Plugin Tools
KDevelop contains a large number of little tools that help you to perform certain task. Most of them are realized as plugins. That means, if you do not need a plugin, you can disable it.
That also means, if you are looking for a functionality that should be there and isn't, then maybe it's implemented in a plugin and that plugin is disabled. For example, in the file menu there is a Quick Open feature, but only if it's enabled in the Project - Project Options dialog.
Technically, plugins are based on the KDevPlugin class defined in lib/interfaces/kdevplugin.h. The following is taken from a comment from there.
KDevPlugin is the base class for all KDevelop plugins. A plugin is a component which is loaded into KDevelop shell at startup or by request. A plugin has a scope that can be either:
Core plugins are global plugins which offer some important "core" functionality and thus are not selectable by user in plugin configuration pages.
Global plugins are plugins which require only shell to be loaded and do not operate on KDevProject interface and/or do not use project wide information. For example, the uimode plugin allows a developer to select which user interface they wish to use.
Project plugins require a project to be loaded and are usually loaded/unloaded along with the project. If a plugin operates on project-related information then it is a project plugin. The Automake Manager, for example, only needs to be active when an Automake based project is currently loaded.
As stated above, core plugins cannot be disabled. Global plugins can be enabled/disabled in -> under . Project plugins can be enabled/disabled in -> under . Active plugins can have many effects on KDevelop. Depending on their function, they may add extra menus, extra menu items, extra tool buttons, etc.
Plugins which are disabled do not clutter your menus and are not loaded into memory.
The following plugin list is generated by a small script (listplugins.sh) written by Volker Paul. All plugins have a .desktop file where information such as name and comments are written. If in the following these comments are not very useful, it is because the plugin authors made them this way.
The plugins are grouped by scope (Core, Global, Project).
Scope: Core
Scope: Global
Abbreviation Expansion. Provides support for customizable abbreviations - short words which expand into commonly needed code structures.
Documentation. The Documentation plugin offers browsing and searching in local and online documentation with support for multiple documentation systems.
FileList. Provides a list of all currently open files. (Handy when the tab bar is not quite wide enough.)
File Selector. Powerful network transparent file browser utility.
Shell Filtering and Insertion. Provides a way of manipulating editor text using commandline tools. Appears in the Tools menu.
Grep Frontend. Integrates "find|grep" in KDevelop - allows fast searching of multiple files using patterns or regular expressions.
Embedded Konsole. This plugin gives KDevelop an embedded konsole for quick and easy command line access.
"Open with" Menu Addon. This plugin provides additional "open" alternatives for various context menus in KDevelop.
Part Explorer Tool. A Graphical tool for performing KTrader-like queries about registered services
Regular Expression Tester. Tool to design and test regular expressions against common regexp syntaxes.
Replace Part. This plugin is an interactive projectwide "Search and Replace" tool. Search using string or regexp matching, and select the replacements to be made from a preview before the action is finalized. When loaded it appears in the Edit menu.
Scripting. The Scripting plugin offers KScript based scripting of the KDevelop application
Code Snippets. This plugin allows you to store code snippets and add them to your code
Text Structure. Provides a structure overview and navigation for HTML and TEX files
Tools Menu Addition. This plugin provides an easy way to add external applications to the Tools menu and toolbar.
Valgrind Frontend. Valgrind is a tool that helps you find memory management problems in programs. http://developer.kde.org/~sewardj/
Scope: Project
Source Code Formatter. A plugin for formatting of sourcecode according to a specified set of rules. When loaded it is found in the Tools menu.
Bookmarks. Plugin that provides navigation and overview of active source bookmarks and persists them between sessions.
Class View. This plugin displays a graphical view of all the classes in the project, complete with methods and attributes, and provides a way of direct source navigation.
CopyTo. Simple file uploader plugin. It does a file copy over any KIO supported protocol.
CTags Frontend. CTags is a source navigation tool with support for many languages. When loaded it provides a context menu for finding type declarations/definitions and also a query dialog. http://ctags.sourceforge.net/
Final Packaging Support. Aids in building and publishing the final project. Only RPM package format is supported for now.
Doxygen Support. The doxygen plugin provides a way to specify and control generation of documentation for a project, based on source code content. You need to have doxygen installed to be able to use this. For more info goto http://www.doxygen.org
QuickOpen. Provides an efficient way of finding/opening files, classes and methods in a large project. Appears in the File and Tools menus when loaded.
So far the generated plugin list.
