Database Info

[APP] Task Identifier [Android 2.1 and up!!!]

!!!If you have Android 2.1 the app now is in the market!!!
Android 2.2 and higher are also still supported
This is not another Auto Task Killer, no.
Thanks for all the help from everyone! We've moved into a lite and full version now on Android 2.2 and 2.3 phones.This is a new program which allows the user to specify alert levels to phone tasks and give you insight into what your phone is really doing. Make a call, ever wonder what apps may be listening? What's going on when you phone is in standby? In creating this, I will say that I've been surprised a few times at what is really going on. I want any and all feedback as well as we are trying to make this into something special. I am the actual developer of this app.
The full version has:
-Common Names and Actual Application Icons
-No Ads
-Access to all App Settings
-Ability to change alert level from List Tasks
-Removed Internet and Location Permissions
And we have a slew of other features planned for only the full version, but we don't want to spill the beans on those quite yet, but they will enhance the tool greatly!
Both versions now have the new UI as well.
Anyone who had the beta should be notified to upgrade to the lite version now.
Download Task Identifier Lite from your phone:
market://search?q=pname:com.task.identifier
Download Task Identifier Full from your phone:
market://search?q=pname:com.task.identifier.full
I've also attached a QR Code to scan for both versions. Or just search for Task Identifier in the market.
I hope you all find this useful and enjoy!!

smart work

notowork said:
smart work
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Click to collapse
Thanks!
10

Hehe, I like how the only comment for the app (5 stars and "awesome" as comment) is currently by a user named 'x2k'. Hmmm.
I've just installed it and it's been less than a minute and I got an alert from an app that no longer needs to sync...So I disabled it (every little bit of non-sync means longer battery life!).
So far it's looking very promising! I'll definitely report back on my experiences!

Okay, first big thing...
Can you please resolve the cryptic app names to their more friendly name variants?
It's hard to read and make out the com.blah designations.
Thanks!

So far it seems like a cool app. I've been using WatchDog for ages to alert me when an app misbehaves.
But I'm confused about this app. When would you want to be using this? Can you give an example?
I'll keep it installed and see how it goes. Thanks.

Paul22000 said:
So far it seems like a cool app. I've been using WatchDog for ages to alert me when an app misbehaves.
But I'm confused about this app. When would you want to be using this? Can you give an example?
I'll keep it installed and see how it goes. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for trying. This is more of an app to alert you as to what your phone is doing, ie what loads at a given point in time on your phone.

x2kjosh said:
Thanks for trying. This is more of an app to alert you as to what your phone is doing, ie what loads at a given point in time on your phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I'm playing around with it and actively trying to make notifications pop up I opened Facebook and Google Reader started, as did Maps. Weird.
Which brings me to a question: how do we know whether the task started was CAUSED by the current app I'm using, or Android just randomly started it?
For example, it's possible Facebook opened Maps in order to try to get my location, but I don't see the connection between Facebook and Google Reader. Which is why I ask if it's random, or the app I'm using is causing other tasks to run.

Paul22000 said:
Thanks. I'm playing around with it and actively trying to make notifications pop up I opened Facebook and Google Reader started, as did Maps. Weird.
Which brings me to a question: how do we know whether the task started was CAUSED by the current app I'm using, or Android just randomly started it?
For example, it's possible Facebook opened Maps in order to try to get my location, but I don't see the connection between Facebook and Google Reader. Which is why I ask if it's random, or the app I'm using is causing other tasks to run.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've found when you start doing things you see patterns. On my old Eris while I was testing this, every time I made a phone call, ebay would start! Glad it seems to be working for you! Thanks!

Great thanks

wael0x said:
Great thanks
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Click to collapse
You're welcome.

Sounds like a great troubleshooting tool. Nice work!

