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<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<!DOCTYPE book PUBLIC "-//KDE//DTD DocBook XML V4.2-Based Variant V1.1//EN" "dtd/kdex.dtd" [
<!ENTITY kappname "&knewsticker;">
<!ENTITY package "kdenetwork">
<!ENTITY % addindex "IGNORE">
<!ENTITY % English "INCLUDE">
<!ENTITY RSS "<acronym>RSS</acronym>">
]>
<book lang="&language;">
<bookinfo>
<title>The &knewsticker; Handbook</title>
<authorgroup>
<author>&Frerich.Raabe; &Frerich.Raabe.mail;</author>
<othercredit role="reviewer">&Jonathan.Singer; &Jonathan.Singer.mail;</othercredit>
<!-- TRANS:ROLES_OF_TRANSLATORS -->
</authorgroup>
<copyright>
<year>2001, 2002, 2003</year>
<holder>&Frerich.Raabe;</holder>
</copyright>
<legalnotice>&FDLNotice;</legalnotice>
<date>2003-10-14</date>
<releaseinfo>2.00.00</releaseinfo>
<abstract>
<para>&knewsticker; is a news ticker applet for the &kde; panel (also
known as &kicker;).</para>
</abstract>
<keywordset>
<keyword>KDE</keyword>
<keyword>KNewsTicker</keyword>
<keyword>kdenetwork</keyword>
<keyword>news ticker</keyword>
<keyword>applet</keyword>
</keywordset>
</bookinfo>
<chapter id="introduction">
<title>Introduction</title>
<para>&knewsticker; is an applet for the &kde; panel (also known as &kicker;)
which provides an easy and convenient way to access the news as reported by
many news sites (such as <ulink url="http://slashdot.org">Slashdot</ulink>,
<ulink url="http://lwn.net">&Linux; Weekly News</ulink> or
<ulink url="http://freshmeat.net">Freshmeat</ulink>).</para>
<para>To achieve this, &knewsticker; requires the news sites to provide a
special &RSS; file, which contains the headlines as well as
pointers to the corresponding full articles. Such files are very common these
days, and &knewsticker; already comes with a selection of good news sources
which provide such files.</para>
<sect1 id="rssfiles">
<title>Brief Info On &RSS; Files</title>
<para>&RSS; files are becoming more and more popular these
days, and this applet is not the first application which takes advantage of
them. But what are &RSS; files? This section tries to give
a brief answer to this question, as well as pointers to other sources for
further reference.</para>
<para>The short answer: &RSS; is an
<acronym>&XML;-based</acronym> format for syndicating web content.</para>
<para>&RSS; is often used as an acronym for <quote>Rich Site
Summary</quote> – that's not a common definition but it gives an idea on what
the creators of &RSS; had in mind. There is no consensus on
what &RSS; stands for, so it's actually not an acronym, it's a
name.</para>
<para>&RSS; originated in 1999 and was invented by
<ulink url="http://www.netscape.com">NetScape</ulink> as a syndication format
for their <ulink url="http://my.netscape.com">my.netscape.com</ulink> website;
this very first &RSS; release was version 0.9. A few months
after that, &Netscape; introduced &RSS; version 0.91, which
incorporated many features of the <quote><scriptingNews></quote>
format.</para>
<para>The basic concept of all &RSS; files is to provide a
clean, simple and portable way to distribute web content, in particular news:
the news sites provide an &RSS; file which basically contains
a set of records, and each record consists of a headline and a
&URL; which points to the complete article. The
&RSS; file also contains other general information about the
particular news site, such as its name and the homepage, which is evaluated
by &knewsticker;.</para>
<para>Nowadays there are a few additional, more sophisticated versions of the
&RSS; format
(<ulink url="http://backend.userland.com/rss091">0.91</ulink>,
<ulink url="http://backend.userland.com/rss092">0.92</ulink>,
<ulink url="http://backend.userland.com/rss093">0.93</ulink>,
<ulink url="http://web.resource.org/rss/1.0/">1.0</ulink> and the current
format version
<ulink url="http://backend.userland.com/rss">2.0</ulink>) but the first two
versions still make up about 85% of the files provided on the web. Nevertheless,
all versions up to 2.0 can be processed with &knewsticker;!</para>
<para>Of course, this is only a short and highly incomplete attempt at
explaining the basic ideas behind &RSS; files. If you're
interested in this topic, you might want to visit any of the following links
which point to further and more complete sources on this:</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><ulink url="http://www.webreference.com/authoring/languages/xml/rss/intro/">http://www.webreference.com/authoring/languages/xml/rss/intro/</ulink></term>
<listitem><para>A very pragmatic introduction to the &RSS;
format, with concrete examples and guidelines. Together with the
authoritative specifications, this makes a good guide for people
who are thinking
about providing an &RSS; newsfeed on their home
page.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><ulink url="http://www.oreillynet.com/rss/">http://www.oreillynet.com/rss/</ulink></term>
<listitem><para>The &RSS; page from O'Reilly features a
lot of general articles about employing and using &RSS; files,
up to date news about the &RSS; development community as well
as vital information for web developers who are considering taking advantage of
&RSS;.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><ulink url="http://blogspace.com/rss/">http://blogspace.com/rss/</ulink></term>
<listitem><para>This page is another excellent source of news about the
&RSS; development, which is especially interesting to
developers working with &RSS;-based technology.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><ulink url="http://www.w3.org/RDF/">http://www.w3.org/RDF/</ulink></term>
<listitem><para><emphasis>The</emphasis> authoritative source about
<acronym>RDF</acronym>, an &XML;-based language from which
modern &RSS; versions are derived, published by the
<ulink url="http://www.w3.org">World Wide Web Consortium</ulink>. It features
a comprehensive list of links to other sites on the topic as well as a timeline
of the <acronym>RDF</acronym> development, an overview over the architecture, an
archive with articles about <acronym>RDF</acronym> as well as a carefully
assembled list of tools for developers who intend to work with
<acronym>RDF</acronym>.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
<para>Developers will also want to check the authoritative specifications for
the various &RSS; versions:</para>
<orderedlist>
<title>&RSS; Specifications</title>
<listitem><para>
