Scripting

Gaia Sky offers the possibility to run Python scripts in the same JVM using Jython.

You can find some example scripts in the scripts folder of the project.

Hint

Add your own scripts to the folder $HOME/.gaiasky/scripts so that Gaia Sky can run them.

An interface is provided in order to encapsulate some complex-behaviour functions and to make scripting easier. This scripting interface is described in the following section.

The scripting interface

The scripting interface is located in the package gaia.cu9.ari.gaiaorbit.script (see here).

Description of the functions

Before starting, have a look at the documentation of the scripting interface, which provides extensive descriptions of each function.

Using the scripting interface

In order to import the scripting interface package in your script, you just need to import the default implementation EventScriptingInterface from the package gaia.cu9.ari.gaiaorbit.script:

# Import scripting interface
from gaia.cu9.ari.gaiaorbit.script import EventScriptingInterface

Then, we need to create the scripting object before start using it.

gs = EventScriptingInterface()

Now, we can start executing functions.

# Disable input
gs.disableInput()
gs.cameraStop()
gs.minimizeInterfaceWindow()

# Welcome
gs.setHeadlineMessage("Welcome to the Gaia Sky")
gs.setSubheadMessage("Explore Gaia, the Solar System and the whole Galaxy!")
[...]

More examples

You can find more examples by looking at the scripts folder in the Gaia Sky package.

How to run scripts

Each script is executed in its own thread in the virtual machine, and runs alongside Gaia Sky. In order to run a script, follow the procedure described in the Running scripts section.