I'm liking this app more and more. A few more comments and requests.
Comments
* I like the main app window. Large fonts, long-press to get quick-help or short press to go to the item. Nice
* Screen off app start notification, nice!
Requests
1. Possible to get more detail about why or how an app was triggered? Like, was it triggered by a service? another app? etc. And did the triggered app take any actions? Like sending network traffic or queried the GPS and such?
2. The 'Setup Alerts' window is hard to read through, could you maybe add color so all the status 'Green' items have the word 'Green' in green font and so on?
Just added a 5 star rating on Market, keep up the good work!

Namuna said:
I'm liking this app more and more. A few more comments and requests.
Comments
* I like the main app window. Large fonts, long-press to get quick-help or short press to go to the item. Nice
* Screen off app start notification, nice!
Requests
1. Possible to get more detail about why or how an app was triggered? Like, was it triggered by a service? another app? etc. And did the triggered app take any actions? Like sending network traffic or queried the GPS and such?
2. The 'Setup Alerts' window is hard to read through, could you maybe add color so all the status 'Green' items have the word 'Green' in green font and so on?
Just added a 5 star rating on Market, keep up the good work!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the suggestions. Those are features we truly will consider adding as it will just make the tool even better. Thanks!

There will probably be updates from time to time through the market
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App

First of all, thanks for a great app.
I really like the fact that it reports on tasks/processes started while the screen was off!
I have some suggestions though:
1: When I click the icon in the app list to open the menu, it just shows the "Starting monitor" message and nothing else. I have to open an app to get the message in the pull down bar and click on that to start the application it self.
2: On my Samsung Galaxy S i9000 the layout of the application is just a bit to long for a full screen. We are talking about 1 cm or something.
3: I would very much like a log, so that I can check back, what applications started during screen off, and at what time/date.
4: The way the Android memory management works, I guess it's normal for Android to start and application/process to memory by itself from time to time. Is it possible to show this somehow? For what is interesting here is when an application is launching another application or process, and not when Android memory management is putting an application in memory.
Thanks for your great work, I'm looking forward to further updates to the application!

Just saw this on the front page and thought it looked pretty interesting. Installed a few minutes ago, but so far I like it. Not too intrusive with the pop-up.
As Namuna posted though it would be nice to get more detail.
Also to have the actual app name rather than com.xxx.
Really good work.

Installed.
I like the idea that we can see what tasks are really doing in the background. But as noted by some above, the notifications are a bit cryptic at the moment.
After installing and running the app, I started updating some of my other apps in App Market and my phone crashed. This has not happened before and I seems from my layman eyes that too many things might have been running in the background.
When the phone restarted, it too forever for anything to be displayed and the 3 widgets I had on the homescreen refused to load up. Again it seems to me that this app is popping up too many notifications - I have now stopped the app from starting up and running on start up.
I don't know whether this is unique to me or not though. I am running the app on Samsung Galaxy S (international) on stock Froyo with LauncherPro.
Still, I like this app and will use it more. Keep up the great work and many thanks.
Edit : just checked app settings again, and although I explicit unchecked app running on phone startup, the box is checked again. I unchecked the box and pressed save again. Re-entered app settings and the box is checked again. Am I missing something?

This looks very interesting.. So it's installed and ready for testing

Thank you very much for that app, it's awesome. I agree with the recent posters that the name of the app in addition to the com.blah.blubb would be a great help to identify the task. Also I'd like to see a possibility for a logfile.
Keep up the good work!
EDIT: I can hardly read the small, dark font when setting task levels since I use almost the very darkest display settings to save battery. So being able to chose the font color would be great but has absolutely no priority. Again: great app!Using it all day long now and I am surprised what tasks are being started!

[Q] Mango 7720: Terminate an application

I can't find a way to close (terminate) an application other than hitting the back button, which can be not only painful but unwanted. In IE9 for example, if I've navigated through several pages in a session, if I want to close IE I have to go all the way back until the application closes, which also means that, next time, unless I go into History, I won't be able to start browsing from where I left.
It seems that is not possible to close an application from the task switcher, which is hard to understand.
Am I missing something?

