[WIP] Multiple widgets

[TBog]

fix #752

WIP, do not merge

I need some feedback and help ;)

• Get the name from the widget to display in the popup
• Custom widget position and size
• Scroll with the wallpaper
• Long press widget to enter edit mode
• Visual / drag&drop resize and position
• Grid placement option
• Allow for separate grid sizes for each screen / page
• Add padding that may be negative to better position the widget in the grid
• Re-add widget every X minutes on Oreo to force update the widget (will fix the clock widgets not updating)
• Test that every option works as expected

[TBog]

Make sure to remove all widgets when you switch away from this PR or else restoreWidgets will crash

[Neamar]

@TBog I see this PR is WIP, but just in case, are you looking for testers already?

[TBog]

Yes, testing would be good.

LE: I know some people have problems with widgets not updating. Would it be ok to update all widgets when onStart is called?

[Neamar]

Regarding your question, I don't see any issue refreshing in onStart(), but I'm not sure that'll be enough since some people never restart KISS and still get the widget stuck. [let's discuss this issue in #744]

Regarding the feature itself, some questions!

• Adding multiple widgets "stacks" them. You can change the position after, but can we infer the top position automatically?
  
• Setting the gravity makes the widget disappear (at least on my device) :(
• Setting the width to the minimum (which on my device is 500px, haven't checked the code yet) makes the widget disappear :(

I like the multi-widget approach and the full-customizability, but I'm curious how someone less technical will understand concepts such as "gravity".

[Neamar]

(update: on my device, changing any settings by anything will make the widget disappear)

[TBog]

I'm sorry that you have encountered problems.

• The position option will set the screen. I can drag the wallpaper to change the screens (there is an option for this). There is the left, right and middle screen.
• Gravity is the position inside a screen.
• The minimum width and height are provided by the widget. The maximum is the screen size.

By default the widgets should be positioned on the middle screen at the top, centered horizontally. When you said "infer the top position automatically" what did you expect to see?

Right now I seem to have problems with the settings if more than 1 widget is set, not sure what I did because when I first tested it seemed to work fine.

[TBog]

If one sets the position of a widget to left or right, than please also enable "Scroll wallpaper" to be able to see the widget by dragging on the screen.
"Show history on touch" may also hinder the user experience.

[ildar]

if the PR is fine, can anyone please share the apk for testing? Thanks in advance!

[Neamar]

@ildar you can try https://1855-6047468-gh.circle-artifacts.com/0/release-apk/app-release-unsigned.apk but you'll lose any settings you have in KISS :(

[ildar]

it's not installable. Need apk with debug keys.

[ildar]

ok, found the installable apk: https://1855-6047468-gh.circle-artifacts.com/0/debug-apk/app-debug.apk and, yes, it is crashy :(

[ildar]

I generally like the idea behind the implementation. It just needs layouting changed/fixed. JIMHO Overlapping widgets mainly look sloppy and should be avoided, but sometimes may be useful for semi-opaque widgets :)

[TBog]

Please do tell what you did that crashed it.

I don't use a grid to position the Widgets because I wanted to have full control of the position. This is why if you just add two widgets they would be overlapping. I suppose I can make the first align to TOP and the second to BOTTOM and this would delay the problem to the 3rd widget added.

How would you like to have the layouting changed/fixed?

[ildar]

When I tap on Position: Middle, it constantly crashes with:

Mon, 23 Jul 2018 12:57:28 +0600: E/AndroidRuntime(22733): FATAL EXCEPTION: main Mon, 23 Jul 2018 12:57:28 +0600: E/AndroidRuntime(22733): Process: fr.neamar.kiss, PID: 22733 Mon, 23 Jul 2018 12:57:28 +0600: E/AndroidRuntime(22733): android.view.WindowManager$BadTokenException: Unable to add window -- token ***@***.*** is not valid; is your activity running? Mon, 23 Jul 2018 12:57:28 +0600: E/AndroidRuntime(22733): at android.view.ViewRootImpl.setView(ViewRootImpl.java:532) Mon, 23 Jul 2018 12:57:28 +0600: E/AndroidRuntime(22733): at android.view.WindowManagerGlobal.addView(WindowManagerGlobal.java:259)

Thanks a lot for the feature!!!! I like it very much

[ildar]

How would you like to have the *layouting changed/fixed*?

I'd suggest simple layouts as default and per-widget position+size as advanced setup. "simple layouts" like "vertical grid".

