Bug 147131

Summary:	Allow user to specify thumbnail generators for arbitrary file types
Product:	[Frameworks and Libraries] kio	Reporter:	Tristan Miller <psychonaut>
Component:	thumbnail	Assignee:	Unassigned bugs mailing-list <unassigned-bugs>
Status:	RESOLVED INTENTIONAL
Severity:	wishlist	CC:	kde_bugzilla_2, nate
Priority:	NOR
Version:	unspecified
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	openSUSE
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:

Description Tristan Miller 2007-06-23 17:11:01 UTC

Version:            (using KDE KDE 3.5.7)
Installed from:    SuSE RPMs

KDE's file dialogs and Konqueror have the ability to display thumbnail previews of certain file types.  For file types for which previews are not available, an icon is shown.

There needs to be some user-friendly way to allow users to specify how thumbnail previews are generated.  This will allow KDE to display thumbnails for arbitrary file types.

For example, KDE currently does not support thumbnail previews for Microsoft Word documents (MIME type application/msword).  However, it is possible to generate thumbnails using third-party applications such as Antiword.  I would like KDE to allow me to specify a command line which generates thumbnails for MS-Word in a format KDE already understands -- for example, "/usr/bin/antiword -a A4 -m 8859-1 %s" would produce a PDF image.  For other file types, third-party filters may be able to generate a bitmap, plain text, or HTML preview.

I expect the best place to add the interface for this future would be in kcontrol->KDE Components->File Associations.

Comment 1 Christoph Feck 2009-12-31 02:29:03 UTC

*** Bug 183843 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 2 Stephan Sokolow 2009-12-31 02:43:25 UTC

If mine is to be considered a duplicate, then please ensure any solution is based on .desktop files or an equivalent mechanism which can be defined system-wide and bundled with the applications providing the services.

(In other words, probably best to treat thumbnail generation the same way file associations for applications and KParts are treated)

Comment 3 Christoph Feck 2015-12-04 22:44:39 UTC

http://kde-apps.org/content/show.php/?content=174485

Comment 4 Nate Graham 2018-04-13 22:09:17 UTC

A saner approach would be simply to package up that code as a thumbnailer so all KDE users could benefit from it, not just individual people.

Comment 5 Stephan Sokolow 2018-04-13 22:43:27 UTC

That assumes that the willingness to write a quick hack-fix for one's own system translates into the willingness to write, publish, and maintain a thumbnailer for everyone... it usually doesn't.

Comment 6 Nate Graham 2018-04-13 23:07:57 UTC

Maybe not for you, but across KDE's entire userbase, probably someone will. In fact, it's a near-certainty, since that's how all of this stuff is developed, in fact.

Comment 7 Stephan Sokolow 2018-04-13 23:11:11 UTC

Given how many papercut bugs I've filed or followed years and years ago, only to see them either still unresolved today or closed for various reasons, my confidence in that is quite low.

(I'd fix them myself, but I run into enough bugs on my desktop as-is without running C++ code that I've touched.)