Plugin Tools
KDevelop contains a large number of little tools that help you to perform certain task. Most of them are realized as plugins. This means, if you do not like one of them, you can simply disable it in the Project options dialog under Plugins (for project-wide plugins) or under Settings Configure KDevelop.... Plugins which are switched off do not clutter your menus and are not loaded into memory.

The abbrev Plugin
This plugin expands abbreviations into frequently used code snippets. It is activated by pressing Ctrl Space. For example, when you enter "ife" into a C++ in the editor and press Ctrl Space, you obtain an if-else code template and save some key strokes. The set of supported abbreviations depends on the programming language of the edited file. For example, for PHP you will obviously be interested in other code templates than for .
The set of code templates is configurable. You can see which ones are available in the Settings Configure KDevelop... dialog under Abbreviations

The filter Plugin
This offers two features. If you select Tools Execute command, you can enter a shell command. The output of this command is inserted into the editor buffer when you hit the Start button.
A related feature is available under Tools Filter selection through command.... In order to use this, you must select a text area in the editor. If you now enter a shell command and hit the Start button, the command is started and the selection used as the standard input for it. The standard output of the command is then inserted into the editor.

The Doxygen Plugin
This one helps you to use the Doxygen API documentation tool (). You can select Project Run Doxygen to generate API documentation for your current project, based on the configuration given by the file Doxyfile in your project directory.
Furthermore, you can configure Doxygen in the Project Project options... dialog. This dialog is very similar to the doxywizard tool.

The ctags Plugin
Although the class browser gives you extensive insight into the symbols and classes of your project, you may also want to use the ctags tool. In particular, this one supports a lot more language than the class browser.
You activate this plugin under Tools CTags.... When you start it the first time, you will be asked to generate a search database first. When you accept this, the ctags program will be started and will create a file named tags in your project directory. This is a text file containing all symbols of your source files.
You can search in the symbol database in two ways: when the Regular expression match box is checked, the text you enter will be interpreted as a regular expression (POSIX flavor) and matched with the existing symbols. For example, the text .*Widget will search for all symbols ending with Widget. If the box is not checked, the search will be verbatim.
When searching, you will get a list of the matched symbols, accompanied with the line numbers where they are defined. You jump to the respective point by clicking on the list.
For some languages, ctags distinguishes different kinds of symbols. For example, Python has classes and functions. You can selectively search only for classes by checking the respecting kinds in the dialog.
The symbol database is normally not updated when your sources change. Consequently, after a while the line numbers will not be correct anymore and newly added classes and functions will be missing. Therefore you should update the tags file in regular intervals by pressing the button Regenerate.

The astyle Plugin
(... to be written ...)

The regexptest Plugin
Designing with regular expressions can be hard work. Often the first try at an expression matches too many strings. In particular, when working with a compiled language, the turnaround times when debugging a regular expression can be awkward. The regexptest plugin allows you to directly explore the changes in a regular expression. It is activated by choosing Tools Debug Regular Expression....
In the flavor group box, you can choose the flavor of the regular expression engine used. Currently supported is the flavor defined in the POSIX standard, which is used by the grep program, and the extended POSIX syntax used by the program egrep.
When you enter an expression, you get immediate feedback about any syntax errors in it. By entering a text under Test string, you can see whether the expression matches this string. In particular, if your regular expression includes groups, such as ([a-z]), the content of the matched subgroups will be shown in a list box.

The konsole Plugin
(... to be written ...)

Overview
KDevelop offers extensible modules, or parts, to be loaded at runtime and on demand. This allows developers to only turn on features that they need or want for their development.
Some of the parts are considered global — that is, they effect the entire operation of KDevelop. For example, the uimode part allows a developer to select which user interface they wish to use.
Other parts are project specific, and are only utilized when a project of that type is loaded. The Automake Manager, for example, only needs to be active when an Automake based project is currently loaded. Otherwise, this part will not be active.
Active parts can have many effects on KDevelop. Depending on their function, they may add extra menus, extra menu items, extra tool buttons,

Project Management Parts in KDevelop
antproject	ANT Project Manager ( applications)
autoproject	Automake Project Manager
customproject	Custom Project Manager
trollproject	QMake based Project Manager

Global Parts in KDevelop
Part Name	Description
appwizard	New Project Wizard
history
konsole	Embedded Konsole
editor-chooser	Chooses an internal text editor
doctreeview	Documentation Viewer
openwith
fileselector	A file selection widget
uimode	Customize the UI mode
texttools	Additional text tools
tipofday	A tip of the day
grepview	A graphical grep utility
cvs	CVS Support
tools
regexptest	A regular expression tester
abbrev	Abbreviation Expansion
filter
valgrind	A graphical valgrind frontend

Language Support Parts in KDevelop
cppsupport	Support for C/C++
fortransupport	Support for Fortran
javasupport	Support for
perlsupport	Support for Perl
phpsupport	Support for PHP
pythonsupport	Support for Python

Project Specific Parts in KDevelop
astyle
buglist
classview	Classview Manager
ctags
debugger	Debugger Manager
diff
distpart
doxygen
fileview
javadebugger
manager
nedit
outputviews
perforce
qeditor
scripting
scriptproject
sourcenav
svn
visualboyadvance
windowmenu