Help wanted to understand kdialog output

[chimak111]

System: Kubuntu 16.04 with kubuntu-backports enabled.

I made eight files: abc.txt, def.txt, ghi.txt, jkl.txt, mno.txt, pqr.txt, stu.txt, and vwx.txt. Then, I ran kdialog with --menu, --checklist, and --combobox. The terminal output is shown below.

What I see in the kdialog window that appears (not shown) is as follows.

• with --menu, I get the terminal message shown below and I only see four files: def.txt, jkl.txt, pqr.txt, and vwx.txt
• with --checklist, I get the terminal message shown below and I only see two files: def.txt and mno.txt
• with --combox, there's no terminal message and I can see all files by scrolling with the down arrow.

Is there something I need to fix? I would prefer to use either --menu or --checklist, if that's possible.

$ touch abc.txt def.txt ghi.txt jkl.txt mno.txt pqr.txt stu.txt vwx.txt
$ ls
abc.txt  def.txt  ghi.txt  jkl.txt  mno.txt  pqr.txt  stu.txt vwx.txt
$ kdialog --menu "Select a file:" $(ls)
QInotifyFileSystemWatcherEngine::addPaths: inotify_add_watch failed: No such file or directory
QFileSystemWatcher: failed to add paths: /home/chimak/.config/ibus/bus
Bus::open: Can not get ibus-daemon's address.
IBusInputContext::createInputContext: no connection to ibus-daemon
$ kdialog --checklist "Select a file:" $(ls)
QInotifyFileSystemWatcherEngine::addPaths: inotify_add_watch failed: No such file or directory
QFileSystemWatcher: failed to add paths: /home/chimak/.config/ibus/bus
Bus::open: Can not get ibus-daemon's address.
IBusInputContext::createInputContext: no connection to ibus-daemon
$ kdialog --combobox "Select a file:" $(ls)
$

Edit: zenity works fine: all eight files are listed but zenity isn't default in Kubuntu.

$ zenity --list="Select a file:" --column="File" $(ls)
Gtk-Message: GtkDialog mapped without a transient parent. This is discouraged.
$

[Rog131]

Documentation with examples

Development/Tutorials/Shell Scripting with KDE Dialogs: https://techbase.kde.org/Development...th_KDE_Dialogs

[chimak111]

I read that but still can't understand why all items aren't being listed with --menu or --checklist. I'm not experienced in coding.

[Rog131]

I read that but still can't understand why all items aren't being listed with --menu or --checklist. I'm not experienced in coding.

No one is expecting that you are experienced but you could read and execute the examples. With the menu dialog: https://techbase.kde.org/Development...enu_dialog_box

kdialog --menu "Select a language:" a "American English" b French d "Oz' English"

If you select the first option (in this case American English and press OK, then kdialog will send the associated key (in this case the letter a) to standard output. Note that the keys do not need to be lower case letters - you can equally use numbers, upper case letters, strings or the contents of shell variables.

The 'kdialog --menu' is expecting a paired list of output and options.

When you throw the command:

kdialog --menu "Select a file:" $(ls)

to the terminal there is a list of:

output    option
---------------------
abc.txt    def.txt
ghi.txt     jkl.txt
mno.txt   pqr.txt
stu.txt     vwx.txt

When you click the option 'def.txt' the output will be 'abc.txt' and so on...

[chimak111]

Sorry to have troubled you! I was trying to convert the code in https://github.com/leehblue/texpander to use kdialog instead of zenity. While what I managed doesn't work properly in konsole, it works in browser text boxes and in GUI-based text editors and in LibreOffice Writer.

#!/bin/bash

# Version: 1.2.1
# Release: September 12, 2017

pid=$(xdotool getwindowfocus getwindowpid)
proc_name=$(cat /proc/$pid/comm)

base_dir="${HOME}/.texpander/"
abbrvs=$(ls $base_dir)

#name=$(zenity --list --title=Texpander --width=275 --height=400 --column=Abbreviations $abbrvs)
name=$(kdialog --combobox "Choose from the dropdown" $abbrvs)

path=$base_dir$name

if [[ $name ]]
then
 if [ -e "$path" ]
 then
   clipboard=$(xclip -selection clipboard -o)
   xclip -selection c -i "$path"

   if [[ $proc_name =~ (termin|nano|konsole) ]]
   then
     xdotool key ctrl+shift+v
   else
     xdotool key ctrl+v
   fi
   
   sleep 1s

   echo $clipboard | xclip -selection c
 else
#    zenity --error --text="Abbreviation not found:\n$name"
   kdialog --title "Something went wrong" --passivepopup \ "What happened?" 2
   
 fi
fi

[oshunluvr]

Both those kdialog lines work fine here in konsole. The error must be elsewhere, or explain what you mean by "trouble"

[chimak111]

Both those kdialog lines work fine here in konsole. The error must be elsewhere, or explain what you mean by "trouble"

I have a few simple scripts that use zenity and was trying to see if I could get them to work with kdialog instead.

In this case, it's the texpander script which I linked to above. I was/am searching for the kdialog functional equivalent to zenity's "--list" option. As rog131 pointed out, neither --checklist nor --menu are equivalent. The closest I can find is --combobox.

So I'm not saying that any kdialog options aren't working the way they are intended to. I misread their purpose