Tasker

[SirBaconIII 66]

Hi all.

I enjoy automation, and use Tasker for most of my phone automation. I'm already salivating just thinking about everything i can do with a slider and a full keyboard. I just kind of wanted to drop this thread here for people to share their ideas and any tasks they made. For example, I'm already thinking of a task that will close messages and lock my phone when I slide the phone down while in messages, just to bring back the UX I had with my older flip phone. I just hope there's some way to get Tasker to recognize opening and closing the slide.

[EskeRahn 5,427]

I do not know if there is an event in standard Android Pie on this, that gets triggered. But if not, I think we can take it for granted that Android Q will have an event for fold/unfold, and that could be an obvious candidate to trigger, if no dedicated event exists..

[kashif 350]

Using nokia E7, the most useful task while sliding keyboard is open is the function not to lock phone.

so if its sitting on the side and have a document opened, just touching the screen will turn on the display and you can look at the document while working.

closing the slide keyboard will lock the phone.

 

so i really hope this function can be available in Pro1

[SirBaconIII 66]

Hmmm... That could work. I don't know enough about what specifically would happen if that state were to be triggered in Android, but I do see a few promising options if that doesn't work. One is a hardware state for "Keyboard Out" and the other a "Display Orientation" state. As much as I would like to be able to have the dedicated "Phone Slid Open" option, I think there are a few possible options that might work.

[TeZtdevice 274]

This one..

Profile - State - Hardware - Keyboard out ?

Edited August 29, 2020 by TeZtdevice

[EskeRahn 5,427]

Profile – State – Keyboard out

 

Yup, that seems to be it. A similar question and discussion for the BB Priv can be found here https://forums.androidcentral.com/blackberry-priv/615883-tasker-experts.html

[Siani_8 105]

TeZtdevice wrote:

Profile – State – Keyboard out

Yup, that seems to be it. A similar question and discussion for the BB Priv can be found here https://forums.androidcentral.com/blackberry-priv/615883-tasker-experts.html

 

Ha what do ya know, I was Trisk in that thread. Love Tasker as well and really enjoyed open kb to answer which I think Priv had as an option but I had to use Tasker for close to hang up for some reason. I lost my Priv so can't check but yes, you can use open or close kb to initiate Tasker events. Though I doubt I'd use open to answer on a horizontal slider lol.

[elvissteinjr 359]

After using my Pro1 for a little bit, I wanted to share my Tasker profiles here.
Tasker is that one app I've had bought just in case but never really used before. But on the Pro1 it turned out to be very useful to create workarounds for some of the software issues.
That also means I'm pretty much a beginner when it comes to Tasker. This stuff does work on my phone, though.
Not going to explain how to import these, nor do I have actually tried to import them back myself, but the files look like they contain everything needed. If problems arise, just ask.

Force Landscape on Keyboard Out
Have Tasker set the forced orientation. This lets you have auto-rotate off and still have landscape mode in apps that the Fx's orientation changer does not affect, i.e. Discord.
Note that the keyboard out state is only set on the Pro1 when the "landscape orientation lock" option in the Slider settings is enabled, so leave that on.
As disabling forced rotation enables auto-rotate by default, the task explicitly disables it as my preference. You can remove that if you don't like it.
Also seems like there are some actions left over from when I had Edge Block in that profile, oops. They're disabled, so they do nothing, but can just be removed entirely if they bother you.
Force_Landscape_Keyboard.prf.xml

Edge Block
Blocking accidental touches via overlays like some other apps do, but with just Tasker. This means less apps to run, one that might already run anyways and could be a bit more trustworthy if you have concerns with the other apps. You also have the freedom to adapt the overlays on certain triggers if you ever need to.
This adapts to landscape orientation by blocking the keyboard-facing side. As exported, the overlays are visible and 40 pixels wide. You can edit the scenes' color to be fully transparent and change the width if you wish.
The profile currently also uses 3 separate scenes for the overlays. Portrait and Landscape 1 could possibly be merged, but I haven't bothered since it works well as is.
Note that these overlays do not cover the status or navigation bar.
Edge_Block.prf.xmlEdge_Block_Landscape.scn.xmlEdge_Block_Portrait.scn.xmlEdge_Block_Portrait_2.scn.xml

Re-Enable Keyboard Backlight (needs root)
Automatically turn on the keyboard backlight when the screen is turned on and the keyboard is out. Simple.
This is done by simulating a F6 press, just like the slider sensor does right now when the keyboard is opened.
Re_Enable_Keyboard_Backlight.prf.xml

