PyNgWallpaper - Coolest Wallpapers

What pyngwallpaper does

Download the wallpaper offered by National Geographic photography website and set it current wallpaper background.

Another bash script for the same purpose can be found here

---

Auto startup

Linux with Gnome

You just need to add a startup application:

gnome-session-properties

then add a startup program with:

Name: pyngwallpaper
Command: /path/to/pyngwallpaper/src/main.py
Comment: download and update wallpaper!

You can also append arguments in Command box.

Windows

Download NgWallpaper-win32_1.0.0 here and unarchive it. A shortcut will be created in your startup folder if installed successfully.

You can also create a shortcut by yourself, or add arguments to it.

---

How it works

1. Read and parse National Geographic photography Photo of Today website

2. If there is a wallpaper download link:

   • if both its URL and target file name are same as last downloaded photos', exit without error
   • download it to the specified folder
   • record the downloading URL, location of saved photo and downloading time in a text file, which locates in current user's personal folder
   • use it as wallpaper unless in download-only mode
   • exit

3. If there isn't a wallpaper link, which means the photo may have resolution improper to be a wallpaper:

   • if the force switch is on, do same as step 2
   • reduce persistence counter by 1; if it's 0, exit
   • go to the previous Photo of The Day, then do things again

---

Usage

usage: pyngwallpaper [-h] [-v] [-d] [-f] [--redownload] [-k]
                     [--persistence PERSISTENCE] [-s {no,gnome3,gnome2}]
                     [--setter-args SETTER_ARGS] [-t OUTPUT_FOLDER]
                     [URL [URL ...]]

Download the wallpaper offered by National Geographicphotography website and
set it current wallpaper background.

positional arguments:
  URL                   starts with this URL instead of today's photo if
                        specified

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -v, --version         show version information
  -d, --debug           enable debug outputs. The more --debug the more
                        detailed the log will be
  -f, --force           adopt this photo even if its size may be strange to be
                        wallpaper. Disabled by default
  --redownload          do not consider history records. Download must be
                        done. But this download will be recorded in history
                        file.
  -k, --keep-file-name  keep the original filename. By default downloaded file
                        will be renamed as 'wallpaper.jpg'. Keep file name
                        will retain all downloaded photos
  --persistence PERSISTENCE
                        go back for at most N-1 pages if photo of today isn't
                        for wallpaper. Backward browsing will be interrupted
                        before N-1 pages tried if either a downloaded page
                        found or a wallpaper link read
  -s {no,gnome3,gnome2,win}, --setter {no,gnome3,gnome2,win}
                        specify interface to be called for setting wallpaper.
                        'no' indicates downloading-only; 'gnome2/3' are only
                        for Linux with gnome; 'win' is for Windows only.
                        Customized setter can be added as dev doc described.
                        Default: gnome3
  --setter-args SETTER_ARGS
                        go back for at most N-1 pages if photo of today isn't
                        for
  -t OUTPUT_FOLDER, --output-folder OUTPUT_FOLDER
                        specify the folder to store photos. Use
                        '~/MyNgWallpapers' folder in Linux or 'My
                        Documents/MyNgWallpapers' in Windows by default

---

Devolopment

Customized wallpaper setter

(TBD)

---