yafp / apparat_launcher

an application launcher for linux

apparat_launcher

Important notice

This program is currently in a very early development state.

Table of Contents

• Description
• Screenshots
• Installation
  • Requirements
• Usage
  • Parameter
  • Hotkey
• Plugins
  • Core
  • Kill
  • Misc
  • Nautilus
  • Password Generator
  • Screenshot
  • Search-Internet
  • Search-Local
  • Session
  • Shell
• Changelog
• Development
  • Contributing
  • Colors
• Credits

Description

apparat_launcher is an application launcher for linux. It is developed and tested for Gnome Desktop environments.

Screenshots

Launcher UI

Tray-Icon (Gnome)

Installation

There is no installation routine so far.

Requirements

Python modules

• difflib
• fnmatch
• os
• platform
• psutil
• subprocess
• sys
• webbrowser
• wx
• xdg
• xdg.IconTheme

Linux packages

The following packages are needed:

• gnome-screensaver-command
• gnome-session-quit
• systemctl
• xdg-open
• xdotool

Usage

• Navigate to apparat_launcher
• Execute: ./apparat_launcher.py

Parameter

The following command line parameters are available:

Parameter	Alias	Function
-d	--debug	Show debug output
-h	--help	Show help
-v	--version	Show version

Debug output

Hotkey

If you want to use a global/system-wide hotkey to trigger apparat_launcher (starting, focusing and minimizing) consider using the script hotkeyHelperForApparatLauncher.sh. Simply define a system-wide hotkey which triggers hotkeyHelperForApparatLauncher.sh.

Hotkey definition in Gnome

• Open the Activities overview and start typing Keyboard.
• Click on Keyboard to open the panel.
• Select the Shortcuts tab.
• Select a category in the left pane, and the row for the desired action (launching hotkeyHelperForApparatLauncher.sh) on the right. The current shortcut definition will change to New accelerator…
• Hold down the desired key combination, or press Backspace to clear.

Plugins

Core

Core plugin (can not be disabled)

Trigger	Alias	Parameter	Function
!help			Open apparat_launcher online documentation
!preferences	!prefs		Open apparat_launcher preferences

Kill

Optional plugin to kill graphical applications using xkill

Trigger	Alias	Parameter	Function
!xkill	!kill		Starts xkill

Misc

Optional plugin

Trigger	Alias	Parameter	Function
!open		path	Open file or folder using default application

Nautilus

Optional plugin which offers quick access to some locations in nautilus

Trigger	Alias	Parameter	Function
!goto		path	Open directory in nautilus
!network	!net		Show network devices in nautilus
!recent			Show recent files in nautilus
!trash			Show trash in nautilus

Password Generator

Optional plugin which offers a simple password generator

Trigger	Alias	Parameter	Function
!pw	!password		A simple password generator

Screenshot

Optional plugin which offers screenshot functionality

Trigger	Alias	Parameter	Function
!ss			Selective screenshot (window or area)
!fs			Full screenshot

Search-Internet

Optional plugin which offers easy access to some popular web-services

Trigger	Alias	Parameter	Function
!am		searchstring	Amazon
!au		searchstring	Ask Ubuntu
!bc		searchstring	BandCamp
!dd		searchstring	DuckDuckGo
!fb		searchstring	FaceBook
!fe		searchstring	Fefe
!fl		searchstring	Flickr
!gh		searchstring	GitHub
!gi		searchstring	Google Images
!gk		searchstring	Google Keep/Notes
!gm		searchstring	Google Maps
!gn		searchstring	Google News
!gs		searchstring	Google Search
!la		searchstring	LastFM
!re		searchstring	Reddit
!sc		searchstring	SoundCloud
!se		searchstring	Stack-Exchange
!so		searchstring	Stack-Overflow
!tu		searchstring	Tumblr
!tw		searchstring	Twitter
!vi		searchstring	Vimeo
!wi		searchstring	Wikipedia
!yt		searchstring	YouTube

Search-Local

Optional plugin which offers a file search for $HOME

Trigger	Alias	Parameter	Function
?		searchstring	Filesearch for home directory

Session

Optional plugin which offers access to some session commands

Trigger	Alias	Parameter	Function
!hibernate	!sleep		hibernate the machine
!lock			locks the current session
!logout			logout from current session
!reboot	!restart		reboot the machine
!shutdown	!halt		shutdown the machine
!screensaver	!saver		start screensaver

Shell

Optional plugin which allows running terminal commands from within the launcher

Trigger	Alias	Parameter	Function
!sh		path	Run terminal commands in new window

Changelog

The file CHANGELOG.md provides an overview of the major changes of this project; for a more detailed look at changes to the code, view individual commits.

Development

Contributing

Please check CONTRIBUTING.md for contribution guidelines for this project.

Colors

• Gray (#7f8c8d or 127, 140, 141)
• Red (#b92c0c or 185, 44, 12)
• Green (#269c58 or 38, 156, 88)

Credits

• Icons Details
  • Font Awesome
  • Foundation Icons
  • FA2PNG

apparat_launcher's Issues

ESC should hide main-window if it is resetted already

if the mainwindow was resetted already using ESC-ke and ESC is pressed again - the main-window should get hidden.