Nop, it is just like that. It's not a mess like Android, but it would be better if we could close from task switcher, yes.

Since applications do not actively run in the background, there's no need to terminate anything.

dkp1977 said:
Since applications do not actively run in the background, there's no need to terminate anything.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
At least for now. Eventually, every app will come with background support.

mikeeam said:
At least for now. Eventually, every app will come with background support.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But these are agents which can be setup in the settings. Agents running in the background will never ever appear in the task switcher and will even run when you didn't even start the according app after a reboot.

There is no need to terminate apps because they do not run in the background. Period. What you are seeing in the task switcher is simply a history list of the 5 most recent apps or things you have done, show in a thumbnail view. These apps are not open.
Now to be able to remove cards from the task switcher so you can view other cards in the back stack would be useful, but not available at this time.
If you wanted to 'close' IE', you could simply close each tab you have open. No need to go back through all your web pages.

prjkthack said:
Now to be able to remove cards from the task switcher so you can view other cards in the back stack would be useful, but not available at this time.
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Click to collapse
Exactly. As it is now, most of the time the task switcher will be useless to me, since it will always be filled with the five most recent apps I have run, whether or not those are the five apps I would like to be able to quickly switch back to. And most of the time, they won't be. I want to be able to a) pin apps to the card stack, and b) "flush" unneeded apps from the card stack.
It's supposed to be a convenience tool, but doesn't strike me as adding much convenience in its current implementation.

RoboDad said:
Exactly. As it is now, most of the time the task switcher will be useless to me, since it will always be filled with the five most recent apps I have run, whether or not those are the five apps I would like to be able to quickly switch back to. And most of the time, they won't be. I want to be able to a) pin apps to the card stack, and b) "flush" unneeded apps from the card stack.
It's supposed to be a convenience tool, but doesn't strike me as adding much convenience in its current implementation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm assuming it was built this way to accommodate the most common multitasking scenarios, of course that doesn't suit everyone, but I'm sure it'll work just fine for the majority of people.
When thought of from that perspective, 5 cards is more than enough for the majority. Maybe even too much.

Ok, let me see if I understand:
If I'm in IE9 and hit the windows button, IE9 will no longer be using resources. So each application in the foreground is sort of "running alone". Is that right?

octaedro7 said:
Ok, let me see if I understand:
If I'm in IE9 and hit the windows button, IE9 will no longer be using resources. So each application in the foreground is sort of "running alone". Is that right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes.
With mango there might be background agents running, but they are restricted in what they can do and what resources they can take up. So the answer will still be yes.

[Q] Worst multitask ever?

Hello there.
First, i'm not trolling.. I just want to be sure i'm not msising anything here.
I've been using Mango for a while, and with some mango updated apps here. Like Gchat, Tasks, Wonder Reader.. Well, I noticed something:
The multitask just works when you use the back button. So if you go to another app, come back to home and open it in tiles, it will reload the whole app instead of resuming. Seriously?!
Or is this an option to developers?
Please, tell me i'm wrong. I love WP7 too much to handle a glitch like this ;/
Thank you guys.

I would say this is up to the developer. There's a resume hack that exists in NoDo, which requires editing one of the app's XML's.
Resumable XAP Tool v0.1 Release

drkfngthdragnlrd said:
I would say this is up to the developer. There's a resume hack that exists in NoDo, which requires editing one of the app's XML's.
Resumable XAP Tool v0.1 Release
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, but resuming apps just works when you use fast switch or back button. Not in home opening the app..

mikeeam said:
Yeah, but resuming apps just works when you use fast switch or back button. Not in home opening the app..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From the home you just open another instance of the same app ..you are not multitasking ...
If an app let you open multiply instances of its self (the app) its have nothing to do with multitasking.
And by the way i like the title of your thread !!!!! Really ???? Most of the mobile industry agree that the WP7 multitasking its one of the best ...

