GSoC meetup 2015, Delhi, India

Google Summer of Code meetup 2015 was organized by +Heena Mahour  , +Ayush Gupta in association with +GDG DTU  and +WomenWhoCode at +Delhi Technological University (Formerly DCE) on 31st January, 2015. 

GSoC MeetUp 2015 was an opportunity to learn from past and present GSoC students who have actively contributed to open source projects all over the world. The meetup also provided great information for budding developers who are ready to get their hands dirty and contribute to real world projects.

It all started when +Heena Mahour  and +Ayush Gupta decided its time to give back and help others by providing a platform about the open source projects, organizations and get an exposure by other speakers as well.

So, with the help of our team members like +Minhaz A V , +Jigyasa Grover, +Garvit Khatri, +Ekta Goel and others, we made a website : http://fossdtu.github.io/ to let the attendees know about the details of GSoC meetup. We also created a speakers form for letting us know about the interested speakers.

The Google Open Source Programs Office graciously provided pens, diaries and stickers for the event. To make the speaker sessions more interactive, we distributed the goodies based on participation in a Q&A session after each talk. This also ensured that attendees listened intently to each speaker. The attendees were quite energetic as well ! 

For the meetup, we had over 8 speakers. 

As you can see in my tweet, we provided a meetup itinerary : 

#meetup Yay! Good luck to the speakers and attendees @planetkde @google @nightrose @AleixPol @fossygrl @valoriez pic.twitter.com/3PIcwfTObk

— Heena (@1011011011011) January 28, 2015

GSoC students and mentors presented a talk about their experience so far with their organizations. 

It all started with a introductory session about the open source technologies and about version control. 

It was followed by talks about +Mifos Initiative , +The KDE Community , i.e., +Heena Mahour 's experience with porting plasmoids with +Marco Martin during GSoC 2013, as a mentor and administrator in +Google Code-in  and Season of KDE ( Thanks to +Aleix Pol  and +Lydia Pintscher for being the source of inspiration ! ) . It was followed by a talk about +OWASP , IDI by +Minhaz A V , +Ayush Gupta  and +dhruv jagetiya , about +jMonkeyEngine by +Mayank Sharma and crystal space by +Naman Gupta 

We would like to pay special thanks to +Indus Valley Partners, +Gurvinder Singh and +Mohanish Singh for taking time from their busy schedule and provide a talk on stratus by +Manjinder Singh  and +Sahil Singla .

At the end, there will be a Q&A round for an interactive session. 

The main purpose for holding this event is to gather present and past gsocers at a single location along with other open source enthusiasts and offer an opportunity to share our experiences with each other.

We hope that the meetup will attract many new students to GSoC and the world of open source coding. A big thanks to all of our speakers and attendees!

-By Heena Mahour

Google Code In KDE admin team | Season of KDE admin team | Google Summer of code developer | Google Code In mentor | Season of KDE developer | Women who code delhi co-founder and organizer ( heena@womenwhocode.com ) 

Google Code In 2014 : Call for participation

 Google Code In 2014 

The Google Code-in is a contest to introduce pre-university students (ages 13-17) to the many kinds of contributions that make open source software development possible. The contest runs from December 1, 2014 to January 19, 2015. For many students the Google Code-in contest is their first introduction to open source development. 

KDE is selected among the 12 organizations, who are selected as a mentoring organization for Google Code In 2014. 


Who can mentor? 

Well, we need mentors to help the students with tasks. Mentors should be developers of KDE and should be aware of the tasks they would be creating. 



Why KDE?

KDE focuses on the development and distribution of free and open source software for desktop and portable computing, has been a proud GCI mentoring organization for the last four years. 


Who can participate ? 

Pre-university students 13-17 years old from all over the world can choose from a large pool of code, documentation, research, quality assurance and user interface tasks. The pool is created by the mentors of the participating open source organizations who continue to add to it throughout the contest. A task is a set of work in one of the above five categories that can be completed in a short time, taking approximately a few hours to a day to complete. In addition to self-contained tasks, task series are also created where similar work is split into several tasks or related work is split into sequential tasks. This way all sorts of work can be converted into manageable pieces for open source newbies.