Version 0.90: <ulink url="http://www.purplepages.ie/rss/netscape/rss0.90.html">http://www.purplepages.ie/rss/netscape/rss0.90.html</ulink>
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
Version 0.91: <ulink url="http://backend.userland.com/rss091">http://backend.userland.com/rss091</ulink>
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
Version 0.92: <ulink url="http://backend.userland.com/rss092">http://backend.userland.com/rss092</ulink>
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
Version 0.93: <ulink url="http://backend.userland.com/rss093">http://backend.userland.com/rss093</ulink>
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
Version 1.0: <ulink url="http://web.resource.org/rss/1.0/">http://web.resource.org/rss/1.0/</ulink>
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
Version 2.0: <ulink url="http://backend.userland.com/rss">http://backend.userland.com/rss</ulink>
</para></listitem>
</orderedlist>
<para>If you find any other sites or documents on this topic, and think they are
worth being mentioned here, don't hesitate to send them to &Frerich.Raabe;
&Frerich.Raabe.mail; so that they can be included in this document and
help everybody.</para>
<para>Thank you very much!</para>
</sect1>
</chapter>
<chapter id="starting-knewsticker">
<title>Starting &knewsticker;</title>
<screenshot>
<screeninfo>Here is a screenshot of &knewsticker; in &kde;'s
panel.</screeninfo>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject><imagedata fileref="knewsticker-kicker.png" format="PNG"/></imageobject>
<textobject>
<phrase>Here is a screenshot of &knewsticker; in &kde;'s
panel.</phrase>
</textobject>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>
&knewsticker; is started like every other &kicker; applet. You just have to add
it to the panel (or any child panel of the main one). To do so, just right-click
on the &kde; panel and choose <menuchoice><guimenu>Add</guimenu>
<guisubmenu>Applet</guisubmenu><guimenuitem>&knewsticker;</guimenuitem>
</menuchoice>.</para>
<screenshot>
<screeninfo>Here is a screenshot of &knewsticker; in its own child
panel.</screeninfo>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject><imagedata fileref="knewsticker-childpanel.png" format="PNG"/></imageobject>
<textobject>
<phrase>Here is a screenshot of &knewsticker; in its own child
panel.</phrase>
</textobject>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>Another good way to use &knewsticker; is to put it into its own child
panel. Just add a new child panel by choosing <menuchoice><guimenu>Add</guimenu>
<guisubmenu>Extension</guisubmenu><guimenuitem>Child Panel</guimenuitem>
</menuchoice> from the panel menu;. Now you can simply right-click on the child
panel and select &knewsticker; as described above.</para>
<screenshot>
<screeninfo>Here is a screenshot of &knewsticker; in its own
window.</screeninfo>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject><imagedata fileref="knewsticker-ownwindow.png" format="PNG"/></imageobject>
<textobject>
<phrase>Here is a screenshot of &knewsticker; in its own
window.</phrase>
</textobject>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>A third, popular, way to run &knewsticker; is by selecting <menuchoice>
<guimenu>Internet</guimenu><guimenuitem>&knewsticker; (News
Ticker)</guimenuitem></menuchoice> from the <guilabel>K</guilabel> menu. This
will start &knewsticker; and make it run in its own window which you can then
resize and move around as you wish.</para>
</chapter>
<chapter id="configuration">
<title>Configuring &knewsticker;</title>
<para>You can access &knewsticker;'s configuration dialog by right-clicking
onto the scroll text, or by clicking on the button with the arrow on it and
choosing the entry labelled <guimenuitem><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="preferences-icon.png" format="PNG"/></imageobject>
</inlinemediaobject> Preferences</guimenuitem> in the menu.</para>
<sect1 id="config-general">
<title>General Options</title>
<screenshot>
<screeninfo>This is what the <guilabel>General</guilabel> tab of the
preferences dialog looks like.</screeninfo>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject><imagedata fileref="kcmnewsticker-general.png" format="PNG"/></imageobject>
<textobject>
<phrase>This is what the <guilabel>General</guilabel> tab of the
preferences dialog looks like.</phrase>
</textobject>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>Here you can define how fast the text should be scrolled around, what it
should look like as well as other options for the applet. Here is a brief info
on what each of the switches and buttons on this tab does:</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Mousewheel sensitivity:</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>This slider allows you to define how fast/slow the text should be
scrolled when using the mousewheel.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>News query interval</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>Here you can define in what intervals &knewsticker; queries the
configured news sources for new headlines. This depends generally on
how fast you'd like to hear about news and how much load you want to
put on the network:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>A lower value (lower than 15 minutes) enables you to be
notified about news very quickly if you want or need to. Please
note, that it increases the network traffic significantly,
though. Therefore, such low values shouldn't be used if you
query popular news sites (such as
<ulink url="http://slashdot.org">Slashdot</ulink> or
<ulink url="http://freshmeat.net">Freshmeat</ulink>) as they
have generally already enough work with processing the incoming
queries.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>A higher value (higher than 45 minutes) won't make you
hear about news that quick. For non-time-critical applications,
it should be suitable, though. The positive aspect of longer
intervals is that only very little load is put on the network;
this saves resources and nerves, for you and the system
administrators of the news sites you query.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<tip><para>The default value (30 minutes) should be appropriate and
reasonable in most cases.</para></tip>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Use custom names for news sites</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>Check this box to make the news ticker use the names you
