Awesome
Polybar-news
A module to display the latest news on Polybar and i3blocks from multiple sources.
Table of Contents
Dependencies
- requests - Python requests
- zscroll - For Polybar text scrolling (optional)
- scroll - For i3blocks text scrolling (optional)
Setup Instructions
-
Clone the repository
-
Set up a Python environment and install dependencies (optional but recommended)
# Create the environment python -m venv /path/to/environment # Activate the environment source /path/to/environment/bin/activate # Install the dependencies pip install requests
*Note: If you don't want to use a Python virtual environment, you can install the dependencies globally with pip install requests, but be aware this might conflict with other Python software on your system.<br><br>
-
Create a
config.py
file in the root of the project folder. You can use the following examples as a template depending on the news source you want to use.For Hackernews:
news_source = "hackernews" # Number of news articles to fetch number_news = 5
For NewsAPI:
news_source = "newsapi" # Number of news articles to fetch number_news = 5 # Register at NewsAPI.org to receive your API key. api_key = "<your_api_key_here>" # Configure your desired news sources. # For available options, refer to NewsAPI.org/sources. sources = "<your_desired_sources_here>" # Configure your desired country. # Note: You can only filter either by sources or country. (leave one empty "") country = "<your_desired_country_here>"
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Add the following modules to your Polybar or i3blocks configuration file. Be sure to replace
/path/to/environment
and/path/to/polybar-news
with your own paths.Polybar Modules
; Fetches news from API and saves it into articles.json [module/news-fetcher] type = custom/script exec = /path/to/environment/bin/python /path/to/polybar-news/news_fetcher.py ; This module runs every 900 seconds (15 minutes) if the news source is NewsAPI due to its API limit of 100 calls per day for free tier accounts interval = 900 ; Rotates through the list of news articles in articles.json ; and saves the current article's title and URL in separate text files ; This module runs every X seconds to change the displayed article [module/news-rotator] type = custom/script interval = 60 exec = /path/to/environment/bin/python /path/to/polybar-news/news_rotator.py ; Displays the current news article title ; Refreshes every second to ensure updated information is displayed ; On left click, opens the current article's URL in the default web browser [module/news-display] type = custom/script tail = true interval = 1 format-prefix = " " format = <label> label-padding = 1 label-maxlen = 50 exec = /path/to/polybar-news/print_current_article.sh click-left = < /path/to/polybar-news/current_article_url.txt xargs -I % xdg-open %
i3Blocks
# Fetches news from API and saves it into articles.json [news-fetcher] command=/path/to/environment/bin/python /path/to/polybar-news/news_fetcher.py interval=900 separator=false # Rotates through the list of news articles in articles.json # and saves the current article's title and URL in separate text files # This module runs every X seconds to change the displayed article [news-rotator] command=/path/to/environment/bin/python /path/to/polybar-news/news_rotator.py interval=60 separator=false # Displays the current news article title # Refreshes every second to ensure updated information is displayed # On left click, opens the current article's URL in the default web browser [news-display] command=path/to/polybar-news/print_current_article.sh interval=1 separator=true markup=pango label= command=if [ $button ]; then xdg-open "$(cat /path/to/polybar-news/current_article_url.txt)"; else $HOME/.config/i3/i3blocks/scroll path/to/polybar-news/print_current_article.sh; fi
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Text Scrolling (Optional)
Polybar
-
Install zscroll
-
Modify the
news-display
module in your Polybar configuration file to use thescroll_current_article.sh
script:[module/news-display] ... exec = /path/to/polybar-news/scroll_current_article.sh ...
i3blocks
-
Download the
scroll
script:curl -o ~/.config/i3blocks/scroll https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Anachron/i3blocks/master/blocks/scroll
-
Make the
scroll
script executable:chmod +x ~/.config/i3blocks/scroll
-
Modify the
news-display
module in your i3blocks configuration file to use thescroll
script andprint_current_article.sh
script:[news-display] command=~/.config/i3blocks/scroll /path/to/polybar-news/print_current_article.sh interval=1 separator=true markup=pango label= command=if [ $button ]; then xdg-open "$(cat /path/to/polybar-news/current_article_url.txt)"; else $HOME/.config/i3/i3blocks/scroll path/to/polybar-news/print_current_article.sh; fi
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Contributing
Contributions are always welcome! Feel free to open a pull request to contribute code, or create an issue to report a bug or suggest a new feature.
License
This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.