Prefs - Add description text to each plugin

the pref tab 'plugins' should feature an plugin description for each plugin

Internet search plugins - add google news

add google news via !gn

add platform check

• script should only support linux platform
• should quit with error message on darwin or windows

plugin: internet_search - parameter are missing

since the last rework of the internet-plugins the parameter is no longer part of the constructed URL - which is for sure a bug.

Plugin - Nautilus !goto - Add support for ~

~ should work as part of path

instance check on startup is broken

the check if there is already an instance running while starting apparat is no longer working. Needs a fix.

Prefs - Enable and Disable debug output via commandline

• User should be able to configure (enable/disable) debug output if script is started from cli
• Preferences -> General tab
• Valueshould be stored in .ini

rename apparat to apparat-launcher

there are already tons of apparat projects on github - renaming it to apparat-launcher might be a good idea.

add color support for debug output

would be nice to have color support in the debug output (tools.py)

creating screenshots

would be helpful if apparat could generate full screen screenshots by himself.

Create initial ini file if it doesnt exist

apparat should create its ini if it doesnt exist.prefered ini location would be

$HOME/.config/apparat.apparat.ini

Add Pref Tab for plugin commands

should add a preference tab which lists all implemented 'plugin' commands

Plugins - Move !prefs, !preferences and !help to new plugin core

Move !prefs, !preferences and !help to new plugin core - which cant be disabled.

Add UI element which shows status (if errors occur)

should add some kind of status ui element which can be used to show notification in error-cases

Add show mainwindow menu-entry

tray menu should feature a 'show mainwindow' entry

add support for config (ini) file

maybe using 'ConfigParser'

add check for desktop environment

add a check for desktop environment to tools.check_platform()

Hide UI after execution a command

• the main ui should hide itself after executing a command
• could be a config-setting

autocomplete search field if only 1 result

if current search string results in only 1 result,

• the text should be autocompleted
• autocompleted text and last critical char for this autocomplete should be marked.

search is case-sensitive

it seems like currently the search-string is handled case-sensitive - while it shouldnt in most cases.

Example:

• search for 'Firefox' should find 'firefox'

plugin_session - add screensaver

add plugin command to trigger screensaver via

xdg-screensaver activate

Internet search plugins - add google image

add google image search via !gi

Update existing ini on startup

Should

• Update and
• validate

local ini File on App start

prefs - make checkboxes enabled

the plugin checkboxes in preferences are currently all disabled.
Should make them enabled - as greyed out looks ugly.

Keep in mind: plugins are so far not configurable. That means: changing the state of the checkboxes to false must be impossible.

plugin misc: close UI after !help if configured

the main ui should be hidden/minimized after executing !help if the user set the related preference

Internet search plugins - add duck duck go

add duck duck go via !dd

Internet search plugin - add facebook support

add facebook support via !fb

internet search plugin | empty searchword

if searchphrase is empty - then apparat should just open the default url of the related page.

Internet Search Plugin - add github

should add github as search option

Add more session plugin commands

should add

• logout
• shutdown
• reboot
• hibernate

tray icon should toggle visibility of main window

left clicking the tray icon should either show or hide the main window

plugin misc: add !help command to open github readme

add a command

!help

which opens the github readme

Internet-search - add mixcloud

• add another search plugin
• http://fontawesome.io/icon/mixcloud/

global hotkey to trigger main window

a global hotkey to trigger the main UI is a must.

Right now left-clicking the tray icon toggles the main-ui already

enhance readability of debug output

should make the debug output more readable

• remove app name
• remove debug output string
• force columns if possible

Plugin: Misc - !open - Add support for ~

~ should work in path

Prefs - user should be able to enable and disable plugins

Users should be able to enable and/or disable single plugins

Make icon-size changeable via preferences

the icon_size should be represented and changeable from within the prefs-window.

right now it is handled via config.py

GTK vs WX mess

It seems critical to use both GTK and WX. Depending on the OS it might result in crashes

Internet search plugins - add flickr

add flickr via !fl

Internet-Search - Add lastfm

should add lastfm to internet-search plugin list

http://fontawesome.io/icon/lastfm-square/

add support for multiple icon sizes

config already contains a setting for icon size - which is so far only valid for the application icons.

Could enhance this to all plugin icons etc

add ui screenshot to readme

should add a screenshot of the main ui to the readme

Internet search plugins - add tumblr

via !tu

Add about menu-entry

tray menu should feature an about-entry

internet-search plugin - add ask ubuntu

ask ubuntu would be great as well - uing !au

Prefs - Statistics tab should show stats

The stats tab is a dummy so far, while the ini contains the stats data already.

Internet search plugin - move from !x to !xy to offer support for more triggers

should change from single letter trigger to dual-letter-trigger to offer more options

plugin_misc: add !preference command

add a

!preference

command to open the app preferences