datapanels 0.1.1

An application for displaying a rotating set of information panels

Overview

Datapanels is an application for displaying a rotating set of independent panels, each of which displays some useful or entertaining information or something visually interesting.

Usage

After installation, the application can be run using

python -m datapanels.app [--builder_path path_to_builder_file] [--transition-sec secs] [--full_screen]

The --builder_path option lets you specify a configuration file that will determine what panels get displayed. The --transition-sec parameter lets you specify the number of seconds between transitions. If no parameters are provided, a simple default set of panels will be created.

Configuring DataPanels

DataPanels can be configured via a configuration file that specifies what panels should be displayed. This is actually a Kivy ([https://kivy.org/]) configuration file.

The configuration file should take the form:

<DataBuilder>:
    PanelType1:
        panel type one parameters
    PanelType2
        panel type two parameters
    PanelType2
        parameters for another instance of PanelType2

The following example show a sample configuration.

<DataBuilder>:
    border: 0
    QuotationDisplay:
        update_sec: 5
        quotations: "See https://github.com/man-vs-electron/datapanels for info on how to configure this application.", "Where you go, that's where you'll be", "Thanks for trying this application."
    StockPanel:
        tickers: 'MSFT', 'PSEC', 'TSLA'
        data_update_rate_sec: 60*20
        ticker_change_rate_sec: 5
    GameOfLifePanel:
        update_rate: 0.5
        activated_color: 1, 0, 0, 1
        grid_color: 0, 0, 1, 1

Example Usage

TODO

Panel Types

Each panel displayed in Datapanels can be configured. The following sections describe each panel type and its key parameters.

QuotationDisplay

The quotation display is a simple panel that displays quotations. These quotations change periodically.

The parameters include:

• update_sec: The number of seconds before changing the quotation
• quotations: assigned as either a list of strings, one per quotation, or a single string that is a path to a file with quotations, one per line.

StockPanel

The StockPanel display information about a list of stocks. Data about one stock is shown at a time and the specific stock shown is rotated around on a regular basis.

The parameters include:

• data_update_rate_sec: how many seconds between updating the stock info
• proxserver: if not None, a proxy server to use for talking to yfinance
• ticker_change_rate_sec: how many seconds between changing the stock being shown
• tickers: list of security ticker symbols to track

GameOfLifePanel

The Kivy panel that displays the Game of Life, along with some controls.

Key Properties:

• update_rate: number of seconds between each generation
• random_cell_count: Either percentage of cells to make alive or the number of cells to make alive when randomizing.
• background_color - RGBA list for the inactive cell color
• grid_color - RGBA for the grid lines
• activated_color - RGBA for the active cell color
• cell_length - the length of the side of a cell (essentially cell size)