Talking about Hildon widgets

I was playing with Pymaemo Hildon module in Maemo 5 SDK, and I thought it was a good idea to put some code examples to use some of the new widgets with Python since in the new tutorial there are only examples in C and some people aren’t comfortable in this language (I include myself).

The widgets with which I have been playing till now is the following ones:

HildonPannableArea
HildonStackableWindow
HildonAppMenu
HIldonTouchSelector
and
hildon_gtk_window_set_progress_indicator

In these links you have a small python example of each. Some of them are a rewrite from the C code in the tutorial and other are written for me from scratch. Don’t hope big and complex examples

Finally there is a widget that I think it hasn’t had an improvement in Fremantle and it hasn’t alternative in the default set: Hildon Number Editor.

I can’t use it with my fingers.

I wrote a few months ago a widget in Python that was doing the same function but that could be used by the fingers (you can do it smaller too, at your election):

State of my nation (related to Maemo)

I have just promoted SharePy 1.0~alpha3 to the Extras repository (don’t scare you this version name because it should be stable enough).
This new stable version has the following new features from the 0.2 version that was until today in Extras:

• Flickr support.
• Picasa support.
• Youtube support.
• Blip.tv support.
• SlideShare support.
• Option to add an entire folder.

Now the application is coded in such a way that it’s easier to add new services, as if it was supporting plugins, still I need to improve this code to make this much easier to other developers who want to add other services easily.

Also I have dropped the support of the Share on Ovi service because from the change in the method of authentication in share.ovi.com it wasn’t working and I haven’t been able to get it working again. Sorry.

There some services that will be supported in the future like Facebook, Vimeo, Metacafe, etc.
If you would like some other service , don’t hesitate in ask it.
Also I have uploaded some python modules to the repositories like python-slideshare and python-facebook. With this names you will imagine that are doing them.

In another related topic, the last Monday I was coding a small application to show quotes from the markets. It gets data from Yahoo Finance.

I was launching a contest in the IRC and in Talk to choose to name, and the winner is StockThis.
Congratulations to man_in_ltop, he has suggested this name. Sorry, there isn’t prize.

The application is simple as hell, you can see some screenshots here:

It will be available in Extras in some hours or days when I fix the last couple of bugs. A new python module is uploaded python-ystockquote, to get data from Yahoo Finance.

To finish the post, just to say, last week I was in a talk that Frade gave about Maemo in the Asturlinux X Anniversary. Also, I did a free software course in the University of Oviedo, where jsmanrique spoke about portable devices with a part about Maemo too. Very Interesting talks.
I am very glad that one of my applications was put as example in both talks. Thanks!

Maemo WordPy is becoming an adult

Maemo Wordpy has come to the 1.0 version.
After several months of hard work from the last version and also several months of delays from the planned date (I needed to have some fun too), the version 1.0 beta4 has been promoted to the Extras repository.
It will be very similar to the final 1.0 version, only bugfixes will be added.

What’s new:

• New revamped UI.
• Edit posts already published.
• Livejournal support.
• Manage status of the posts.
• Picasa support (upload, and insert into a post).
• Schedule posts (Blogger and WordPress).
• Create new categories (WordPress).
• Support for post password and slug (WordPress).
• Autosave posts.
• Support for launch with command line arguments (–title and –post).
• Upload multiple images at once to Flickr and Picasa.
• Remember paths to open posts, open images, etc.
• And other many minor improvements.

It has many changes in the code from the last version, practically a complete rewritten, maintaining very little of the previous code.

The most important part is the UI change with the linear screens about Antoine RJ Wright (Maemo WordPy’s designer) was spoking some time ago. Thanks Antoine!
I can add very little to his words, only say that everyone try it and let us know your opinions about the interface.

The only bad mark I would put to Maemo WordPy is the time it’s late in starting, actually 15 seconds. It’s really a problem. This problem comes because the use of python + gtk + glade, specially if you use a glade file of 7000 lines (400 kB).
I am thinking about several ways for improving this and work will be done in order that Maemo WordPy can start in nanoseconds (ok, at least in few seconds).

I would like to gather some feedback about two existing features that could be deleted in Maemo WordPy next version:

1. Preview posts: This feature while could be nice, but really doesn’t work as in your blog because the lack of CSS style. While it could support CSS, I think it isn’t worth the try, until a better thing than gtkhtml2 could be used.
2. Upload images to Flickr and Picasa: I am thinking in get rid of this part because SharePy is doing a good work in this field (and it’ll be better).
   While have this feature handy in Maemo WordPy is nice sometimes, it could remove some weight from Maemo WordPy. And the recommendation is use SharePy.

What do you think? Are you missing this features if they were deleted?

Of course, there many features to implement in future versions. You could read some of the them from the TODO list in the svn.
Also, Maemo WordPy is open to other suggestions specially if they come with some code

Try Maemo WordPy 1.0 beta4.

Of course, THANKS go to everyone who has written to me with feature requests, giving me support, etc., everyone of them is part of this release

Presenting SharePy

SharePy just have come to its second important release, so it’s a good moment to present it in society, since I couldn’t be in the Maemo summit presenting it.

I have created an application to upload files to the Nokia service Share On Ovi from the Internet Tablet. In the actual version it’s a simple application, you can add files (images, videos and audios), tag it and upload to some of your channels in Share On Ovi.
The important change in the 0.2 version is you can add multiple files at once, and tag it as a batch.

This application have received good feedback for the users of the 0.1 version (thanks to all), so I hope you enjoy it. I have good ideas to add to SharePy in next versions, and will be putting soon a list of them in its web page (almost empty at the moment).

It’s not yet in the Extras repository, it’s in Extras-devel for test purposes, when it has passed the quality test it will go to Extras. If you want to be a beta tester, install it from extras-devel (only if you are an experimented user) and tell me your comments. I will appreciate it. Now, it’s in the extras repository, install from here: http://maemo.org/downloads/product/OS2008/sharepy

The most difficult part writing SharePy was create the python library to handle the Share On Ovi functionalities. In this version it has support to upload files and get your channel list. Hopefully Nokia is releasing some kind of documentation of the API soon, and I can to add more features easily without have that research everything.

To finalize, a note to Maemo WordPy users, the new and very waited 1.0 release is coming sooner than you think, I will write a post with comments about the new features, changes, and specially the new very comfortable to use UI