Anyone successfully used Pythonista 3 script as Today Widget?

[engdan77]

I thought I'd check if anyone more recently successfully been able to assign a Pythonista script as a "Today Widget"... ?

https://omz-software.com/pythonista/docs/ios/appex.html

On my iOS 18.3.2 (iPhone 13 mini) I've been trying the following steps

1. Within Pythonista 3 (3.4) open the examples/widgets/roll_dice.py
   

2. Run it and click on "Use in Today"
   .. at this stage I have to switch to Home screen and start Pythonista again to see the banner that one can now use this as Today widget .. But clicking "OK" does not close the banner (seems frozen) so going back to Home screen.
   

3. Drag finger from top to bottom to bring up today screen, hold my finger on screen until able to "customize" it, however no sign of any "Pythonista" as widget.
   

Anyone have successfully used this feature more recently, or have any tips or advice?

[omz]

Support for legacy "Today widgets" has been removed in iOS 18, so this feature doesn't work anymore, unless you're on an old version. To be honest, it's not that big of a loss. The memory limitations made this pretty unreliable in most cases.

[engdan77]

Thanks for the answer 👍
The use-case being a small widget display a simple "count down" (e.g. X days left to a certain date) - but there might be other strategies to achieve this.. (I'll think about this)😇

[cvpe]

Personally, I use Scriptable app to create widgets, either in Today view or in Home Screen.

[engdan77]

Thanks @cvpe for that tip will check this out 👍🏻... however using Python rather than JavaScript as it may seem like it may currently use would have been found even one notch better 😊

[cvpe]

You could create a shortcut automation which be executed immediately (without confirmation) each day at 00:00, computes the number of days remaining, rewrites a Note always with same name.
And you create a Notes widget which displays your note. That should work (not tested).

Edit: This does not work, the shortcut can't update a note...
Perhaps, the shortcut could recreate a file and use a a widget Files.
That does not work, the Files widget does not allow to display a particular file....
😢

Edit: I think I found the solution: use the Photos widget pointing to a particular album with only one photo.

[cvpe]

Ok, I've tested the use of a Photos widget asking to display a particular album (here, named "test").
I have created an automation shortcut starting immediately (thus without confirmation) every day, with only one action: running another shortcut with these actions:

• search all photos of "test" album
• delete these photos (only in the album, not in all photos, impossible without confirmation each time)
• run inline Pythonista script, without "run in the app"
  • Script does:
    • Create an ui.Image with any content, here a today date-time
    • Save it as a jpg (via ObjectiveC)
    • Create a photo in the Photos App with this UIImage
    • Create eventually album if it does not exist
    • Add photo to album
      Big limitation: Photos widget is not refreshed when the unique photo of the album is replaced.

As an example, Pythonista inline script used is:

import io
from objc_util import *
import ctypes
import datetime
import photos
import ui
import os

def save_image_to_album(album_name):

path = 'temp.png'

with ui.ImageContext(100, 100) as ctx:
  rect = ui.Path.rect(0, 0, 100, 100)
  ui.set_color('yellow')
  rect.fill()
  txt = datetime.datetime.now().strftime("%I:%M%p on %B %d, %Y")
  ui.draw_string(txt, rect=(0, 0, 100,100), font=('<system>', 12), color='red')
  img = ctx.get_image()
uimg= ObjCInstance(img)

# Save UIImage to jpg file
func = c.UIImageJPEGRepresentation
func.argtypes = [ctypes.c_void_p, ctypes.c_float]
func.restype = ctypes.c_void_p
x = ObjCInstance(func(uimg.ptr, 1.0))
x.writeToFile_atomically_(path, True)

asset = photos.create_image_asset(path)
os.remove(path)

album = None
for a in photos.get_albums():
    if a.title == album_name:
        album = a
        break

if album is None:
    album = photos.create_album(album_name)

album.add_assets([asset])

save_image_to_album('Test')

[cvpe]

Finally, I don't like my previous solution, due to two limitations of Photos app:

• the shortcut delete old photos from specified album but the photos stay in the photos, except if you manually confirm their deletion, but we don't want a manual action.
• the Photos widget does not refresh even if you change the photo in the album, what is a iOS bug, already mentioned by a lot of users for years.

