HowTo: Create a background slideshow.

[k3lt01]

Desktop Drapes is still around for this sort of thing. No longer under development, but it's still around, and available in the repos.

Again people have missed the point, this tutorial is for those who want to understand the already available AND installed system. No one has to download anything else nor do they have to understand bash scripting, instead they follow a relatively simple procedure and can do this countless times over to create many slide shows and have them all available with just a few clicks.

[Rod J]

Thanks k3lt01 for your "How To" ... I just realized today that Lucid can do multiple wallpaper slide-shows (already available in a standard install, as you said) and I was looking for information on how to do this. Thanks again, very much appreciated.

[k3lt01]

Your welcome RodJ.

[ravenkwill]

I, too, like to play with the systems already in place, so I'm trying your method - but it doesn't seem to work for me. I'm using 10.04, create a new xml file with the correct addresses for the images. But when I go into add the new background, I chose the xml file, and instead of it creating the slideshow, I get a blank image. It shows the correct connection to xml file, but states "Image missing." I'm probably missing something obvious; I've double checked each of my image pathways, compared the xml file with the cosmos file, can't find anything wrong.

Any ideas?

And let me add my thanks - I understand your intent and applaud it!!

[k3lt01]

ravenkwill, can you attach your xml, and some screenshots of your folder locations, to your next post so I can take a look at it for you? I'm no scripter I just learn by playing, it took me ages to work through this myself so I am happy to help anyone having difficulty with it.

I also figured out how to make it a screensaver, sometimes. So when I get that working flawlessly I will post another HowTo on that.

Thanks for your kind words, I appreciate it.

EDIT: Actually could you attached your new folder with all the files in it, if it isn't to big that is. Just compress it into a tar.gz file and attach it to your next post.

[yaaarrrgg]

Thanks for the explanation, this quick bash script should output the xml. Change "/path/to/directory/" to point to your directory with the images (and the slide times if needed).

#!/bin/bash

echo "<background>"
echo "  <starttime>"
echo "    <year>2009</year>"
echo "    <month>08</month>"
echo "    <day>04</day>"
echo "    <hour>00</hour>"
echo "    <minute>00</minute>"
echo "    <second>00</second>"
echo "  </starttime>"

while read f
do
  if [[ -z "$first" ]] 
  then
    export first=$f
  else 
    echo "    <to>$f</to>"
    echo "  </transition>"
  fi
  
  echo "  <static>"
  echo "    <duration>500.0</duration>"
  echo "    <file>$f</file>"
  echo "  </static>"
  echo "  <transition>"
  echo "    <duration>5.0</duration>"
  echo "    <from>$f</from>"

done < <(find "/path/to/directory/" -type f )
    
echo "    <to>$first</to>"
echo "  </transition>"

echo "</background>"

[k3lt01]

Thanks for the explanation, this quick bash script should output the xml. Change "/path/to/directory/" to point to your directory with the images (and the slide times if needed).

Would you mind explaining your script?

You say it "should output the xml", does this mean you haven't tested it?

If you have tested your script I'm happy to add it to the first post if you haven't I would ask you to do so so we know it works.

[yaaarrrgg]

Overall, I just had too many images, so wrote a bash loop to output the xml. The script just does a "find" on the directory, and pipes the output into a while read loop. Then, it adds each file in three places in the xml (to, static, and from). The first and last images are special cases, since the first image ends up in the last transition. Also, the first image will have no transition preceding it.

I say this should work, as far as I can tell, the xml output was the same as the example listed in the OP. I'm running it as a test, and transition works, although I didn't see a fade yet.


For example, here's the output xml:

