Version:           2.7.1 (using KDE 4.7.1) 
OS:                Linux

The bookmarks in the Konsole app are very limited mostly due to the URL formatting of the "Location" field. The bookmark functionality would be much more useful if they could be used as a session manager.

Proposal:

Profiles: Get rid of the "Command" and "Location" options. Should be for look, feel and functionality of the konsole interface only, and not have anything to do with what is actually running inside the terminal.

New element - Bookmark Templates: This would be a new item, probably managed in the bookmark editor somewhere, to define the functionality of different types of bookmarks. Basically a template would be a command line with variables that would be defined by the bookmark. What to use as delimiters for the variable tokens doesn't really matter as long as they are easy to visually parse and escapable.

Bookmarks: Bookmarks would have a drop down list to select from the user defined templates. After selecting one of the templates, there would be fields generated corresponding to the variable tokens defined in the template that the user can fill in. Would also have a drop down list of the profile to use with the bookmark.

Folders: Are assigned a bookmark-template, and can have fields set just like a bookmark. Bookmarks within a folder automatically inherit the bookmark template type from the folder they are in. Any fields left blank in the bookmark are also inherited from the parent folder. Folders within folders also inherit the template type, any fields set change the values inherited by their child elements. Folders that do not define a bookmark template type are simply used for grouping and their child elements can set their template type. (Basically once a template type is defined, all child elements inherit it from that point on)

Reproducible: Always



Expected Results:  
Some examples. We will assume that "<" and ">" delimiters are used in the template definitions similar to html tags.


Template for bash:

/bin/bash -i --rcfile <rc-file>

Bookmarks using the bash template would have only one field: rc-file


Template for ssh with port forwarding

/usr/bin/ssh -p <connection port> -L <local fw port>:localhost:<remote fw port> john_doe@domain.com

Bookmarks using the ssh template would then have 3 fields: "connection port", "local fw port", and "remote fw port"


Lets say you wanted to be able to have port forwarding as above on some connections but not on others while using the same template:

/usr/bin/ssh <connection port> <ssh option> john_doe@domain.com

In this case the user could fill in the "ssh option" field with "-L 80:localhost:80" if they wanted to forward port 80, and leave it blank on ones they didn't want to forward ports on



Ruby shell template:

/usr/bin/irb -r <module> <script>

Bookmarks using this template would have the fields "module" and "script


Hopefully you get the idea. Using templates like this would allow for creating all kinds of bookmarks for things like screen, vi, git, rsync, etc.

Yes, you could manage these type of things with scripts, but when you have a large number of common administrative tasks across many systems, managing those scripts can get ugly very quickly. Having a grouped list, with parameter inheritance like this proposal makes it much much easier.

So _please_ make my life easier. KDE desperately needs a session manager!