specified in the list of news sources (available on the tab
labeled <guilabel>News sources</guilabel>) instead of the ones
the news sites themselves report. This can be handy for news sites
which report a very long or useless name.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="config-newssources">
<title>Configuration of the news sources</title>
<screenshot>
<screeninfo>This is what the <guilabel>News Sources</guilabel> tab of the
preferences dialog looks like.</screeninfo>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject><imagedata fileref="kcmnewsticker-newssources.png" format="PNG"/></imageobject>
<textobject>
<phrase>This is what the <guilabel>News Sources</guilabel> tab of
the preferences dialog looks like.</phrase>
</textobject>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>On this tab you can manage and maintain the list of news sites
&knewsticker; queries for news. Click on any entry with the right mouse button
to open a context menu which lets you remove the current entry, or add a new
entry. At the bottom of the page you can also find three buttons which have
the same effect.</para>
<sect2>
<title>Adding a news site</title>
<para>There are four ways to <emphasis>add</emphasis> a new news site to the
list:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>You can click on the button at the bottom labeled
<guilabel>Add...</guilabel>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>You can click with the right mouse button on the table and choose
<guimenuitem>Add news source</guimenuitem>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>You can drag any &RSS; file from another
application (such as &konqueror;) onto the table. This adds a new entry
to the list, sets the name to <quote>Unknown</quote> and sets the
maximum number of articles to 10.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>And finally, you can just click on any &RSS;
file in the &konqueror; filemanager to have it added to the list
immediately.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>Either way will cause the <link linkend="config-news-site-dialog">News site
dialog</link> to show up, presenting you with a form to enter the properties of
the news site to add.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Modifying an existing news site</title>
<para>There are two ways to adjust the properties of an existing news
site:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>You can click on the button at the bottom labeled
<guilabel>Modify...</guilabel>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>You can right-click with the right mouse button on the news site
you'd like to edit and choose <guimenuitem>Modify '...'</guimenuitem>
from the menu.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>No matter which way you chose, it will cause the
<link linkend="config-news-site-dialog">News site dialog</link> to pop up,
showing the properties of the selected news site.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Removing a news site</title>
<para>Of course, you want to <emphasis>remove</emphasis> a news source from
the list sometimes. To do this, you can either</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>click on the button at the bottom labeled
<guilabel>Remove</guilabel>, or</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>right-click with the right mouse button on the news site
you'd like to edit and choose <guimenuitem>Remove '...'</guimenuitem>
from the menu.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>In both cases, a confirmation box will pop up and make sure you didn't
select the wrong entry.</para>
<tip><para>You can also remove multiple news sites at once by holding &Ctrl;
while clicking on the entries you wouldd like to remove, or by clicking the
<mousebutton>left</mousebutton> mousebutton and dragging the mouse over all
the entries you'd like to select.</para></tip>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="config-news-site-dialog">
<title>The news site dialog</title>
<screenshot>
<screeninfo>This is what the dialog for adding and editing news sites looks
like.</screeninfo>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject><imagedata fileref="kcmnewsticker-newssitedialog.png" format="PNG"/></imageobject>
<textobject>
<phrase>This is what the dialog for adding and editing news sites
looks like.</phrase>
</textobject>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>When adding or modifying a news site, the news site dialog (shown above)
pops up and provides input facilities to edit the various properties of a news
site:</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Name:</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>This is the name of the news source.</para>
<note><para>This text will only be used if <guilabel>Use custom names
for news sites</guilabel> on the tab labeled
<link linkend="config-general">General</link> is
activated.</para></note>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Source file:</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>Here you can set the &URL; which references
the &RSS; file of this news site; this can either
be a local file, or a file saved on a remote server. You can also
click on the button at the right to open a convenient file-selection
dialog and browse to the file you would like to use, instead of typing
the &URL; by hand.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>The file is a program</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>If this file is checked, &knewsticker; will not assume that the
&URL; (which was specified in the <guilabel>Source
file</guilabel> field) references an &RSS; file, but
rather that the &URL; refers a program (usually a
script). When querying this news site, &knewsticker; will execute the
program and treat whatever the program prints to stdout as
&RSS; markup. This is very convenient for conversion
scripts which download an &HTML; file and process it,
producing &RSS; markup which is suitable for use with
&knewsticker;.</para>
<tip><para>You can find some scripts which ⪚ download stock data in
the kdeaddons module, in the
<filename class="directory">knewsticker-scripts</filename>
directory.</para></tip>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Category:</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>Here you can specify into which category the news site belongs.
