KRunner in Python (I)

This is my first post, so I don't really know how to start... [DONE].

My goal is to improve the usability of the time tracking software included in KDE: KTimeTracker, just because I don't want to spend time to track it.

I'll try to expose the whole (good! It'll mean that I found a solution!) of the process I am following to get a working KDE Runner written in Python.

KDE4 (actually Plasma) brings a very useful tool called KRunner. It's a launcher that can be customized with our own actions. The plugins that implements this functionality are Runners.

So, after looking for a tutorial or example, I found the tutorials page for Plasma and, starting from the generic plasmoid tutorial, I developed a first version that looks like:

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
from PyKDE4.plasma import Plasma
import sys
sys.path.append('/usr/share/kde4/apps/plasma_scriptengine_python')
import plasma_importer


class PythonRunner(Plasma.RunnerScript):
    importer = None

    def __init__(self, parent):
        super(PythonRunner, self).__init__(parent)
        if PythonRunner.importer is None:
            PythonRunner.importer = plasma_importer.PlasmaImporter()
        self.initialized = False

    def init(self):
        self.m_moduleName = str(self.runner().name())
        self.plugin_name = self.m_moduleName.replace('-', '_')
        PythonRunner.importer.register_top_level(self.plugin_name,
           str(self.runner().package().path()))
        self.initialized = True
        return True

    def __dtor__(self):
        PythonRunner.importer.unregister_top_level(self.plugin_name)
        self.pyrunner = None

    def match(self, search):
        if not search.isValid():
            return
            
        term = search.query()
        if term.length < 2:
            return

        m = Plasma.QueryMatch(self)
        m.setType(Plasma.QueryMatch.ExactMatch)
        m.setText('You said "%s"' % term)
        m.setData(term)
        search.addMatch(m)

def run(self, search, action):
        print(action.data().toString())


def CreatePlugin(widget_parent, parent, component_data):
    return PythonRunner(parent)

To highlight:

1. match(...) method receives the query from KRunner and fills the response with the found matches (if any).
2. run(...) method receives the match that user selects in KRunner if it's one of the ours. Through the action.data() method, we reach the QVariant object stored in the match(...) method.
   

Everything else is explained in the tutorial, with the only exception of the install command, which should be:

plasmapkg -t runner -i hello-python.zip

Then you have to summon KRunner (usually Alt+F2) and activate the new Runner in Settings->Plugins.

Wonderful! But... it doesn't work!

To be continued...