colossus_r said:
From the home you just open another instance of the same app ..you are not multitasking ...
If an app let you open multiply instances of its self (the app) its have nothing to do with multitasking.
And by the way i like the title of your thread !!!!! Really ???? Most of the mobile industry agree that the WP7 multitasking its one of the best ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But it has to do with the way it's coded or the system does that automatically? Because, seriously, I dont see where it's better than just re-open the same instance that is already opened. Takes much more time.

mikeeam said:
But it has to do with the way it's coded or the system does that automatically? Because, seriously, I dont see where it's better than just re-open the same instance that is already opened. Takes much more time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its app related ...Some apps they do let you open more that one instance ...some other they dont

mikeeam said:
But it has to do with the way it's coded or the system does that automatically? Because, seriously, I dont see where it's better than just re-open the same instance that is already opened. Takes much more time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think that the motivation behind that is that most users wont actively multitask with more than 2-3 apps at a time, and for that holding the back button will suffice just fine. For most users there's better to go to a new instance instead of returning to the old one when they've spent a long time doing something else, and mostly I agree with this.

As smarthphone user (and developer for HTC Charmer few years ago) since 2003, I must agree. I'm really disapointed with WP7 parody to multitasking. Hope things will go better when Nokia reveals their WP devices and more users will force MS to relook their policy.
Cracking this and breaking through this system is currently nonsense - you can only lost excellent WP7 stability and performance. This step must come from core MS developers...
Hope they started WP7 the same way as they did in case of Windows 7 - they started to use "tiny core" minwin architecture which is highly modular. In windows 8, minwin kernel idea is pushed further and it can only be better. This modular core architecture allows them to add major functions without need of complete rewriting the code. WP8 could be a really great system if its handled this way

I wish multitasking was option, as you can turn it off and on via settings. I rarely if ever use it. Its pretty annoying how it works.
Sent from my HD7 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App

There's a difference between third party apps versus the first party apps provided by Microsoft.
First party apps can have multiple entries in the app switcher (One example is the Messaging app where you'll see multiple chat sessions in the back stack).
Third party apps can only have one entry in the app switcher list at any one time. If you have a third party app in the back stack and you start a new instance of it by tapping on its main or secondary app tile, the previous instance of the app is removed from the back stack. So even if an app has multiple entry points (such as if it has more than one tile pinned on the Start screen), it'll only ever appear once in the app switcher. As far as I know, there is no way for a dev to change this behavior.
And it's true that opening an app via its tile will start a new instance, and this is the opposite of what iOS does. I've already described it in some detail here...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=17171504&postcount=5
Since Mango and iOS are the only 2 major phone OS's that do fast app switching, I'd have to agree that Mango's implementation is worse than iOS's.
(Not to be picky, but this is technically not "multitasking". Multitasking on Windows Phone involves the use of background agents. And IMO it has a better multitasking API than iOS because it has periodic agents that can be scheduled.)

SuperSlacker said:
There's a difference between third party apps versus the first party apps provided by Microsoft.
First party apps can have multiple entries in the app switcher (One example is the Messaging app where you'll see multiple chat sessions in the back stack).
Third party apps can only have one entry in the app switcher list at any one time. If you have a third party app in the back stack and you start a new instance of it by tapping on its main or secondary app tile, the previous instance of the app is removed from the back stack. So even if an app has multiple entry points (such as if it has more than one tile pinned on the Start screen), it'll only ever appear once in the app switcher. As far as I know, there is no way for a dev to change this behavior.
And it's true that opening an app via its tile will start a new instance, and this is the opposite of what iOS does. I've already described it in some detail here...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=17171504&postcount=5
Since Mango and iOS are the only 2 major phone OS's that do fast app switching, I'd have to agree that Mango's implementation is worse than iOS's.
(Not to be picky, but this is technically not "multitasking". Multitasking on Windows Phone involves the use of background agents. And IMO it has a better multitasking API than iOS because it has periodic agents that can be scheduled.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I couldnt find that post, and thought no one answered. Glad to see you did. Yes, it helped a lot. I really love this OS, but forcing me to use back button instead of just resuming the app is lame.
Most of users just want it to be fast. Dont care about how they close, or how they open it. Me included. MS could just change it, using the same API as now. Opening in tiles resume the instance. Way faster for most of users.
Now I'm going to try to get used to it. Or just go back to iOS, unfortunately.

