me:

1. Opened doors to valuable career opportunities

2. Enhanced my communication skills

3. Helped me build lasting friendships

4. Provided opportunities to learn from others

5. Allowed me to attend incredible tech events

These experiences have been vital to my journey in tech, and I truly believe tech communities can help anyone grow in similar ways.

Here are some pictures that reflect my journey in tech so far, and none of this would have been possible without the support of the communities I belong to.

This picture is from the K8sblr event, where I was given the chance to present on the GlassKube project, a project I'm actively involved with. It was an amazing opportunity to speak to a large audience, and this is all made possible by the tech communities that arrange such events.

Taken at GitHub Field Day, this picture captures an amazing experience. The community is fantastic, and I had the chance to meet wonderful individuals and make new friends. Being part of tech communities can give you these remarkable experiences as well.

I received these amazing Google Cloud swag items by participating in their events. Your involvement in tech communities can also lead to similar awesome rewards and goodies.

Conclusion

In conclusion, being involved in tech communities has had a profound impact on my career growth. From the wealth of knowledge shared by passionate professionals to the endless networking opportunities, these communities have shaped my journey in ways I couldnt have imagined. They provide not only technical resources but also emotional support, mentorship, and a sense of belonging in the fast-paced world of technology. Whether youre just starting out or looking to level up your career, getting involved in tech communities is one of the best decisions you can make. I encourage you to take that first step join a community, participate, and experience firsthand how these connections can unlock incredible opportunities for your career. The journey is just as important as the destination, and being part of a tech community makes the path that much more rewarding.