BashGui/easybashgui

Project EasyBashGUI.


Intro.

EasyBashGUI is a Posix compliant Bash functions library that aims to give simple GUI functions using yad, gtkdialog, kdialog, zenity, Xdialog, dialog, or whiptail depending on KDE or GNOME running or not, Yad, Gtkdialog or Xdialog installed or not and X server running or not ( (c)dialog or whiptail is the minimum ). So, if bash programmer writes: "message 'Thanks for using this program' ", he has not to worry in which environment his program runs: it's enough there is at least (c)dialog or whiptail installed, and program will work as expected. Obviously, if user has KDE, GNOME, or gtkdialog/Xdialog also installed ( and he's in a X session ), program will have "an other look", but logical flow remains exactly the same.
You can force widget usage through "supermode" variable ( possible values: "yad", "gtkdialog", "kdialog", "zenity", "Xdialog", "dialog", "none" ; 
e.g.: >export supermode="kdialog" && source easybashgui && message Hello ).
NOTE on "none" mode: you have to make sure STDERR *is not* redirected, in order to see shell boxes in your terminal.

In EasyBashGUI "suite" there are a launcher ( "easybashgui" ), a launcher that toggles some debug options ( "easybashgui-debug" ), a widget library ( "easybashgui_X.X.X.lib" ), and a stand-alone script (rather old nowadays) to create dialog boxes externally ( "easydialog-legacy" ). Moreover there is an other library too ( "easybashlib" ) for optional ancillary functions ( thanks to it you don't need anymore to use "clean_temp()" function at the end of your EBG scripts ).







Library functions.

message
ok_message
alert_message
notify_message
text
question
input
menu
tagged_menu
list
fselect (= "file select" )
dselect (= "directory select" )
wait_seconds
wait_for
terminate_wait_for
progress
adjust
notify (*)
notify_change (*)

(* => only if you have "yad" installed)



How to install and use.

Extract all files...
(e.g.: >tar -xzvf EasyBashGUI_X.X.X )

Cd in ./EasyBashGUI source dir...
(e.g.: >cd ./EasyBashGUI_X.X.X )

Install it (as root)...
(e.g.: >sudo make install )
 
Uninstall it (as root)...
(e.g.: >sudo make uninstall )

That's it !!!!!



If you want use it in your scripts, simply source "easybashgui" before use...
(e.g.: "source easybashgui" )

IMPORTANT: If easybashlib is present and successfully loaded, you can avoid to launch "clean_temp" to remove temporary files; 
           otherwise DO NOT forget to write "clean_temp" at the end of all your scripts... ;-)

E.g.:
-------------------
#!/bin/bash
source easybashgui
#
message "this"
input 1 ( "that" )
menu "this" "that"
list +"you" -"me" +"her"
...
etc.etc.
...
clean_temp #(since v.6.X.X this function is no more required if easybashlib is present and then successfully loaded by easybashgui)
-------------------

And... enjoy !! :-)

NOTE: Since v.5.X.X is possible making easybashgui work even if it's not installed in your system, 
      it's enough that your script and my libraries are all in the same directory.
      (e.g.: >cd /my_script/and/libraries/dir ; ./my_script )





Synopsis.