Multitasking question?????

I have a question, why is it that the only way to return to an app suspended state is via the multitasking card view? I mean, it should be like ios that whenever an app is in memory, if you open that app i will take you to the saved state.
Currently if i exit an app via the windows key, then try to reopen said app from the app list it will open like it was the first time...

ronclone said:
I have a question, why is it that the only way to return to an app suspended state is via the multitasking card view? I mean, it should be like ios that whenever an app is in memory, if you open that app i will take you to the saved state.
Currently if i exit an app via the windows key, then try to reopen said app from the app list it will open like it was the first time...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes,this is a design inconsistency.I have mentioned in another thread...if you use windows button to exit an app,then the next time you open it,you will need to relaunh the app again. Unless,you long pres back button in order to let the app go into multitask mode. Then you only press windows button. If not, the system won't memorize the app. Windows button is simply cancel everything off.
This situation same goes to the live tiles, if you use windows button to exit an app,the live tiles will never update. However, if you use back button,the live tiles will be updated,you can try this by using network dashboard or any live tiles apps.
Please fix the Windows/home button command and functionality,it is just a shame....

To me it seems like the multi-task is more of a recent memory than a multi-task. For example, if i'm in a game of angry birds, regardless of what way i use to get back to the home page, when I get back into the game via the multi-task menu.. it relaunches the app and puts me at the home page.
what gives?

cgibsong002 said:
To me it seems like the multi-task is more of a recent memory than a multi-task. For example, if i'm in a game of angry birds, regardless of what way i use to get back to the home page, when I get back into the game via the multi-task menu.. it relaunches the app and puts me at the home page.
what gives?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have no idea with angry birds,but other games yes...even if you long press the back button,it will just relaunch the game,maybe they haven't update the app to mango compatible.
However, IMHO, Microsoft really have to fix the windows/home button command ot functionality,to make it adapt to the fast app switching,multitask/resume and the live tiles.

Yes... Angry birds has not been updated...
And it just seems weird to me that an app thats saved in memory have to start again... I would think its not that hard to fix this....

Ok.. update on my own thoughts. Maybe I'm thinking of something different than you guys, but here's what I found.
I remembered the game 'Penguins' updated right after mango. I tried this out with that game. In the middle of a game, I can pause, hit the windows button, do whatever I want on the phone, then using the multitask menu go back into the game, and I'm back in the game at the pause screen. Alternatively, I can hit the windows button without even pausing it, and I can later resume the game. It appears there's no issue with the software, it's just a matter of how the programmers write the apps. Again, I could be missing the idea here, but I think this is what you guys were talking about

I find holding the back button to he much more efficient than going to the home screen into a grid of icons to find and launch the app again. another ridiculous multitasking complaint brought to u by yours truly.

elcapo24682 said:
I find holding the back button to he much more efficient than going to the home screen into a grid of icons to find and launch the app again. another ridiculous multitasking complaint brought to u by yours truly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Whats wrong with you,buddy? please edit your post,ridiculous complaint???OP never complaints about anything,it is clearly a question and a discussion here.
Furthermore,in regard to the ways you provided is not a good way in some manners. For example, if I'm checking my tweets and then i press home button and go out,make some calls texts and calendar. Then,i think it better for me to go back the app by access it from the app list or tiles. Therefore, back button is simply useless in this case.

You shouldn't be surprised. That's just eric12341 using a fake name to try to sneak around his account suspension.

