Introduction

KWebSnap is a KDE application that functions kind of like a webcam. It takes a screenshot of your desktop, and uploads it to a specified server using File Transfer Protocol (FTP). It also has a minimal HTTP server so that you can host files right on your own computer.


Features

• Automatic capture and FTP Upload with configurable timer
• Saves image in many different formats with variable quality, size, and thumbnail functionality. Image can be sized by percentage or absolute pixel size
• Capture the whole desktop, or the currently active window
• Minimizes to the system tray
• System/Error Log capability
• Some context-sensitive help available in form of ToolTips and "What's This?"
• Optionally add caption text to your image, with selectable font, color and location.
• Saves all configuration settings, except for password(s), for each user.
• A simple WWW server so you can host the files right on your computer.

Requirements

The main thing that KWebSnap requires is that KDE be installed on your computer. Many Linux distributions come with KDE on the CD or their respective package management system, so that should be the first place to look. You may also check out kde.org and see if they have binary packages for your distibution. Compiling KWebSnap requires KDE development libraries, which usually can be installed from your distributions package management system.


Inspiration

KWebSnap was inspired by a similar, Windows-only, application called SCWebCam. As an avid Linux user, I believe that whatever application is available for Windows, an equivalent application should be avalable for Linux, and other operating systems. So I set out to make an equivalent application. SCWebCam was an inspiration for KWebSnap, hence, I did not set out to build a complete copy of it. KWebSnap will NOT duplicate all of the functionality of SCWebCam, and will not have all the features. For example, I do not plan any of the video features, a scripting system, and some other minor options. KWebSnap is intended to be a simple and usable screen capture ftp program.


Credits

So who is building this thing anyway?
I am Bojan, a Software Engineering student at University of New Brunswick. I started the KWebSnap project, and am the main developer. I am by no means an awesome programmer, and building KWebSnap has been (and is) a learning experience. I appreciate any comments and suggestions on my work. I can be contacted via email: bojan_d [at] users [dot] sourceforge [dot] net.
You can also visit my silly personal website.

Some code was inspired, or simply taken from the following open source projects: amaroK, and aKregator.

Additionally, I must express my graditude for some of the resources I have found very useful in my programming learning and ventures. This includes: QtForum, CodeGuru forums, KDevelop tutorials, Qt Quarterly, and people in #qt and #kde-devel on FreeNode who answered my questions.