question -> "[text]"                 =>       ( 1 argument, box output to exit code and STDERR ) (*)
message -> "[text]"                  =>       ( 1 argument )
alert_message -> "[text]"            =>       ( 1 argument )
ok_message -> "[text]"               =>       ( 1 argument )
notify_message -> <-i "[icon]"> "[text]" =>   ( 1 option, 1 argument )
text                                 =>       ( STDIN, NO argument, box output to "${dir_tmp}/${file_tmp}" and STDERR ) (^)
wait_seconds -> "[integer]"          =>       ( 1 argument )
wait_for -> "[text]"                 =>       ( 1 argument, PID to kill to "wait_for__PID" variable and STDERR ) (@)
terminate_wait_for                   =>       ( 1 argument only in easydialog, otherwise, NO argument ) (@)
fselect -> "<init. dir.>"            =>       ( 1 <optional> argument, box output to "${dir_tmp}/${file_tmp}" and STDERR ) (#)
dselect -> "<init. dir.>"            =>       ( 1 <optional> argument, box output to "${dir_tmp}/${file_tmp}" and STDERR ) (#)
input -> 1 "<label 1>" "[init 1]"    =>       ( 2-3 arguments, box output to "${dir_tmp}/${file_tmp}" and STDERR )
input -> 2 "[label 1]" "[init 1]" "[label 2]" "[init 2]"                     => ( 5 arguments, box output to "${dir_tmp}/${file_tmp}" and STDERR )
input -> 3 "[label 1]" "[init 1]" "[label 2]" "[init 2]" "[label 3]" "[init 3]" => ( 7 arguments, box output to "${dir_tmp}/${file_tmp}" and STDERR )
menu -> "[item 1]" ... "[item n]"    =>       ( [n] arguments, box output to "${dir_tmp}/${file_tmp}" and STDERR ) (%)
tagged_menu -> "[item 1]" "[tag 1]" ... "[item n]" "[tag n]"    =>       ( [n*2] arguments, box output to "${dir_tmp}/${file_tmp}" and STDERR ) (%)
list -> <+|->"[item 1]" ... <+|->"[item n]"    =>       ( [n] arguments, optionally prefixed by "+"(plus) or "-"(minus), box output to "${dir_tmp}/${file_tmp}" and STDERR ) (%)
progress -> "[text]"                         =>       ( percent with or without '%' in STDIN, 1 argument )
progress -> "[text]" "[elements number]"     =>       ( "PROGRESS" string in STDIN, 2 arguments )
adjust -> "[text]" "[min]" "[init]" "[max]" => ( 4 arguments, box output to "${dir_tmp}/${file_tmp}" and STDERR )
notify -> <-c "[click command (for mouse left button)]"> <-i "[icon_good]#[icon_bad]"> <-t "[tooltip_good]#[tooltip_bad]"> "[menu item 1]" "[menu command 1]" ... "[menu item n]" "[menu command n]"		=>       ( 3 options, [n*2] mandatory arguments )
notify_change -> <-i "[new icon]"> <-t "[new tooltip]"> "[good|bad]"		=>      ( 2 options, 1 mandatory argument ) 


(*) = "0" exit status is "YES", "1" exit status is "NOT", other exit codes you should make program exit : normally in a script you have just to check exit status to know user choice ;
(^) = text function write text in STDIN to file "${dir_tmp}/${file_tmp}" and (only) for kdialog, zenity, and Xdialog you can also edit text to write ;
(@) = "wait_for" function create a window with a text and returns control to main program... after a job, you can close the window throught function "terminate_wait_for" ( needs no argument ) ;
(#) = take care that if you are in "console mode" or without X, throught cdialog, selection is done by SPACE key, and NOT by enter key : remember it ;
(%) = "menu" and "list" functions differ about choices: menu allows single choice, list allows multiple choice ; since 7.1.0 version you can use tagged_menu(): it outputs tags (e.g.: "tagged_menu 1 A 2 B" -> if user selects tag "A" then function outputs item "1" );

Since EasyBashGUI v.1.2.4, all windows functions support options "<-w|-width> [integer]", and "<-h|-height> [integer]" for custom window size (note: not used for "notify_message"):
E.g.: >alert_message -w 400 -h 340 "Error!"



