I wanted to keep track of my progress in Wanikani and decided to make a screensaver for that. It displays all the kanji and colors those you have leveled in the color of your level (e.g. pink for apprentice). I decided to make the layout adaptive to the screen resolution, so no matter the screen or the amount of kanji, it will scale to fit everything.
Use the link as a guideline and tweak your PPI so that the kanji fill the screen ( should not be necessary anymore, but you are free to change the PPI to your own preferences).
I’m not using Quartz for this. I heard about it, and supposedly it’s powerful, but I’m much more comfortable with Objective-C and Cocoa. Truth to be told, I don’t even have an idea how I am supposed to work in Quartz (does it use objective-c or a scripting language?).
There’s one thing I simply can’t figure out though, I save the “level” variable from “user_information” in an NSNumber, and get the value 3527. I wish I had that level lol. I’d be glad if someone could clear that issue up.
MangoTree said...I'm not using Quartz for this. I heard about it, and supposedly it's powerful, but I'm much more comfortable with Objective-C and Cocoa. Truth to be told, I don't even have an idea how I am supposed to work in Quartz (does it use objective-c or a scripting language?).
It is neither really. I think they market it a 'visual programming language' that is really good at data visualization. I've only done some playing around with it but it is definitely quite powerful (and already has some screen saver templates which is nice).
I am working on the configuration screen where you have to input your API key and possible select some options. I’ll release it once that screen is finished, which shouldn’t take too long. I’ll need some feedback from people with different resolutions.
It would be nice if WaniKani would track your progress against the date and make that info available in the API, so in the future you could get some visualisation of your progress. i.e. If the data was there, something like this screensaver could start off blank with your sign-up date, then slowly fill out, displaying the dates that you guru’ed items.
Aight, finished the configuration screen. There are a few things to watch out for: 1. The screensaver has not been tested on different resolutions (I can’t go higher than 1280x800) and it has not been tested for memory leaks. This should not create any issues, but still worth a mention.
2. You have to enter not only your API key, but also your computer’s PPI (pixels-per-inch). This is necessary for the arranging, your value can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_displays_by_pixel_density#Apple You need the value under “ppcm (PPI)”, specifically the one in brackets. eg: “Macbook Pro 13 inch Mid 2009 - Mid 2012” has a PPI of 113. You can tweak that value if the wiki one doesn’t give good results.
To install the screensaver: Open the .zip file, then open the .saver file. This installs the screensaver to your mac. Immediately after the install you will see the System Preferences. Select the Wanikani screenshot from the list on the left, you will see a preview window of the screensaver on the right. Press the button under the preview to open the screensaver configuration menu. Enter your API and PPI and press OK. Even if the preview doesn’t update, your screensaver is now installed correctly. Enjoy how much more WaniKani has crept into your life
This sounds awesome! But I downloaded it, installed, and input my API key and PPI, and nothing =( It’ll work without the API key, it just obviously won’t show any kanji. But the moment I put in the key, all I see is a black screen. I’ve tried deleting it and reinstalling, redownloading the file, inputting the key manually (as opposed to copy/paste)…Also, I’m not sure if it’s supposed to, but if I exit out of system preferences, the key/PPI delete themselves (I open up preferences again, and I have to reinsert them…which strikes me as odd)…=/
The reinserting is a problem on my part, the screensaver always crashes when I load in the key and ppi automatically, but the value IS saved. If you’re getting a black screen it means the screensaver has crashed. This is quite odd since there’s a special check for that… D:
Can you send me info like your OSX version and computer name? A screenshot of your inputs in the preference panel?
Hmm, I’m getting the same problem as KM382… Could it be related to the fact that I have only just started Level 1, and hence not unlocked any Kanji yet??