Table E.1. Project Management Plugins in KDevelop
| antproject | ANT Project Manager (Java™ applications) |
| autoproject | Automake Project Manager |
| customproject | Custom Project Manager |
| trollproject | QMake based Project Manager |
The above plugins are currently (May 2005) empty. Maybe project management support will be implemented as plugins in the future.
Table E.2. Language Support Plugins in KDevelop
| cppsupport | Support for C/C++ |
| fortransupport | Support for Fortran |
| javasupport | Support for Java™ |
| perlsupport | Support for Perl |
| phpsupport | Support for PHP |
| pythonsupport | Support for Python |
In the following, some of the plugins will be discussed in detail.
The abbrev Plugin.
This plugin expands abbreviations into frequently used code snippets. It is
activated by pressing Ctrl-Space. For example, when you enter
"ife" into a C++ in the editor and press
Ctrl-Space, you obtain
an if-else code template and save some key strokes. The set
of supported abbreviations depends on the programming language of the edited
file. For example, for PHP you will obviously be interested in other code
templates than for Java™.
The set of code templates is configurable. If the plugin is enabled, you can see which ones are available in the -> dialog under .
The filter Plugin. This offers two features. If you select ->, you can enter a shell command. The output of this command is inserted into the editor buffer when you hit the button.
A related feature is available under ->. In order to use this, you must select a text area in the editor. If you now enter a shell command and hit the button, the command is started and the selection used as the standard input for it. The standard output of the command is then inserted into the editor, replacing the selection.
For example, if you write documentation, you frequently have to refer to menu items. To do this correctly for e.g. the Copy command in the Edit menu, you have to write:
<menuchoice><guimenu>Edit</guimenu><guimenuitem>Copy</guimenuitem></menuchoice>
This is cumbersome, so you'd rather just write "Edit - Copy" and let the computer do the tagging. Here is how you can do it. You write a little shell script called mef you put e.g. in your home's bin directory:
sed s/"^\(.*\) - \(.*\)\$"/"<menuchoice><guimenu>\1<\/guimenu><guimenuitem>\2<\/guimenuitem><\/menuchoice>"/
Don't forget to make it executable. That's all. Now, in your documentation .docbook source, you write "Edit - Copy". You select this text you just wrote, choose -> and call ~/bin/mef. Instantly "Edit - Copy" is replaced by
<menuchoice><guimenu>Edit</guimenu><guimenuitem>Copy</guimenuitem></menuchoice>
The Doxygen Plugin.
This one helps you to use the Doxygen API documentation tool
(http://www.doxygen.org). You can select
-> to generate API
documentation for your current project, based on the configuration given by
the file Doxyfile in your project directory.
Furthermore, you can configure Doxygen in the -> dialog. This dialog is very similar to the doxywizard tool.
The ctags Plugin. Although the class browser gives you extensive insight into the symbols and classes of your project, you may also want to use the ctags tool. In particular, this one supports a lot more language than the class browser.
You activate this plugin under ->. When you start it the first
time, you will be asked to generate a search database first. When you accept
this, the ctags program will be started and will create a file named
tags in your project directory. This is a text file containing
all symbols of your source files.
You can search in the symbol database in two ways: when the
Regular expression match box is checked, the text you
enter will be interpreted as a regular expression (POSIX flavor) and matched
with the existing symbols. For example, the text .*Widget
will search for all symbols ending with Widget. If the
box is not checked, the search will be verbatim.
When searching, you will get a list of the matched symbols, accompanied with the line numbers where they are defined. You jump to the respective point by clicking on the list.
For some languages, ctags distinguishes different kinds of symbols. For example, Python has classes and functions. You can selectively search only for classes by checking the respecting kinds in the dialog.
The symbol database is normally not updated when your sources change.
Consequently, after a while the line numbers will not be correct anymore
and newly added classes and functions will be missing. Therefore you should
update the tags file in regular intervals by pressing
the button .
The astyle Plugin. Astyle is a plugin for formatting of sourcecode according to a specified set of rules.
The regexptest Plugin. Designing with regular expressions can be hard work. Often the first try at an expression matches too many strings. In particular, when working with a compiled language, the turnaround times when debugging a regular expression can be awkward. The regexptest plugin allows you to directly explore the changes in a regular expression. It is activated by choosing ->.
In the flavor group box, you can choose the flavor of the regular expression engine used. Currently supported is the flavor defined in the POSIX standard, which is used by the grep program, and the extended POSIX syntax used by the program egrep.
When you enter an expression, you get immediate feedback about any syntax
errors in it. By entering a text under Test string,
you can see whether the expression matches this string. In particular, if
your regular expression includes groups, such as ([a-z]),
the content of the matched subgroups will be shown in a list box.
