⌚ Activity Tracker

Introduction

An open-source productivity app that logs desktop activity data.

Records foreground window name and tracks idle times based on user input activity.

Uses desktopspy under the hood.

Features

• Open source
• Supports windows and linux
• Your data is yours only, forever
• Dashboard
• REST API

Setup (Windows)

Usage Requirements

• Windows OS
• Python (tested on 3.7 & 3.9)
• Poetry installation instructions

To get the required project dependencies:

cd path\to\activity-monitor
poetry install

You can now run main.py using poetry run python3 main.py.

Running the program on startups (Windows)

• Make a windows shortcut of the startup.bat (right click the file -> send to -> desktop -> create shortcut).
• Then paste that shortcut (which will be on Desktop) to %appdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup (This can easily be accessed by pressing the Windows Key + r then entering shell:startup).
• A file explorer window will show up. Paste the shortcut.
• The program will now run every startup.

Setup (Linux)

Usage Requirements

• Python (tested on 3.8)
• Poetry installation instructions

To get the required project dependencies:

cd path/to/activity-monitor
poetry install

You can now run main.py using poetry run python3 main.py

Running the program on startups (Linux)

To run the programs at startup

• Make startup.sh executable: chmod +x startup.sh

• Enter crontab -e in the terminal

• Choose an editor. This example uses nano.

• Paste the following code:

    @reboot export DISPLAY="<insert output>" && cd /home/<user>/<project directory> && /<poetry location>/poetry run /bin/bash ./startup.sh >> /tmp/startup.log
  

• Run echo $DISPLAY in a terminal and put the result in the display variable <insert output>

• Example: export DISPLAY=":0"

• Replace <user> with the your username

• Replace <project directory> with location of the project.

• Then run whereis poetry in a terminal and put the result in the <poetry location> property.

• Example: /home/anon/.poetry/bin/poetry

The final command should look like this (Note: one line only):

    @reboot export DISPLAY=":0" && cd /home/anon/Programming/activity-monitor/ && /home/anon/.poetry/bin/poetry run /bin/bash ./startup.sh >> /tmp/startup.log

• Save using Ctrl + X then Y and Enter to save changes.

If done, you may now reboot.

Check if running on startup with command: cat /tmp/startup.log. This should return two lines containing the PID of the main.py and the flask server.

TODO: This can be automated with a script.

Dashboard

A dashboard served by flask is available at http://localhost:9000

HTTP API

Access the REST API documentation at http://localhost:9000/apidocs.

File Structure

.
│   .gitignore
│   activity.db # Generated SQL db
│   CHANGELOG.md
│   main.py # Main controller
│   Pipfile
│   Pipfile.lock
│   README.md
│   startup.bat
│
├───config
│       config.py
│       keywords.py
│
├───dashboard # Experimental dashboard
│
├───docs
│       doc.md
│
└───src # Files used by main.py 
        tracker.py
        uploader.py

Bugs

• No mechanism against programs or webpages that change window names
• Linux implementation depends on xdotool. DISPLAY env variable must be set properly.

Documentation

See docs/ for additional documentation.

TODO

• Local dashboard
• Code cleanup
• for reliability (this program might run 24/7)
• Create a configuration file
• Better portability for windows. Currently, the process name lookup involves using a command line tool which I am not sure exists on older platforms.
• Documentation
• Tests
• Port to Linux Done!