Gnome Slideshow Wallpaper Script

Gnome can give you a slideshow wallpaper where it changes wallpapers every n seconds. To do this it uses an XML file that describes how it should iterate through the images.

I've knocked together a very rough script to generate these 'background-1.xml' files. Just put the script in a directory with some jpg images and run it - simple.

The script could be a lot better and tidier, I don't write python. Feel free to post cleaner versions in the comments.

#Generate XML file based on local jpg files

#User Variables - change these if you're feeling brave

transition_time = 5
display_time = 300
random_order = True

#------End of User Variables-------#

import os
import random


file_name = "background-1.xml"
cwd = os.getcwd()

try:
    os.remove(file_name)
except:
    pass

f = open(file_name, 'w')
f.write('<background>\n')

dirList = os.listdir(".")
imgList = []
staticList = []

if random_order:
    random.shuffle(dirList)

for fname in dirList:
    if fname[-4:] == ".jpg":
        ffname = "%s/%s" % (cwd,fname)
        imgList.append(ffname)
        staticList.append("<static>\n\t<duration>%.1f</duration>\n\t<file>%s</file>\n</static>\n" % 
            (display_time, ffname))


endIdx = imgList.__len__()-1
for idx in range(0, endIdx+1):
    #If we're at the end of the list, transition back to the first.
    transIdx = idx+1 if idx!= endIdx else 0 
    f.write(staticList[idx])
    f.write("<transition>\n\t<duration>%.1f</duration>\n\t<from>%s</from>\n\t<to>%s</to>\n</transition>\n" % 
        (transition_time, imgList[idx], imgList[transIdx]))

f.write('</background>')