The solution I prefer and which is functional is:

• a shortcut automation once a day (or more if you prefer) to run a shortcut
• The called shortcut will:
  1. Run a Pythonista script (inline or by its name in Pythonista) which will build a image.jpg file with the content you want, by example the number of remaining days.. https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/9e0df5650ee24d7eabb2f8e1f13f0ad7
  2. Get Pythonista image.jpg file (Pythonista standard action on Shortcuts)
  3. Save this file in Scriptable folder (standard Files action in Shortcuts)
  4. Refresh all Scriptable widgets (standard Scriptable action in Shortcuts)
• a Scriptable (free App) widget to display the jpg file, very short JS code written once and staying the same even if you change the Pythonista code to display another image content https://www.icloud.com/iclouddrive/0d1CspzeLxBZNwURUOrQakNgQ#Display_Image_Widget

As Pythonista code, this is a sample:

from objc_util import *
import ctypes
import datetime
import os
import ui

path = os.path.expanduser("~/Documents/image.jpg")

with ui.ImageContext(100, 100) as ctx:
rect = ui.Path.rect(0, 0, 100, 100)
ui.set_color('yellow')
rect.fill()
txt = datetime.datetime.now().strftime("%I:%M%p on %B %d, %Y")
ui.draw_string(txt, rect=(0, 0, 100,100), font=('', 12), color='red')
img = ctx.get_image()
uimg= ObjCInstance(img)

func = c.UIImageJPEGRepresentation
func.argtypes = [ctypes.c_void_p, ctypes.c_float]
func.restype = ctypes.c_void_p
x = ObjCInstance(func(uimg.ptr, 1.0))
x.writeToFile_atomically_(path, True)

The JS code is:
// === Configuration ===
const fm = FileManager.iCloud();
const path = fm.joinPath(fm.documentsDirectory(), "image.jpg");

log(path)

// === Chargement de l'image ===
if (!fm.fileExists(path)) {
const widget = new ListWidget();
widget.addText("Image not found");
widget.addText("Waited here :");
widget.addText(path);
Script.setWidget(widget);
Script.complete();
return;
}

// Si le fichier n'est pas encore téléchargé depuis iCloud
if (!fm.isFileDownloaded(path)) {
await fm.downloadFileFromiCloud(path);
}

const image = fm.readImage(path);

// === Création du widget ===
let widget = new ListWidget();
widget.setPadding(0, 0, 0, 0);
widget.backgroundImage = image;

// Optionnel : date de rafraîchissement
widget.refreshAfterDate = new Date(Date.now() + 15 * 60 * 1000); // 15 minutes

// === Affichage ===
Script.setWidget(widget);
Script.complete();

Hoping this solution could help you.

A Pythonista code can be run in a shortcut in background, that will say without starting the Pythonista app in foreground but in this case, some statements are not allowed, no way no know which ones by advance but if it is not ok, you will get a message.

The Scriptable widget has to be configured after installation by choosing the JS script you want to run.

[engdan77]

Thanks a bunch sharing this recipe @cvpe, I'll give this a try and certain others would find this very useful...

[cvpe]

I still met an IOS limitation: the automation shortcut would not run if your iDevice is off or locked. That will say that if you set the automation at starting at particular hour, first of the day for instance, it will not run. 😢
But you can change the automation trigger as "if you open this app, the first you use the morning, Safari or Mail...".
Or eventually let us hope that, like I think, all widgets are refreshed when you open your iDevice. So, if your Pythonista code checks a day change, that will work.

[omz]

The new beta of Pythonista Lab (build 8) includes a simple homescreen widget that is able to show a text or image file.

It's pretty basic, but perhaps still useful for simple things, like showing some status or an image that you want to update from a script.

[cvpe]

Thus, the Shortcuts action "Update Widget Content" may be used to refresh the widget, even more often than allowed?

and you can even ask Siri to execute it without starting Shortcuts nor Pythonista Lab foreground, marvelous. Bravo

But I don't understand what and where is the "Widget Data" dir.

[omz]

You can view the "Widget Data" directory from the file browser panel or by accessing lab.widget_dir in a script.

[cvpe]

I don't see anything in the Files app and if I print this lab.widget_dir, I get /private/var/mobile/Containers/Shared/AppGroup/94C45A26-1F47-4486-9539-896F8F44AA91/PythonistaLab but no qrcode.png

[omz]

@cvpe You cannot view this directory in the Files app, but in the file browser sidebar panel in Pythonista Lab.

[cvpe]

[omz]

Navigate one level up, then scroll to the bottom.

[cvpe]

Ok, sorry, was not clear for me

[cvpe]

No way to avoid padding?

[omz]

@cvpe No worries, I could have explained it more clearly.

[omz]

@cvpe Unfortunately, it's currently not possible to disable this padding on the iPad. It shouldn't appear on iPhone, but I'm still trying to figure out why the system applies a default padding on the iPad.

[cvpe]

Left, Scriptable widget

const w = new ListWidget();
  w.setPadding(0, 0, 0, 0);

[engdan77]

Exciting news 😀... is this a feature that will be merged into the next release of Pythonista 3.. ?