WaniKani API + GeekTool = ♥

konnyaku · January 3, 2013, 10:01am

MjTheHunter said... I've been using it for a while and it works 大した, but 今日 I reached 0 reviews and lessons and this happened

http://i.imgur.com/7uTuZ.png

That's strange. I'm pretty obsessive with keeping my reviews at 0, and never had that problem. My guess is that it's GeekTool being buggy (it is very buggy after all). Do you still have this problem? I would think that after restarting your system the problem would be gone. I've just posted an updated version of the scripts, but I haven't made any fixes in regards to this since I can't reproduce the bug (and I'm guessing that it's a problem with GeekTool).

Also, if anyone notices a problem with the new version (2.0) please tell me. I just made this today, and didn't really have a chance to test it extensively. Thanks!
＼(＾O＾)／

Rylock · January 3, 2013, 2:54pm

bk-210 said...
MjTheHunter said... I've been using it for a while and it works 大した, but 今日 I reached 0 reviews and lessons and this happened

http://i.imgur.com/7uTuZ.png

That's strange. I'm pretty obsessive with keeping my reviews at 0, and never had that problem. My guess is that it's GeekTool being buggy (it is very buggy after all). Do you still have this problem? I would think that after restarting your system the problem would be gone. I've just posted an updated version of the scripts, but I haven't made any fixes in regards to this since I can't reproduce the bug (and I'm guessing that it's a problem with GeekTool).

Also, if anyone notices a problem with the new version (2.0) please tell me. I just made this today, and didn't really have a chance to test it extensively. Thanks!
＼(＾O＾)／

How does one upgrade? Or does it happen automatically?

konnyaku · January 3, 2013, 3:48pm

Rylock said...
bk-210 said...
MjTheHunter said... I've been using it for a while and it works 大した, but 今日 I reached 0 reviews and lessons and this happened

http://i.imgur.com/7uTuZ.png

That's strange. I'm pretty obsessive with keeping my reviews at 0, and never had that problem. My guess is that it's GeekTool being buggy (it is 中々 buggy after all). Do you still have this problem? I would think that after restarting your system the problem would be gone. I've just posted an updated version of the scripts, but I haven't made any fixes in regards to this since I can't reproduce the 虫 (and I'm guessing that it's a problem with GeekTool).

Also, if anyone notices a problem with the new version (2.0) 下さい tell me. I just made this 今日, and didn't really have a chance to test it extensively. お礼!
＼(＾O＾)／
How does 一 upgrade? Or does it happen automatically?

Unfortunately no. You have to delete all the current Geeklets, download the new zip archive (I changed the link in the original post), and follow the new installation process (I also changed the steps in the original post). I wish I could make it simpler, but there isnt't really a way of doing that with GeekTool.

luluhouse7 · January 17, 2013, 3:24pm

bk-210 said...
Gera said...
bk-210 said... Note that GeekTool takes about 300 MB of ram, so it might not be the best idea if you're on short on ressources.

Oh my god, what is it, trying to find the last digit of pi in the background? Seriously.
But anyway, good job.

I know, I thought it was a little ridiculous (but didn't really care since I have tons of ram to spare). Nonetheless, I just did a bit of googling and found out that the GeekTool app has a pretty serious memory leak problem. The good news is that it's only the geek tool app (which is only necessary to add and modify Geeklets) which has a memory leak problem. Once you quit the app and restart your system, the memory usage of the "GeekTool Helper" process goes down to a much more reasonable ~20 MB.

couldn't you just kill the process instead? much easier than a restart :)

also... any linux or windows version of this?

atazg · January 17, 2013, 4:56pm

I excited to use this app. Unfortunately, I seem to have a problem installing it, namely at step 4. My machine claims that I don’t have anything (including GeekTool) that can run the Geeklets. I’m obviously doing something wrong. Do I need to restart after installing GeekTool? Any thoughts?

alucardeck · January 17, 2013, 11:23pm

I can develop one for Windows Gadget in a few hours… if people are interested just tell me =]

EDIT:
ok i made it =P
/t/WaniKani-Gadget-Windows-Gadget/1292/1

konnyaku · January 18, 2013, 6:39am

luluhouse7 said...

couldn't you just kill the process instead? much easier than a restart :)

Yes, that would indeed be easier, but I wrote these instructions with non technically inclined people in mind.

luluhouse7 said...
also... any linux or windows version of this?

(・－・)・・・ん？ I actually made a Windows version of this a couple of weeks ago…
/t/WaniKani-Rainmeter-Windows/1108/1

As for Linux, you can use Conky to make your own. My Linux box is for work so I don't plan on making one myself, but I'm guessing that most Linux users shouldn't find something of this level too difficult.

alucardeck said... I can develop one for Windows Gadget in a few hours.. if people are interested just tell me =]

EDIT:
ok i made it =P
/t/WaniKani-Gadget-Windows-Gadget/1292/1

More developers working on WaniKani apps is always a good thing, though (o⌒＿⌒o)！

konnyaku · January 18, 2013, 7:00am

atazg said... I excited to use this app. Unfortunately, I seem to have a problem installing it, namely at step 4. My machine claims that I don't have anything (including GeekTool) that can run the Geeklets. I'm obviously doing something wrong. Do I need to restart after installing GeekTool? Any thoughts?

