Calligra is now Active !!

[update] Steps to build have been updated, please note the new cmake flags

Its been quite some time since I started working on a QtQuick GUI for Calligra targeted for mobile devices.

Being available on a spectrum of devices has been one of the goals Calligra had, from the very beginning. We even had awesome releases of FreOffice – Calligra running on Maemo Fremantle with full blown support for viewing and editing supported documents.

The next step in our endaevour is Calligra Active, which was started as Calligra Mobile under a project supported by a collaboration between Nokia and Visvesvaraya Technological University. With continous support from the community, we have finally reached our first milestone – a QML GUI which can be used to view office documents (Text Documents, Spreadsheets, and Presentations).

Without further delay, I present some screenshots (these are running on my desktop machine, as I am still not successful in compiling it for my N900, which is the only touch device I have) –

Home Screen (Type filters, and Recent Documents)

Presentation View (The navigation fades off when in case of inactivity)

Text Document View

Spreadsheet View

 

If you find it interesting, please try it out-

  • Get the Calligra sources from https://projects.kde.org/projects/calligra
  • While running cmake, pass -DTINY=ON to enable building active
  • Once its built, run kbuildsycoca4
  • Finally, run calligraactive /path/to/document
  • The application will keep saving a list of recent files so if you run calligra-active without any arguments, you will see, on the right hand pane, a list of recent documents. The list can be further filtered to only one type of document using the buttons in the left pane

While its on a working stage for viewing stuff, there's a lot of stuff to be done on modularizing the code, and adding support for editing. So if you feel this is exciting, that you can make a difference, please contribute. We are there on Freenode at #Calligra, #CalligraMobile, and #active. See you there smiley

In the end, thanks again to everyone who helped, starting from Suresh and Mani for the idea way back in January to Boudewijn and Arjen Hiemstra throughout the process, and everyone else in the Calligra team. You guys rock!

25 thoughts on “Calligra is now Active !!”

  1. Just want to say that it is really impressive what you guys are doing. Office software ist still something where open source is sadly still behind.

    Can't wait to try out “Calligra Active”!

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  2. Well done!

    But the stable version of the suit still hasn’t been released. 😦 When are you going to make it real?

    And what about a port for n900? Will it come out?

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  3. Thanks smiley

    If you are talking about the whole Calligra suite, we are working hard to provide a great first release. It is taking time because we decided to have a great release even if it takes longer, rather than doing a no-show.

    About Calligra Active, our packagers are already working on packaging it for MeeGo, and it should be ready to be demo'ed at the MeeGo conf. The N900 port is something that will be a bit harder because getting latest kdelibs installed on MeeGo is much easier than on Maemo, so someone has to volunteer for this.

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  5. It is wonderful to see this coming along. The code base was always what seemed the great advantage of KOffice/Calligra, offering all kinds of possibilities, among them portability and new interfaces. I am really excited and look forward to trying an early version. 🙂

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  7. I don’t think someone has packaged Freoffice for Harmattan yet, but if you are ok with building stuff, it should be fairly easy to build Freoffice for Harmattan and deploy to the device.

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  8. Weird, didn’t get an email, will have to bookmark this page.

    But is it necessary?
    Isn’t there already calligra mobile for harmattan?
    It’s just as functional right?

    I know the readers currently in harmattan are based on that.
    But currently they’re somewhat limited.
    The next major release of calligra suite (which inc. mobile edition) should correct that right?

    Thanks!

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  9. Hi Jed,

    yeah, the email notifications is broken, sorry.

    Isn’t there already calligra mobile for harmattan?
    Thats the exact reason, the Document Viewer on the N9(50) uses Calligra as the backend. So Calligra Active wont give any value add right now.
    However, during the recent Calligra Sprint, I worked on Editing features, once I get it polished, we can package Calligra Active for Harmattan because then we’ll have Editing which the default doc viewer doesn’t have.

    If you’re wondering why Calligra Active (QML), when Calligra Mobile (QWidget based) is already there, CA was designed specifically for the Plasma Active project (http://plasma-active.org/) and its just that we can build it for Harmattan, its not our primary target.

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  10. Oh that’s awesome news mate!!
    The minute you have something in beta format, I’m happy to be a guinea pig & provide feedback etc.

    QWidget is deprecated even on Maemo6x anyway isn’t it? (QML preferred)
    So it makes sense that you base the next Maemo6x release on your QML-based tablet work (Calligra Active).

    Will it adhere to the SwipeUX guidelines…
    Or will that be too much work, hence it’ll basically just be straight CA, & look out-of-place etc?

