hi guys,

how difficult would it be to implement a timer/countdown effect for KWin? Ideally it would work like the BeClock, but instead of showing the clock it would show a timer.

I have no programming skills in C++/Qt but I'd like to learn if it's not too complicated.

Is this feasible? Where should I look first to learn what I need?

Doesn't sound like it would be too complicated, I would start looking at the source of BeClock. I also recommend learning the fundamentals of C++ and a bit of Qt. I blogged about my experience learning C++/Qt here. It's a bit out-of-date, but may serve as a motivation. You can also have a look at the KDE developer guide.

Finally, if you just want something that works, you can try this runner which allows you to use BeClock as a timer.

actually all you need is

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qdbus org.kde.kwin /BeClock countdown [[h] m] s


beclock has a countdown feature accessible via dbus - all you require is some interface to trigger it.
qdbus is a cli dbus tool - you could also combine that with kdialog (so all you need is a bas script) or do whatever else you know =)

amazing stuff

Hans wrote:Doesn't sound like it would be too complicated.

Thanks, I'll follow your advices anyway since I'd like to learn a bit of c++/qt sooner or later

luebking wrote:actually all you need is

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qdbus org.kde.kwin /BeClock countdown [[h] m] s


beclock has a countdown feature accessible via dbus - all you require is some interface to trigger it.

by the way, where should I look for a list of magic stuff doable via the dbus interface?

More specifically, is it possible to show/hide the clock via dbus? Something like:

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qdbus org.kde.kwin /BeClock show


VeraS wrote:by the way, where should I look for a list of magic stuff doable via the dbus interface?

You could try the application qdbusviewer.

Thanks! Found it:

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qdbus org.kde.kwin /Effects toggleEffect kwin4_effect_beclock


While we're here, there is a typo in BeClock KCM, the "Advanced" is called "Andvanced"

nope - not atm.
you can however invoke the toggling shortcut

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qdbus org.kde.kglobalaccel /component/kwin invokeShortcut BeClock

or (if that is what you want) cycle show/hides

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qdbus org.kde.kwin /BeClock getAttention 5

You can also make kwin un/load the effect at runtime (eg. if you only want it during the countdown)

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qdbus org.kde.kwin /Effects loadEffect kwin4_effect_beclock
qdbus org.kde.kwin /BeClock countdown 30
sleep 35 # wait for countdown & finish animation
qdbus org.kde.kglobalaccel /component/kwin invokeShortcut BeClock # fade out
sleep 1 # wait for fade out
qdbus org.kde.kwin /Effects unloadEffect kwin4_effect_beclock # unload effect


"qdbus org.kde.kwin /Effects toggleEffect kwin4_effect_beclock" will toggle the un/load status of the effect

About the typo. One? Thousands (I'm really good at that