Frerich Raabe
Copyright © 2001 Frerich Raabe
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".
KNewsTicker is a news ticker applet for the KDE 2.x panel (also known as Kicker).
Table of Contents
Introduction
KNewsTicker is an applet for the KDE panel (also known as Kicker) which provides an easy and convenient way to access the news as reported by many news sites (such as Slashdot, Linux Weekly News or Freshmeat).
To archieve this, KNewsTicker requires the news sites to provide a special RDF or RSS file, which contains the headlines as well as pointers to the corresponding full articles. Such files are very common these days, and KNewsTicker already comes with a selection of good news sources which provide such files.
RDF files are becoming more and more popular these days, and this applet is not the first application which takes advantage of them. But what are RDF files? This section tries to give a brief answer to this questions, as well as pointers to other sources for further reference.
RDF is an acronym for “Resource Definition Framework ”. It has been invented by the World Wide Web Consortium and is one of the first applications of the Extended Markup Language ( XML)). RDF files (as well as the very similiar RSS files) define and describe so-called Metadata, e.g. information about information.
RDF files can be used for all kinds of Metadata, not just news. Nevertheless, they have become very popular among the news sites as they provide a clean, simple and portable way to distribute news. The news sites provide a RDF file which basically contains a set of records, and each record consists of a headline and an URL which points to the complete article. Besides that, the RDF file contains also the official name of the news site as well as other general informations which are parsed and evaluated by KNewsTicker.
Of course, this is only a short and highly incomplete attempt at explaining the basic ideas behind RDF files and Metadata. If you're interested in this topic, you might want to visit any of the following links which point to further and more complete sources on this:
- http://www.oasis-open.org/cover/rdf.html
This page is a fairly well explanation of the Resource Definition Framework and provides a great list of links to more sites which deal with this topic. No special knowledge is needed to understand this page, and it's highly up to date.
- http://www.ccil.org/~cowan/XML/RDF-made-easy.html
Here you can find a more pratical point of view on the Resource Definition Framework. This page demonstrates the usage of RDF files and shows why and when they are appropriate. The reader should be familiar with the XML 1.0 standard as defined by the World Wide Web Consortium before reading this text.
- http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/mingfai/rdf/
This is a great and very comprehensive list of sites which deal with RDF files. You might want to consider bookmarking this page for further reference, as it's also fairly up to date and lists virtually no dead links.
- http://www.w3.org/RDF/
The authoratative source directly from the World Wide Web Consortium. It features a comprehensive list of links to other sites on the topic as well as a timeline of the RDF development, an overview over the architecture, an archive with articles about RDF as well as a carefully assembled list of tools for developers who intend to work with RDF.
If you find any other sites or documents on this topic, don't hesitate to send them to Frerich Raabe <raabe@kde.org> so that they can be included in this document and help everybody.
Thank you very much!
Starting KNewsTicker
KNewsTicker is started like every other Kicker applet, you just have to add it to the panel (or any child panel of the main one). To do so, just choose News Ticker from the Applet submenu of Kicker.
Another good way to use KNewsTicker is to put it into it's own child panel. Just add a new child panel by choosing Add->Extension->Child Panel from the context menu of Kicker. Now you can simply load KNewsTicker into the child panel as described above.
Configuring KNewsTicker
As KNewsTicker aims for tight system integration, there is more than one way to adjust the way it works:
- Via KControl
Start KControl by clicking on the
button in the KDE panel or choose the corresponding entry
in the K menu. Then browse to the KNewsTicker module in the
tree view at the left by choosing News Ticker in the
Personalization submenu.- With the right mouse button
You can open the context menu for KNewsTicker by clicking on it with the right mouse button, or clicking on the button with the arrow on it and choose the the entry labelled
Preferences in the menu.
No matter what way you've chosen to access the configuration dialog, you will be presented the first tab of the preferences dialog, labelled General. Here you can define how fast the text should be scrolled around, what it should look like as well as other options for the applet. Here is a brief info on what each of the switches and buttons on this tab does:
- News query interval
Here you can define in what intervals KNewsTicker queries the configured news sources for new headlines. This depends generally on how fast you'd like to hear about news and how much load you want to put on the network:
A lower value (lower than 15 minutes) enables you to be notified about news very quickly if you want or need to. Please note, that it increases the network traffic significantly, though. Therefore, such low values shouldn't be used if you query popular news sites (such as Slashdot or Freshmeat) as they have generally already enough work with processing the incoming queries.