<background>
  <starttime>
    <year>2009</year>
    <month>08</month>
    <day>04</day>
    <hour>00</hour>
    <minute>00</minute>
    <second>00</second>
  </starttime>
  <static>
    <duration>500.0</duration>
    <file>/home/username/Pictures/atari_2600/moon_patrol.png</file>
  </static>
  <transition>
    <duration>5.0</duration>
    <from>/home/username/Pictures/atari_2600/moon_patrol.png</from>
    <to>/home/username/Pictures/atari_2600/Screenshot-Stella 3.0: "Pitfall! (1982) (Activision) (PAL)".png</to>
  </transition>
  <static>
    <duration>500.0</duration>
    <file>/home/username/Pictures/atari_2600/Screenshot-Stella 3.0: "Pitfall! (1982) (Activision) (PAL)".png</file>
  </static>
  <transition>
    <duration>5.0</duration>
    <from>/home/username/Pictures/atari_2600/Screenshot-Stella 3.0: "Pitfall! (1982) (Activision) (PAL)".png</from>
    <to>/home/username/Pictures/atari_2600/Screenshot-Stella 3.0: "Frogger (1982) (Parker Bros) (PAL)".png</to>
  </transition>
  <static>
    <duration>500.0</duration>
    <file>/home/username/Pictures/atari_2600/Screenshot-Stella 3.0: "Frogger (1982) (Parker Bros) (PAL)".png</file>
  </static>
  <transition>
    <duration>5.0</duration>
    <from>/home/username/Pictures/atari_2600/Screenshot-Stella 3.0: "Frogger (1982) (Parker Bros) (PAL)".png</from>
    <to>/home/username/Pictures/atari_2600/zaxxon.png</to>
  </transition>

... snip ...

  <static>
    <duration>500.0</duration>
    <file>/home/username/Pictures/atari_2600/Screenshot-Stella 3.0: "Keystone Kapers (1983) (Activision) (PAL)".png</file>
  </static>
  <transition>
    <duration>5.0</duration>
    <from>/home/username/Pictures/atari_2600/Screenshot-Stella 3.0: "Keystone Kapers (1983) (Activision) (PAL)".png</from>
    <to>/home/username/Pictures/atari_2600/Screenshot-Stella 3.0: "Omega Race (1983) (CBS Electronics)".png</to>
  </transition>
  <static>
    <duration>500.0</duration>
    <file>/home/username/Pictures/atari_2600/Screenshot-Stella 3.0: "Omega Race (1983) (CBS Electronics)".png</file>
  </static>
  <transition>
    <duration>5.0</duration>
    <from>/home/username/Pictures/atari_2600/Screenshot-Stella 3.0: "Omega Race (1983) (CBS Electronics)".png</from>
    <to>/home/username/Pictures/atari_2600/Screenshot-Stella 3.0: "Mouse Trap (1982) (Coleco)".png</to>
  </transition>
  <static>
    <duration>500.0</duration>
    <file>/home/username/Pictures/atari_2600/Screenshot-Stella 3.0: "Mouse Trap (1982) (Coleco)".png</file>
  </static>
  <transition>
    <duration>5.0</duration>
    <from>/home/username/Pictures/atari_2600/Screenshot-Stella 3.0: "Mouse Trap (1982) (Coleco)".png</from>
    <to>/home/username/Pictures/atari_2600/reactor.png</to>
  </transition>
  <static>
    <duration>500.0</duration>
    <file>/home/username/Pictures/atari_2600/reactor.png</file>
  </static>
  <transition>
    <duration>5.0</duration>
    <from>/home/username/Pictures/atari_2600/reactor.png</from>
    <to>/home/username/Pictures/atari_2600/moon_patrol.png</to>
  </transition>
</background>

There's no need to link/change the OP IMO ... I'm just a lazy typer.

[k3lt01]

Thanks for your input, I'll link to that script in the OP.

[Rod J]

I, too, like to play with the systems already in place, so I'm trying your method - but it doesn't seem to work for me. I'm using 10.04, create a new xml file with the correct addresses for the images. But when I go into add the new background, I chose the xml file, and instead of it creating the slideshow, I get a blank image. It shows the correct connection to xml file, but states "Image missing." I'm probably missing something obvious; I've double checked each of my image pathways, compared the xml file with the cosmos file, can't find anything wrong.

Any ideas?

And let me add my thanks - I understand your intent and applaud it!!

Hi ravenkwill,

I was having exactly the same problem as you with one of my compilations. I checked and re-checked the XML file, paths, etc and could find nothing wrong with it. I gave up on it until today when I loaded the XML file into the Firefox browser and it reported a parsing error ... I had unintentionally deleted a "<" tag on one line, changing "</from>" into "/from>". Easily fixed, and then the compilation performed perfectly!

So, it could just be some silly little syntax error in the XML, so easily missed by eye but Firefox picked it up.