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  11. Yep, its great, but the only sad thing is that atm I’m the only guy working on it in my spare time, so things move very slowly in there.
    But yeah, will let you know on your e-mail 🙂

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  12. Damn that’s really limited resources, tis unfortunate that Nokia hasn’t offered to help!
    Do you have a rough idea on delivery time-frame for the 1st beta?

    And these two questions:

    1)
    QWidget is deprecated even on Maemo6x anyway isn’t it? (QML preferred)
    So it makes sense that you base the next Maemo6x release on your QML-based tablet work (Calligra Active).

    2)
    Will it adhere to the SwipeUX guidelines…
    Or will that be too much work, hence it’ll basically be vanilla CA, & look out-of-place?

    Thank-you!

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  13. Well Nokia did help, the initial work on CA was done by me when was I was interning with them in earlier this year, but too bad they did the WP7 thing after that cheeky

    For the beta, if you're talking about the N9(50), no I don't. However I am wondering, can you do the packaging for Maemo6/Harmattan?

    1. Yes, QML preferred 2. As you said, it'll look out-of-place unless someone can help.

    (btw, did you get an email notification now?)

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  14. Hi Shantanu,

    Apologies for the delay in my response!!
    I’ve no idea how to package for Maemo6, but once it gets closer to being needed I can try.
    Otherwise I will find someone who can…
    Hopefully we can find someone to make it look more “SwipeUX-y” too!
    So no rough time-frame on the 1st betas at all, is within the next 6mth possible?
    (Yes, I did get an email when you posted last time)

    Thank-you.

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  16. Lets try this again, hopefully you can approve my post & respond.

    Apologies for the delay in my response!!!
    I’ve no idea how to package for Maemo6, but once it gets closer to being needed I can try.
    Otherwise I will find someone who can…
    Hopefully we can find someone to make it look more “SwipeUX-y” too!
    So no rough time-frame on the 1st betas at all, is within the next 6mth possible?
    (Yes, I did get an email when you posted last time)

    Thank-you.

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  17. Sometimes you just hate gmail's spam filter getting too agressive and putting notifications to spam :/

    I'd be so happy if we could create a swipe UX UI for calligra and add editing to it, but as you said, we'll need someone to do that. Right now I'm working hard to get Calligra Active integrated with http://plasma-active.org/ before the Spark is released and have all the basic features. As I work on it during my free time, I've still not reached the point where I can start editing support (sad, but true).

    So yea, let me know if someone who knows Qt/QML is willing to work on a SwypeUX for Calligra and we'll be glad smiley

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  18. Thanks for getting back to me, I hope this message reaches you sooner!
    I really wish I could help, but programming is not a major strength of mine.

    Maybe we should submit a enhancement request in the harmattan bug-tracker?
    Then you can add some further thoughts/advice there for the Nokia devs?
    Maybe they might even help with obtaining a N9 for you/others…

    The worst that can happen is that they’ll stamp the report with a “WONTFIX”.
    If we get enough people interested & voting for the report, they “may” listen.

    All the best,
    Jed

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  19. Well harmattan office already does everything Calligra Active supports. So, It will make sense to put CA on Harmattan only when it gets editing. The day I am able to put in editing, I'll contact you for sure, can't forget this much of interest. Thanks a lot smiley

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  20. Thanks Mate!

    The minute you’ve added editing to Calligra please let us know here:
    http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=80765
    We can then immediately lodge a enhancement request in the tracker.

    In fact, I’m thinking it might be prudent just to do it now.
    There’s limitation as-to-how many features they can add this year.
    As the maemo6x team will shrink markedly as the year progresses 😦

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  21. Yep I'll post it there for sure. tbh I dont think maemo team will add editing because its very difficult to do, there are lots of intricacies involved.

    P.S. I might be getting a good job in some time (not FOSS-y, but atleast better than current one which is boring) and I expect that I'll be able to spend more free time on CA then smiley

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  22. Yeah it’s pointless lodging a request with them IMO 😦
    But I will do it soon anyway….
    Your “potential” new job is great news, good luck with it!
    Hopefully it means quicker delivery of CA, & then CA for Maemo6x 😉

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  23. Hello, this progress looks great. I would love to try and help in some way to get editing capabilities on Harmattan. I read that the UI for Harmattan Office would be released as open source by Nokia. Does anyone know anything about this, could it possibly help in this endeavour?

    I am a student/novice programmer with no experience of Qt or QML but would love to learn and help towards this effort if I can. Any recommendations for good things to do towards this goal? Thanks.

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