How to find out if the screensaver is active / the screen is locked on OSX

wxPython Users
1

Hi,

(I posted this to wxpython-mac, but that is only for porting wxpython
to OSX, so I thought I'd repost here.)

I need to know if the screensaver is active, so I can pause in my
app.

Things I found so far: there seems to be a ScreenSaverEngine, which
seems to
implement a Protocol called ScreenSaverControl, which exports a
screenSaverIsRunning
method return a boolean.

Can I talk to this engine from wxpython using a cocoa binding of some
sorts? I'd like to do this in
a 1-second timer from my main App. Maybe there's an example somewhere?

Thanks.
Antonio

2

To reply to my own post, this ScreenSaverEngine does not seem to be
running any more
on OSX 10.6, instead someone recommends:

$ osascript -e 'tell application "System Events"' -e 'get running of
screen saver preferences' -e 'end tell'

from the commandline, but I think that is to involving from a WxPython
timer. Maybe
I can talk to the System Events in an easy way?

Thanks,
Antonio

···

On Jan 23, 10:40 pm, Antonio <antonio.gomez.s...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi,

(I posted this to wxpython-mac, but that is only for porting wxpython
to OSX, so I thought I'd repost here.)

I need to know if the screensaver is active, so I can pause in my
app.

Things I found so far: there seems to be a ScreenSaverEngine, which
seems to
implement a Protocol called ScreenSaverControl, which exports a
screenSaverIsRunning
method return a boolean.

Can I talk to this engine from wxpython using a cocoa binding of some
sorts? I'd like to do this in
a 1-second timer from my main App. Maybe there's an example somewhere?

Thanks.
Antonio

3

I don't know of any examples of using PyObjC from a wx app, but it may be possible. Using ctypes to call functions in the Carbon library directly is also a possibility.

···

On 1/23/10 1:40 PM, Antonio wrote:

Hi,

(I posted this to wxpython-mac, but that is only for porting wxpython
to OSX, so I thought I'd repost here.)

I need to know if the screensaver is active, so I can pause in my
app.

Things I found so far: there seems to be a ScreenSaverEngine, which
seems to
implement a Protocol called ScreenSaverControl, which exports a
screenSaverIsRunning
method return a boolean.

Can I talk to this engine from wxpython using a cocoa binding of some
sorts? I'd like to do this in
a 1-second timer from my main App. Maybe there's an example somewhere?

--
Robin Dunn
Software Craftsman

4

There is an appscript module available that will let you interact with AppleScript from Python. http://appscript.sourceforge.net/

···

On 1/23/10 1:47 PM, Antonio wrote:

To reply to my own post, this ScreenSaverEngine does not seem to be
running any more
on OSX 10.6, instead someone recommends:

$ osascript -e 'tell application "System Events"' -e 'get running of
screen saver preferences' -e 'end tell'

from the commandline, but I think that is to involving from a WxPython
timer. Maybe
I can talk to the System Events in an easy way?

--
Robin Dunn
Software Craftsman