idea for a widget and/or home launcher wish i was smart enough to develope it. - Captivate General

i was looking at the continuum on verizon and i thought "what's with the awkward location of the soft keys between the two screens" and "why have 2 in the first place." but the idea of a ticker was nice. i also didnt think it was versatile enough. and thought if that was a spot for another 1x4 standard android widget and could scroll through several widgets that you choose it would be better but then why not do it on one screen and put it on the market.
so i had the idea of either a 1x4 widget that actually holds other widgets and/or links and scrolls through them every 5 seconds or so, you could have all your favorite widgets on one screen inside a dock.
or why not a home launcher with a with a dockbar can not only hold a 1/1 icon links/shortcuts but could also hold widgets up to 1x4. add in the ticker widget and then you would always have it on screen, not just on one home screen.
i realize a ticker wouldn't be for everyone, it could get quite annoying but i think i would like to see the option available. a dock bar that holds a widget might get some downloads i think
does anyone else have any thoughts? good idea/bad idea? anyone who can make this sort of thing happen interested? my brother could do it but he wont speak to me anymore.
i know some of the launchers out there can do a lot and this sort of thing may already be possible but take some know how. i mean i saw an lcars theme for a launcher that went against everything i know about the android gui. but i have no idea how to do that sort of thing.

Related

PSN widget.. skins? Bounty starting at $15

Ok so there are a few PSN widgets on the market none of them really take the cake. The one I have now is my favorit with just a few flaws. First I have PSN Friends Widget, its a great widget that if you go pro it will even send you notifications when a friend signs in to PSN. My biggest grip is that its an odd size widget its a 2x2 and its ugly lol. It does what it should very well but it is ugly. I am going to hit up the developer to see if he will make some skins.
Lets talk PSN dream widget maybe someone could develop and Id be more then happy to donate. Ok so for starters the widget needs to come in more then one size. Like say 4x2 would be perfect. Second, it needs skins. Third, it needs to have settings that allow you to let it sync similar to the weather, as in you can set your time intervals according to how you want it. anywhere from 15mins to 6hrs. You get the point. Lastly it would be great if we could get a notifications in the notification bar whenever someone signs in to PSN. OH and one more thing, the PSN friends widget when you click it has a pop out window that has an option for settings refresh and buy the pro version. I think it would be better if the widget its self was scrollable and then those type of obtions lay at the bottom of the scroll.
The PSN Friends widget does all the above except it doesnt have skins and it doesnt do diffrent sizes and ADW breaks it when it tries some odd sizes.

Is it possible to change the dock bar in ADW?