Hmm, I haven't heard of anyone here experiencing this problem (・・ )>. However, I just found this thread on macrumors about someone with the same issue. This is the proposed solution:
1. Right-click on a .glet file and choose "Get Info".
2. Under "Open With" in the Get Info window, choose "Other".
3. Press Command-Shift-G on your keyboard.
4. A "Go to folder" box should appear, copy/paste in: /Applications/GeekTool.app/Contents/PlugIns/GeekTool.prefPane/Contents/Resources/
5. An application called GeekTool Helper should be in that folder. Click it.
6. Also click the "Change All" button in the Get Info window.

Hope this helps!

tohtehm · March 3, 2013, 12:38pm

Hi I think this is great. I try to get it to work and I followed all the steps but found 2 problems;
1. The .glet files wich are bigger (those that werent 5kb but 600kb and such) wouldnt pop up the box that the others did, the one where you have to click ‘YES’.
Probably because of that it is not working right yet. I got the clock, I got the labels but not the Icons, and also it is not showing yet if I have reviews/lessons/when I have them. I did put in my API key. Can you help me?
I think its a great application if I only can get it to work for me now hehe

SnowfireXV · March 10, 2013, 2:23am

I downloded and installed Geek Tool as well as your script but when I try to open the ten .glet files it tells me this,

The document “LessonsIcon.glet” could not be opened. GeekTool cannot open files of this type.

Any way to fix this problem?

EDIT: Just tried the change all trick and it worked! Thank you

spacey · April 1, 2013, 9:43pm

Thank you bk-210! This is a very elegant and useful tool!

Fiala · April 2, 2013, 1:46am

I don’t have a mac.

konnyaku · April 6, 2013, 9:22pm

Fiala said... I don't have a mac. :(

I also made a Windows version (^_^)

Koutchinski · November 24, 2013, 9:04am

I might have a problem
Well I does show the time, but the other fields stay blank.
I did but in the API and I restarted. Any suggestions?

EDIT: NEVERMIND THE BOLLOCKS!
FIxed it myself. It was just a problem with the Foldernames.

THANKS!

shannoneko · December 11, 2014, 9:31am

I think I installed it properly, but it says next review is CURRENT TIME and Lessons and Reviews are blank. According to my profile, next review is in 5 hours.

EDIT: Okay, I moved the ENTIRE folder originally to the /Users/Shared/ in error, in case any of you do this. So I moved that back to Documents, then the folder that was actually mentioned to /Users/Shared/, and then ran the install again. I restarted my Mac, and then hit REFRESH ALL GEEKLETS NOW and CHECK FOR UPDATES just for kicks. And now it shows the proper time. Thank you!!

Neowulf · January 18, 2015, 4:30am

Just installed this and it works great!
Just wanted to say thanks to the creator of this script, great work!

Kosezu · March 3, 2015, 11:11am

I can’t get me lessons and reviews to update. I followed all the above steps and inputed my API key. Is there something that might be causing this?

Neowulf · January 15, 2016, 4:07pm

Izana said... I can't get me lessons and reviews to update. I followed all the above steps and inputed my API key. Is there something that might be causing this?

Late reply, but I'm having the same problem... I think it might have to do with the API being updated and the code being incompatible with the changes...
Don't know if bk-210 is going to update the script - I might be wrong but I don't think he's active on WaniKani anymore... :(

I'll see if I can fix it myself when and if I get some time to spare.

cplaverty · January 15, 2016, 4:47pm

Took a quick look, and it seems to me the issue may be because in WaniKaniAPIRequest.glet, the call to curl is using an http address instead of https. Curl doesn’t follow redirects (unless you add -L), so the output of the curl command will be empty.

Neowulf · January 16, 2016, 5:01pm

cplaverty said... Took a quick look, and it seems to me the issue may be because in WaniKaniAPIRequest.glet, the call to curl is using an http address instead of https. Curl doesn't follow redirects (unless you add -L), so the output of the curl command will be empty.

Thanks!

But even if this fixes the problem with the widget, there are still tons of issues with GeekTool itself imho. I did some research and found a better alternative that I want to share with everybody:

http://lifehacker.com/ubersicht-customizes-your-os-x-desktop-with-widgets-and-1591137635
http://tracesof.net/uebersicht/
https://github.com/weslly/wanikani-ubersicht

It's a relatively new, lightweight alternative to GeekTool. Widgets are coded with JavaScript/CoffeScript, HTML5 and CSS, making it much easier to create and modify widgets (even for people with little experience). There's already a working WaniKani widget, but it looks a bit different from bk-210's GeekTool widget.

I'm still planning on making my own, but this will do fine for now :) Hope this helps someone else here as well!