xclock effects

External effects for xclock.

An effect is an executable that follows the plugin protocol and responds with animation frames instead of static lines. The kernel renders the frames inside any plugin widget, which lets you animate dashboards without touching the core.

Effects

Effect	Description	Args
decrypt	Reveals text through random glyphs	lines, delay_ms, seed
typewriter	Reveals text character by character	lines, delay_ms
bar-shimmer	Animated progress bar with a moving highlight	fill, empty, shimmer, delay_ms

Targets

The kernel tells each effect where it is rendered through the target field of the request:

Target	Rendered in
bar	The progress bar of a widget, with context.progress set
widget	The inner area of the widget at path in the layout
layout	Over the whole dashboard

Configure effects in the kernel config:

{
  "effects": [
    {
      "name": "bar-shimmer",
      "target": "bar",
      "path": [1],
      "refresh_secs": 1
    },
    {
      "name": "decrypt",
      "target": "layout",
      "args": { "lines": ["focus time"], "delay_ms": 60 }
    }
  ]
}

Use

{
  "layout": {
    "direction": "horizontal",
    "ratio": [50, 50],
    "children": [
      { "widget": "clock" },
      {
        "widget": "plugin",
        "options": {
          "name": "decrypt",
          "args": {
            "lines": ["focus time", "20:00 left"],
            "delay_ms": 60
          }
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

Install the compiled effect into the xclock plugins directory and reference it by name. xclock plugin list shows everything available.

Development

cargo build --release
cargo test

effects-lib contains the shared frame helpers used by the official effects. The crates depend on the xclock-plugin-api crate from its repository.