Directions for mentors :

• discuss tasks with the related team to let others know what you are upto

• subscribe to kde-soc-mentor@kde.org

• create a mentor account at Google-melange

Directions for students( from 1 december onwards )  : 

• Create a student account at Google-melange

• Go through the tasks provided by KDE

• Explore, discuss your doubts with the assigned mentor and #kde-soc as required

• Complete the task and repeat ;) 

Good luck !
- Google Code In - KDE - organisation administrator  

Call for application in Pairs : A final reminder

If you are planning to start contributing to open source or a GSoC 2015 aspirant , you are at the right place ! Season of KDE is now accepting applications !

Student application deadline: 5 November 2014, 12pm UTC.
To head, start from season.kde.org . 

Season of KDE is an outreach program hosted by the KDE community.
To learn how to apply, see the announcement article.

Pairs is a relatively new educational application of KDE Edu family. Pairs stimulates your memory and logic skills. It aims to help the learning for pre-school kids. The student should download, install this application and use it and also improve documentation describing the main elements of the interface, such as how to open a theme, create a new one and add all the needed information to have it ready for usage, apart from developing new creative themes that could be available as add-ons.

Expected results: New creative and witty themes for Pairs, improved documentation and proper white space indentation of the code

Knowledge Prerequisite: Qt, QML, XML would work

What you can do :

1. Register as a student on season.kde.org

2. Read more about Pairs, kde educational game.

3. Build Pairs, explore the code and see how it is implemented.

4. Propose the project with the following format:

Name:Country:

TimeZone: (in UTC)

About Me:

Project Title:

Detailed Project Description:

Technical Requirements:

Final expected outcome:

Timeline:

My availability and other commitments during period:

Why me ?

5. If you get stuck at any of the above steps, feel free to either comment here .

Good Luck :)

Season of KDE 2014

Season of KDE 2014

Season of KDE is now officially open for applications.

To apply head to season.kde.org register as a student and click "Submit a proposal"

What is Season of KDE?

Season of KDE is a community outreach program, much like Google Summer of Code that has been hosted by the KDE community for six years straight.

It is meant for people who could not get into Google Summer of Code for various reasons, or people who simply prefer a differently structured, somewhat less constrained program. Season of KDE is managed by the same team of admins and mentors that takes care of Google Summer of Code and Google Code-in matters for KDE, with the same level of quality and care.

Who can take part?

Everyone can apply for Season of KDE. We give preference to those who have applied for Google Summer of Code and to students, but we will gladly consider applications from anybody interested to contribute to KDE.

What do I get out of this ?

A great season working on a really cool KDE projects and gaining valuable experience. If you complete your project successfully you also get a T-shirt, a certificate, and maybe a few other goodies.Also, one of a great project to boost your resume too! (greedy enough? ;) )

What is the timeline ?

Season of KDE is a flexible project to fit around school terms, work, and other commitments, and start and end dates can be discussed with your mentor. Projects should be completed before the end the year, a typical Season of KDE project should take around 2 months. This year, we are planing to host it in fall,i.e.,  Oct 17, 2014 to Jan 31, 2015.

Student application deadline: Oct 31 2014, 12:00 am UTC

Mentor application deadline: Nov 05 2014, 12:00 am UTC

How do I apply?

First get in touch with a mentor about your ideas, and what projects they want to run.

Then head to season.kde.org and follow the instructions provided there.

Do I need to have a mentor before applying?

It is preferred. Ideally, you should contact a KDE subproject well before applying, ask for feedback on your idea if you have one, and request a mentor directly. A list of KDE subproject contacts is available on the Google Summer of Code 2014 ideas page. You can also apply without a mentor and we will try to find one for you.

Do I need to have a project idea before applying? 

It is preferred. If you do not have one, we will try to find one for you!But generally for a successful project completion proposal helps a lot! This way you can actually get to know a lot more about how your idea is going to be implemented.

