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https://github.com/mailpile/gui-o-matic

A minimal, cross-platform tool for creating simple GUIs
https://github.com/mailpile/gui-o-matic

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A minimal, cross-platform tool for creating simple GUIs

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README 

        
# GUI-o-Matic!



This is a tool for creating minimal graphical user interfaces; maybe

just a splash screen and an indicator icon with a drop-down menu.



The tool is inspired by `dialog` and other similar command-line

utilities which provide drop-in user interfaces for shell scripts.



GUI-o-Matic is also a drop-in UI, but it differs from these tools in

that it is meant to be used as long-running process, either

communicating with a background process (a worker) or providing access

to URLs or shell commands.



Background worker processes can mutate GUI-o-Matic's state using a

simple JSON-based protocol, and the GUI can communicate back or perform

actions based on user input in numerous ways. Background workers that

need richer user interfaces than are provided by GUI-o-Matic itself are

expected to expose web- or terminal interfaces which GUI-o-Matic can

launch as necessary.



When used without a worker, GUI-o-Matic can provide easy point-and-click

access to shell commands or URLs (see [example scripts](./scripts/)).



Initally written as part of [Mailpile](https://www.mailpile.is/), this

app is released separately so other projects can make use of it.



## Project Status and License



This project is **a work in progress**. Please feel free to help out!



The license is the GNU LGPL which means it can be used and distributed

along with proprietary applications, but changes to GUI-o-Matic itself

must be shared with the community.



## Supported Platforms



GUI-o-Matic currently supports the following desktop environments:



   * Ubuntu Unity

   * MacOS X (partial)

   * Standard X11 (partial via pygtk)



Ideally, future versions will add complete support for:



   * Microsoft Windows

   * GNOME / GTK3

   * KDE



If you have experience developing user interface code on any of these

platforms, please consider helping out!



## User Interface



GUI-o-Matic currently allows creation of the following UI elements:



   * Splash screen with progress bar and status

   * Simple main window with graphics, buttons and status messages

   * Indicator with mutable icon and drop-down menu



When the user interacts with the GUI (clicks a button or a menu item),

the following actions can be triggered:



   * Open URLs in the user's browser

   * Launch apps in terminal windows

   * Make HTTP GET/POST requests in the background (REST API calls?)

   * Run shell commands in the background



Planned features:



   * Dock icon with mutable icon and custom menu

   * System notifications (growl-style)



The UI feature-set is deliberately meant to stay small, to increase the

odds that the full functionality can be made available on all platforms.



## Configuration and Communication



When used as a command-line tool, the `gui-o-matic` tool will read a

JSON formatted configuration from standard-input, until it encounters

the words `OK GO` or `OK LISTEN` on a line by themselves.



In GO mode, the app will continue running until killed.



In LISTEN mode, the app will then continue reading standard input,

expecting one command per line. On EOF the app will terminate. The

command format is very simple; a command-name followed by a space and a

single JSON structure for arguments. Examples:



    update_splash_screen {"progress": 0.2, "message": "Yaaay"}



    set_item {"id": "frobnicator", "label": "FROB IT"}



    notify_user {"message": "Hello World!"}



Consult the file [PROTOCOL.md](PROTOCOL.md) for a full specification

of the program and a full list of available commands. The

[scripts](./scripts/) folder contains working examples illustrating

these concepts.



## Credits and license



Copyright 2016-2018, Mailpile ehf. and Bjarni Rúnar Einarsson.



This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it

under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by

the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at

your option) any later version.



This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but

WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of

MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU

General Public License for more details.



You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License

along with this program.  If not, see .