[ildar]

the patch is sooo good I use your apk permanently. Yet it needs to be merged with the `master` branch. #1044 might be fixed btw, @TBog , have more plans on this?

[TBog]

I have some widgets that do not update sometimes. I'm 90% sure it's not because of my changes but I don't want to be blamed ;)
Also, the setup flow seems kind of ugly imho, but I don't know how to make it better.

[ildar]

Don't blame yourself, it's #744

[ildar]

@TBog , plz merge (or rebase) with latest fixes from master.

[ildar]

Please merge with `master`. I know, it's not fun. But I use it and want to see latest changes. Please? Thanks in advance!

[TBog]

I did a rebase, did not test it but I had no conflicts and it compiles.
Here is a link to the circleci artifact: https://2226-6047468-gh.circle-artifacts.com/0/debug-apk/app-debug.apk

[ildar]

works good, thanks a lot!

[droserasprout]

Thanks for your contribution, @TBog! I like this launcher a lot and think it's really missing multiple widgets feature. In my usecase it would be TickTick and Habbit to track todos and habbits right on home screen. But don't you thinks features declared in PR description are a bit overkill keeping in mind project goals? IMHO two menu buttons ("add [fullscreen] widget" and "remove current witget") and ability to swipe between added widgets horizontally would be enough. I've tried your current build and widget related features feels pretty complicated. What do you think about it, @Neamar?

[droserasprout]

And also it would be great to see this project on Bountysourse to allow contributors to get paid for their work.

[ildar]

I use intersecting widgets and happy with it. Guess there have to be such an ability for advanced users. Though indeed it ui needs reworking

[Neamar]

Hey @TBog,

This PR has been blocked for some time now.

I've been considering implementing the feature on my side (something more advanced than what we have right now, but not as advanced as what you have here). Would you be OK for me to close this and start working on a new implementation?

[Dakkaron]

I tired to update this to the current master branch and it compiles, but I keep getting the same error whenever I click any of the spinners in the widget customization panel:

Process: fr.neamar.kiss.debug, PID: 13149
android.view.WindowManager$BadTokenException: Unable to add window -- token android.view.ViewRootImpl$W@10d554 is not valid; is your activity running?
    at android.view.ViewRootImpl.setView(ViewRootImpl.java:679)
    at android.view.WindowManagerGlobal.addView(WindowManagerGlobal.java:342)
    at android.view.WindowManagerImpl.addView(WindowManagerImpl.java:93)
    at android.widget.PopupWindow.invokePopup(PopupWindow.java:1378)
    at android.widget.PopupWindow.showAsDropDown(PopupWindow.java:1234)
    at android.widget.ListPopupWindow.show(ListPopupWindow.java:671)
    at android.widget.Spinner$DropdownPopup.show(Spinner.java:1235)
    at android.widget.Spinner.performClick(Spinner.java:770)
    at android.view.View$PerformClick.run(View.java:22429)
    at android.os.Handler.handleCallback(Handler.java:751)
    at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:95)
    at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:154)
    at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:6119)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
    at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:886)
    at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:776)

It seems that the context for the dropdowns is not correct. I tried to use different contexts but the exception remains. Does anyone have any ideas on that?

[ildar]

On Wed, Feb 19, 2020 at 5:47 PM Matthieu Bacconnier wrote: I've been considering implementing the feature on my side (something more advanced than what we have right now, but not as advanced as what you have here).

I just hope your implementation will allow overlapping widgets. Otherwise it's a lot less useful. Thanks! 👍

[TBog]

@Neamar Please do. I may be able to add more customization to it after you finish. Right now what we need is a better widget management.

[Neamar]

My initial implementation is unlikely to deal with overlapping widget.
The first S in "KISS" stands for simple ;)
My plan is probably to layout widgets in a vertical LinearLayout with options to reorder and resize.

I'm closing this here, happy to reopen if you see I'm not making any progress or you have more time!

[Dakkaron]

@Neamar I really like you taking on this issue! But maybe consider taking this as a base to build on, since most of the work is already done and making this here more user-friendly might be easier than to make a linear layout more configurable.

You could emulate the linear layout's behaviour with this rather easily.

For the simple mode the user would only be allowed to change the order of the widgets. This would be done in the background by setting the height and top offset values of the widgets.

The advanced mode could function similarly as it does now, only maybe with slightly modified parameter names so that it is easier to understand.

I would change the label "Position" to "Page", drop vertical gravity (the same effect can be gained from using offset top) and rename horizontal gravity to "Position".

I like the current implementation very much, except that it crashes when touching any of the dropdown menues.