I' ve just push the version 0.5.17 of Khweeteur to Maemo Extras Testing repository. For those using previous version (<0.5.0). It s a major change, as i've rewrite it from scratch. For those who don't know what is Khweeteur, it s a small twitter client for Maemo and MeeGo with the following features :

• Multi Account Support (Twitter and Identi.ca)
• Notification for DMs or Mentions (can works in background)
• Twitter Lists
• Searchs
• GPS Position in tweet (Optionnal)
• Reply, Retweet, Favorite, Follow/Unfollow user, Delete your tweet
• Twitpic picture upload
• Automatic shorten url with bit.ly (Optionnal)
• Automated Crash Reporter
• Tweet post delayed if no network coverage until network available
• Low network bandwith use
• Theme support

This version will only reach Maemo Extras repository with your help. So please test it, vote, and report bug or feature request.

Git Repository :: Maemo Packages :: Khweeteur Bug Tracker

As many users ask me how the development of the next Khweeteur is going on i'm creating this post.

I've play with QML for the UI, but to be honest, QML isn' t ready yet to be use for something else than short demo. Indeed no components was release yet. This mean that a developer should do everything himself. For example, on a button you must design it yourself, and also design the feedback give to the user. Also, if you are using listView, without fixed height, there is a huge cpu use to calc everytimes the height of rows. So the result is that the scrolling isn't smooth compared to a custom delegate where you can cache the size. Even if it s a bit faster in fullscreen, this mean that you should also write yourself a custom status bar for closing or switching app.

All this reasons plus the fact i didn't really like the syntax push me to come back to a QWidget UI.

The next release of Khweeteur use a daemon for retrieving and sending post. This daemon can run all time to provide notifications on new tweets, dm, or mentions while the ui isn't running. Of course this is optionnal. The communication between the daemon use dbus and so didn't require to create thread on the ui, which use less memory and cpu. This result on a faster ui, while the daemon do the hard work in background.

Currently only basic features are coded :

• Posting tweets
• Retweeting
• Retrieving Timeline, mention and dms
• Reply
• Notifications
• Toolbar badge notification
• Opening tweet urls
• Preferences with theme : Support now multi account with preferences to said if acocunt should be used for post or not, use webkit for oauth and doesn't require anymore to copy paste the oauth pin code

Planned features still need to be coded before release :

• Lists
• Search
• Favorite
• Follow
• UnFollow
• Delete of your own tweet

I've try to keep the ui simple with easy access to features. The toolbar displays action possible depending on context :

• Home : Which give quick access to timeline, mention, dm, search and list with a badge to notify user of update

• Edit : To post a new tweet, a twitpic, or a reply

• Action : Which is show when selecting a tweet

To follow the development take a look on http://gitorious.org/khweeteur in the experimental branch. Your are also welcome to participate if you want.

It's true that development progress slowly, as i didn't have many free time to code, specially as i'm still looking for a full time job as python developers with partial telecommuting possibilities near Paris.

In order to display a notification on QPushButton or a QToolButton i've created this two little python class derivated from QPushButton or QToolButton.

This display a counter in a red badge like on some icons on iOS (iPhone) or MacOSX. This subclasses was primary made for the next khweeteur version.

Feel free to use it.

import sys
from PyQt4.QtGui import *
from PyQt4.QtCore import Qt

class QBadgeButton (QPushButton):

    def __init__ (self, icon = None, text = None, parent = None):
        if icon:
            QPushButton.__init__(self, icon, text, parent)
        elif text:
            QPushButton.__init__(self, text, parent)
        else:
            QPushButton.__init__(self, parent)
            
        self.badge_counter = 0
        self.badge_size = 50
        
        self.redGradient = QRadialGradient(0.0, 0.0, 17.0, self.badge_size - 3, self.badge_size - 3);
        self.redGradient.setColorAt(0.0, QColor(0xe0, 0x84, 0x9b));
        self.redGradient.setColorAt(0.5, QColor(0xe9, 0x34, 0x43));
        self.redGradient.setColorAt(1.0, QColor(0xdc, 0x0c, 0x00));

    def setSize (self, size):
        self.badge_size = size
        
    def setCounter (self, counter):
        self.badge_counter = counter
        self.update()
        
    def paintEvent (self, event):
        QPushButton.paintEvent(self, event)
        p = QPainter(self)
        p.setRenderHint(QPainter.TextAntialiasing)
        p.setRenderHint(QPainter.Antialiasing)
        
