News Bar Widget Plugin

Display scrolling news headlines from various sources directly in your bar using NewsAPI.org.

Features

• 📰 Real-time news from NewsAPI.org (150,000+ sources)
• 🌍 International support with 14+ languages
• 🗺️ 16 countries/regions supported
• 🔄 Auto-refresh at customizable intervals
• 📜 Smooth scrolling text animation
• ⚙️ Highly configurable settings
• 🎨 Matches your system theme

Installation

1. Clone or download this plugin to your Noctalia plugins directory
2. Register for a free API key at newsapi.org
3. Add the plugin to your bar configuration
4. Click the widget and right-click to open settings and enter your API key

Configuration

API Key

Get your free API key from NewsAPI.org. The free tier allows 100 requests per day.

Settings

• Country/Region: Select region for news (16 options with auto-language detection)
  • Note: NewsAPI free tier only supports US for true country-specific top headlines. Other regions use language-based filtering.
• Language Override: Manually override language (14 languages available)
• Category: Filter by category (General, Business, Technology, Sports, etc.)
• Refresh Interval: How often to fetch new headlines (5-1440 minutes)
• Max Headlines: Number of headlines to display (1-100)
• Widget Width: Width of the widget in pixels (100-1000)
• Scroll Speed: Animation speed in milliseconds per pixel (10-200)

Usage

• The widget displays scrolling news headlines with smooth animation
• Left-click the widget to open the news panel with full headlines
• Right-click the widget to open settings
• Click the refresh button in the panel header to manually fetch new headlines
• In vertical bars, shows the number of available headlines

Limitations

• Free NewsAPI tier limited to 100 requests/day
• Country-specific filtering: Only US is fully supported on free tier for country-specific "top headlines". Other regions use language-based filtering which provides news in that language but not strictly from that country
• News freshness depends on your refresh interval setting
• Requires internet connection
• For true country-specific filtering beyond US, a paid NewsAPI plan is required

License

MIT License - See LICENSE file for details

Credits

Based on the Noctalia Shell news widget, reimplemented as a standalone plugin.