I use various scripts daily for automation or at least to speed up my work. I have quite a lot of them now, and the efficiency of using them started to decrease slowly because launching scripts always required some "extra steps". The most annoying step is remembering the name or location of a given script and running it in the command line.
So I was looking for a solution - a tool that could easily run scripts by clicking a button. I didn't expect or require anything else from the tool, yet I couldn't find one. So I created it myself.
Sekubu is written in Python and commands (buttons) are defined using an XML file. If you're interested in technical details, commands are executed via subprocess.Popen() and I used DearPyGui to generate the GUI.
You'll find instructions and several examples on GitHub on how to create your XML configuration. The configuration file is created automatically on first launch, so you can start from there.
Running a specific application or PowerShell script is a piece of cake:
<button label="Click me!">run_this_app.exe</button>
<button label="My script">powershell.exe -NoExit "./my_script.ps1"</button>
Running a PowerShell script in the background and having its output displayed in a modal window is no problem at all:
<button label="Hello World!" new_console="false" show_output="if_not_empty">powershell.exe -Command "Write-Host 'Hello World!'"</button>
Text labels or separators ensure better clarity in the GUI:
<text>Some fancy text note</text>
<separator/>
Sekubu serves as a "Start menu" on my computer. I use it to run a script to download the development build of the project I'm working on, run automatic tests, or use it to download test results from a shared drive and save them to my notes in Obsidian. I use it to set up my Python environment, restart our application server, or even open a configuration file in a text editor.
I'm not sure how much time this saves me daily. But you have to admit that clicking a button and getting straight to work is much better than opening a text editor, finding the required file, editing it, restarting the application, and only then getting to work.
I also have other instances of Sekubu and folders with scripts, which I automatically copy to virtual computers or real computers in the lab where I go to test, stored on network storage. I call them "toolkits" for work purposes. This way, I have tools available that help me quickly set up testing environments wherever I need them. Instead of clicking through installers and running various commands or scripts, I just need to click the "Set up environment" button.
One of my scripts is specifically for creating these toolkits. If I make any changes to the toolkit, one click is enough, and in a moment, everything is updated on that network storage.
The shoemaker's children go barefoot, as they say. Sekubu hasn't undergone any testing yet. Although I use it daily without problems, I wouldn't dare to claim it's bug-free. So I'll appreciate any feedback.
The only thing I occasionally struggle with is the correct format for writing the command itself. I don't modify the input in any way and pass it directly to subprocess.Popen(). So if a command appears that can't be executed, it's usually just due to incorrect syntax.
Thank you! You have successfully subscribed to the newsletter.
