GSoC 2012 Project Manager proKrammer

Scribus Project Manager

The proposal is yet to be completed and modified.

Abstract :

Scribus is one of the best Open Source Desktop Publishing applications, with a wide range of features. But we can see that Scribus becomes sluggish when dealing with documents of large sizes ( 100 pages or more ). We know that Scribus is used very frequently for making large books and Documents, as seen in the Success stories. [a.l.e: well, it does not have to be that pathetic :-)]

http://wiki.scribus.net/canvas/Category:Success_Stories

[a.l.e:

Scribus needs to be able to manage projects. I want to cover two aspects:

• Managing several .sla files as one project
• Manage the resources used by the .sla as project items

]

To stay competitive we need to be able manage large documents.

So we need to provide users the ability to manage multiple file parts of a single large book or set of documents all sharing some common attributes : masterpages, styles.

Problem Description :

 1) Deciding the working of the project manager.
 2) Making a project manager.
 3) Adding extra features like
     
     a) Combined resources ( Collect for output for whole project ).
     b) Linking specific Scrapbooks to files, and opening them automatically with the files

Implementation Details :

 1) The first part of this GSOC project would be to define how the Sribus Project Manager will work precisely.
 a) collect needs for a project mananegr amongst users
 b) propose and discuss a synthesis
 c) propose and discuss User Interface elements and technical solution 
 
 2) The second part would be to code and document the approved solution.
 a) Users will be able to create a new project.
 b) Add files to the project.
 c) Import files to a project.
 d) Add styles and Masterpages to the project ( shared by all the files ).
 e) Synchronise the files using the most recent versions of all the files.
 f) Print or generate pdf for the whole project.
 g) Link Scrapbooks to different files.
 h) And collect for output for the whole project. ( All fonts and other details from whole project )

Timeline :

My college exams get over by the first week of May. And i will start working on the Project from Second Week.

Till May 20 : Ask among the Scribus community to define how the project manager will work precisely.

          a) Exact needs in the project manager.
          b) The methods of synthesis of the expected needs.
          c) The User Interface Elements.

         Also checking out the Scribus code for:
         1) Collect to Output.
         2) Masterpages, Styles and other resources sharing.

May 21 - May 31  : Checking through the code and Implementation of the User Interface

June 1 - June 10 : General Parts ( Adding files to project, Import files to project ).

June 11 - June 20 : Sharing Master Pages, Styles and other details.

June 21 - June 25 : Synchronizing the files using the updated versions of documents.

June 26 - July 2 : Pdf generation for the Whole Project and other features that need to be done for whole project.

July 3 - July 8 : Other features like Synchronizing page numbers and Indexes.

July 9 : Mid Term Evaluation begins.

July 10 - July 20 : Adding Scrapbook features and Collect for output features.

July 21 - August 3 : Time for Bug fixing and Unit Tests to check the working.

August 3 onwards : Spare time for any difficulties, Integration into Scribus Trunk.

August 13 - Suggested Pencils down date.

After GSOC :

I am highly motivated and interested in working for Scribus even after GSoC. I will continue working with the Scribus team, fixing bugs, and also on some of the specific projects i am interested in.

1) Speeding up Scribus

   Using Multithreading. http://wiki.scribus.net/canvas/Multitherad_%28Project%29

2) Undo Text Feature

   http://wiki.scribus.net/canvas/Undo_text_%28Project%29

3) maybe http://wiki.scribus.net/canvas/Loading_Fonts_%28Project%29 ( Depends on the difficulty level ).

Biography :

I am Parthasarathy, second year Undergraduate Student in Computer Science from Hyderabad, India.

I study at Indian Institute of Technology Madras, one of the most prestigious institutions in the Engineering field in India.

I have a good knowledge and experience in both C++ , and Qt. I have started my Free Software contribution with KDE. I have worked with Digikam ( Photo Management Tool ) and have submitted patches for them.

http://goo.gl/5op7K  :: KIOexport patch

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=206842  :: mediawiki export patch

I have submitted bug fixes for Scribus : 1) http://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=10581 2) Yet to be updated :)

I have also contributed towards Amarok ( Media Player )

Contact Information :

Student : Parthasarathy G

Email ID : gparthasarathy93@gmail.com

Freenode irc nick : proKrammer

Location : Hyderabad, India ( UTC + 530 )