I relise this is a question but it is very theme related.
I think so. Can you give more information on what you want it to do or look like?
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Lol I didnt want to explain it like this because I dont want to offend the developer at all. Basicly with launcher pro (another great launcher not as good as ADW in my mind but another great launcher none the less) you can actually load your own created dock bars or dock bars someone else created. So basicly can you cusomize the lower dock bar? I know you can change it from 5 icons to 3 icons but other then that can you actually change the dock bar background?
Sorry I dont exactly know how else to explain it.
i think the best you can do is hold down the app drawer button for a few seconds and then swipe up. it'll change to an OSX style launcher bar with mini icons of whatever shortcuts you place on it. took me forever to figure it out after seeing it in the screenshots.
bboydru said:
i think the best you can do is hold down the app drawer button for a few seconds and then swipe up. it'll change to an OSX style launcher bar with mini icons of whatever shortcuts you place on it. took me forever to figure it out after seeing it in the screenshots.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can set up swipe up and down guestures too. Yeah I know about this bar I actually store my quick contacts down under there.
He's talking about the separate dock background, not the actual dock.So you have a wallpaper, and then a separate small dock wallpaper too.
blulitespecial said:
He's talking about the separate dock background, not the actual dock.So you have a wallpaper, and then a separate small dock wallpaper too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am talking about the Dock the clear bar at the bottom of the screen that holds 3 to 5 icons. Not the hidden dock underneath the dock or just the clear bar.
bboydru said:
i think the best you can do is hold down the app drawer button for a few seconds and then swipe up. it'll change to an OSX style launcher bar with mini icons of whatever shortcuts you place on it. took me forever to figure it out after seeing it in the screenshots.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
when i do this my dock just disappears! why? how do i get it back besides rebooting my droidx?
ADW vs. LauncherPro..... um.... keeps me up at night.
I like both devs... I like the fact ADW is open source and has themes, and sometimes I feel like using the sideways drawer. But LP has great customization options like the dock theming, and now has some really well done widgets.
Nice to have a hard time choosing between two great choices.
pattherat said:
when i do this my dock just disappears! why? how do i get it back besides rebooting my droidx?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Set something to change it. It is possible to access it, and not have anything set to turn it off.
In the settings for ADW you can either have it close after opening an item from it, or set one of the swipe gestures to bring it up and down.
bboydru said:
i think the best you can do is hold down the app drawer button for a few seconds and then swipe up. it'll change to an OSX style launcher bar with mini icons of whatever shortcuts you place on it. took me forever to figure it out after seeing it in the screenshots.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok tried this for nearly 20 mins and also played around with the ADW Settings and I still dont see a change. Is it an add on ? a png replacement ? How do I get this ?
bboydru said:
i think the best you can do is hold down the app drawer button for a few seconds and then swipe up. it'll change to an OSX style launcher bar with mini icons of whatever shortcuts you place on it. took me forever to figure it out after seeing it in the screenshots.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You sir just blew my mind.
Sent from me to you via the interwebs.
I actually have the opening and closing of the second dock tied to my home button. I love it. To any of you that don't know how to open the second dock, you long press the regular dock and swipe up.you'll see little up arrows when you long press pointing in the direction you should swipe. When you do that and you think it's just hiding your dock, it's not. Drag an icon that area and see what happens.
laydros said:
ADW vs. LauncherPro..... um.... keeps me up at night.
I like both devs... I like the fact ADW is open source and has themes, and sometimes I feel like using the sideways drawer. But LP has great customization options like the dock theming, and now has some really well done widgets.
Nice to have a hard time choosing between two great choices.
Set something to change it. It is possible to access it, and not have anything set to turn it off.
In the settings for ADW you can either have it close after opening an item from it, or set one of the swipe gestures to bring it up and down.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from the void...
Also, I did this part through the home button binding setting in the awd settings menu.
wuclan48 said:
I actually have the opening and closing of the second dock tied to my home button.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from the void...
I never knew about the second dockbar in ADW. This changes almost everything layout wise for me. Also, I found a great setting under ADW. Auto close dockbar after application launch, will bring your original bar up after application launch. Pretty cool tip guys thanks alot!
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
I never knew about the 2nd hidden dock bar either. Sweet! That has really helped to clean up my homescreens, getting rid of most of the clutter.
Something I'm still trying to figure out on ADW though... is it possible to change the actual dock? Not the dock icons, but the dock itself. Launcher pro has a page with tons of user submitted docks you can use, was just curious if i could do this with ADW. I'm thinking there has to be a way, because I've installed some ADW themes from the market and they actually changed the dock as well... just need to figure out how without having to install a theme.
I'm also looking for a way to change the dock bar background. A work-around you can do is just apply a bar to the bottom of your wallpaper. However, this only works if you want a dockbar that is the same all the way across.
i thought i already replied to this thread. there is a complete guide on customizing the adw dock bar in the link below.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=851834&highlight=adw+guide
t3project said:
i thought i already replied to this thread. there is a complete guide on customizing the adw dock bar in the link below.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=851834&highlight=adw+guide
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This doesn't tell you how to change the dock background; probably because you can't without a using a theme.
It is possible to change the dockbar background without changing themes...but it's not nearly as trivial as with Launcher Pro and I believe your phone must be rooted. I have succesfully used Ninjamorph to dynamically swap out the drawable resources in the ADWLauncher apk file which make-up the dock background. Unlike LauncherPro, which uses a single image as a background, the ADWLauncher background is made up of multiple images corresponding to the right, middle, and left action buttons (in both their selected and unselected forms). I was able to replicate one of my preferred LauncherPro docks by using photoshop to slice the image into its right, middle, and left components, and then injecting those images into the apk file with Ninjamorph. The end result was a dockbar identical to the LauncherPro dockbar...but it was quite a bit of effort to get there. Not very practical if you like to frequently switch your dock (though once you've broken the dock down into it's components, it's not too bad switching between them). Theoretically, it would also be possible to change the background for the hidden alternate dockbar using this approach, though I"ve not attempted this.
I too would love to see an easier way to customize the ADW Launcher dock without applying a completely new theme or resorting to using Ninjamorph. After the recent releases of ADW, that's the one remaining thing from LauncherPro that I really miss when I use ADWLauncher. Maybe that's a feature which will show up in the new "EX" version soon.
you can always just unpack the adw apk and change the png then repack/sign and push it to your phone

