Bug 505332 - "unable to load" message resizes weather report widget on desktop
Summary: "unable to load" message resizes weather report widget on desktop
Status: CONFIRMED
Alias: None
Product: plasmashell
Classification: Plasma
Component: Weather widget (other bugs)
Version First Reported In: 6.3.5
Platform: Fedora RPMs Linux
: LO minor
Target Milestone: 1.0
Assignee: Plasma Bugs List
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2025-06-08 08:16 UTC by Liz Lee
Modified: 2025-08-13 22:43 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

See Also:
Latest Commit:
Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:


Attachments
automatically resized (enlarged) widget (65.54 KB, image/png)
2025-06-08 08:16 UTC, Liz Lee
Details
widget unfortunately keeps size after being strecthed by message (56.54 KB, image/png)
2025-06-08 08:38 UTC, Liz Lee
Details

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Description Liz Lee 2025-06-08 08:16:55 UTC
Created attachment 182088 [details]
automatically resized (enlarged) widget

SUMMARY
if there are problems with the internet connection, the weather widget displays a "unable to load weather forecast" message, including some question mark icons.

this message causes the weather widget to be resized when placed on the desktop, which is annoying.


STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. place weather report widget on the desktop
2. experience some issues with the connection to the selected weather service

OBSERVED RESULT
"unable to load weather forecast" message "stretches" the widget's boundaries.


EXPECTED RESULT
"unable to load weather forecast" message shold be rescaled accordingly to the user-set widget size, not vice versa.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Operating System: Fedora Linux 42
KDE Plasma Version: 6.3.5
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.14.0
Qt Version: 6.9.0
Kernel Version: 6.14.9-300.fc42.x86_64 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 16 × AMD Ryzen 7 2700X Eight-Core Processor
Memory: 31,3 GiB of RAM
Graphics Processor: AMD Radeon R9 380 Series
Comment 1 Liz Lee 2025-06-08 08:38:17 UTC
Created attachment 182090 [details]
widget unfortunately keeps size after being strecthed by message

it does not even resize to the given size when the connection is reestablished and the message disappeared.
Comment 2 cwo 2025-06-09 20:40:43 UTC
The problem here is that Weather Report sometimes does need to resize itself, I think, as the contents change depending on the weather provider.

We should avoid doing this because changing sizes for desktop widgets feels bad and can in the wrong situation really mess with user's widget arrangements which is extremely annoying. But I fear it's not as easily solved here as in other widgets where we can somewhat dynamically scale the widget contents down if needed, and then just have fallback error messages if the size is not enough.

As a stopgap, we can try to reduce the placeholder size a bit; this will at least make it grow less.
Comment 3 Bug Janitor Service 2025-06-10 06:52:18 UTC
A possibly relevant merge request was started @ https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kdeplasma-addons/-/merge_requests/858
Comment 4 cwo 2025-06-11 15:55:32 UTC
Git commit 59ed9cd22910eb1e469f6098c336bdd3cd803073 by Christoph Wolk.
Committed on 11/06/2025 at 15:33.
Pushed by cwo into branch 'master'.

applets/weather: remove icon from missing forecast placeholder

If the forecast is unavailable (e.g. due to flakey provider), the widget
will show a placeholder informing the user. This contains a large
weather-none-available icon. As a consequence, the forecast is much
larger than usual, which will increase the implicit and thus minimum
size, potentially rearranging people's desktop widget arrangement.

Completely getting the widget to not resize itself for desktop is likely
a larger undertaking. But we can reduce the impact of this particular
case by omitting the large icon. If the provider is fully not reporting
data, there will already be a (non-symbolic) weather-none-available icon
visible from the current weather view, and the double similar icons are
somewhat confusing anyway. The placeholder text and explanation by
themselves should in many cases be somewhat similar size to the forecast
so even if it resizes a little it's less likely to substantially bump
other widgets out of the way.

M  +0    -1    applets/weather/package/contents/ui/SwitchPanel.qml

https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kdeplasma-addons/-/commit/59ed9cd22910eb1e469f6098c336bdd3cd803073
Comment 5 Bug Janitor Service 2025-06-11 15:56:21 UTC
A possibly relevant merge request was started @ https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kdeplasma-addons/-/merge_requests/866
Comment 6 cwo 2025-06-11 21:39:23 UTC
Git commit 8e8803bae8fd84554bcc7ad55a340b0b2d45a174 by Christoph Wolk.
Committed on 11/06/2025 at 15:55.
Pushed by cwo into branch 'Plasma/6.4'.

applets/weather: remove icon from missing forecast placeholder

If the forecast is unavailable (e.g. due to flakey provider), the widget
will show a placeholder informing the user. This contains a large
weather-none-available icon. As a consequence, the forecast is much
larger than usual, which will increase the implicit and thus minimum
size, potentially rearranging people's desktop widget arrangement.

Completely getting the widget to not resize itself for desktop is likely
a larger undertaking. But we can reduce the impact of this particular
case by omitting the large icon. If the provider is fully not reporting
data, there will already be a (non-symbolic) weather-none-available icon
visible from the current weather view, and the double similar icons are
somewhat confusing anyway. The placeholder text and explanation by
themselves should in many cases be somewhat similar size to the forecast
so even if it resizes a little it's less likely to substantially bump
other widgets out of the way.


(cherry picked from commit 59ed9cd22910eb1e469f6098c336bdd3cd803073)

Co-authored-by: Christoph Wolk <cwo.kde@posteo.net>

M  +0    -1    applets/weather/package/contents/ui/SwitchPanel.qml

https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kdeplasma-addons/-/commit/8e8803bae8fd84554bcc7ad55a340b0b2d45a174