bohdanbobrowski/digikam_screensaver
Windows screensaver, from pictures loaded out from Digikam database in Python
DigiKam Screensaver
Windows screensaver, from pictures loaded out from DigiKam database in Python.
As for now - this is just for Windows.
Instructions
Features
- Takes random photos from digikam4.db SQLite database (
*.jpg,*.gifand*.png) with a minimum rating according settings (by default it's one star). - Some configuration is needed.
- Database is opened in read-only mode!
- Pressing
<F-12>will (obviously) turn off screen saver, but I've added a function that will open current picture in associated app. - Pressing
<F-1>will open project GitHub page.
Known issues
- screensaver work just for one monitor
- preview does not work: none of python screensaver examples has this feature, and to make it working I need to
display screensaver in given window handler number (Windows passes it via cmdline, I'm parsing that but Tkinter AFAIK
can't display or create window inside other window): see how it's done
here, in C. - because of these two problems above, I'm considering change Tkinter to other library
(Arcade? Pygame?) and keep Tkinter
just for configuration window - the choice of Python for this kind of program (it's more for a demonstration - hold my beer, I'll show you something
cool) is not very optimal, mainly because of the size and the way the binary generated by PyInstaller works,
it's also like a red rag to a bull for antiviruses... but anyone who knows anything about PyInstaller will understand
Dev environment
This will work on Windows cmd:
git clone git@github.com:bohdanbobrowski/digikam_screensaver.git
cd digikam_screensaver
python -m venv venv
venv\Scripts\activate
pip install -e '.[dev]'
Run configuration windows first:
python digikam_screensaver/screen_saver.py /c
It should look like this:
Then, to test how does it work just type:
python digikam_screensaver/screen_saver.py /s
Preview mode can be reached by typing:
python digikam_screensaver/screen_saver.py /c
Building own *.scr
If all required stuff is installed in system, this command should make the job:
python digikam_digikam_screensaver_build.py
You'll find exe in .\dist folder - just rename it to scr and install.
Known bugs
On Windows 10, it is not possible to launch the associated graphical program (F12) - it looks like the screensaver is launched in some wrapper, which in turn blocks the launched graphical browser. But only with pyinstaller build! That's weird.
Documentation and inspiration
Python:
- https://github.com/SirGnip/arcade_screensaver_framework
- https://github.com/gaming32/Windows-Screensaver
This might be interesting, according attaching window to given win32 handler:
C:
Win32 Screensaver API documentation:
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/lwef/screen-saver-library
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/troubleshoot/windows/win32/screen-saver-command-line
Other:
- Interesting discussion about screensaver settings window (which didn't changed since 20 years):
https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows11/comments/q0b427/the_screensaver_settings_have_looked_like_this/