Konversation - App of the Month
Read the interview with the man behind Konversation, Dario Abatianni.
Description of Konversation by Bram Schoenmakers.
Daily usage of Konversation
To use Konversation, you'll have to download it first, since it is not included in the KDE distribution. At the project website you can download several packages but also the source code. Packages can be installed with the package manager of your distribution. Check your distribution on how you this has te be done. In this example we will use the source code.
When you have downloaded the source code you need to extract the tarball and then execute the commands
./configure && make && make install
to compile and install Konversation on your system.
When you start Konversation for the first time you'll see the dialog 'Edit Preferences':
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This dialog enables you to configure Konversation as desired. On the first page you can configure the servers. The server irc.kde.org (FreeNode) is already available, KDE's homeserver. Of course, it's possible to add your own by pressing on New Server. By checking the server's checkbox, Konversation will automatically connect to this server on startup. Otherwise, it will show the preferences-dialog if you don't check a server here. It's also possible to supply a default channel, which will be opened after the connection has been established.
Don't forget your identity-settings, which are made in the Identity-section. Enter your real name and your nicks.
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When you're ready, press the Quit-button and restart Konversation. You'll see Konversation's main screen now. It offers a simple interface, so you can start immediately.
(click for larger image)
To go to another channel, simply type
/join #channel
in the messagefield. But Konversation offers also a channel-list in it's interface, which lists all channels available on the server. To retrieve this list, go to Window, Channel List and press Refresh List. This can take some time and bandwidth, especially when your connection isn't that fast.
(click for larger image)
Scripting Konversation
The following is more or less targeted at (power) users wishing to use scripting within Konversation
Scripting in Konversation is quite easy. Add shellscripts to the subdirectory scripts in the apps-directory of Konversation. Make them executable, and after you have done that, just execute the scripts with the /exec command. Personal scripts are to be placed into ~/.kde/share/apps/konversation/scripts, systemwide scripts into $KDEDIR/share/apps/konversation/scripts.
Typing /exec juk for example shows the participants in the channel what you're playing with JuK, provided it is running.
If you want to create your own scripts, the /exec command passes at least three arguments to your script which can be accessed in bash as $1, $2 and $3. The arguments are:
$1 the DCOP port of Konversation
$2 the IRC-server connected to
$3 the target, that is, the IRC-channel you're currently on
You'll need the DCOP port to be able to influence Konversation. For example. telling Konversation to say something on the channel is done by:
dcop $1 Konversation say "$2" "Hello, World"
If you provide more input than just /exec and the scriptname, the extra text is broken into pieces by separating out each word delimited by spaces. For example:
/exec mycmd one two three four
is available in the mycmd script as the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh argument, accessible in bash as $4, $5, $6 and $7.
If you are going to make scripts that output a lot of lines, beware that you do not say them too fast on a channel, otherwise you'll flood the channel and you'll end up having problems with the persons in that channel.
I've shown you some examples using bash as the scripting language, but you can as easily write your scripts in any other language if you wish.
Read the interview with the man behind Konversation, Dario Abatianni.
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