DESKTOPTOJSON(8)           KDE Frameworks: KService           DESKTOPTOJSON(8)

NAME
       desktoptojson - Converts a .desktop file to a .json file.

SYNOPSIS
       desktoptojson --input DESKTOP-FILE --output JSON-FILE

       desktoptojson {--version | --help}

DESCRIPTION
       The KService framework uses information contained in .desktop files to
       locate services, including plugins for Qt5-based applications and
       libraries. The Qt5 plugin system, however, uses JSON data embedded in
       the plugin itself.  desktoptojson allows the information contained in a
       .desktop file to also be used as the embedded data for a Qt5 plugin by
       converting the .desktop file entries into JSON data.

       The generated JSON data is a JSON object that maps the entries from the
       [Desktop Entry] group of the .desktop file. Any other groups are
       ignored. Most entries are just converted to JSON strings, but certain
       entries (such as Hidden and X-KDE-PluginInfo-EnabledByDefault) are
       known to be boolean values and converted as such, and similarly some
       (such as X-KDE-ServiceTypes and X-KDE-PluginInfo-Depends) are always
       converted to arrays of strings.

OPTIONS
       --input DESKTOP-FILE
           The .desktop file to convert.

       --output JSON-FILE
           The file to write the generated JSON data to.

       --help
           Show a brief help text.

       --version
           Show version information.

USAGE
       Most users of this utility will use the CMake macro
       kservice_desktop_to_json as part of the process of building a plugin.


           add_library(myplugin MODULE ${myplugin_SRCS})
           kservice_desktop_to_json(myplugin myplugin.desktop)


       This will produce the JSON file myplugin.json, which can be referenced
       from the K_PLUGIN_FACTORY_WITH_JSON or Q_PLUGIN_METADATA macros.

BUGS
       Please use KDE's bugtracker[1] to report bugs.

AUTHORS
       Scarlett Clark <scarlett@scarlettgatelyclark.com>
           Wrote the original documentation.

       Alex Merry <alexmerry@kde.org>
           Edited the documentation.

NOTES
        1. KDE's bugtracker
           https://bugs.kde.org

KDE Frameworks Frameworks 5.0     2014-04-02                  DESKTOPTOJSON(8)