A higher value (higher than 45 minutes) won't make you hear about news that quick. For non-timecritical applications, it should be suitable, though. The positive aspect of longer intervals is that only very little load is put on the network; this saves resources and nerves, for you and the system administrators of the news sites you query.
Tip
The default value (30 minutes) should be appropriate and reasonable in most cases.
- Use custom names for news sites
Check this box to make the news ticker use the names you specified in the list of news sources (available on the tab labelled News sources) instead of the ones the news sites themselves report. This can be handy for news sites which report a very long or useless name.
- Endless scrolling
Check this box to avoid that ugly break and the end of the scrolling (when all the headlines have appeared once). If endless scrolling is enabled and the last headline has been shown, KNewsTicker will attach the first headline to the end of the scrolling text.
- Scroll the most recent headlines only
Check this button to show just the most recent headline for each news site, instead of showing every headline available from every news site.
- Scrolling speed
This slider lets you define how fast the scrolltext should be scrolling. If you have rather little space on your taskbar (and therefore a rather small news ticker), you should probably set this to a lower value so that you have a chance to read the headlines. For wider news tickers (and better eyes), a faster text is probably appropriate so that you have to wait for the next headline only as little as possible.
Note
This value defines, after which period of time the text shall be scrolled a little bit further, e.g. this value is antiproportional. This means that lower values result in a faster scrolling text.
- Direction of scrolling
These options allow you to define in what direction the text should be scrolled, e.g. to the left or to the right, upwards or downwards.
- Scrolltext font
Click on the button at the right labelled "Choose font..." to choose the font which will be used for the scrolling text.
Tip
Certain fonts are harder to read that others, especially when they're used for a scrolltext, so you should probably choose a font which can even easily be read if it's moving.
- Foreground color
Click this button open a convenient color-selection dialog which lets you choose the color which will be used for the foreground of the scrolling text (e.g. the color of the text itself).
- Background color
Click this button to open a convenient color-selection dialog which lets you choose the color which will be used for the background of the scrolling text.
- Highlighted color
Click this button to open a convenient color-selection dialog which lets you choose the color which will be used for the color of the headlines when they are highlighted (when you move the mouse over them).
- Underline highlighted headline
Check this box to have the currently highlighted headline (e.g. the headline which is currently under the mouse cursor) underlined.
Configuration Of The News Sources
Besides the options available on the General tab, there are even more ways to customize KNewsTicker to fit your needs available on the News sources tab. This page mainly consists of a table which lets you manage and maintain the list of news sites KNewsTicker queries for news. Click on any entry with the right mouse button to open a context menu which lets you remove the current entry, or add a new entry with the properties of the selected entry.
At the bottom you can also find two buttons with an 
up arrow and another one with
an arrow which points downwards. These two buttons allow
you to move the entries in the list upwards and downwards, which is useful if
you would like to define a specific order in which KNewsTicker loads the
news sites.
Tip
If you have the applet started, you can play around with the settings now. Pressing Apply makes the applet use the new settings immediately, you don't have to restart it.
There are four ways to add a new news site to the list:
You can click on the button labbeled Add at the bottom.
You can click with the right mouse button on the table and choose Add news source. This adds a new entry and sets the name to “Unknown”.
You can click with the right mouse button on any entry in the list and choose Add news source to add a new entry which has the same properties as the entry you clicked on.
You can drag any RDF or RSS file from another application (such as Konqueror) onto the table. This adds a new entry to the list, sets the name to “Unknown” and sets the maximum number of articles to 10.
To edit an existing entry in the list, you can use the input fields at the right, which are in the box labelled General . They're normally deactivated, as long as you didn't select any news site in the list. As soon as you select one, though, the input fields are enabled and you can edit the properties of the selected news site as you wish:
The topmost input field which is labelled Name: lets you edit the name of the news site. The name defined here will be used if the applet was unable to connect to the news site, or if the checkbox Use custom names for news sites (on the General tab) has been checked.
The input field below lets you edit the URL which points to the RDF or RSS file to be used for the entry. You can change this string either by hand (e.g. by typing in the input field) or by clicking on the small button at the right of it (which has a folder icon on it). That button opens a convenient file-selection dialog which lets you browse to the desired file
Finally, there's a place to define the number of articles KNewsTicker should download and keep from the news site. The default is 10 articles, but it might be reasonable to adjust this value for some news sites.
When you change the value/text in any of these input fields, you can see the change take effect immediately in the list.