GCam Camera Button Hack (needs root)
This is a somewhat convoluted solution which could be streamlined with other mapping apps or AutoInput. I decided to skip all of these nice things and do this instead.
But hey, it works!
It enables using the camera button to launch GCam and to take photos with it.
Here's how it works:
Uninstall the Snapdragon Camera via ADB to free up the Camera button launcher. (that one you need to do yourself)
Listen to the Logcat logs the camera button launcher outputs when the camera button is pressed.
Then either...
...launch GCam.
...or simulate a Volume Down press when the app is active to take a photo.
No focus button, but GCam seems to be constantly auto-focusing anyways.
Button state is written to a variable as one profile listening to Logcat seems to consume the message. Not sure if there's a better way.
And no, the Camera Button event unfortunately doesn't work in Tasker. Probably because the Snapdragon Camera launcher application is still hogging the button, but it doesn't seem like that's a normal app rather than a random system binary.
Set_CamButton_State.prf.xmlCamera_Launcher.prf.xmlCamera_Button_Take_Photo.prf.xml
 

This stuff is pretty much simple enough for anyone to make themselves, but maybe this helps someone anyways.

Edit:
The stuff marked as needing root could possibly be used unrooted if the Shell actions are replaced with ADB Wifi actions. ADB Wifi is a bit cumbersome to set up and doesn't persist through reboots, though. So, should work, but haven't tested.

Edited February 25, 2020 by elvissteinjr
Added note about ADB Wifi

[david 921]

Thanks for sharing those, @elvissteinjr.  I could see myself using most of those.  I'll have to put these on my to-do list of things to try.

[elvissteinjr 359]

It has come to my attention that the Edge Block profile didn't actually export with the scenes, so I've edited the post to add them as separate files.

[david 921]

 

20 hours ago, elvissteinjr said:

Re-Enable Keyboard Backlight (needs root)

Automatically turn on the keyboard backlight when the screen is turned on and the keyboard is out. Simple.
This is done by simulating a F6 press, just like the slider sensor does right now when the keyboard is opened.
Re_Enable_Keyboard_Backlight.prf.xml

I implemented this and it works great.  Thanks!

 

[J_P 23]

I have been able to replicate the Moto Z shake to enable/disable torch fairly successfully.

Profile: Event -> Sensor -> Shake ->Left Right -> Sensitivity Very Low, Duration Long

Task: Torch set toggle

As I was having some accidental activations, I added to the task:

Wait 1 minute

Torch set off.

For this to work you also have to set the collision handling on the task to 'Abort Existing Task', otherwise you can't shake to turn off until the 1 minute expires.

Edit: Forgot to mention, you need to go to preferences -> monitor and make sure you have motion detection and accelerometer enabled in the 'display off monitoring' section.

I don't think this has much effect on battery life.

P.S. - you'll enjoy this more if you remember all the times this feature didn't work properly on your Moto!

Edited February 27, 2020 by J_P

[Craig 1,435]

I tried an app called shake light, and it doesnt work nearly as well as my moto z²f.  With the moto, i was taught "karate chop 2x" which always worked.   With the app I had to shake like crazy b4 it comes on or turns off.  Plus the app has persistent notication I havent figured out how to get rid of yet.   May have to try tasker.

[ToniCipriani 194]

I just installed Tasker in mine, seems like the Keyboard Out state is not working. Usually on my Priv when the slider is open or closed, the Keyboard Out state would indicate this, but doesn't seem to work on mine.

[elvissteinjr 359]

Are you on stock? Keyboard Out certainly worked when I had my Pro1, but I've last seen it in February. Netman's keyboard driver on stock shouldn't have affected this at all, but I suppose the Lineage keyboard changes went pretty far and could possibly have broken that state, no idea.

[ToniCipriani 194]

19 minutes ago, elvissteinjr said:

Are you on stock? Keyboard Out certainly worked when I had my Pro1, but I've last seen it in February. Netman's keyboard driver on stock shouldn't have affected this at all, but I suppose the Lineage keyboard changes went pretty far and could possibly have broken that state, no idea.

I literally took it out of the box today. Only thing I did was update it to EEA_20200306.

Edited June 9, 2020 by ToniCipriani

[ToniCipriani 194]

So I figured it out. Turns out, somehow for Tasker to work with the sensor, "Landscape orientation lock" must be kept enabled.