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LINUXUSER KTools: 3.4

Working with Konqueror 3.4 KONQUERORING WORLDS

Following in the tracks of previous invaders such as Navigator and the , Kon- queror is on a mission conquer the Internet. The KDE 3.4 version of Konqueror is a truly versatile tool that feels at home on the web.

BY HAGEN HÖPFNER

any have criticized the fact that top command Internet Explorer is inseparably headquarters is Mlinked with the Windows sys- part of the kdebase tem. KDE has its own native browser, package, and the and though Konqueror’s position in the version number world of is not quite as dominant for the package as IE’s is in Windows, the latest version reflects the KDE www.sxc.hu of Konqueror provides new features for version you have integrating Konqueror with user experi- installed. The ence. This article examines some practi- major distributors cal and lesser known features of Kon- all have matching queror on the KDE 3.4 desktop. numbers, even though they may not has KDE-3.4 packages for version 8.2 or have the latest offerings. So if you are newer of their distribution [2]. Users Setting Up interested in checking out the latest KDE with Linux first need to enable Installing KDE automatically puts Kon- 3.4 version, be prepared for some man- the new KDE version, which is not yet queror on your hard disk. The KDE desk- ual steps. tagged as stable, before running emerge While I was to install the current desktop environ- writing this arti- ment. cle, the KDE Proj- ect FTP server at Starting Up [1] had binaries There are numerous ways of starting for Fedora Core3 Konqueror. The and the Home entry and Connectiva. in the KDE start menu take you to Kon- Experienced users queror in its filesystem browser guise. who have a day to You can also pop up a quick launch win- spare for building dow (Alt+F2), and type an Internet the packages may address, to launch Konqueror in web be interested in browsing mode. The Internet | Web the KDE source Browser (Konqueror) entry, or the kon- code, which is queror command prompt, both take you available from the to Konqueror’s new start-up screen (Fig- same address. ure 1). When Konqueror comes up, it Figure 1: Konqueror after launching without a view profile. Suse Linux now gives you to important places and

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Table 2: Kioslaves for Accessing Filesystems kioslave Task audiocd Displays the tracks on an audio CD camera Accesses images on a digital cam- era with gphoto2 supvport; this assumes that gphoto2 is installed floppy Access floppies using mtools mac Access HFS formatted partitions using the hfsplus tools tar Navigate tar archives just like nor- mal directories; this kioslave auto- matically uses the compression slaves listed in Table 4 if necessary

Figure 2: Konqueror in its tabbed web browsing guise. next time you click the icon, Konqueror tasks, allowing you to access both your view profile | for a will come up in your preferred view home and the individual KDE Konqueror session with a split panel file- mode. Control Center modules. system tree view. The default setting is less than intui- Kioslaves View Profiles tive, as both panels show you the same Special modules called kioslaves extend The option of using multiple view pro- directory, and if you change directory, the functionality of Konqueror. Konquer- files is extremely useful. The Settings you do so for both panels. To change or’s kioslaves let you access networks, menu has three items titled Load view this, you need to click on one of the packed archives, audio CDs [3], and profile, Save view profile “xyz”, and Con- check boxes below and to the right of cameras with gphoto2 [4] support. Kio- figure view profiles. xyz represents the the views. slaves are the input/ output modules. name of the current profile. The KDE 3.4 If the predefined profiles are not to Each kioslave is responsible for a single default configuration has six pre-config- your liking, you can easily save your pre- protocol, which does not need to be a ured view profiles. For example, Tabbed ferred settings in an additional profile. network protocol. The kio library has the Browsing (Figure 2) gives you a Kon- To do so, first set the view to reflect your advantage of allowing any KDE program queror web surfing session with tabs. preferences – you might like to add a ter- to access the individual modules, remov- Compare this with the traditional minal , for example. Then select ing the need for developers to concern filesystem browsing window the File Configure view profiles and type a name themselves with the intricacies of the Management view profile gives. You for your profile. The name is then added various protocols and the headache of can also display an embedded command to the submenu for Load view profile. To integrating the protocols in their applica- line window in this mode by selecting ensure that Konqueror launches with tions. Window | Show Terminal Emulator your favorite profile when you click the To find out which of these friendly (Figure 3). desktop icon, you now need to set the helpers Konqueror knows, type help:kio- The KDE development view is a vari- ’s --profile parameter. To do slave in the location bar of the program. ant of the tabbed browsing view that so, change the command line for the Konqueror will display a list with all the automatically takes you to the KDE icon to konqueror --profile my_view; the kioslaves it recognizes. In fact, you are developer documentation tool. And fans of the legacy Commander tool might like to check out Settings | Load

Table 1: Displaying Information kioslave Task finger Displays information on individual users; you need to have the finger installed and the fingerd running help Calls the KDE help system info Accesses the system’s infopage in the Konqueror location bar man Displays the manpage for a command Figure 3: Konqueror as a file manager with terminal emulator.