Of course you want to remove a news source from the list somewhen. To do this, you can either
click with the right mouse button on the entry you would like to delete and choose Remove news source from the popup menu.
select the entry you intend to erase with the left mouse button and then click on the button and the bottom of the list labelled Remove.
Using KNewsTicker
Using KNewsTicker is fairly straightforward and should give you no big problems, assuming that you already configured KNewsTicker No matter whether you are running KNewsTicker in the main panel or it's own child panel, it appears as an area with a scrolling text and a button with a small arrow next to it.
The area (it is white per default, but you can change the background color easily using the preferences dialog) with the scrolling text in it is called the “news scroller”. It keeps scrolling the downloaded headlines (or just the most recent headlines) continuously and provides easy access to the articles. If you see an interesting article, just click on it to open the Konqueror web browser, showing the full article which belongs to the headline you clicked on. If you feel that a possibly interesting headline just scrolled out of view, you have also some ways to influence the scrolling:
You can click on the news scroller with the left mouse button and move the mouse around (while holding the left mouse button pressed down). The news scroller will continue scrolling as usual if you release the left mouse button again.
If you own a so-called “Wheelmouse”, you can use the wheel on your mouse to scroll the headlines back and forth.
There's also a very powerful context menu , which you can access either by clicking on the news scroller with the right mouse button, or by clicking on the arrow button with the left button. This context menu is the most interesting part of the applet, as it contains about all the functionality.
The Context Menu
The context menu is basically split into two functional parts:
The upper part shows a list of entries, each entry having a small icon like
this 
next to it. This list represents
the list of currently configured news sites. You can click on any of the news
sources to open another menu which contains a listing of headlines which are
available for that particular news site as well as an entry labelled
Check news to
refresh the headline list for this news site. Each of the headlines has an
icon next to it which indicates whether you
have read that article already or the 
in case it is still
unread.
The lower part shows currently four entries (explaining from top to bottom):
- Check news
This entry has a little
next to it. If you want to
force KNewsTicker to check the configured news sites for new articles, you can
click here.Note
This does not reset the internal timer which queries the news sites for new headlines automatically in certain intervals.
- Offline mode
This entry in the context menu has no icon associated to it. Click this button to enable a special ‘offline mode’ which pauses the internal timer for querying the news sites and prevents any automatical download of new headlines. The offline mode comes in handy if you have to leave your computer for a while during which the system isn't connected to the Internet, as it saves you from all the error messages which pop up if any of the news sites couldn't be connected.
Tip
You can still force a reload for single news sites as well as for all the news sites by selecting the respective
Check news entry.
Help This entry is marked with a small
. Clicking
on this entry opens the KNewsTicker documentation (which you're reading in
this moment) which details all the features and abilities of KNewsTicker.
AboutThis entry is marked with a small
, too. Selecting it opens a small
dialog which lists the contributors of KNewsTicker as well as the copyright
and the license.-
Preferences
This entry is easily recognizable due to the
icon which
is next to it. Select this entry to open the preferences dialog which lets you
customize all of the properties for
KNewsTicker
Frequently Asked Questions
| 5.1. | Where do I find the RDF file for the news site XY? |
It's actually possible that the news site you're referring to doesn't provide any RDF or RSS file at all! Nevertheless you might want to check http://www.webreference.com/services/news for a more or less comprehensive list of sites on the web which provide a RDF or RSS file. Another great resource for RDF files is http://www.xmltree.com, where you can find hundreds of RDF and RSS files, sorted by language and/or topic. If you found any interesting news sites which provide such a backend, though, don't hesitate to send them to Frerich Raabe <raabe@kde.org > so that they can be included in future releases. Thank you! |
Credits And License
KNewsTicker
Program copyright 2000, 2001 Frerich Raabe <raabe@kde.org>
Contributors:
Malte Starostik <malte.starostik@t-online.de>
Wilco Greven <greven@linux.org>
Documentation copyright 2001 Frerich Raabe <raabe@kde.org>
This documentation is licensed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.
This program is licensed under the terms of the BSD License.
Glossary
This chapter is intended to explain the various acronyms which have been used throughout the KNewsTicker documentation. If you feel any acronyms or terms are missing here, please don't hesitate to send an email to Frerich Raabe <raabe@kde.org> so that they can be added. Thank you.
- RDF
Resource Description Framework. A language derived from XML which describes metadata. Commonly used as a backend format for articles and other publications. For more detailed information on RDF files, you might want to read the brief info on RDF files, or go directly to the official page on RDF files at the World Wide Web Consortium.
