Create Your Own ‘Web Browser’ and ‘Desktop Recorder’ Applications Using PyGobject

PyGobject is a Python module that allows you to develop GUI applications in Python using the Gtk+ toolkit. With PyGobject, you can create rich, interactive applications that run on Linux, macOS, and Windows. In this blog post, we'll walk you through the process of creating two applications using PyGobject − a web browser and a desktop recorder.

Creating a Web Browser

To create a web browser using PyGobject, we'll need to use the Gtk+ webkit library, which provides a web browser engine that can be embedded into a Gtk+ application. Here are the steps to create a web browser −

Step 1: Import the necessary modules

To get started, we need to import the necessary modules −

import gi
gi.require_version('WebKit', '3.0')
from gi.repository import Gtk, WebKit

Step 2: Create the main window

Next, we'll create the main window for our web browser.

class MainWindow(Gtk.Window):
   def __init__(self):
      Gtk.Window.__init__(self, title="Web Browser")
      self.set_default_size(800, 600)

Step 3: Create the web view

We'll use the WebKit web view to display web pages.

self.web_view = WebKit.WebView()
self.add(self.web_view)

Step 4: Add navigation buttons

To navigate to different web pages, we'll add a back button, a forward button, and a refresh button.

toolbar = Gtk.Toolbar()
self.add(toolbar)

back_button = Gtk.ToolButton(Gtk.STOCK_GO_BACK)
back_button.connect("clicked", self.go_back)
toolbar.insert(back_button, 0)

forward_button = Gtk.ToolButton(Gtk.STOCK_GO_FORWARD)
forward_button.connect("clicked", self.go_forward)
toolbar.insert(forward_button, 1)

refresh_button = Gtk.ToolButton(Gtk.STOCK_REFRESH)
refresh_button.connect("clicked", self.refresh)
toolbar.insert(refresh_button, 2)

Step 5: Add functionality to the navigation buttons

We'll add functionality to the back button, forward button, and refresh button.

def go_back(self, widget):
   self.web_view.go_back()

def go_forward(self, widget):
   self.web_view.go_forward()

def refresh(self, widget):
   self.web_view.reload()

Step 6: Load a web page

Finally, we'll load a web page into the web view.

self.web_view.load_uri("https://www.google.com")

With these steps, we've created a basic web browser application using PyGobject. You can run the application by creating an instance of the MainWindow class and calling the show_all() method.

win = MainWindow()
win.connect("delete-event", Gtk.main_quit)
win.show_all()
Gtk.main()

Creating a Desktop Recorder

Next, let's create a desktop recorder application using PyGobject. A desktop recorder is an application that allows you to record your screen, audio, and webcam to create video tutorials or demonstrations. Here are the steps to create a desktop recorder −

Step 1: Import the necessary modules

To get started, we need to import the necessary modules −

import gi
gi.require_version('Gst', '1.0')
gi.require_version('GstVideo', '1.0')
from gi.repository import Gst, GstVideo, Gtk, GdkX11

Step 2: Initialize Gstreamer

Before we can use Gstreamer, we need to initialize it. We can do this by calling the Gst.init() function. This function takes two arguments: the first argument is the name of the Python script, and the second argument is a list of command line arguments. For this example, we will pass in sys.argv to use the command line arguments that were used to launch the Python script.

Add the following code after the module imports −

import sys

# Initialize Gstreamer
Gst.init(sys.argv)

Step 3: Create a Gstreamer Pipeline

A Gstreamer pipeline is a set of linked elements that together process media data. In this example, we will create a pipeline that reads data from the microphone and sends it to a file.

Add the following code to create a pipeline −

# Create Gstreamer pipeline
pipeline = Gst.Pipeline()

Step 4: Create Gstreamer Elements

Gstreamer elements are the individual components that make up a pipeline. In this example, we will need a few different elements −

• pulsesrc element − reads audio data from the microphone

• wavenc element − encodes the audio data into a WAV file format

• filesink element − writes the encoded audio data to a file

Add the following code to create these elements −

# Create Gstreamer elements
source = Gst.ElementFactory.make('pulsesrc', 'microphone')
encoder = Gst.ElementFactory.make('wavenc', 'encoder')
sink = Gst.ElementFactory.make('filesink', 'file')

# Set the location of the output file
sink.set_property('location', 'recording.wav')

Step 5: Add Elements to the Pipeline

Now that we have created the necessary elements, we need to add them to the pipeline. We can do this using the pipeline.add() method.

Add the following code to add the elements to the pipeline −

# Add elements to the pipeline
pipeline.add(source)
pipeline.add(encoder)
pipeline.add(sink)

Step 6: Link the Elements

Next, we need to link the elements together to create a pipeline that processes the data. We can do this using the link() method of the Gst.Element class.

Add the following code to link the elements together −

# Link the elements
source.link(encoder)
encoder.link(sink)

Step 7: Start the Pipeline

Now that we have created and linked our pipeline, we are ready to start recording. We can do this by calling the pipeline.set_state(Gst.State.PLAYING) method.

Add the following code to start the pipeline −

# Start recording
pipeline.set_state(Gst.State.PLAYING)

Step 8: Stop the Pipeline

To stop recording, we can call the pipeline.set_state(Gst.State.NULL) method. Add the following code to stop the pipeline −

# Stop recording
pipeline.set_state(Gst.State.NULL)

With these steps, we have created a simple desktop recorder using PyGObject and Gstreamer.

Conclusion

In this article, we learned how to use PyGObject to create a simple web browser and desktop recorder. We started by importing the necessary modules and initializing the GStreamer library for multimedia playback and recording.

Then we proceeded to create a user interface for the web browser and integrate the WebKitGTK library for rendering web pages. We also added features such as back and forward navigation buttons and a URL entry field. In the desktop recorder section, we learned how to use the GStreamer library to capture and record video from the desktop, as well as save it to a file.

Overall, PyGObject provides a versatile and user-friendly way to create desktop applications with powerful features, and we encourage developers to explore its potential further.