Vertical scrolling on homescreens?

I was playing around with the HTC bookmark widget earlier, and noticed widgets can be dragged up and down. Are there any widgets available that act as a blank overlay for the homescreen, which can also scroll vertically to view more widgets and shortcuts? This can be helpful to access more on each homescreen and provided no one else knows about the vertical scroll, hiding a few "work documents" .
sanamkan said:
I was playing around with the HTC bookmark widget earlier, and noticed widgets can be dragged up and down. Are there any widgets available that act as a blank overlay for the homescreen, which can also scroll vertically to view more widgets and shortcuts? This can be helpful to access more on each homescreen and provided no one else knows about the vertical scroll, hiding a few "work documents" .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how long have you had your phone again?
just about everyone knows about scrollable widgets.
and no you cant make a homescreen vertically scrollable.
1. You are being a ****.
2. He didn't ask about scrollable widgets.
3. Yes its possible it would just require some heavy knowledge and coding.
I wasn't announcing that widgets could scroll, I was providing an example. Nor did I ask if it was possible to make the homescreen scroll. What I'm asking IS possible. I was only asking if it already exists.
sanamkan said:
I wasn't announcing that widgets could scroll, I was providing an example. Nor did I ask if it was possible to make the homescreen scroll. What I'm asking IS possible. I was only asking if it already exists.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't seen anything like that and I understand what you are asking. You would need to go to the android app dev section to see if someone will take A TON of time to make a full screen vertical scrolling widget that you can place other widgets in.
Would it be impossible to look at bookmark widget's code as a basis? As for integrating shortcuts into a widget, I could probably try and contact the dev of Multi icon. That should take care of the major concerns, right?
I dont know if you could make a widget that lets you host other widgets or shortcuts. but there are 2 options that may work for you
one is the folder system, you can make folders to keep your app shortcuts in, but they will not allow you to nest widgets inside of them.
another option is to use a secondary launcher like launcher pro or ADW launcher, and when you want to access the shortcuts or widgets that are in that launcher you can open it up. then you can set one of the launchers to be the default when you hit the home button, or have it ask you each time you hit it.
just my 2 cents, but don't give up on the widget inside a widget idea, im sure a bunch of people would like to have that ability
Teksu said:
I dont know if you could make a widget that lets you host other widgets or shortcuts. but there are 2 options that may work for you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The program/shortcut integrated in a widget is performed perfectly on the Multi icon widget. Pre-existing widgets in the widget haven't been included, but the dev has begun creating specialty widgets. I do recommend checking it out.
Teksu said:
another option is to use a secondary launcher like launcher pro or ADW launcher, and when you want to access the shortcuts or widgets that are in that launcher you can open it up. then you can set one of the launchers to be the default when you hit the home button, or have it ask you each time you hit it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried QuickDesk, which keeps your current launcher, but enables a popup homescreen when you double tap the home button. It's not the smoothest process by any means, and somehow makes HTC Sense pop up in your home button long press. If you know of any better attempts at this, I'd like to see how those work as opposed to this one. It may be simpler than eventually having to create a new one, right?
Actually, being able to pull up or down on the home screen to activate something like quickdesk would be pretty cool. QD kinda sucks having to double tap on it, and the response is laggy because the button is getting confused as to what it's supposed to do.
as far as I know, the only Launcher that provides vertical scrolling functionality is HTCSense. It also provides the EditText widget as a RemoteView.
**in Android world, a "widget" is any GUI object, really. While the widgets we talk about adding to a Home screen is really called an "AppWidget"**
Its all about how the Launcher handles and behaves with RemoteViews.
For a Launcher to allow one of its AppWidgets to contain and run another AppWidget, that Launcher would have to provide a huge heap of new RemoteViews and surrounding functionality...or, the AppWidget container would have to somehow import the child AppWidget App and run it internally (not possible I think!).
There's a chance that MIUI (a new Chinese Launcher) provides AppWidget-within-Folder functionality. It may then expose custom RemoteViews and API interfaces to allow AppWidgets to be developed to do similar things

