Ultra Random Thoughts: Weather forecast gadget,much more about E17 on openSUSE 12.2

Sunday, 27 January 2013

Weather forecast gadget,much more about E17 on openSUSE 12.2

I had earlier already written about "openSUSE trying to offer E17 as mainline desktop" which covered topics like installation of E17 on openSUSE and "Changing backgrounds and themes in E17 openSUSE 12.2". Through this article I hope to cover left-over bits and pieces about E17 on openSUSE 12.2.

Install useful E17 packages

Using zypper

After installing E17 on openSUSE as described in the articles written earlier we can install some useful packages like weather forecast module,themes, mines game, shellmentary (zenity like pop ups ) etc...

sudo zypper in shotgun elemines e-theme-a-os-detour e-theme-a-os-green e-theme-a-os-miguel-v3 e-theme-a-os-vision-v3 e-theme-darkness e-theme-efenniht e-module-forecasts shellementary

Notes:-
sudo - use command as super user
zypper- package manager
in - parameter to indicate install

Using YaST

After invoking YaST installer you can easily select the repositories drop down and select the E17 repository and select and install the relevant modules by right clicking and install them as shown below.

Configure Weather Forecast Gadget on E17 / openSUSE 12.2

Enable Forecasts Module

You need to first open the main menu and navigate to Settings and then Modules menu. In the "Module Settings" you can select "Forecasts" module and press the "Load" button to activate this module.

Add Forecasts Gadget to Shelf

You can right click on the standard E17 dock or "Shelf" and then open "Contents" submenu . In the "Shelf Contents" window you can select "Forecasts" gadget and click on "Add Gadget" button to add the Gadget to the Shelf.

Configure Forecasts Gadget

To change "Forecasts" settings like city ,Units(Celsius, Fahrenheit) etc you can can right click on the Gadget or Widget and then choose Settings submenu. To get the Forecasts code you need to go to www.weather.com and get the weather codes for your city.You can use this code in the "Forecasts" gadget.

Getting Weather codes from weather.com

Changing Forecasts settings

E17 developing its own set applications

E17 developing its own set applications to become a full fledged DE and reduce reliance on applications from from other DEs.The following screenshot shown a game called elemines which is based on Enlightenment Foundation Libraries (EFL) , Terminology which is a cool terminal emulator for E17, E17's own built in file manager, Shotgun which is a XMPP (jabber) client using EFL libraries. I could easily connect with my gtalk contacts using shotgun.

Screenshot showing Elemines, Terminology, Shotgun and E17 file manager

Elemines, Terminology, Shotgun and E17 file manager

Enable Shelf Auto Hide

Shelf which is the default dock on E17 can be set to "auto hide" state by right clicking on Shelf and choosing "Shelf==>Settings" and then selecting the "Auto -hide" option and then applying the settings.

Shellementary

Shellementary is an EFL based GUI application similar to zenity/kdialog and can provide GUI to shell scripts. I have tried to provide an information type of pop up using shellementary from terminology using the command shellementary --info --text 'e17 Rocks!'

More E17 Themes

In "Changing backgrounds and themes in E17 openSUSE 12.2" i have dealt about downloading , installing and changing themes for E17 from 3rd party sites. But now openSUSE does offer many themes in its repos. If you had installed the packages as described earlier in the article you should be able to see many themes on your E17 desktop. All E17 themes packages in openSUSE repositories are named as "e-theme-*". It is very easy to find them in YaST. I have posted some theme screenshots below.