Library examples:
1)
question "Do you like Contry music ?"
answer="${?}"
if [ ${answer} -eq 0 ]
	then
	ok_message "You do like it :)"
elif [ ${answer} -eq 1 ]
	then
	alert_message "You don't like it :("
else
	ok_message "See you"
	exit 0
fi

2)
echo -e "What's your name?\n\nMy name's:\nVittorio" | text

3)
wait_for "I'm sleeping 4 seconds... good night..."
sleep 4
terminate_wait_for

4)
fselect
file="$(0< "${dir_tmp}/${file_tmp}" )"

5)
input 1 "(write here IP address)"
input 1 "Please, write IP address" "192.168.1.1"
input 3 "Username" "root" "IP address" "192.168.0.1" "Destination directory" "/tmp"
IFS=$'\n' ; choices=( $(0< "${dir_tmp}/${file_tmp}" ) ) ; IFS=$' \t\n'
user="${choices[0]}"
ip="${choices[1]}"
dir="${choices[2]}"

6)
for i in 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
	do
	echo "${i}"
	sleep 2
done | progress "This is a test progress..."

7)
adjust "Please, set Volume level" 15 40 75

8)
women=( Angela Carla Michelle Noemi Urma Marisa Karina Anita Josephine Rachel )
for (( index=0 ; index < ${#women[@]} ; index++ })) 
	do
	today_prefered_woman="${women[${index}]}"
	kiss "${today_prefered_woman}"
	sleep 1
	#
	# Job done !!
	# then...
	echo "PROGRESS"
	#
done | progress "This is a _LOVE_ progress..." "${#women[@]}"
# if you use "PROGRESS" string in STDIN do not forget second argument ( "[elements number]" )

9)
notify -t "Good tooltip:OK#Bad tooltip:BAD" -i "/usr/local/share/pixmaps/nm-signal-100.png#gtk-fullscreen" "Xclock" "xclock" "Xcalc" "xcalc"
#
while :
	do
	menu GOOD BAD
	answer=$(0< "${dir_tmp}/${file_tmp}" )
	#
	if [ "${answer}" = "GOOD" ]
		then
		notify_message "Changed in \"good\" ..."
		notify_change "good"
	elif [ "${answer}" = "BAD" ]
		then
		notify_message "Changed in \"bad\" ..."
		notify_change -i "gtk-help" -t "This tooltip is bad" "bad"
	else
		exit
	fi
	#
done





( For the old "easydialog-legacy" examples, you would launch it simply with "-h" option )







Note on console mode.

EasyBashGUI doesn't work with original "dialog" ( old one ) that is very limited; if you have first version "dialog" in your box, install "cdialog" and alias or link "dialog" to cdialog. No problem in case you have at least "whiptail" installed: since version 4.0.0, EasyBashGUI is able to use it instead of (c)dialog.
Since 5.0.0 version you can use EasyBashGUI even if NO WIDGET is installed (that is: no gtkdialog, no kdialog, no zenity, no Xdialog, no (c)dialog, no whiptail... doh!!!!! ). To use "super bare" EBG, simply remove the ".lib" library from your path, or set "supermode" var to "none" before easybashgui sourcing (e.g.: >export supermode="none" && source easybashgui && message "Hello world..." )





Note on gtkdialog mode.

EasyBashGUI sets gtkdialog output statements as variables through "eval". This way, in theory, could be possibly dangerous; nevertheless, so far, I don't know about any alternative way...





Note on Git.
Since 8.0.0 version, project is housed at github ( https://github.com/BashGui ). Thanks, Github people! :)



Credits.

Thanks to Bash, Yad, Gtkdialog, Xdialog, Kdialog, Zenity, Cdialog, and Whiptail authors, this library was nothing without their work. Many thanks.
Thanks to Frank Dietermann for suggestion though to make EBG "posix compliant" (since vers. 11.X.X )
Thanks to Jose Joao Dias de Almeida for the makefile tip.
Thanks to Chris "cgat" for his many ideas and suggestions that lead to version's "5.X.X" EasyBashGUI "revolution".
Thanks to Davide Depau for his tests and support, and his effort to make EasyBashGUI Debian policy compliant, and finally for his man page.
Thanks to Christian Prause for his patience and Git support.
Thanks to GitHub for housing our project.
Thanks to Lucio Messina for "Debian policy" tips and support. 







Please, let me know if my work has been useful for you.
Vittorio Cagnetta
[email protected]
https://github.com/BashGui/easybashgui