        if self.badge_counter > 0:
            point = self.rect().topRight()
            self.drawBadge(p, point.x()-self.badge_size - 1, point.y() + 1, self.badge_size, str(self.badge_counter), QBrush(self.redGradient))

    def fillEllipse (self, painter, x, y, size, brush):
        path = QPainterPath()
        path.addEllipse(x, y, size, size);
        painter.fillPath(path, brush);

    def drawBadge(self, painter, x, y, size, text, brush):
        painter.setFont(QFont(painter.font().family(), 11, QFont.Bold))

        while ((size - painter.fontMetrics().width(text)) < 10):
            pointSize = painter.font().pointSize() - 1
            weight = QFont.Normal if (pointSize < 8) else QFont.Bold
            painter.setFont(QFont(painter.font().family(), painter.font().pointSize() - 1, weight))

        shadowColor = QColor(0, 0, 0, size)
        self.fillEllipse(painter, x + 1, y, size, shadowColor)
        self.fillEllipse(painter, x - 1, y, size, shadowColor)
        self.fillEllipse(painter, x, y + 1, size, shadowColor)
        self.fillEllipse(painter, x, y - 1, size, shadowColor)
    
        painter.setPen(QPen(Qt.white, 2));
        self.fillEllipse(painter, x, y, size - 3, brush)
        painter.drawEllipse(x, y, size - 3, size - 3)
    
        painter.setPen(QPen(Qt.white, 1));            
        painter.drawText(x, y, size - 2, size - 2, Qt.AlignCenter, text);

class QToolBadgeButton (QToolButton):

    def __init__ (self, parent = None):
        QToolButton.__init__(self, parent)
            
        self.badge_counter = 0
        self.badge_size = 25
        
        self.redGradient = QRadialGradient(0.0, 0.0, 17.0, self.badge_size - 3, self.badge_size - 3);
        self.redGradient.setColorAt(0.0, QColor(0xe0, 0x84, 0x9b));
        self.redGradient.setColorAt(0.5, QColor(0xe9, 0x34, 0x43));
        self.redGradient.setColorAt(1.0, QColor(0xdc, 0x0c, 0x00));

    def setSize (self, size):
        self.badge_size = size
        
    def setCounter (self, counter):
        self.badge_counter = counter
        
    def paintEvent (self, event):
        QToolButton.paintEvent(self, event)
        p = QPainter(self)
        p.setRenderHint(QPainter.TextAntialiasing)
        p.setRenderHint(QPainter.Antialiasing)        
        if self.badge_counter > 0:
            point = self.rect().topRight()
            self.drawBadge(p, point.x()-self.badge_size, point.y(), self.badge_size, str(self.badge_counter), QBrush(self.redGradient))

    def fillEllipse (self, painter, x, y, size, brush):
        path = QPainterPath()
        path.addEllipse(x, y, size, size);
        painter.fillPath(path, brush);

    def drawBadge(self, painter, x, y, size, text, brush):
        painter.setFont(QFont(painter.font().family(), 11, QFont.Bold))

        while ((size - painter.fontMetrics().width(text)) < 10):
            pointSize = painter.font().pointSize() - 1
            weight = QFont.Normal if (pointSize < 8) else QFont.Bold
            painter.setFont(QFont(painter.font().family(), painter.font().pointSize() - 1, weight))

        shadowColor = QColor(0, 0, 0, size)
        self.fillEllipse(painter, x + 1, y, size, shadowColor)
        self.fillEllipse(painter, x - 1, y, size, shadowColor)
        self.fillEllipse(painter, x, y + 1, size, shadowColor)
        self.fillEllipse(painter, x, y - 1, size, shadowColor)
    
        painter.setPen(QPen(Qt.white, 2));
        self.fillEllipse(painter, x, y, size - 3, brush)
        painter.drawEllipse(x, y, size - 2, size - 2)
    
        painter.setPen(QPen(Qt.white, 1));            
        painter.drawText(x, y, size - 2, size - 2, Qt.AlignCenter, text);
        
if __name__ == '__main__':

    app = QApplication(sys.argv)
    win = QMainWindow()

    toolbar = QToolBar('Toolbar')
    win.addToolBar(Qt.BottomToolBarArea, toolbar)
    b = QToolBadgeButton(win)
    b.setText("test")
    b.setCounter(22)
    toolbar.addWidget(b)
    
    w = QBadgeButton(parent=win)
    w.setText("test")
    w.setCounter(22)
    win.setCentralWidget(w)
    win.show()

    sys.exit(app.exec_())