[all variants] Desktop Info App With Html Support (gtk-desktop-info)

[kaivalagi]

ArchLinux : Package support is present in the AUR. All my packages can be seen here: http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?SeB=m&K=kaivalagi

IMPORTANT NEWS

All the script packages have now been copied into the Conky Hardcore PPA. Any package updates will be provided by the team through this new ppa.

The ppa can be found here: https://launchpad.net/~conkyhardcore/+archive/ppa

To use this ppa first delete the old ppa files using this:

sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/m-buck*

Then follow the modified first post instructions for the scripts
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ ______________________________

If you create any good custom templates and styles, please post them. I plan on adding a custom templates and styles folder in the long term....
Also, any developers out there that want to include a new plugin of thier own, just speak up...I'd always be happy to add functionality if it's any good

Intro

gtk-desktop-info is a python tool to display various pieces of information directly on the desktop, using plugins for html rendering, with html templates and css style sheets for formatting.

The application has been created off the back of existing python scripts used with Conky. The reason for it's creation is a simple one, Conky is great but formatting can suck sometimes...html seemed the obvious choice of formatting giving the user the ability to construct output in a variety of styles based on understood techniques.

Please, please, please, before asking any questions have a good read of the attached guide.

General points to note about the app are:

• Very lightweight and low cpu usage
• Creates cropped images of the background wallpaper and uses them for the generated html background, effectively making the window transparent.
• Utilises webkit html rendering engine and supports images, javascript and flash as you would expect in the browser
• Ability to customise any output within the boundaries of what can be done with html, and as it's html there are plenty of editors out there which can help with design
• All output content is scrollable, so the window size remains unchanged. Using the scroll wheel on a mouse will alway you to see the extra content
• Variety of plugins available and you also have the ability to use external scripts for rendering content too

Plugins

All the plugins have come from my conky tinkering of the past, and have been adapted to output html based information, including weather/moon/wind icons for forecasts, and coverart for music. Plugins are defined using the –plugin option of the main application.

Below is a summary of each plugin.

• “deluge” – this plugin provides a breakdown of bit torrent information, when bit torrents are managed by Deluge. It can provide detailed and/or summary info.
• “email” - this plugin provides email account information, a count of unread emails and optionally details of the sender and subject of the emails.
• “exaile” - this plugin displays Exaile based song information, cover art, rating, progress etc
• “feedparser” - this plugin provides rss/atom feed information
• “forecast” - this plugin provides weather forecast information from weather.com for a given location. It includes weather, moon and wind images, detailing the weather.
• “googlecalendar” - this plugin provides Google Calendar event information.
• “null” - this plugin provides a means to use html, javascript and flash only content. By default is displays a javascript clock.
• “pidgin” - this plugin provides pidgin buddy information, telling you who is online and what their status is.
• “processinfo” - this plugin provides process information, telling you a processes id, cpu usage and memory usage. The information can be sorted by cpu or memory usage
• “rhythmbox” - this plugin displays Rhythmbox based song information, cover art, rating, progress etc
• “shell” - this plugin provides a means to execute scripts and commands from within a template. Whatever can be done on the command line can be done here too.
• “tomboy” - this plugin provides information on Tomboy based notes, keeping most formatting from the notes intact in the output.
• “twitter” - this plugin provides information on all your twitter friends, shown newest to oldest - note: to get running at the very least enter your username and password into the config file copied to ~/.config/gtk-desktop-info/plugin_twitter.config

Note: The shell plugin will provide the equivalent functional to that used with exec/execi calls in Conky. The big difference however, is that it sources all the results from execs inside [] from within a template file, meaning that formatting of command line results is much simpler and neater. A lyrics scripts would work nicely in it for example

Current Limitations

Compiz wallpaper settings are not supported yet, however gnome, xfce, kde3, and kde4 are.

If tiling or simple background colours are used, the application will no handle these well.

I am attempting to find a better way to handle system wallpaper, independently from the window manager type, so that the only thing this application will be dependant on is gtk, webkit and python libraries. However this may be some time off. If you have issues with wallpapers and the fake transparency is not working, I suggest you use the –wallpaper option, as described in the guide.


Basic Install

Method 1: Using apt

1) Create the necessary list file for access to the repository by running one of these:

Karmic Koala:

sudo wget -q http://www.kaivalagi.com/ubuntu/ppa/conkyhardcore-karmic.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/conkyhardcore-karmic.list

Jaunty Jackalope:

sudo wget -q http://www.kaivalagi.com/ubuntu/ppa/conkyhardcore-jaunty.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/conkyhardcore-jaunty.list

Intrepid Ibex:

sudo wget -q http://www.kaivalagi.com/ubuntu/ppa/conkyhardcore-intrepid.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/conkyhardcore-intrepid.list

2) Add the gtk-desktop-info repository public key to your apt setup by running this:

wget -q http://www.kaivalagi.com/ubuntu/ppa/conkyhardcore-key.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -

3) Now that is done simply run the following to install

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install gtk-desktop-info

Method 2: Using tar.gz file

Only go this route if you know what you're doing, you are not likely to get much help if you get stuck!

