New "watcher" panel items?

deleted3 · 2016-08-07 15:23:44

I would loved to see a few new "watcher" panel items just like mailwatch, but does the following:

1. xfce4-calendarwatch - watches google calendar and updates icon new event notification is executed. The panel icon opens a program on click and a command can be run when calendar notification is present.

2. xfce4-rsswatch - watches an rss feed for updates and updates the panel icon when a new article is present. The panel icon opens a program on click and a command can be run when a new rss article is present.

3. xfce4-hangoutwatch, xfce4-jitsiwatch, and/or xfce4-messengerwatch - watches google hangouts and updates icon when a new message is received. The panel icon opens a program on click and a command can be run when a new message is present. (if this could support various IM programs that would be great too ... if not one for yahoo messenger and jitsi, etc awesome).

4. xfce4-socialwatch - watches social media accounts (google+, facebook, twitter, etc) and updates icon when a new message is received. The panel icon opens a program on click and a command can be run when a new message is present.

I am sure you get the idea. The could better incorporate "netbook-like" features into xfce. For example, I have mailwatch to look at my gmail acount and open the webapp on click. the command that is run is send-notify to alert me of new messages.

Thanks!

ToZ · 2016-08-07 16:55:54

You could use the xfce4-genmon plugin to do this provided there is a command line ability to get at the information you are trying to access.

For example, for #1 (calendar watch), I found that there is a google calendar command line interface tool that you can use to access your google calendar. Specifically, using the command:

gcalcli remind 15 "echo %s"

...I was able to access and report out on any upcoming appointments in the next 15 minutes. Since I am able to do this via command line, I was able to create a small script that I could run through genmon that would put an icon on my tray, change the icon depending on whether there was an upcoming appointment, put the content of the appointment into a tooltip for the plugin, and allow me to click the icon to go to my google calendar.

Here is a screenshot (the panel icon is the last one on the right, with tooltip visible):

Here is the script:

#!/bin/bash
#
# Requires: gcalcli

REMIND_TIME=15
NO_APPTS_ICON=/usr/local/share/no.png
YES_APPTS_ICON=/usr/local/share/yes.png

# check to see if anything is there
RESULT=$(gcalcli remind $REMIND_TIME "echo %s")

# if there is an upcoming appointment.....
if [ "$RESULT" != "" ]; then
    ICON=/usr/local/share/yes.png
else
    ICON=/usr/local/share/no.png
    RESULT="No pending appointments"
fi
echo "<img>$ICON</img><tool>$RESULT</tool><click>exo-open "http://calendar.google.com"</click>"
exit 0

Before you can use the script, make sure you've got gcalcli running properly (you need to setup authorization rights to the calendar - run the command alone first and it will lead you through the process). Also, you will need to change the REMIND_TIME interval (how far into the future to look for appointments in minutes) to suit your preference, and the location of the NO and YES icons you want to use.

The genmon properties should be:
- Command = path to this script (make sure the script is set as executable)
- Label = (unchecked)
- Period = 60s (set to run the script every minute)

For the other 3, if a similar command line option exists, you can modify the script to do the same for the others.

Note: I've created a similar script for checking a gmail account. See: https://git.xfce.org/panel-plugins/xfce … ipts/gmail. It uses the GMail atom feed to check for new messages.

Last edited by ToZ (2016-08-07 16:59:01)

MountainDewManiac · 2016-08-07 17:20:42

Nice ideas that will undoubtedly be popular - and nice solution, ToZ! With everybody and their brother using things like Google Calendar, "social" websites, et cetera... If such things were to be available to first time Xfce users - and clearly available, that is, with some sort of accompanying "tutorial" GUI - it might prove to be extra appealing. This could also lead to some interesting reviews by people who did not expect such things to appear in Xfce, which might in turn attract more users.

Me, I'm a caveman. But I find that I would not object to the above if I installed a new distro with a new version of Xfce and saw that such things were included.

Regards,
MDM

deleted3 · 2016-08-07 19:04:14

@Toz ... Interesting idea about calendar reminders ... I will give that a shot.

@MDM ... thanks, and I agree with "If such things were to be available to first time Xfce users - and clearly available, that is, with some sort of accompanying "tutorial" GUI - it might prove to be extra appealing. This could also lead to some interesting reviews by people who did not expect such things to appear in Xfce, which might in turn attract more users."

How can I make an official suggestion to the devs?

ToZ · 2016-08-07 21:51:31

The current focus of Xfce development is on GTK3 migration. The resources that exist are committed to that initiative. You can make a request to the xfce4-dev mailing list, but you probably won't get the reply that you are hoping for. If you had the ability to develop this yourself, or can get a resource to do it, you would have more luck with moving it forward.

deleted3 · 2016-08-07 23:20:54

@Toz ... well, unfortunately coding them myself is not option, I am not a developer. I may still post the suggestion to the dev mailing list maybe to get it added as a road map item.

However, if anyone else would like to take a stab at this ...feel free. I do not mind being the designated QA on the project.

It would be cool to see Xfce increase it number of panel plugins and I think watcher plugins would be a good start.

Thanks

deleted3 · 2016-08-07 23:24:33

@Toz ... well, unfortunately coding them myself is not option, I am not a developer. I may still post the suggestion to the dev mailing list maybe to get it added as a road map item.

However, if anyone else would like to take a stab at this ...feel free. I do not mind being the designated QA on the project.

It would be cool to see Xfce increase it number of panel plugins and I think watcher plugins would be a good start.

Thanks

deleted3 · 2016-08-25 07:26:32

@Toz - I did try the xfce4-genmon-plugin for both mail and rss. I used your gmail script. It works really well. Easy to implement. For my RSS feed I was able to use this script (https://github.com/Somasis/scripts/blob … ldnotifier) and hack in bits from your gmail script to get what I wanted. I use the old reader so i lucked out. Basically, that script was to simply check old reader and display a notification. I took that piece and added your bits for panel icons, tooltips, and click panel icon to open the website.

This took me a while since this may be only the second or third script I hacked together. But the net result turned out pretty good ... I think.

http://imgur.com/a/LO5Iw

Thanks for the suggestion ... I did put in request for new panel watchers, because it would be much easier, but this is definitely working for me.

Thanks again!

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#1 2016-08-07 15:23:44

New "watcher" panel items?

#2 2016-08-07 16:55:54

Re: New "watcher" panel items?

#3 2016-08-07 17:20:42

Re: New "watcher" panel items?

#4 2016-08-07 19:04:14

Re: New "watcher" panel items?

#5 2016-08-07 21:51:31

Re: New "watcher" panel items?

#6 2016-08-07 23:20:54

Re: New "watcher" panel items?

#7 2016-08-07 23:24:33

Re: New "watcher" panel items?

#8 2016-08-25 07:26:32

Re: New "watcher" panel items?

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