Arranging the news sites into categories makes it much easier to
maintain large lists of news sites.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Max. articles:</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>This option lets you define how many articles &knewsticker; will
cache for this news site; the value will never be exceeded.</para>
<para>This is particularly handy for news sites which provide only
three news items at once, but you'd like to see the last ten items (for
instance); &knewsticker; will always download the three items and merge
them into its list, caching the last seven items.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Icon:</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>Here you can specify a &URL; to an image file
(preferably 16x16 pixels in size) which should be used for this news
site. Icons make it much easier to distinguish multiple news sites, and
see which news site a headline appeared on as it scrolls by in
&knewsticker;.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
<para>At the button you will find the usual buttons. One of them deserves an
extra note: clicking on the <guilabel>Suggest</guilabel> button will make
&knewsticker; try to guess suitable values for most of the fields if you
specify a &URL; to a valid source file.</para>
<para>This means that you can usually just paste a &URL; to
an &RSS; file in the input field labeled <guilabel>Source
file</guilabel>, press the <guilabel>Suggest</guilabel> button and then modify
the suggested values as needed.</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="config-filters">
<title>Filters</title>
<screenshot>
<screeninfo>This is what the <guilabel>Filters</guilabel> tab of the
preferences dialog looks like.</screeninfo>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject><imagedata fileref="kcmnewsticker-filters.png" format="PNG"/></imageobject>
<textobject>
<phrase>This is what the <guilabel>Filters</guilabel> tab of
the preferences dialog looks like.</phrase>
</textobject>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>This tab allows you to define various filters which should be applied
before showing the headlines in the scroll text.</para>
<note><para>These filters only affect the headlines which are shown in the
scrolltext; the menu will always show all of the headlines.</para></note>
<para>The major part of the tab is occupied by a table which lists the
currently configured filters. Each filter has a small checkable box - checking
that box enables the filter, unchecking it temporarily disables it without
removing it from the list.</para>
<para>By default there are no filters, so chances are that the table is
completely empty for you. Of course, this dialog provides you with ways
to add new filters, and manage them in general:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>To <emphasis>add</emphasis> a filter, simply enter the filter
properties (see <link linkend="filter-components">Filter
Components</link> for a detailed description of the various filter
properties) using the input fields in the box labeled <guilabel>Filter
properties</guilabel> and then press the button labeled
<guilabel>Add</guilabel>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>To <emphasis>modify</emphasis> an existing filter, select the
filter you would like to edit in the table by left-clicking on it and
then change its properties in the box at the bottom.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>To <emphasis>remove</emphasis> a filter, select it in the table
and then press the button labeled <guilabel>Remove</guilabel>.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<sect2 id="filter-components">
<title>Filter Components</title>
<para>Each filter consists of four components:</para>
<orderedlist>
<title>Filter Components</title>
<listitem>
<para>Action – this can be either <guilabel>Show</guilabel> or
<guilabel>Hide</guilabel> and defines what should happen to a headline
in case this filter matches.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>News sources – here you can define whether the filter affects only
single news sources, or whether this filter should be applied to the
headlines of all news sources.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Condition – this is a verb which defines, together with the
Expression, whether a filter matches. A condition can be ⪚
<guilabel>contains</guilabel>, <guilabel>doesn't equal</guilabel> or
<guilabel>matches</guilabel>. See below for a more detailed
description.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Expression - this is a user-defined string which forms the body
of the filter, together with the Condition. See below for a more detailed
description of this component.</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
<para>All these components can be configured using the facilities in the frame
labeled <guilabel>Filter properties</guilabel>. The possible states of the
Condition component deserve a special explanation:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para><guilabel>contains</guilabel>, <guilabel>doesn't contain</guilabel>:
this filter matches if the headline contains / doesn't contain the
specified expression.</para>
<note><para>The expression isn't treated case-sensitively, so the expressions
<quote>KDE</quote>, <quote>kDE</quote> or <quote>kde</quote> will all match
headlines which contain <quote>KDE</quote>.</para></note>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><guilabel>equals</guilabel>, <guilabel>doesn't equal</guilabel>:
this filter matches if the headline equals / doesn't equal the
specified expression.</para>
<note><para>The expression is treated case-sensitively, so of the expressions
<quote>&Linux;</quote>, <quote>linux</quote> or <quote>LINUX</quote>, only the
first will match <quote>&Linux;</quote>.</para></note>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><guilabel>matches</guilabel>: using this condition will make
&knewsticker; treat the given expression as a <quote>regular
expression</quote>. For further information on regular expressions you
might want to read
<ulink url="http://www.evolt.org/article/rating/20/22700/">this
article</ulink> which was published at
<ulink url="http://www.evolt.org">www.evolt.org</ulink>.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="config-scroller">
<title>Scroller Preferences</title>
<screenshot>
<screeninfo>This is what the <guilabel>Scroller Preferences</guilabel> tab
of the preferences dialog looks like.</screeninfo>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject><imagedata fileref="kcmnewsticker-scrollerprefs.png" format="PNG"/></imageobject>
<textobject>
<phrase>This is what the <guilabel>Scroller Preferences</guilabel>
tab of the preferences dialog looks like.</phrase>
</textobject>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>This tab lets you define various options which affect &knewsticker;'s
scroll text:</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Scrolling speed</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>This slider lets you define how fast the scrolltext should be
scrolling. If you have rather little space on your taskbar (and
therefore a rather small news ticker), you should probably set this
to a lower value so that you have a chance to read the headlines.
