README file for the kio-clipboard package

License: GPLv2+
Author: Christian Reiner, Hamburg, Germany
Email: [email protected]
Web: -/-

Overview:
kio-clipboard implements kio-slaves, protocols for KDEs I/O system. It makes 
the content of clipboards available inside file management. That means you can
access the clipboards entries using standard file dialogs like 'File open' or
'Save File', you even can use a file browser and access entries. In general
you can use the slaves wherever you can use an URL inside KDE to get access to
the clipboards content. There are no temporary file generated.

Motivation:
Now we all agree that this appears more like a proof of concept. At first
glance, a real value in daily use seems hard to spot. After all why not
simply use ctrl-c & ctrl-v ? Or even just left and middle click with
something mouse like, when working under linux and alike ? Actually this
project is just an experiment for myself to learn a little about kde
programming, Qt features and to get back into c++ basics after a long period
of using other environments.
However on second glance one might spot situations where this could
become interesting:
- Imagine surfing the web, you copy the URLs of say 10 images to your
clipboard. Now instead of downloading them all in advance or opening one by
one using "file open">paste URL>open you could fire dolphin, select
klipper amongst the predefined 'places' in the left panel, select the 10 URLs
at once and chose "open with KolourPaint".
- This is just a first glimpse that implements support for only one
single clipboard application: klipper. Preparations are done and it would be
fun to support additional clipboards. Things get interesting when we talk
about remote clipboards, online services or even the clipboard on your
colleagues system who works on the same project with you. This would make
data exchange really easy...
- Following this thought it turns out that this could easily act as a simple
and general API to several clipboards (paste bins). Sharing information
from within an application ? Just "Save to clipboard", select one and that's 
it! Not API to implement, nothing.
- Who spots the next situation where this might come in handy ?

Warranty: 
This software comes with no warranties. Use it at own risk.
kio-clipboard was developed and tested under KDE-4.6 running on a GNU/Linux
(openSUSE) on a x86_64 platform. I hope it works under other platforms and
environments.

State:
This is an early and definitely buggy release. Especially There are some issues 
with actions offered in file managers, "link here" does not work and I cannot 
suppress it.
There are currently no clipboards supported besides 'klipper' :-(
Since this is my very first KDE implementation please don't rip me to pieces :-)

Roadmap: 
Future versions might add further clipboard types.
Future versions might also be able to access remote (non-local) clipboards, the
current version is limited to the local (current) desktop session.

Usage:
Just enter "clipboard:/" or "klipper:/" in the location bar of for example 
dolphin or a "File open" dialog.
* "klipper:/":
This slave implements access to the standard clipboard utility under KDE4,
called 'klipper'. Communication with klipper is done via its DBus interface,
this makes it (relatively) future safe.
* "clipboard:/":
This protocol offers something like a "meta slave". It shows a kind of virtual
folder where all available clipboards are offered. Each clipboard apepars as a
classical folder, standard file operations are supported as far as they make
sense. The specific operations that might be available depend on the clipboard
accessed.