todo-indicator

An Ubuntu app indicator for todo.txt-style todo lists.

Installation

Install todo-indicator with pip:

pip install todo-indicator

If you're using pipx (for example on Ubuntu 23.04 or greater), the simplest option is to install with the --system-site-packages argument:

pipx install --system-site-packages todo-indicator

In either case, note that todo-indicator has some system dependencies which pip can't easily satisfy. The following should ensure you have everything you need:

sudo apt install python3-pyinotify python3-gi gir1.2-appindicator3-0.1

(The above is verified working on Ubuntu 20.04 and 22.04. I can't speak for other versions or distros, but it will likely be something similar.)

If you prefer to run todo-indicator in a virtual env (or if you're required to do so by pipx) and you do not want to use the --system-site-packages option, you'll need to pip install (or pipx inject) the required dependencies in your virtual env. Unfortunately, because of the PyGObject dependency, there are some extra steps involved with this. For more details, see the Contributing section -- this is the same process you'd go through for local development.

Note that you can also simply clone the repo and run the provided todo-indicator binary directly, without installing it. You'll still need to install the required dependencies as described above, however.

Requirements

• Python 3
• The above-mentioned system dependencies
• An app-indicator-aware system tray of some kind (you might need a plugin if you're running a non-Ubuntu distro)

Usage

Just run todo-indicator, passing the name of your todo.txt file as an argument, e.g.:

todo-indicator ~/todo.txt

Click the indicator icon to see your list. If you finish one of your tasks, give yourself a pat on the back and click it! It'll be marked "done."

Editing your list

todo-indicator's goal is to show you your list and let you check items off. Anything more complex than that, you'll want to use your trusty text editor.

Click "Edit todo.txt" and your todo list will open in your text editor of choice. (Or your OS's text editor of choice, at least -- it uses xdg-open.) Once you've made your changes and saved the file, you should see your updates automatically reflected in the todo-indicator UI. (Thanks, inotify!)

If for some reason the indicator doesn't update, click "Refresh".

Command-line options

Use -e/--editor to specify a text editor other than your default:

todo-indicator -e gvim ~/todo.txt

todo-indicator assumes a dark-colored panel by default. If you use a light-colored panel, you can pass the -i/--invert option to invert the icon color:

todo-indicator -i ~/todo.txt

Contributing

Check the Makefile for some common operations like code formatting, linting, and running unit tests.

If you install/run todo-indicator inside a virtual env (usually recommended for development), you'll need to install the dependencies from the requirements.txt file:

pip install -r requirements.txt

This includes PyGObject, which itself needs some extra development dependencies to be installed on your system. See the PyGObject docs for more info.

Alternatively, you can skip this step, install the "normal" system-level dependencies from the Installation section, and create your virtual env with the --system-site-packages option:

python -m venv --system-site-packages .venv

This will allow your local, virtual env version of todo-indicator to import your system-level python libraries (in particular the gi package).