For wider news tickers (and better eyes), a faster text is probably
appropriate so that you have to wait for the next headline only as
little as possible.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Direction of scrolling</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>These options allow you to define in what direction the text
should be scrolled, ⪚ to the left or to the right, upwards or
downwards. You can also rotate the text by 90 or 270 degrees here,
which is not exactly readable but it makes sense for vertically
aligned panels.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Scrolltext font</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>Click on the button at the right labeled <guilabel>Choose
Font...</guilabel> to choose the font which will be used for the
scrolling text.</para>
<tip><para>Certain fonts are harder to read than others, especially
when they are used for a scrolltext, so you should probably choose a font
which can even easily be read if it's moving.</para></tip>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Foreground color</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>Click this button open a convenient color-selection dialog which
lets you choose the color which will be used for the foreground of the
scrolling text (&ie; the color of the text itself).</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Background color</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>Click this button to open a convenient color-selection dialog
which lets you choose the color which will be used for the background
of the scrolling text.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Highlighted color</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>Click this button to open a convenient color-selection dialog
which lets you choose the color which will be used for the color of
the headlines when they are highlighted (when you move the mouse over
them).</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Scroll the most recent headlines only</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>Check this button to make the scrolltext show just the most
recent headline for each news site, instead of showing every
headline available from every news site.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Show icons</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>Checking this box will make &knewsticker; show an icon (if
available) in front of each headline which is scrolled along; this
makes determining which news site provided each headline much
easier.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Temporarily slowed scrolling</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>Check this box to make &knewsticker; slow the scrolling down
when you move the mouse cursor over the scrolling text. This makes
clicking on items and dragging away the icons (if enabled) a lot
easier.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Underline highlighted headline</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>Check this box to have the currently highlighted headline
(&ie; the headline which is currently under the mouse cursor)
underlined.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</sect1>
</chapter>
<chapter id="using-knewsticker">
<title>Using &knewsticker;</title>
<para>Using &knewsticker; is fairly straightforward and should give you no
big problems, assuming that you have already
<link linkend="configuration">configured it</link>. No matter
whether you are running &knewsticker; in the main panel, in its own child
panel or in its own window, it appears as an area with a scrolling text and
a button with a small arrow next to it.</para>
<sect1 id="applet-descr">
<title>The Main Interface</title>
<para>The area (it is white by default, but you can change the background
color easily using the preferences dialog) with the scrolling text in it is
called the <quote>news scroller</quote>. It keeps scrolling the downloaded
headlines (or just the most recent headlines) continuously and provides easy
access to the articles. If you see an interesting article, just click on it
to open the &konqueror; web browser, showing the full article which belongs to
the headline you clicked on. If you feel that a possibly interesting headline
just scrolled out of view, you have some ways to influence the
scrolling:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>You can click on the news scroller with the
<mousebutton>left</mousebutton> mouse button and move the mouse around
(while holding the <mousebutton>left</mousebutton> mouse button pressed
down). The news scroller will continue scrolling as usual if you release
the left mouse button again.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>If you own a so-called <quote>wheel mouse</quote>, you can use
the wheel on your mouse to scroll the headlines back and forth.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>There's also a very powerful <link linkend="contextmenu-descr">context
menu</link>, which you can access either by clicking on the news scroller with
the <mousebutton>right</mousebutton> mouse button, or by clicking on the
arrow button with the <mousebutton>left</mousebutton> button. This context menu
is the most interesting part of the applet, as it contains about all the
functionality.</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="contextmenu-descr">
<title>The Context Menu</title>
<screenshot>
<screeninfo>This is what the context menu of &knewsticker; looks like, when
using just the default news sites.</screeninfo>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject><imagedata fileref="contextmenu.png" format="PNG"/></imageobject>
<textobject>
<phrase>This is what the context menu of &knewsticker; looks like,
when using just the default news sites.</phrase>
</textobject>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>The context menu is basically split into two functional parts:</para>
<para>The upper part shows a list of entries, each entry having a small icon like
this <inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="newssite-icon.png" format="PNG"/></imageobject>
</inlinemediaobject> next to it. This list represents
the list of currently configured news sites. You can click on any of the news
sources to open another menu which contains a listing of headlines which are
available for that particular news site as well as an entry labeled <guilabel>
<inlinemediaobject><imageobject><imagedata fileref="checknews-icon.png"
format="PNG"/></imageobject></inlinemediaobject> Check news</guilabel> to
refresh the headline list for this news site. Each of the headlines has an
<inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="oldarticle-icon.png" format="PNG"/></imageobject>
</inlinemediaobject> icon next to it indicating that that you
have read that article already or the <inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="newarticle-icon.png" format="PNG"/></imageobject>
</inlinemediaobject> if it is still
unread.</para>
<para>The lower part currently shows five entries (explained from top to
bottom):</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel><inlinemediaobject><imageobject><imagedata fileref="checknews-icon.png" format="PNG"/></imageobject></inlinemediaobject> Check news</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>This entry has a little <inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="checknews-icon.png" format="PNG"/></imageobject>
</inlinemediaobject> next to it. If you want to force &knewsticker;
to check the configured news sites for new articles, you can click
here.</para>
<note><para>This does not reset the internal timer which queries the
news sites for new headlines automatically in certain
intervals.</para></note>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Offline mode</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>This entry in the context menu has no icon associated with it.
