I am trying to place my icons in the order that I want without them reshuffling in alphabetical order. I cannot move an icons to the next row due to it snapping to grid and being locked in its position. The only way I was able to place my icons in the order that I wanted was to delete all of the icons from the folder plasmoid. Next I would click and drag the icons to the folder plasmoid in the order that I would like them to appear. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Move one of the existing icons in between two other icons 2. 3. Actual Results: The existing icons on the folder plasmoid are set in a locked to grid position. Expected Results: I should be able to place icon on any row and move it off grid so the icons appear in an order that i prefer.
Is that in widget mode (so a rectangle on the desktop) or in desktop mode (so Folder View as the desktop surface itself)?
Yes. It is in widget mode. I always have a default activity that is set in Plasma Mode and a second one that is in Folder View mode.
Ok, so the problem here is that free icon dragging is currently only allowed in desktop mode, but not in widget mode. This is not a hard technical limitation. The reason it is that way is that free positioning is costly performance-wise, and not having it in the mix makes the view much simpler and enables it to handle much larger directories much easier. With the desktop we can make the assumption that it's not likely to be used to show a huge directory by most users, but with the widget I wanted it to be snappy when used that way. Basically there's three options: 1. Find ways to make the free-positioning mode scale better, to avoid the performance penalty, then enable free positioning in widget mode 2. Enable free positioning anyway, hoping the performance penalty doesn't matter for most users, then spend time on #1 later 3. Make it an option #3 is super undesirable because adding options that could (maybe) be avoided with other work is lazy. #1 is a resource/manpower question but most desirable. #2 is the compromise and hard to make a decision on without good metrics on how users use Folder View. I came down on the safe side, but I'm open to reevaluating that.
I could see having the widget set in this mode by default. However,for the user that doesn't like to have dozens of icons on his or her desktop switches to using the folder widget. The folder widget from KDE4 allowed users to move icons around to their hearts content. This is the open-source approach. Whilst this folder widget in Plasma 5 disallows users to move their icons wherever they want. This is the closed-source mindset. At least for now LOL ;-( Please please reconsider bringing back the extra features from KDE4 that made it so great. I'll buy you a German ale next time I'm in town. ;-)
Darn. I clicked on the Save Changes button too soon. I choose #2 . And, I don't have any performance issues with it. Although, I do have severe performance issues with kwin.
Eike, In additional to your C++ code, are you using a qml file in /usr/share/plasma/plasmoids/ ?
The QML side is in $PREFIX/share/plasma/plasmoids/org.kde.desktopcontainment/
Thank you. The qml files are a great idea and easy to understand.