Ticker 0.5.5 - ticker-style RSS display

[vovchik]

Dear puppians,

Here is a pet of tickr v. 0.5.5. It should run on most Puppies. The author describes it this way:

TICKR version 0.5.5 is a Free Open Source, GTK-based RSS READER application which displays RSS FEEDS in a TICKER bar on your desktop. With a single click, you get the latest headlines scrolling in a thin window on your desktop, as what can be seen on News TV channels.

.

I have included a screen shot (author's Ubuntu), but it looks pretty much the same in Puppy. While this pet contains the author's generic 32-bit binary, I have compiled the source in Lucid and it works fine, too. I stripped and UPX'd the binary to get it down to 51k. You can add to the RSS feeds and select all sorts of preferences for display. The author's site is: http://www.newsrssticker.com. You can find binaries and the source there.

Have fun.

With kind regards,
vovchik

[seaside]

vovchik,

This seems like a nice program and I'm dying to try it out but I get this when started.

GDK visual: screen width = 1024, screen height = 768, depth = 16
Can't read configuration file: /root/.tickr/tickr-conf - No such file or directory
No resource specified
Will use feed selection
Connecting to 65.120.60.107 (newsrss.bbc.co.uk) ... OK
Resource fetched: http://newsrss.bbc.co.uk/rss/newsonline ... ge/rss.xml
Parsing XML file ... Done

Then the panel goes fullscreen and nothing happens.

I've tried to set up a "/root/.tickr/tickr-conf ", hoping that was the problem, but that failed as well.

I'm probably missing something obvious here and I'm hoping you might know.

Regards,
s

[vovchik]

Dear seaside,

I don't know why it didn't create the default .tickr dir with some files. Here is mine. Please try it out (rename the dir .tickr and place it in /root).

With kind regards.
vovchik

[seaside]

vovchik,

Thanks. I tried it. However, I still go to a fullscreen panel and no data after this....

GDK visual: screen width = 1024, screen height = 768, depth = 16
No resource specified
Will use feed selection
Connecting to 63.234.248.186 (newsrss.bbc.co.uk) ... OK
Resource fetched: http://newsrss.bbc.co.uk/rss/newsonline ... ge/rss.xml

I've tried this on pup431 and pup510 with the same result.

Regards,
s

[vovchik]

Dear seaside,

Can you please try the attached binary that I compiled in Lucid? Just replace the file tickr in /usr/bin with the one in this archive.

With kind regards,
vovchik

PS. I see that you are using a bit depth of 16. As tickr uses transparency, it probably wants 24 bits for graphics (and an alpha channel), which means VESA may not work. You may also have to set a root image for the xdisplay (you can do that with feh).

[seaside]

vovchik,

Thanks. I don't have time to try your test right now, but off the top of my head, I think you've hit on the answer of the color depth, as I've run into similar problems with that before.

Let you know later...

Thank you for your great insights.

Regards,
s

[seaside]

vovchik,

Darn it, I tried 24 depth and your binary and it had the same effect. The xml is downloading but it just doesn't show.

Since, no one else seems to be experiencing this, I think I'd better switch machines

Regards,
s

[tlchost]

After feed is changed....still displays the default (BBC)

conf file has correct(new) url.

Fluppy 013 bootable usb

[vovchik]

Dear puppians,

I got the ticker feed to change by richt-clicking on the banner, selecting Control and then Next Feed.

With kind regards,
vovchik

[mdisaster2]

Works great on 528-004 once a couple minor annoyances are disposed of.

- The pet creates the .tikr folder in /usr, while the correct location should be /usr/share. Once the folder is moved into /usr/share you can access the rss selection panel (with right-click->Open RSS Feed) and manage your feeds. This also allows to view any feed (not only BBC) in single select mode.

- By changing "firefox" to "defaultbrowser" in the preferences the links will open in the user's default browser (Opera in my case).

Transparency doesn't work for me, but it's not a big deal.

All in all a great addiction to Puppy. Thanks @ vovcik for bringing us the pet !

[seaside]

Apparently some have had problems running Tickr using JWM.

I just tried it out and found that it does work just fine with JWM using Racy-5.2.2.

Cheers,
s
(Still can't seem to get it to work on pup431 though, even with a different WM than JWM)

[ETP]

vovchik/seaside

I had been successfully using stu90s news-0.5.0-0.pet in a variety of puppies until I tried it (and yours) in slacko 5237 when all I got was the grey screen.

I had mistakenly attributed it to using JWM rather than ICEWM which I normally use but have now discovered that the cause is an interaction between the pet(s), the screen resolution used and the version of video driver in use. My normal preferred res is 1280 x1024 & when attempting to resize the grey screen I noted that it was showing 1279.

Using the working conf file from Slacko 531 also gave the grey screen. Editing it to 1270 however allowed the pet to launch. My final edit was 1278 with a x shift=1 to center the bar. My edits are shown below together with a link to a full size screen-shot.

http://postimage.org/image/a81lozd3b/

[seaside]

ETP,

Those little problems are hard to pin down.

Congratulations and nice job.

Regards,
s