Click this button to enable a special <quote>offline mode</quote>
which pauses the internal timer for querying the news sites and
prevents any automatic download of new headlines. The offline mode
comes in handy if you have to leave your computer for a while
during which the system isn't connected to the Internet, as it
saves you from all the error messages which pop up if any of the
news sites couldn't be connected.</para>
<tip><para>You can still force a reload for single news sites as
well as for all the news sites by selecting the respective
<guilabel><inlinemediaobject><imageobject><imagedata
fileref="checknews-icon.png" format="PNG"/></imageobject>
</inlinemediaobject> Check news</guilabel> entry.</para></tip>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel><inlinemediaobject><imageobject><imagedata fileref="help-icon.png" format="PNG"/></imageobject></inlinemediaobject> Help</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>This entry is marked with a small <inlinemediaobject>
<imageobject><imagedata fileref="help-icon.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>. Clicking on this entry opens
the &knewsticker; documentation (which you're reading in this
moment) which details all the features and abilities of
&knewsticker;.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel><inlinemediaobject><imageobject><imagedata fileref="knewsticker-icon.png" format="PNG"/></imageobject></inlinemediaobject> About</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>This entry is marked with a small <inlinemediaobject>
<imageobject><imagedata fileref="knewsticker-icon.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>. Clicking on this entry opens
a small dialog showing who's to blame for &knewsticker; and credits
people who contributed significant enhancements for
it.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel><inlinemediaobject><imageobject><imagedata fileref="preferences-icon.png" format="PNG"/></imageobject></inlinemediaobject> Preferences</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>This entry is easily recognizable due to the <inlinemediaobject>
<imageobject><imagedata fileref="preferences-icon.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject></inlinemediaobject> icon which is next to it. Select
this entry to open the <link linkend="configuration">preferences
dialog</link> which lets you customize all of the properties of
&knewsticker;</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</sect1>
</chapter>
<chapter id="faq">
<title>Frequently Asked Questions</title>
&reporting.bugs;
<qandaset id="faqlist">
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>Where do I find the &RSS; file for the news
site XYZ?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>It's possible that the news site you're referring to
doesn't provide any &RSS; file at all! Here's a short list of
websites which provide thousands of &RSS; feeds, sorted by
language and/or topic - for free:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>
<ulink url="http://www.webreference.com/services/news">WebReference.com</ulink>
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
<ulink url="http://www.newsisfree.com/syndicate.php">NewsIsFree</ulink>
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
<ulink url="http://w.moreover.com/categories/category_list_rss.html">MoreOver</ulink>
</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>If you have found any interesting news sites which provide
such a backend, don't hesitate to send them to &Frerich.Raabe;
&Frerich.Raabe.mail; so that they can be included in
future releases. Thank you!</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>How can I make &knewsticker; open articles in another browser
(⪚ Mozilla)?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>&knewsticker; will use whatever browser you have associated with
the text/html &MIME; type; the default browser used for viewing
&HTML; pages is &konqueror;.</para>
<para>You can find the dialog for changing this association by opening
the &kde; control center and browsing to <menuchoice><guimenu>KDE
Components</guimenu> <guisubmenu>File
Associations</guisubmenu></menuchoice>.</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
</qandaset>
</chapter>
<chapter id="credits">
<title>Credits And License</title>
<para>&knewsticker;</para>
<para>Program copyright 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 &Frerich.Raabe;
&Frerich.Raabe.mail;</para>
<para>Contributors:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Malte Starostik <email>malte.starostik@t-online.de</email></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>&Wilco.Greven; &Wilco.Greven.mail;</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Adriaan de Groot <email>adrig@sci.kun.nl</email></para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>Documentation copyright 2001, 2002, 2003 &Frerich.Raabe;
&Frerich.Raabe.mail;</para>
<!-- TRANS:CREDIT_FOR_TRANSLATORS -->
&underFDL;
&underBSDLicense;
</chapter>
<glossary id="glossary">
<title>Glossary</title>
<para>This chapter is intended to explain the various acronyms which have been
used throughout the &knewsticker; documentation. If you feel any acronyms or
terms are missing here, please don't hesitate to send an email to &Frerich.Raabe;
&Frerich.Raabe.mail; so that they can be added. Thank you!</para>
<glossentry id="gloss-rdf">
<glossterm>RDF</glossterm>
<glossdef>
<para>Resource Description Framework. A language derived from
&XML; which describes metadata. Commonly used as a
backend format for articles and other publications. For more detailed
information on <acronym>RDF</acronym> files, you might want to go
directly to the <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/RDF/">official page on
<acronym>RDF</acronym> files</ulink> at the
<ulink url="http://www.w3.org">World Wide Web
Consortium</ulink>.</para>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
<glossentry id="gloss-rss">
<glossterm>&RSS;</glossterm>
<glossdef>
<para>The <acronym>RDF</acronym> Site Summary is actually an
extension to the <acronym>RDF</acronym> language. Quoting the official
<ulink url="http://www.purl.org/rss/1.0/">&RSS; v1.0
specification</ulink>:</para>
<para><quote><acronym>RDF</acronym> Site Summary
(&RSS;) is a lightweight multipurpose extensible
metadata description and syndication format. &RSS; is
an &XML; application, conforms to the
<acronym>W3C</acronym>'s <acronym>RDF</acronym> specification and is
extensible via &XML;-namespace and/or
<acronym>RDF</acronym> based modularization.</quote></para>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
<glossentry id="gloss-xml">
<glossterm>&XML;</glossterm>
<glossdef>
<para>The Extensible Markup Language is the <quote>universal format
for structured documents and data on the Web</quote>. It's a derivative of
<acronym>SGML</acronym> which fits the needs of the world wide web. You
might want to check the the
<ulink url="http://www.w3.org/XML/">Extensible Markup Language</ulink>
page at the <ulink url="http://www.w3.org">World Wide Web
Consortium</ulink> for further information.</para>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
<glossentry id="gloss-w3c">
<glossterm>W3C</glossterm>
<glossdef>
<para>An abbreviation for <quote>World Wide Web Consortium</quote>.
Quoting the <ulink url="http://www.w3.org">official homepage</ulink> of
the <acronym>W3C</acronym>, <quote>the World Wide Web Consortium
(<acronym>W3C</acronym>) develops interoperable technologies
(specifications, guidelines, software, and tools) to lead the Web to
its full potential as a forum for information, commerce, communication,
and collective understanding</quote></para>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
<glossentry id="gloss-url">
<glossterm>&URL;</glossterm>
<glossdef>
<para>&URL; stands for <quote>Uniform Resource Locator</quote>,
a specially formatted string which can reference resources like images,
documents and other things on the Internet. Please refer to the
corresponding <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/Addressing/">webpage</ulink>
for more detailed information on this topic.</para>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
<glossentry id="gloss-dcop">
<glossterm>&DCOP;</glossterm>
<glossdef>
<para>The Desktop COmmunication Protocol is a way for applications
to communicate to each other. For instance, &knewsticker;'s
<link linkend="configuration">configuration dialog</link> uses
&DCOP; to tell the applet itself about the current
configuration.</para>
<para>&knewsticker; provides an extensive
<link linkend="develinfo">&DCOP; interface</link>,
which makes it possible to control many of &knewsticker;'s functions
from the commandline.</para>
<para>For more detailled information on &DCOP;
you might want to visit
<ulink url="http://developer.kde.org/documentation/library/2.0-api/dcop/HOWTO.html">http://developer.kde.org/documentation/library/2.0-api/dcop/HOWTO.html</ulink>
for a complete explanation.</para>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
</glossary>
<appendix id="develinfo">
<title>Information For Developers And Advanced Users</title>
<para>&knewsticker; features a currently rather extensive, and steadily growing
&DCOP; interface. This is not only used to communicate with
other applications, it makes it possible to control &knewsticker; with a
shell script as well. The more the interface is extended, the more useful it will
become and the more flexible &knewsticker; will be controllable from a
script.</para>
<para>To use these &DCOP; functions you can either use the
<application>dcop</application> commandline program or use the more convenient
<application>KDCOP</application> application. Both provide the same
functionality so it's actually just a matter of taste which program you prefer.
