Small python script for downloading comic info from xkcd, primarily made for xfce genmon plugin.

xkcd.md

xkcd.py

#!/usr/bin/python

import sys
import urllib2
import json
import os
import argparse
from PIL import Image
from random import randint


def get_random_comic():
  return get_comic_for_id(randint(1, get_comic_for_id(-1)["num"]))


def get_comic_for_id(id):
  url = "http://xkcd.com/"
  if id > 0:
    url += str(id) + "/"
  url += "info.0.json"
  res = urllib2.urlopen(url)
  if res.getcode() != 200:
    raise ValueError("XKCD.com seems to be down")
  return json.loads(res.read())


def main():
  parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(
      description='Gets information about xkcd comics')
  parser.add_argument(
      '-i', '--id', help='Gets comic connected with given identifier\nIf negative or no value is provided, random comic will be displayed.')
  parser.add_argument(
      '-o', '--option', help='Extracts certain parameter from comic i.e. url.', type=str)
  parser.add_argument(
      '-g', '--genmon', help='Downloads file and styles output for xfce genmon plugin', action='store_true')
  args = parser.parse_args()
  id = args.id
  if not id:
    id = -1
  try:
    comic = get_comic_for_id(id) if id >= 0 else get_random_comic()
    if args.genmon:
      max_width, max_height = 1000, 900
      response = urllib2.urlopen(comic["img"])
      filePath = os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(__file__)) + '/xkcd.png'
      with open(filePath, 'w') as file:
        file.write(response.read())
      file.close()
      im = Image.open(filePath)
      image_width, image_height = im.size
      ratio = min(max_width/float(image_width), max_height/float(image_height))
      if ratio < 1:
        newsize = image_width*ratio, image_height*ratio
        im.thumbnail(newsize, Image.ANTIALIAS)
        im.save(filePath, "PNG")
      print '<tool>#' + str(comic["num"]) + " " + comic["title"] + '</tool>'
      print '<img>' + os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(__file__)) + '/xkcd.png</img>'
      # print '<click>xdg-open http://xkcd.com/'+str(comic["num"])+'/</click>'
      # opens comic in default browser - looks terrible due to hover background
    elif args.option:
      print comic[args.option]
    else:
      print json.dumps(comic)
  except Exception as e:
    print(e)

if __name__ == "__main__":
  main()