Keep in mind that KDE is huge, so you should have an idea of which KDE subproject you wish to work on.
You should visit Sok 2014 ideas page too.

Do I need to write a proposal like in Google Summer of Code?

No, but we would like to see a brief project plan describing what you will be working on.

Is it only for coders like Google Summer of Code?

We are willing to consider non-coding projects as well including artwork and promotion, but you should definitely get in touch to figure out the details beforehand. The KDE Community Wiki describes ways to get involved with KDE that do not require coding.

I applied for a project in Google Summer of Code but another student got selected for it. Can I still work on it?

Maybe, but likely not. You should ask the mentor that was assigned to your idea. We can try to find something related for you if you want, or something completely different. Let us know what you wish and we will do our best to accommodate your request.

Is this an extension of Google Summer of Code or connected to Google

No. While Season of KDE is in many ways modeled after Google Summer of Code and administered by the same members of the KDE community, it is completely independent from Google Summer of Code and has no connection to Google whatsoever.

What if I do not get a reply from a mentor within some days or have some other queries about SoK ?

Feel free to join our IRC channel #kde-soc on freenode or email the admin team at kde-soc-mentor-owner@kde.org

-----------

Good luck, see you soon !
(Heena Mahour)

To infinity and beyond: Adios Gsoc 2013 ! :-) : A brief journey

To infinity and beyond: Adios Gsoc 2013 ! :-) : A brief journey: I worked on porting plasmoids to plasma1 and then to plasma 2 this summer under the guidance of  +Marco Martin  (KDE). During the initial ...

Pairs editor

Pairs Editor

Pairs editor is a part of pairs game .

It can be used to make and edit themes for Pairs. I provided the layout for this Qt application and is maintaining the layout .

It is fun providing new themes and contributing to this wonderful game... Afterall I can play it and code it :-)

Glad to see my name in the list of authors !!

I will continue contributing to this wonderful game .

So, here is a snap to show the proud feeling ^_^ 

Cheers !

Google code in 2013 is on !

After my last summer's work in plasma ,here I am  mentoring Google code in 2013 .My tasks will be more of related to plasma though . And,I woud be glad to have a few suggestions and new ideas too! So if you are under 17 make sure to apply and contribute to KDE !

For now,I have three tasks that are related to QML,cmake and a brief knowledge of Qt would be great too .Documentation is always welcomed ! As I not only wish to have a working code but an optimised code ,so one of the tasks involves optimising a part of gsoc's work -window list which will involve making sure it follows white space indentation and the code is optimised . Other tasks too ,requires the basic knowledge of QML and cmake .And yes,students can always mail me or comment here for further queries ! 

Good luck to all the kids !

My Projects (2011-2015): Adios Gsoc 2013 ! :-) : A brief journey

My Projects (2011-2015): Adios Gsoc 2013 ! :-) : A brief journey: I worked on porting plasmoids to plasma1 and then to plasma 2 this summer under the guidance of  +Marco Martin  (KDE). During the initial ...

Adios Gsoc 2013 ! :-) : A brief journey

I worked on porting plasmoids to plasma1 and then to plasma 2 this summer under the guidance of +Marco Martin (KDE).
During the initial weeks I worked on trashcan (plasma 1) .
It was a pretty easy one to port so it was done in a few weeks .
After porting trashcan , I successfully ported window list in plasma 1 .Porting it was fine once you are clear with the concepts of data engines and QML of course !
 So , by nearly two weeks before the mid evaluation my expected mid evaluation work was almost done . 
Then came Akademy 2013 , that I would have attended , had I got my passport ready on time .But no worries I will surely attend Akademy 2014 :) . 
During the duration of Akademy 2013 I started porting digital clock , did a few hacks and it was working out .
But it ofcourse needed improvement :p
I spent most of my final evaluation time porting digital clock (plasma 1) .It is almost done , though it needs to use KCalendarSystem and  KHolidays is not yet implemented due to shortage of time .Otherwise , it is fine .
Then comes porting of plasma 2 and well building plasma-shell successfully is one of the most crucial task ! .
I was able to do that fortunately , so I first of all ported window list in plasma 2 and also added cascade and unclutter actions in data engines .After a bit of fixing layout problems in QML 2.0 it looks fine now . 
I made a simpler calendar component that works fine with digital clock I ported in plasma 2 . 
I had to make another calendar component as akonadi is not yet ported under kf5 .
But , the basic component still has the "working" functionalities for the calendar .
Then finally comes trashcan :p , though it was a simple one , kio trash was not yet ported at that time so it took some time .Thanks to +Marco Martin for contributing to kio trash as my exams were going on at that time (Yes !I  hate exams :p )
 Finally I fixed the layout of trashcan in plasma 2 and it is fine now . 
Last but most important of all , I also improved the documentation of KDE :)
http://techbase.kde.org/Development/Tutorials/Plasma#QML_2.0
http://techbase.kde.org/Projects/Plasma/Plasmoids