:-)</para>
<para>This chapter assumes that you're using the commandline program
<application>dcop</application>. To access &knewsticker;'s
&DCOP; functions make sure that &knewsticker; is <link
linkend="starting-knewsticker">started</link> and then just enter something like
this at the console:</para>
<screen width="40">
<prompt>%</prompt> <userinput><command>dcop</command> <option>knewsticker</option> <option>KNewsTicker</option> <option>[function]</option></userinput>
</screen>
<note><para>If an error appears that tells you that <filename>dcop</filename>
couldn't be found or executed, please check whether the file
<filename>dcop</filename> exists in
<filename class="directory">$<envar>KDEDIR</envar>/bin</filename> and make sure its
permissions are set appropriately.</para></note>
<para>In that command line, just replace <quote>[function]</quote> with the
appropriate function name, &ie; type</para>
<screen width="40">
<prompt>%</prompt> <userinput><command>dcop</command> <option>knewsticker</option> <option>KNewsTicker</option> <option>updateNews</option></userinput>
</screen>
<para>to make &knewsticker; check for new news items and download them if
necessary.</para>
<sect1 id="dcop-reference">
<title>&DCOP; Reference</title>
<para>In this section, all methods which are accessible via &knewsticker;'s
&DCOP; interface are listed.</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><command>updateNews</command></term>
<listitem>
<para>This function forces &knewsticker; to update the internal list
of articles (&ie; it queries the list of news sources which has been
<link linkend="config-newssources">configured</link> for new news) and
downloads them when necessary.</para>
<note><para>This also works if &knewsticker; is currently in offline
mode.</para></note>
<para>Example:</para>
<screen width="40">
<prompt>%</prompt> <userinput><command>dcop</command> <option>knewsticker</option> <option>KNewsTicker</option> <option>updateNews</option></userinput>
</screen>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><command>reparseConfig</command></term>
<listitem>
<para>The <command>reparseConfig</command> command makes &knewsticker;
reload its configuration from the configuration file. This function is
used by the <link linkend="configuration">configuration dialog</link>
to talk to &knewsticker; but you can use it if you modified the
configuration file by hand.</para>
<tip><para>The configuration file is saved in
<filename>~/.kde/share/config/knewsticker_appletrc</filename></para></tip>
<para>Example:</para>
<screen width="40">
<prompt>%</prompt> <userinput><command>dcop</command> <option>knewsticker</option> <option>KNewsTicker</option> <option>reparseConfig</option></userinput>
</screen>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><command>setOfflineMode [bool]</command></term>
<listitem>
<para>You can call this function to define whether &knewsticker; is
currently in the offline mode (&ie; whether &knewsticker; should query
the <link linkend="config-newssources">configured news sites</link> for
new news).</para>
<para>Example:</para>
<screen width="40">
<prompt>%</prompt> <userinput><command>dcop</command> <option>knewsticker</option> <option>KNewsTicker</option> <option>setOfflineMode</option> <option>true</option></userinput>
</screen>
<para>to enable the offline mode, or type</para>
<screen width="40">
<prompt>%</prompt> <userinput><command>dcop</command> <option>knewsticker</option> <option>KNewsTicker</option> <option>setOfflineMode</option> <option>false</option></userinput>
</screen>
<para>to disable offline mode.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><command>interval</command></term>
<listitem>
<para>Returns the currently configured news query interval in
minutes.</para>
<para>Example:</para>
<screen width="40">
<prompt>%</prompt> <userinput><command>dcop</command> <option>knewsticker</option> <option>KNewsTicker</option> <option>interval</option></userinput>
30
<prompt>%</prompt>
</screen>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><command>scrollingSpeed</command></term>
<listitem>
<para>Returns the currently configured scrolling speed. The returned
scrolling speed is specified in pixels per second.</para>
<para>Example:</para>
<screen width="40">
<prompt>%</prompt> <userinput><command>dcop</command> <option>knewsticker</option> <option>KNewsTicker</option> <option>scrollingSpeed</option></userinput>
20
<prompt>%</prompt>
</screen>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><command>mouseWheelSpeed</command></term>
<listitem>
<para>Returns the number of pixels the scrolltext gets shifted
per mousewheel step.</para>
<para>Example:</para>
<screen width="40">
<prompt>%</prompt> <userinput><command>dcop</command> <option>knewsticker</option> <option>KNewsTicker</option> <option>mouseWheelSpeed</option></userinput>
15
<prompt>%</prompt>
</screen>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><command>scrollingDirection</command></term>
<listitem>
<para>Returns an integer which corresponds to the direction the
scrolltext is scrolling in:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>1 = To the left</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>2 = To the right</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>3 = Upwards</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>4 = Downwards</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>5 = Upwards, rotated</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>6 = Downwards, rotated</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>Example:</para>
<screen width="40">
<prompt>%</prompt> <userinput><command>dcop</command> <option>knewsticker</option> <option>KNewsTicker</option> <option>scrollingDirection</option></userinput>
1
<prompt>%</prompt>
</screen>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><command>customNames</command></term>
