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show fresh thumbnails

first of all, if you don't like touching files, programming, installing packages, or you don't love perl, sorry, you're not gonna enjoy this at all... you probably have better things for doing.
you are warned!!!

App's aim

Imagine that you're downloading tons of images... they arrive regularly to one specific folder... and you'd like to supervise their contents (preview each image's thumbnail, or even view in full format a particular one at the very moment it arrives) whilst working in something more important...

This little script will bring up a little window in which new images arriving to a directory will be showed timely as a thumbnail... The window will stay on top of any other active window, and you can just click on it in order to open the image you're watching with your favorite app... great!

sfT running: there's another app downloading images to the 'C:\temp' folder, and sfT is set to monitor it sfT running: There's another app downloading images to the 'C:\temp' folder, and sfT is set to monitor it. We see three windows there: sfT window (always on top), console window of sfT (u can minimize it), and Windows explorer, which shows the new images as they are downloaded.

but... it's written in Perl + GTK2 for Windows... omgwtfbbq!!!
it'd be easy usable in both Windows and linux... I haven't used it in linux... so, may be, some adjustments in code would be needed.

DOWNLOAD

sfT.zip    v1.1 (Jun 2008)

LINUX

So, to run it in linux, just download the zip file, unzip it, go inside the directory, and type:
perl show_fresh_thumbs.pl
In case you're curious, there's a description of the zip contents in the WINDOWS paragraph (just below).

WINDOWS

And the procedure to use it in Windows:
  • Install ActivePerl.
  • Install GTK2 for Windows. This link is for v2.10.13. Check here for newer versions, if you wish.
  • Install GTK2 modules for perl. You can use these DOS commands, (as indicated in this page) after ActivePerl has been installed:

    • C:\> ppm rep add http://www.lostmind.de/gtk2-perl/ppm/MSWin32-x86-multi-thread-5.8/
    C:\> ppm install Gtk2
    There are other ways of doing the same: read this page.
  • download the zip file containing all things needed by this perl script.
    In case you're curious (if you aren't, jump to next point) it contains:
    • the script itself (show_fresh_thumbs.pl),
    • some image files (show_fresh_thumbs.png, show_fresh_thumbs_icon.png, show_fresh_thumbs_icon.2.png), which are default images used by the script. Keep them in the same folder as the script, or it'll refuse running.
    • a DOS batch file to easily run it with a click (show_fresh_thumbs.bat),
    • a readme file (readme.txt),
    • a little app named nircmdc.exe *.
      • The latter is needed as Windows' GTK2 version can't still make a window stay on top of others... so this little freeware app will do that work. Don't worry: it'll be called by the bacth file, so a single click will bring up all in place.
      [ Btw: nircmdc.exe isn't mine, it's been programmed by Nir Sofer, and following the conditions in the app's web, I include the original program zip (nircmd.zip) inside my own zip. ]
    • and GPL v3 licence conditions, in gpl-3.0.txt
  • Extract the contents of the zip in the folder you choose.
  • double-click on show_fresh_thumbs.bat, wherever you've put it (the same directory as the other files), and you'll see two new windows:
    • a DOS command window, which you can minimize (but not close!), that shows infos about what the program is doing; for example: it numbers and shows the names of all new files the app sees.
    • the app itself: a little 125x125 pixels window. You can right click on it in order to select the directory you want to monitorize.

main application window and its companion DOS command window in background

DESCRIPTION OF USE

After selecting the directory (right click, select first menu item), the app will monitor it.
If a new image file appears there, its thumbnail will be showed in the window. Files monitored are those corresponding with "jpg", "png" and "gif" file extensions.

Each image thumbnail will be showed between 5 and 30 seconds; time depends on how quick new images appear... the more the images, the lesser the time. If u pass the mouse over the window, a tip will show the name of the image in that moment.
If you click on the image, it'll be opened by the OS as if you'd double-click on it.

There's a little last functionality: with a right-click you can also select a "slide" mode, in which all images in a directory will be showed, one after another (shuffled).

As it is a script, many things can be easily changed just modifying the variables at the beginning of the script file. No compiling, no tricks.

main application window and its companion DOS command window in background

VERSION HISTORY

  • v1.1 (Jun 2008):
    International characters (utf-8...) in paths are now supported in Windows (at least, I hope so). Other minor code enhacements.
  • v1.0 (Oct 2007).

CONTACT

Problems? suggestions? :
idleloopyahoo.com

LICENSE

This program and its code (in case they were different animals) are released under GPL 3 conditions. You can read GPL conditions here.
Moreover, if you would indicate my name (idleloop) in your use of this code, and let me know about it, it'd be quite nice from you.