Bug 394034

Summary:	Convention of passing "org.kde.plasma:force-create" as argument to Containment::createApplet is crap
Product:	[Plasma] plasmashell	Reporter:	Eike Hein <hein>
Component:	general	Assignee:	David Edmundson <kde>
Status:	RESOLVED WORKSFORME
Severity:	normal	CC:	jr, kde, kde, nate, niccolo, notmart, plasma-bugs-null
Priority:	NOR
Version First Reported In:	master
Target Milestone:	1.0
Platform:	Other
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Eike Hein 2018-05-09 08:51:26 UTC

There's some weird hack in the way we do nested containments like the tray and the grouping plasmoid. When these nested containments create an applet, they pass "org.kde.plasma:force-create" in the argument list for whatever hackish workaround reason this was invented for. 

This breaks plasmoids that react to plasmoid.externalData in useful ways, e.g. Folder View configures its URL from external data, so it can be instanciated to show a particular URL. This happens when dropping an URL on a containment and picking Folder View from the applet-from-MIME menu choices.

When adding Folder View to the grouping plasmoid, it therefore gets configured to show the location "org.kde.plasma:force-create" (this string is URL-like would not be rejected, although amittedly there's currently no input validation being done) and breaks in a way the user has no hope of understanding and fixing.

I don't want to add special handling for "org.kde.plasma:force-create" to Folder View and other applets. I also don't think it's a good idea to make the magic string something non-URL; it could still conflict with what other plasmoids are doing.

I request that this hack be done some other way than the plasmoid-facing argument list. Internals shouldn't be exposed to plasmoid code in this way.

Comment 1 Kai Uwe Broulik 2018-05-14 11:28:05 UTC

I should definitely remove the arg once it has done what it wanted to do. On creation it checks the arguments and then sets a dynamic property onto itself. After that it could remove the argument.

Comment 2 Jonathan Riddell 2018-07-18 14:36:25 UTC

https://phabricator.kde.org/T9224

Comment 3 Marco Martin 2018-08-29 11:51:40 UTC

I think I'll go adding a property on systray/grouping containments like "dynamiccontent" which would replace the argument.

However...
I think this would be resolved "properly" once we have sandboxed stuff, those two nesting containments would be replaced by out of process shells which would never be locked and bam, done

Comment 4 Marco Martin 2018-08-29 12:31:19 UTC

(In reply to Marco Martin from comment #3)
> I think I'll go adding a property on systray/grouping containments like
> "dynamiccontent" which would replace the argument.

hmm, easy for Containment::addApplet, but not for Corona::createContainment, which would need to access the containment metadata before creating it, which is possible but very dirty

Comment 5 Eike Hein 2018-09-04 12:30:47 UTC

Could you explain a bit more context? What is this org.kde.plasma:force-create stuff even used for?

Comment 6 Kai Uwe Broulik 2018-09-04 14:36:13 UTC

System Tray, so it can create applets even when the shell itself is immutable. I think the Grouping Plasmoid also uses it for the same purpose.

Comment 7 Niccolò Venerandi 2025-10-26 15:43:17 UTC

Is this still relevant?

Comment 8 Bug Janitor Service 2025-11-10 03:46:56 UTC

🐛🧹 ⚠️ This bug has been in NEEDSINFO status with no change for at least 15 days. Please provide the requested information, then set the bug status to REPORTED. If there is no change for at least 30 days, it will be automatically closed as RESOLVED WORKSFORME.

For more information about our bug triaging procedures, please read https://community.kde.org/Guidelines_and_HOWTOs/Bug_triaging.

Thank you for helping us make KDE software even better for everyone!

Comment 9 Bug Janitor Service 2025-11-25 03:46:19 UTC

🐛🧹 This bug has been in NEEDSINFO status with no change for at least 30 days. Closing as RESOLVED WORKSFORME.