- RSS
The RDF Site Summary is actually an extension to the RDF language. Quoting the official RSS v1.0 specification:
‘RDF Site Summary (RSS) is a lightweight multipurpose extensible metadata description and syndication format. RSS is an XML application, conforms to the W3C's RDF Specification and is extensible via XML-namespace and/or RDF based modularization.’
- XML
The Extensible Markup Language is the ‘universal format for structured documents and data on the Web’. It's a derivate of SGML which fits the need of the world wide web. You might want to check the the Extensible Markup Language page at the World Wide Web Consortium for further information.
- W3C
An abbreviation for ‘World Wide Web Consortium’ Quoting the official homepage of the W3C, ‘the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) develops interoperable technologies (specifications, guidelines, software, and tools) to lead the Web to its full potential as a forum for information, commerce, communication, and collective understanding’
- URL
URL stands for ‘Uniforme Resource Locator’, a specially formatted string which can reference resources like images, documents and other things on the Internet. Please refer to the respective webpage for more detailed information on this topic.
- DCOP
The Desktop COmmunication Protocol is a way for applications to communicate to each other. For instance, KNewsTicker's configuration dialog uses DCOP to tell the applet itself about the current configuration. For more detailled information on DCOP you might want to visit http://developer.kde.org/documentation/library/2.0-api/dcop/HOWTO.html for a complete explanation of DCOP.
Installation
KNewsTicker is part of the KDE project http://www.kde.org/.
KNewsTicker can be found in the kdenetwork package on ftp://ftp.kde.org/pub/kde/, the main FTP site of the KDE project.
Requirements
If you want to install KNewsTicker, you need at least a KDE 2.1 installation.
If you intend to compile and install KNewsTicker yourself, you have to make sure that the following programs are present on your system:
g++ 2.8 / egcs 1.0.3 (or compatible)
GNU make
autoconf 2.1
automake 1.4
Qt 2.2.x
KDE 2.1
Compilation And Installation
KNewsTicker is part of the kdenetwork package of KDE 2.1 and is installed together with it. In general, there is no need for the user to compile the sourcecode of KNewsTicker by hand. If you nevertheless intend to 1do so or if you have only the sourcecode available, compilation and installation is, as usual on Linux®, done by typing:
In order to compile and install KNewsTicker on your system, type the following in the base directory of the KNewsTicker distribution:
% ./configure % make % make install
Since KNewsTicker uses autoconf and automake you should have no trouble compiling it. Should you run into problems please report them to the KDE mailing lists.
Information For Developers And Advanced Users
KNewsTicker features a currently rather limited but steadily growing DCOP interface. This is not only used to communicate with other applications, it makes it possible to control KNewsTicker with a shellscript as well. The more the interface is extended, the more useful it will become and the more flexible KNewsTicker will be controllable from a script.
To use these DCOP functions you can either use the dcop commandline program or use the more convenient KDCOP application. Both provide the same functionality so it's actually just a matter of taste which program you prefer. :-)
This chapter assumes that you're using the commandline program dcop. To access KNewsTicker's DCOP functions make sure that KNewsTicker is started and then just enter something like this at the console:
% dcop knewsticker KNewsTicker [function]
Note
If an error appears that tells you that dcop couldn't be found or executed, please check whether the file dcop exists in $KDEDIR/bin and make sure it's permissions are appropriately set.
In that command line, just replace ‘[function]’ with the respective function name, i.e. type
% dcop knewsticker KNewsTicker updateNews
to make KNewsTicker check for new news and download them if neccessary.
So, here's (finally) the complete list of all the DCOP which KNewsTicker provides:
- updateNews
This function forces KNewsTicker to updates the internal list of articles (e.g. it queries the list of news sources which has been configured for new news) and downloads them when neccessary.
Note
This also works if KNewsTicker is currently in offline mode.
Example:
% dcop knewsticker KNewsTicker updateNews
- reparseConfig
The reparseConfig command makes KNewsTicker reload it's configuration from the configuration file. This function is used by the configuration dialog to talk to KNewsTicker but you can use it in case you modified the configuration file by hand.
Tip
The configuration file is saved in ~/.kde/share/config/knewstickerrc
Example:
% dcop knewsticker KNewsTicker reparseConfig
- setOfflineMode [bool]
You can call this function to define whether KNewsTicker is currently in the offline mode (e.g. whether KNewsTicker should query the configured news sites for new news).
Example:
% dcop knewsticker KNewsTicker setOfflineMode true
to enable the offline mode, or type
% dcop knewsticker KNewsTicker setOfflineMode false
to disable offline mode.