EnterLater

A lightweight Linux utility that fires Enter (or text + Enter) into a window at a scheduled time.

EnterLater is a tiny but powerful desktop automation tool for Linux. You choose a time-of-day, optional text to type, and choose whether to target a specific window or whatever is active at alarm time. Once the alarm triggers, EnterLater sends keystrokes into that window—perfect for:

• Auto-submitting prompts
• Confirming dialogs
• Keeping sessions alive
• Triggering scripts/UI workflows at a set time

EnterLater includes a GUI, tray icon support, automatic window tracking, and xdotool integration.

✨ Features

Core

• ⏰ Schedule a time-of-day (e.g., 10:01 PM or 22:01)
• ⌨️ Send Enter, or type text + Enter
• 🔍 Choose “live active window” or lock a specific window
• 🪟 Live mode continuously tracks the active window
• 💡 Automatically adapts if system sleeps and wakes past alarm time

GUI

• Always-on-top Timer window
• Clean & simple Tk-based UI
• Visual countdown
• Shows the window being targeted (title + process)

System Tray

• Hide to tray
• Restore GUI from tray
• Quit from tray
• Light-blue custom icon (enterlater.png)

Reliability

• Graceful error if xdotool is missing
• Falls back automatically if a window disappears
• Multi-threaded alarm loop avoids freezing the GUI

---

📦 Requirements

System

• Linux (X11-based; Wayland requires xdotool compatibility layer)
• Python 3.8+

Python packages

pip install pystray pillow

System tools

sudo apt install xdotool

---

🚀 Installation

Automatic Installation (Recommended)

1. Download or clone all files to a directory
2. Run the install script:

cd EnterLater
./install.sh

The installer will:

• Copy files to ~/EnterLater
• Create a desktop launcher with correct paths
• Check for dependencies
• Make the script executable

Manual Installation

1. Create project directory:

mkdir -p ~/EnterLater
cd ~/EnterLater

2. Place all files:

   • EnterLater.py
   • enterlater.png
   • README.md

3. Make executable:

chmod +x ~/EnterLater/EnterLater.py

4. Create desktop launcher:

mkdir -p ~/.local/share/applications

Edit ~/.local/share/applications/EnterLater.desktop with your username:

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=EnterLater
Comment=Fire Enter (or text + Enter) into a window at a specific time
Exec=python3 /home/YOUR_USERNAME/EnterLater/EnterLater.py
Icon=/home/YOUR_USERNAME/EnterLater/enterlater.png
Terminal=false
Categories=Utility;
StartupNotify=false

5. Refresh desktop database:

update-desktop-database ~/.local/share/applications 2>/dev/null || true

---

🧭 Usage Guide

1. Launch EnterLater

python3 ~/EnterLater/EnterLater.py

2. Set an Alarm

• Enter a time-of-day (10:00 PM, 3:05pm, 22:30)
• Optional text to auto-type
• Choose:
  • Type text then press Enter
  • Use active window at alarm time

3. Target Window Modes

Live Active Mode

Tracks whatever window is active.
At alarm time, that window receives the keystroke.

Captured Window Mode

Captures active window at alarm setup time, and always targets that window.

4. Tray Usage

• Hide to Tray → minimizes GUI
• Tray → Show EnterLater / Quit

---

🧩 Architecture

Scheduling

• Time-of-day parser supports 12h & 24h formats
• If time has passed, schedules for next day

Alarm Loop

• Independent thread
• Updates countdown
• Fires after sleep/wakeup

Window Management

• Uses xdotool for:
  • getactivewindow
  • getwindowname
  • getwindowpid
  • windowactivate
  • key/type

Tray

• pystray icon in background thread
• Pillow-generated or PNG icon

---

📁 Project Structure

EnterLater/
├── EnterLater.py
├── enterlater.png
└── README.md

---

🔧 Troubleshooting

xdotool not found

sudo apt install xdotool

Tray icon not showing

pip install pystray pillow

Ensure system tray support is enabled.

Wayland issues

Wayland restricts synthetic input.
Switch to X11 for best results.

---

📜 License

MIT License

---

❤️ Contributions

Want improvements (recurring alarms, custom keystrokes, SVG icons)?
Just ask!