Launcher

As ADW EX is available in the market if you search with the asus
Has anyone tried laucherpro plus?
I kow it's only $3 but i still dont wnat to try it and find it crashes.
I tried LauncherPro Plus. it doesn't take advantage of the large screen size enough for me... it does work though.
Putzy said:
it doesn't take advantage of the large screen size.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Neither does the standard launcher, i'm missing one column each side of the screen in landscape
Can i adjust numbers of columns and rows?
Can i adjust/change icons?
I'm asking these questions here as even on their own website doesn't tell you
You're not missing a column as such.... what you'll notice if you turn the launcher into portrait mode that there simply isn't enough space to show those extra 'columns.
Still... thinking about the lack of settings in normal Google launchers on previous versions of Android, I wouldn't get too excited that you'll be able to change the number of columns/rows.
I'm fairly optimistic that when the Honeycomb source is finally released someone will be able to mod the launcher code and get a few more settings in there.
Forgot, can i get rid of the dockbar?
On LauncherPro? I don't know if its possible.
Launcher Pro does take up the entire screen, you just need to modify the settings as it was made for phones. You need to change the columns and rows setting to 10. The application drawer icons may look a little spaced out though but not a big deal. You can use Circle Launcher widgets or something similar so you do not have to even use app drawer. Here is my Xoom using Launcher Pro:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiZ5EmP8h_o&feature=channel_video_title
I love launcherpro but you loose functionality on the desktop when going with it. You loose the trash can when wanting to delete desktop items and some of the honeycomb menu buttons.
Not quite there yet needs a rewrite for honeycomb to be a true contender.
logichoops said:
I love launcherpro but you loose functionality on the desktop when going with it. You loose the trash can when wanting to delete desktop items and some of the honeycomb menu buttons.
Not quite there yet needs a rewrite for honeycomb to be a true contender.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you drag an icon, a trash appears and if you hold the icon over the trash for a moment, an uninstall option appears. You can add the Application drawer icon to the top of the dock on the right side which is pretty close to Honeycomb launcher. You do lose the + option to add widgets, wallpaper etc. I do agree, I would like a more Honeycomb optimized version and have already commented to the developer requesting this but I find it works well for now.
Here's another alternative, its a ADW based launcher made for tablets. I use it on my Viewsonic G Tab, its pretty slick.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1017451
Please don't ruin your tablet with a launcher for a phone. Completely takes away the look of honyc which is beautiful. ... for that get a viewsonic gtab .. what's wrong with honeyc launcher. Its great. Widget are great well at least on my Acer ....that youtube video xoom looks sooooo overloaded with those phone widgets.
sent from my Acer iconia using TT

[Q] widgets and scrolling page to page

II'm not exactly sure what to look for here, I Googled a bunch of things and found nothing. Basically it's like this, I'm running Buzz Launcher, but for the sake of my question I don't think it's really tied into the launcher. I have 6 home screen set up, and I would like for the widgets & icons to fade in & out instead of scrolling as I swipe between screens. Apparently nobody really cares about this as I didn't find any threads when I Googled it. But if it's possible, I'd love to know how to pull it off.

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