Plasma 2 plasmoids this summer

      

  Window list plasmoid 

The main thing to be taken care of in this plasmoid is "data engine" .

I used tasksSouce in window list .And also to highlight the selected menu item I 

used PlasmaCore.FrameSvgItem .The text displaying the menu items become italics in case that window is minimised .

Further I have made it a PopUpApplet .

It shows the list of active windows on full view and collapses to icon on desktop panel .So,I managed to do it . 

I made new service for these actions since they require an empty source . Ofcourse ,these actions can be done by a source(by using the Ids on connectSources() also but then there is always a case when there is no window that is active at the moment) .

Therefore , empty source is required.Further , I added cascade and unclutter actions in tasks data engine by using asynch call to kwin interface using QDBusInterface .

 Also , the active window is enclosed withing PlasmaComponents.Highlight just like Actions and Desktop titles while highlight is shown by FrameSvg .

                               

     Digital Clock   

I made a basic component independent of akonadi,kdepimlibs and kdepim-runtime for now as kdepim-runtime is not yet ported to kf5 .It works fine with all the functionalities using a plugin calendar used for this purpose . 

The screenshot is self explanatory .

The bottom row toolbar shows current week and day by default with the calendar icon pointing to the current month.

 The upper toolbar helps to go to next month , previous month , next year , previous year and shows a context menu on clicking the month .

The current day is shown by a blue border .

On entering mouse event is shown by light grey color and on clicked mouse event is shown by black border .

TrashCan

This was pretty simple after I tried out calendar and window list .

But the kio trash was not yet ported fully so with the help of +Marco Martin it is working now .

It displays query dialog too just like the plasma1 plasmoid I made and the original trashcan . :)

That was a summary of my final evaluation work , and yes a digital clock in plasma 1 is too ported as in my previous blog .

I hope you will try it out !

Cheers !

Clock with calendar : Gsoc update

Well , I have been working on clock with calendar right after I ported window list and trash can .

And yes , it is "beast" of all the plasmoids .

I managed to implement one ,yes,  a basic one for now .It shows the events of the clicked date's month and those events that touches it .Further , it shows "No events founds" when the clicked date does not conatins any events .I also implemented containsTodoItems apart from other functionalities :) under +Mark Gaiser  and +Marco Martin  guidance  .

At present +Mark Gaiser  's calendar component is  used for it .The current date is shown under the blue border as in c++ plasmoid .

It is a way alike now ;) .

Also I used split function to have only a substring (event,todo or journal ) in EventList from the called string .I used ScrollArea for the EventList .

And I did a few javascript functions to implement the functionalities as well as a few functions in calendar.cpp itself .

It looks a much better after +Marco Martin suggested to have some indentation and follow white space coding .It presently uses QDate as for now .

The toolbar shows current date and week number by default .

There are two models used : setSelectedDay model : which shows the clicked date's events,todo or journal and upcomingDays model : which shows the upcoming events in case no events ,todo or journal is found .


Do check it out ;)


It is available at heenamahour/gsoc branch under kde-workspace and kdepim-runtime


That is all for now :)

And yes , window-list and trashcan are ported to plasma 2 (work is in progress ;) in parallel with calendar plasmoid :D ..)