How can I write a Perl script to automatically take screenshots?

Question

• I want a platform independent utility to take screenshots (not just within the browser).

• The utility would be able to take screenshots after fixed intervals of time and be easily configurable by the user in terms of

  • time between successive shots,

  • the format the shots are stored,

  • till when (time, event) should the script run, etc

• Since I need platform independence, I think Perl is a good choice.

a. Before I start out, I want to know whether a similar thing already exists, so I can start from there?

• Searching CPAN gives me these two relevant results :

  1. Imager-Screenshot-0.009

  2. Imager-Search-1.00

  From those pages, the first one looks easier.

b. Which one of these Perl modules should I use?

Answer 1

Taking a look at the sources of both, Imager::Search isn't much more than a wrapper to Imager::Screenshot.

Here's the constructor:

sub new {
    my $class  = shift;
    my @params = ();
    @params = @{shift()} if _ARRAY0($_[0]);
    my $image = Imager::Screenshot::screenshot( @params );
    unless ( _INSTANCE($image, 'Imager') ) {
        Carp::croak('Failed to capture screenshot');
    }

    # Hand off to the parent class
    return $class->SUPER::new( image => $image, @_ );
}

Given that Imager::Search does not really extend Imager::Screenshot much more, I'd say you're looking at two modules that are essentially the same.