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of kioslaves that compressed format. By default, the file give users access manager will access freedb, an Internet to generic infor- database with information on artist and mation. track names for audio CDs. This allows Konqueror to add accurate and descrip- Konquering tive ID3 tags. As Fedora does not have the MP3 support by default, users with the Filesystem Fedora distribution will not see an MP3 Konqueror can folder. display content Table 2 has a list of kioslaves formatted for that emulate filesystems. Among others, partitions, audio the list includes a kioslave that gives you CDs, and cam- easy access to any cameras with gphoto2 eras. For exam- support. Typing camera:/ in the Kon- ple, there is a queror location bar first auto-detects the mac kioslave for device before going on to display the accessing media folders and the image files they contain. Figure 4: Konqueror as a help center. formatted with Apple’s HFS+ Network Specialist actually using one of them right now – filesystem. For this feature to work, you Konqueror also gives you easy access to help:, which gives you direct access to do need to have the hfsplus tools on your network resources. The program not the KDE Help System. help: system, as the kioslave leverages the only understands the http and ftp proto- takes you to the help files for the KDE hfsplus functionality. cols, but also provides access to a mail- screenshot tool. If you are not looking You can type audiocd:/ in the location box on an IMAP server if you type for help on a KDE application, but need bar to view the tracks on an audio CD. imap:// username@server in the location the manpage of an infopage for another Depending on the codecs and tools you bar. If you have an IMAP account, sim- command instead, there is a kio- have installed, this will give you a series ply replace username with your own slave to handle this task. Type man:/ su of folders with virtual files in flac, mp3, user ID and server with the name of your in the Konqueror location bar to access or ogg format. The files in these subfold- IMAP server (Figure 5). the HTML version of the manpage for ers are not really on the CD, but if you You can delete messages directly using the su command (Figure 4). If the search drag a file from the MP3 directory to Konqueror, just as you would with your for a keyword locates multiple manpage your disk, Konqueror actually creates the mail program. entries, Konqueror first shows you a list MP3 file on-the-fly. To do so, it first If you are more security conscious and of possible alternatives. Table 1 has a list reads the track and converts it to the wish to use an encrypted session to

Table 3: Network Protocols with Kioslave Support Table 4: Internal Kioslaves kioslave Task kioslave Task fish Uses SSH to access other machines. For example, fish:/ hoepfner@nero would bzip Access bzip compressed archives open a connection for user hoepfner to a machine called nero bzip2 Access bzip2 compressed files ftp The legacy gzip Access gzip compressed files imap Uses the Internet Message Access Protocol to access an IMAP server cgi Runs CGI programs without an imaps Encrypted access to an IMAP server active web server ldap Accesses an X.500 directory or LDAP server file Displays local files and directories nfs Accesses NFS export on a network mailto Launches your default mail editor nntp Accesses a News server. The documentation rightly warns users that NNTP print Printer information and settings access is time-consuming and heavy on network resources – displaying all the thumbnail Runs KDE to create thumbnails. groups on a leafnode installed locally took almost quarter of an hour on a Pentium M running at 1300 MHz pop3 Uses the POP protocol to access a mail account INFO pop3s Encrypted access to a POP mailbox [1] KDE 3.4: TL:rlogin Remote login to host ftp:// ftp. . org/ pub/ kde/ stable/ 3. 4/ sftp Secure FTP [2] KDE 3.4 for Suse Linux: smb Access Windows shares via ; Konqueror calls smbclient in the back- ftp:// ftp. suse. com/ pub/ suse/ i386/ ground supplementary/ KDE/ telnet Log in on a remote machine running telnetd. As passwords are transmitted in [3] More information on the audio CD the clear across telnet connections, you should use a secure fish:/ connection kioslave: instead. http:// docs. kde. org/ en/ 3. 3/ kdebase/ Access an HTTP server using the WWW Distributed Authoring and Versioning kioslave/ audiocd. protocol webdavs The encrypted variant of the WebDAV protocol [4] gphoto2: http:// www. gphoto. org/

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access your IMAP account, you will course, you can do the need the imaps kioslave to display your same thing by typing mailbox contents. Table 3 shows you the mailto:user@domain in other network protocols for which Kon- the Konqueror location queror has kioslave support. bar. This opens the KMail editor with the target Internal Kioslaves address already typed KDE programs draw heavily on kioslaves into the address field for internally. For example, clicking on a the message. You can Figure 6: Typing “print:/ ” in the Konqueror location bar takes mail address in the control center opens type print:/ to access yet you to the KDE printer manager. your preferred mail program, which is another internal KDE kio- KMail by default. KDE applications that slave. Doing so takes you straight to the queror is that the program has become do this use the mailto kioslave. And of KDE printer management tool (Figure 6). so enormous that it might take a busy Table 4 gives you a user several months to discover some of list of internal Kio- the extremely practical features the Kon- slaves. queror developers have included with this innovative application. Conclusion The Konqueror users manual is a good Konqueror is a starting point for your own adventures highly-focused and with Konqueror. Reading through the successful attempt by manual and the online help will give you the KDE developers a head start on learning some of the to implement a uni- more interesting and useful features of versal tool that can this powerful tool. You can access the handle almost any manual either via the help menu or by Figure 5: The imap kioslave lets you remove a mailbox as you file-related task. One typing help:konqueror in the Konqueror would a local directory. problem with Kon- location bar. ■

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