1) Go to https://launchpad.net/~conkyhardcore/+archive/ppa and download the latest tar.gz files for gtk-desktop-info and gtk-desktop-info-data packages.

2) Extract all the contents of the tar.gz files to an appropriate folder of your choice, the default location is /usr/share/gtk-desktop-info

3) Copy the gtk-desktop-info and gtk-desktop-info.guide script files to /usr/bin, edit them to point to the folder you extracted everything to, and make them executable

There are several dependencies for the app to run, these are:

• Python Google GData API
• Python PyWebKitGtk libraries
• Python Imaging library
• Python Xlib Libraries

Unless you are using a non-Debian based OS I don't suggest this. Users of Debian/Ubuntu flavour OS's should ideally use the first method as all dependencies will be handled. You will not receive updates using this method either.

Any further details on setup are orientated around the deb package based install, so may differ from what you choose your setup to be, if done using the tarball.


Usage Help

Refer to the attached guide for a detailed explanation of the application, along with information on the command line usage etc. The guide is also available within the install, it can be opened by running the following (evince is expected to be installed):

gtk-desktop-info.guide

You can also see the available options by running this in a terminal:

gtk-desktop-info -h

Development History

Development history going forwards can be seen here https://code.launchpad.net/~m-buck/+...k-desktop-info

All packages available from me can be found here: https://launchpad.net/~conkyhardcore/+archive/ppa

[kerry_s]

what's the resource usage like?

[martynp]

I can confirm resource usage is low....... comparable to conky........

Kav has done a great job here.... this is a very versatile app already and I know it's gonna get even better.

Keep up the great work!

Martyn

[kaivalagi]

Originally Posted by kerry_s what's the resource usage like?

The plugins do the same amount of work as their equivalent scripts for conky. The main app only really has to render the html via a webkit view on a refresh call, so wont use more (if any) cpu than conky...Memory may be higher though, I am not sure.

On my system, I see zero cpu usage when the app is idle (in between intervals), with peaks when a refresh takes place of 2-3% maximum

I am running a quad code cpu though....

As the app runs instances for each plugin, and most plugins do not need a 1 second refresh rate, the hit on cpu usage for a whole desktop is low...

[shadesofevil]

my my my you've really outdone yourself! great-work!

[Bruce M.]

I'm going to be one of the:

How did you do that? Please share config file.

guys here.

My HTML skills are ten years old and I was just beginning to "experiment" with stylesheets.

{sigh} Talk about feeling old ... even my second grandson didn't do this to me.

Job Well Done Award
&
Medal of Excellence

Absolutely great job!

Chimo!
Bruce

[HippyRandall]

Originally Posted by Bruce M. My HTML skills are ten years old and I was just beginning to "experiment" with stylesheets. {sigh} Talk about feeling old ... even my second grandson didn't do this to me. Chimo! Bruce

here's a shell.template I use:

<div id="wrapper">
    <div class="hugedark" align="right">[date +"%I<span class="hugelight">:</span>%M%p"]</div>
    <div class="mediumlight" align="right">[date +"%a, <span class="largedark">%d</span> %B"]</div>
    <div class="mediumdark" align="right">Core 0: <span class="mediumlight">[sensors |grep Core0 |cut -c15-16]&deg;C</span> <span class="mediumdark">| Core 1: <span class="mediumlight">[sensors |grep Core1 |cut -c15-16]&deg;C</span> | GPU: <span class="mediumlight">[nvidia-settings -q gpucoretemp |grep Attribute |cut -c47-48]&deg;C</span><br></div>
</div>

nothing special other than liking to see my temps

[kaivalagi]

Originally Posted by Bruce M. My HTML skills are ten years old and I was just beginning to "experiment" with stylesheets. {sigh} Talk about feeling old ... even my second grandson didn't do this to me. Absolutely great job! Chimo! Bruce

Don't worry, Hippy and I will hone your skills again!

You can always use something like bluefish to get a html page sorted out, then edit that in gedit/mousepad to put in the details...

Thanks for the award, I am not very good at accepting compliments though Time will tell whether I deserve it or not...

I just hope people get something out of it

K

[kaivalagi]

Originally Posted by shadesofevil my my my you've really outdone yourself! great-work!

Thanks, glad you think so

I just hope it's not too complicated for most...I really don't want to be answering questions all day everyday...gonna need some support personnel I think!

[ad_267]

Wow this looks great, good job!