---
category: en
type: paper
hastr: true
layout: paper
tags: awesome-widgets, pytextmonitor
title: Awesome Widgets - bells and whistles
short: aw-v21-bells-and-whistles
---
The paper deals with settings of a custom scripts and graphical bars in the new version of Awesome Widgets (2.1).

<!--more-->

## <a href="#intro" class="anchor" id="intro"><span class="octicon octicon-link"></span></a>Introduction

For a start it is highly recommended copy file `$HOME/.kde4/share/config/extsysmon.conf` after widget update before you open widget settings, because old and new script settings are incompatible. Also I should note that these features can be configured from graphical interface, but I will describe how it can be done by simply editing the desktop file.

## <a href="#general" class="anchor" id="general"><span class="octicon octicon-link"></span></a>General

Items are stored in the two directories: `/usr/share/awesomewidgets/%TYPE%/` and `$HOME/.local/share/awesomewidgets/%TYPE%/` (path may be differ in depend from your distro). Settings in the home directory have a higher priority that global ones.

## <a href="#bars" class="anchor" id="bars"><span class="octicon octicon-link"></span></a>Bars

Directory is `desktops`, configuration files have the following fields:

| Field              | Required | Value                            | Default    |
| -------------------|----------|----------------------------------|------------|
| Name               | yes      | bar name. It should be as `barN` and should be unique | none |
| Comment            | no       | comment                          | empty      |
| X-AW-Value         | yes      | bar value. The following tags are available `cpu*`, `gpu`, `mem`, `swap`, `hdd*`, `bat` | cpu |
| X-AW-ActiveColor   | yes      | active part fill in format `R,G,B,A` | 0,0,0,130 |
| X-AW-InactiveColor | yes      | inactive part fill in format `R,G,B,A` | 255,255,255,130 |
| X-AW-Type          | yes      | bar type. The following types are supported `Horizontal`, `Vertical`, `Circle`, `Graph` | Horizontal |
| X-AW-Direction     | yes      | the fill direction. The following variants are supported `LeftToRight`, `RightToLeft` | LeftToRight |
| X-AW-Height        | yes      | height, pixels                   | 100        |
| X-AW-Width         | yes      | width, pixels                    | 100        |
| X-AW-Number        | yes      | unique number which will be associated with the bar. The property has been introduced to provide compatibility with others items. Should be the same as number in Name is | number from Name |

## <a href="#quotes" class="anchor" id="quotes"><span class="octicon octicon-link"></span></a>Quotes

Directory is `quotes`, configuration files have the following fields:

| Field | Required | Value | Default |
|-------|----------|-------|---------|
| Name | yes | quotes name | none |
| Comment | no | comment | empty |
| X-AW-Ticker | yes | ticker from Yahoo! Finance system | EURUSD=X |
| X-AW-Active | no | whether or not the quotes is active | true |
| X-AW-Interval | no | update interval in standard widget intervals | 1 |
| X-AW-Number | yes | unique number which will be associated with the script | random number which is less than 1000 |

## <a href="#scripts" class="anchor" id="scripts"><span class="octicon octicon-link"></span></a>Scripts

Directory is `scripts`, configuration files have the following fields:

| Field | Required | Value | Default |
|-------|----------|-------|---------|
| Name | yes | script name | none |
| Comment | no | comment | empty |
| Exec | yes | path to executable file | /usr/bin/true |
| X-AW-Prefix | no | prefix to executable file. Usually it's not required, but in other you may want to specify interpreter for example |
| X-AW-Active | no | whether or not the script is active | true |
| X-AW-Redirect | no | stream redirection. The following variants are available `stderr2stdout`, `nothing`, `stdout2stderr`, `swap`. stderr will be available, if you run application in the debug mode | nothing |
| X-AW-Interval | no | update interval in standard widget intervals | 1 |
| X-AW-Number | yes | unique number which will be associated with the script | random number which is less than 1000 |
| X-AW-Filters | no | comma separated filters from `awesomewidgets-extscripts-filters.json` |

## <a href="#upgrade" class="anchor" id="upgrade"><span class="octicon octicon-link"></span></a>Upgrade

Directory is `upgrade`, configuration files have the following fields:

| Field | Required | Value | Default |
|-------|----------|-------|---------|
| Name | yes | upgrade name | none |
| Comment | no | comment | empty |
| Exec | yes | path to executable file | /usr/bin/true |
| X-AW-Filter | no | the regexp which will be applied to command output. If set `X-AW-Null` will be ignored |
| X-AW-Active | no | whether or not the upgrade script is active | true |
| X-AW-Null | no | the number of lines which should be skipped in output | 0 |
| X-AW-Interval | no | update interval in standard widget intervals | 1 |
| X-AW-Number | yes | unique number which will be associated with the upgrade script | random number which is less than 1000 |

## <a href="#weather" class="anchor" id="weather"><span class="octicon octicon-link"></span></a>Weather

The weather uses data and API from [OpenWeatherMap](//openweathermap.org/ "OpenWeatherMap site"). Directory is `weather`, configuration files have the following fields:

| Field | Required | Value | Default |
|-------|----------|-------|---------|
| Name | yes | weather name | none |
| Comment | no | comment | empty |
| X-AW-City | yes | city | London |
| X-AW-Country | yes | two-letter country code | uk |
| X-AW-Image | no | use images as weather icon or text. | false |
| X-AW-TS | yes | time to which weather should be. `0` is a current weather, `1` - weather 3 hours later, etc | 0 |
| X-AW-Active | no | whether or not the monitor is active | true |
| X-AW-Interval | no | update interval in standard widget intervals | 1 |
| X-AW-Number | yes | unique number which will be associated with the upgrade weather | random number which is less than 1000 |