RoboDad said:
You shouldn't be surprised. That's just eric12341 using a fake name to try to sneak around his account suspension.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea, I know, I have read some posts at the Nokia device specs out thread talking about this guy.
Troll almost everywhere.

sylau90 said:
Whats wrong with you,buddy? please edit your post,ridiculous complaint???OP never complaints about anything,it is clearly a question and a discussion here.
Furthermore,in regard to the ways you provided is not a good way in some manners. For example, if I'm checking my tweets and then i press home button and go out,make some calls texts and calendar. Then,i think it better for me to go back the app by access it from the app list or tiles. Therefore, back button is simply useless in this case.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
check tweets from the Me tile, it's really fast. its impossible for an app to remember the last state it was in unless u have a bg agent. its not that hard to use the back button. first people complain /criticize for no multitasking now there's complain/criticize over how its implemented. get a grip.

I agree with the OP. It sucks so bad. I'm no troll, but it takes me much longer to hold the back button and find the instance instead just press windows and first tile.
I'm not even mentioning the problems I'm having with my keyboard auto hiding while i'm typing, and the problem with auto correction in third party apps. Whenever I have an special character, it doesnt overwrite the whole word to correct it. "blahblaç" turns into "blahblaçblahblah". Genious.
Oh, and yeah, you cant use toast notifications! If you use it to redirect to your whatsapp message, it will reload the whole app instead resuming it.
Whats the point of implementing multitasking and turning it so ****ing difficult to use?

Whatsapp toast notification reloading the whole app is true. And it makes no sense to me.
BTW i love wp7, so im not hating at all... Its just that this problem seems soo easy to fix, its just silly.

ronclone said:
Whatsapp toast notification reloading the whole app is true. And it makes no sense to me.
BTW i love wp7, so im not hating at all... Its just that this problem seems soo easy to fix, its just silly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Guess we are alone with this. No one seems to care about how MS implemented it. As long they can use it somehow.

Question about .apk modding - possible to have it erase a database value on launch?

Hey guys,
I'm not sure if this is the best subforum to ask in, but I figured if anybody knew it would be you guys on XDA-devs.
I have a slightly modified Facebook .apk - what I did was take the last version before they bastardized the newsfeed and got rid of "most recent" (it's version 8.something), then open it up and remove a bunch of permissions that I didn't want it having. I left in obvious ones like GPS for checking in, but removed the stuff like "prevent phone from sleeping", drawing over other apps and other really obnoxious things that you normally couldn't opt out of.
I use it on a daily basis. I also hate Messenger - not only because it's two apps instead of one, but because of that same aforementioned issue... the drawing over other apps and there was no way to TURN NOTIFICATIONS OFF ENTIRELY, only for up to an hour.
Anyway, Facebook v8 already has a messenger built in. It's absolutely pointless to use the standalone one. However, there's a value that keeps being generated by their end that I can't control - at least not yet!
What happens is the first time you open messenger after signing in, it says "Upgrade to Messenger? Your friends are using it!" and you can choose "Not now" or upgrade. It does this for a day or two and then eventually the "not now" option goes away and it refuses to let you see your messages without "upgrading" despite the fact the app obviously has the ability to do it just fine.
After some experimentation, I discovered the fix. There are two values that get written in prefs.db (it's /data/data/com.facebook.katana/databases/prefs.db - not sure why prefs.db since it's not really a preferences but I digress)
If you open that up in SQLite Browser, there are three tables... open up "preferences" and there are two values:
/config/force_messenger/first_shown_1
/config/force_messenger/last_shown_1
Then there's a binary timestamp stored in another column in that row.
If I simply delete both of those and restart the app, it works!
But this is a bit annoying to have to do every couple days. I already have my development options set to force-close an app when I long-press the back button, so I was hoping it were possible to put a line of code in the .apk somewhere that just wipes those values, if present, when the app starts. There's nothing I can do about their server sticking those in there, as obviously they want to force people to use Messenger. I CAN just delete the values, though.
At the very least, some script I could set to auto-run (like kill the app and edit the .db) would work too, but I'm going to be getting a new phone soon and want to use it unrooted if possible... so I figured having this done from within the app itself would be a better idea.
Thanks in advance!