Interactive conky

[Digit]

intention with this thread, is to provide an overview of the methods to make conky interactive, and provided a dedicated space to discuss those methods, and to share new methods and ways and tricks and nuances relating closely to conky interactivity.

so conky's not interactive is it.

or is it?

it can be.  i stopped using conky because i thought interactivity couldnt be done without heavy base code modification.

years without searching, i searched again, and now it seems there are many routes.

so i'm starting this thread with the intention of compiling a nice clean bullet point list of the possible routes to go do create interactivity in conky.

and maybe another list of great links with more interactivity info.

so, i'm sure i'll be back to edit this first post to extend these lists many times.   please help by posting about other means you find exist, and i'll try to update in a timely manner.



WAYS!

conky clicky
https://github.com/netikras/ConkyClicky

dzen + conky + ...?
(sry, i dont have a link, i've just been informed it's doable)

MrPeachy's method
http://crunchbang.org/forums/viewtopic.php?pid=199475#p199475





LINKS!

crunchbang forums has a thread titled like this one, it's quite long.  ^_^  (lets be conciser and cover more broader ground here in this one)
http://crunchbang.org/forums/viewtopic.php?id=18419&p=1

actually, that's just peachy's thread again, here's another of his, a tute for making buttons.
http://crunchbang.org/forums/viewtopic.php?pid=245759%23p245759#p245759

further ways, could be achieved with the exec, execi and texeci ... if you get creative.
https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Conky/HOWTO#Extending_Conky

xdotool is a probable candidate in many methods, though will likely take a bit of work from scratch... it's not short, clean and minimal.
http://www.semicomplete.com/projects/xdotool/

you know some lua, right?  it will likely be helpful to you too. here's mr peachy's how to for lua scripting conky.
http://crunchbang.org/forums/viewtopic.php?id=17246

some more mentions of "interactive conky" found on vsido forum:
http://vsido.org/index.php/topic,6.msg1509/topicseen.html#msg1509
http://vsido.org/index.php/topic,6.msg970/topicseen.html#msg970
(yeah, i thought there'd be more too)


VIDEOS
(thought i should add a separate heading for this stuff.)

this one calls itself default...  and.. it's in vsido...
Default interactive conky panel (did i miss something when i ran away straight to to my xmonad config after installing vsido? vsido has interactive conky ootb?)

more from falldown:
http://www.youtube.com/user/202christopher/videos (INCLUDING LCARS)



please share any other links you know of that may be of use.

(small beginnings, i know)

[jedi]

hey Digit!  Mrpeachy has a ready made interactive conky lua script that does just about everything.  An easy search will find it for you...

[VastOne]

^ He has a link to it in his post!

You need a nap?   

[jedi]

Alas, it is much worse than that!

[Digit]

much worse indeed!

it's actually linked twice!   XD


came back to add http://crunchbang.org/forums/viewtopic.php?pid=245759%23p245759#p245759 and see what else i add before hitting post on my edit of the original post.

[dizzie]

Har far did falldown get with his interactive conky? Admit i wasnt keeping track on that project much

[Digit]

good question dizzie.  ^_^  i just added a vid of his (vsido default interactive conky!(?!)), and a link to the rest of his youtube vids (including the lcars stuff!).

i was surprised when i discovered no thread of his about it here.  (or did i miss it?)

[VastOne]

The conky camp left with falldown and s11... for me it's (conky) a long and winding road that has become boring as hell

[PackRat]

[snip] ... for me it's (conky) a long and winding road that has become boring as hell

I tend to echo that sentiment. Rather than jump on the interactive bandwagon, why not go in the opposite direction and make conky basically run in the background - for example, when my CPU temp exceeds 60C, have it send a notification and icon to the system tray or desktop. Be more an exercise in scripting and widget making, I suppose.

Personally, I don't really want to click on the conky window to find out what's happening.

[VastOne]

^ precisely...

Hmmm... btw, just noticed my HD temp is no longer pinging me...

... off to check the status of hddtemp

[valroadie]

This is awesome! Def. something I will look forward to using as I usually don't mess with conky, BUT this brings it to life! Thanks digit!

[sqlpython]

  Well, interactive conky is another way to go that I had not considered. So, I am sure to at least experiment with it a bit.
  Personally, I like a conky that is active with the system and apps but not mouseable. This may change my view. Question I would have is how resource intensive is it compared to other interactive menus and launchers that are out there..tint2, fbpanel, Cairo, wbar, xfce4 & lxde launchers and panels..

[jedi]

It's actually not to bad at all.
I've tried some of Falldowns stuff and it is very easy on the memory...

[Digit]

[snip] ... for me it's (conky) a long and winding road that has become boring as hell

I tend to echo that sentiment. Rather than jump on the interactive bandwagon, why not go in the opposite direction and make conky basically run in the background - for example, when my CPU temp exceeds 60C, have it send a notification and icon to the system tray or desktop. Be more an exercise in scripting and widget making, I suppose.

Personally, I don't really want to click on the conky window to find out what's happening.

why not,
in two words:
untapped potential.

i agree, clicking on the conky just for the information is hardly worth the great effort (to make) nor the extra effort (to click)...

the reason i'm interested in interactive conky, is as a general interface design thing...  to control interesting and useful things on your computer, not just obfuscating information that could easily be displayed without need of interaction.

i'm sure i'll get around to actually attempting to implement something at some point, rather than just some loose pseudo-research compilings.  ^_^

[sqlpython]

why not,
in two words:
untapped potential.

Maybe I am missing something.. ?
On my Desktop Conky, if I choose to see weather, system info, calender, music player.. whatever. That item is already displayed on the Conky without clicking on anything.  I suppose if I had the need for more info. Then the Conky would begin to clutter my Desktop a Click on Conky which hid items from sight. So, then the click conky would become a neat interface for access without clutter. OTH I could also access those items through Hot-Keys...  Tough choice unless one is loving Conky
  What to do..What to do ?