ReviewTrack — Raspberry Pi Paper Review Dashboard

A full-screen, touch-friendly PyQt6 dashboard designed for an 800×480 display on a Raspberry Pi. It helps a researcher track academic paper review invitations, pending reviews, and completed reviews — reading live from a shared SQLite database.

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📸 Overview

The app provides four screens navigated via a sidebar:

Screen	Description
Dashboard	Summary stats + recent activity
Invitations	Pending review invites with Accept / Decline / Abstract buttons
Pending	Accepted reviews with due dates and portal links
Completed	All finished reviews

Key features:

• Real-time updates — polls the SQLite database every 5 seconds
• Kinetic touch scrolling — finger-flick with smooth momentum via QScroller
• Word-wrapped text — long titles flow naturally, no horizontal scroll
• Live log overlay — in-app log viewer, toggleable via sidebar button
• EXIT button — always visible on top-right for quick exit from kiosk mode

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🗂 Project Structure

.
├── main.py                    # App entry point, sidebar, navigation, timer
├── ui_components.py           # All screen widgets (Dashboard, Invitations, Pending, Completed)
├── database.py                # SQLite connection and data fetching
├── styles.qss                 # Qt stylesheet — dark navy theme
├── db_schema_reference.md     # Database schema documentation
├── create_dummy_db.py         # Generate a local test database for development
├── deploy.py                  # Deploy app files to Raspberry Pi over SSH
├── create_desktop_shortcut.py # Create a clickable desktop icon on the Pi
├── check_logs.py              # SSH in and tail app.log on the Pi
└── fix_dependencies.py        # Install missing PyQt6 dependencies on the Pi

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🗄 Database Schema

The app reads from a SQLite file: ~/.local/share/BackgroundFetcher/reviews.sqlite3

Table: review_items

Column	Type	Description
status	TEXT	invited, accepted, or completed
journal_name	TEXT	Name of the journal
paper_id	TEXT	Unique paper identifier
paper_title	TEXT	Full title of the paper
date_invited	TEXT	ISO date when invite was received
review_due_date	TEXT	ISO date when review is due
agree_link	TEXT	URL to accept the invitation
decline_link	TEXT	URL to decline the invitation
date_accepted	TEXT	ISO date when acceptance email was received
manuscript_portal_link	TEXT	Link to the manuscript review portal
direct_review_link	TEXT	Direct review URL
date_completed	TEXT	ISO date when thank-you email was received
last_updated	TEXT	ISO timestamp of last DB update

Note: The database uses PRAGMA journal_mode=WAL so the background email fetcher can write while the dashboard reads simultaneously.

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🚀 Raspberry Pi Setup

Prerequisites

• Raspberry Pi running Raspberry Pi OS (Bookworm or later recommended)
• Python 3 installed
• A desktop environment (LXDE/Wayfire) with DISPLAY=:0 active
• Display connected (tested on 800×480 touch screen)

Install PyQt6 on the Pi

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y python3-pyqt6

Clone / Copy the Project

git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/ReviewTrack.git ~/ReviewerDashboard
cd ~/ReviewerDashboard

Run the App Manually

export DISPLAY=:0
cd ~/ReviewerDashboard
python3 main.py

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🖥 Desktop Shortcut

Run this once from your Windows PC (requires paramiko) to place a clickable icon on the Pi's desktop:

pip install paramiko
python create_desktop_shortcut.py

This creates ~/Desktop/ReviewTrack.desktop on the Pi. Double-clicking it will launch the dashboard directly without needing a terminal.

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🛠 Development & Local Testing

1. Install dependencies (Windows/Mac/Linux)

pip install PyQt6 paramiko

2. Generate a test database

python create_dummy_db.py

This creates a local reviews.sqlite3 filled with realistic dummy data so you can test the UI without the Pi.

3. Run locally

python main.py

The app will look for the database at ~/.local/share/BackgroundFetcher/reviews.sqlite3 on Linux/Pi, or the local reviews.sqlite3 as a fallback.

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🚢 Deploying to the Pi

Edit deploy.py to set your Pi's IP, username, and password, then run:

python deploy.py

This will:

1. SSH into the Pi
2. Upload main.py, ui_components.py, database.py, styles.qss
3. Kill any old instance
4. Start the app in the background (nohup) with output logged to ~/ReviewerDashboard/app.log

Check Running Logs

python check_logs.py

SSH's into the Pi and prints the latest lines from app.log, plus tells you if the process is running.

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🎨 Design Notes

• Color palette: Dark navy (#0a1628, #0f1d32) matching the Stitch prototype
• Font: Segoe UI / Inter, 13–14px base for readability on 800×480
• Sidebar: 160px fixed-width with emoji navigation icons
• Touch scrolling: Qt QScroller with kinetic flick + custom VScrollArea subclass to enforce viewport width (prevents horizontal scroll)
• Cards: QFrame.review-card with setWordWrap(True) on all title/abstract labels

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⚙️ Configuration

Variable	File	Default
Pi IP address	deploy.py	192.168.X.X
Pi username	deploy.py	abcdefghijhl
Pi password	deploy.py	(set in file)
Remote app dir	deploy.py	~/ReviewerDashboard
DB path	database.py	~/.local/share/BackgroundFetcher/reviews.sqlite3
Refresh interval	main.py	5000 ms

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📋 Requirements

PyQt6
paramiko

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📄 License

MIT License — free to use and modify.