<listitem>
<para>Returns either 'true' or 'false', depending on whether &knewsticker;
uses custom names for the news sites.</para>
<para>Example:</para>
<screen width="40">
<prompt>%</prompt> <userinput><command>dcop</command> <option>knewsticker</option> <option>KNewsTicker</option> <option>customNames</option></userinput>
false
<prompt>%</prompt>
</screen>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><command>endlessScrolling</command></term>
<listitem>
<para>Returns either 'true' or 'false', depending on whether &knewsticker;
has the endless scrolling option enabled.</para>
<para>Example:</para>
<screen width="40">
<prompt>%</prompt> <userinput><command>dcop</command> <option>knewsticker</option> <option>KNewsTicker</option> <option>endlessScrolling</option></userinput>
true
<prompt>%</prompt>
</screen>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><command>scrollMostRecentOnly</command></term>
<listitem>
<para>Returns either 'true' or 'false', depending on whether &knewsticker;
currently only scrolls the most recent headlines for each news
site.</para>
<para>Example:</para>
<screen width="40">
<prompt>%</prompt> <userinput><command>dcop</command> <option>knewsticker</option> <option>KNewsTicker</option> <option>scrollMostRecentOnly</option></userinput>
false
<prompt>%</prompt>
</screen>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><command>offlineMode</command></term>
<listitem>
<para>Returns either 'true' or 'false', depending on whether &knewsticker;
is currently in offline mode.</para>
<para>Example:</para>
<screen width="40">
<prompt>%</prompt> <userinput><command>dcop</command> <option>knewsticker</option> <option>KNewsTicker</option> <option>offlineMode</option></userinput>
false
<prompt>%</prompt>
</screen>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><command>underlineHighlighted</command></term>
<listitem>
<para>Returns either 'true' or 'false', depending on whether &knewsticker;
was told to underline the headline which is currently below the mouse
cursor.</para>
<para>Example:</para>
<screen width="40">
<prompt>%</prompt> <userinput><command>dcop</command> <option>knewsticker</option> <option>KNewsTicker</option> <option>underlineHighlighted</option></userinput>
true
<prompt>%</prompt>
</screen>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><command>showIcons</command></term>
<listitem>
<para>Returns either 'true' or 'false', depending on whether &knewsticker;
currently shows the icon of the news site each particular headline
was published at in front of the headline.</para>
<para>Example:</para>
<screen width="40">
<prompt>%</prompt> <userinput><command>dcop</command> <option>knewsticker</option> <option>KNewsTicker</option> <option>showIcons</option></userinput>
true
<prompt>%</prompt>
</screen>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><command>slowedScrolling</command></term>
<listitem>
<para>Returns either 'true' or 'false', depending on whether &knewsticker;
has the <quote>slowed scrolling</quote> feature activated.</para>
<para>Example:</para>
<screen width="40">
<prompt>%</prompt> <userinput><command>dcop</command> <option>knewsticker</option> <option>KNewsTicker</option> <option>slowedScrolling</option></userinput>
false
<prompt>%</prompt>
</screen>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><command>foregroundColor</command></term>
<listitem>
<para>Returns the currently configured foreground color as a string
in the format <quote>#rrggbb</quote>, where <quote>rr</quote>,
<quote>gg</quote> and <quote>bb</quote> are two-digit hexadecimal
values representing the intensity of the red, green and blue components
in a scale of 00-ff.</para>
<para>Example:</para>
<screen width="40">
<prompt>%</prompt> <userinput><command>dcop</command> <option>knewsticker</option> <option>KNewsTicker</option> <option>foregroundColor</option></userinput>
#804000
<prompt>%</prompt>
</screen>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><command>backgroundColor</command></term>
<listitem>
<para>Returns the currently configured background color as a string
in the format <quote>#rrggbb</quote>, where <quote>rr</quote>,
<quote>gg</quote> and <quote>bb</quote> are two-digit hexadecimal
values representing the intensity of the red, green and blue components
in a scale of 00-ff.</para>
<para>Example:</para>
<screen width="40">
<prompt>%</prompt> <userinput><command>dcop</command> <option>knewsticker</option> <option>KNewsTicker</option> <option>backgroundColor</option></userinput>
#0030ff
<prompt>%</prompt>
</screen>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><command>highlightedColor</command></term>
<listitem>
<para>Returns the currently configured highlight color as a string
in the format <quote>#rrggbb</quote>, where <quote>rr</quote>,
<quote>gg</quote> and <quote>bb</quote> are two-digit hexadecimal
values representing the intensity of the red, green and blue components
in a scale of 00-ff.</para>
<para>Example:</para>
<screen width="40">
<prompt>%</prompt> <userinput><command>dcop</command> <option>knewsticker</option> <option>KNewsTicker</option> <option>highlightedColor</option></userinput>
#000080
<prompt>%</prompt>
</screen>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><command>newsSources</command></term>
<listitem>
<para>Returns the list of currently registered news sources. Note that
this returns all news sources, not just the selected ones. In the
output, each news source name will be printed on a line.</para>
<para>Example:</para>
<screen width="40">
<prompt>%</prompt> <userinput><command>dcop</command> <option>knewsticker</option> <option>KNewsTicker</option> <option>newsSources</option></userinput>
Freshmeat
GNOME News
dot.kde.org
Slashdot.org
<prompt>%</prompt>
</screen>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</sect1>
</appendix>
&documentation.index;
</book>
|