Manual Mode
Allow situations to be triggered manually.
For this to work properly, we'd either have to set a timeout (e.g. manual mode only stays active for 1 hour) or disable the background service altogether. Otherwise Locale can't guarantee that the manually triggered situation stays active if another situation is triggered.
AdminCarter
(Admin, two forty four a.m.)
shared this idea
This is implemented by the Locale Button Plug-in, which can be found on the Android Market by choosing “Get Plug-ins” from the menu of the Locale home screen.
33 comments
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Mandar
commented
If during an active situation, one condition / setting is forcibly changed, locale should prompt about the same and also there should be an option to revert / RE-TRIGGER the original situation and make it active, after a preset time. Ex. If the user forcibly change to 'vibration' mode from 'volume on' mode of an existing situation, then locale should help to revert to the later after some auto preset time. Thanks
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Steve
commented
This option to manually activate a condition would have to be used in conjunction with exit options i.e.
*For a set user definable length of time.
*Until another conditions parameters are met
*Until de-activated by the user. -
jjayxxxx
commented
I think this feature is now available just by turning situations ON/OFF manually
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jjayxxxx
commented
A solution for this would be to create another situation, perhaps named "Manual XYZ" in addition to situation XYZ, but leave it OFF. Then when you want it to apply simply turn it ON. I do this with one called SILENCE, and have added a different wallpaper to serve as a reminder to turn it back off whenever I look at my phone again.
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Ipsquiggle
commented
Aah, so basically those of us that don't live in the US are hosed. Alright. :)
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MrGibbage
commented
@ Ipsquiggle, the name is Locale Button Plug-in and costs $0.99. But I am not sure this is the solution to the original request. It works great to trigger a condition, but the condition has no way of dynamically setting an ending time.
The way this plugin works is you add a widget to the home screen. You have a couple of on-off icons to choose from and you can name it whatever you want. Then you go into locale and add a new condition. The plugin "Locale Button" will list there along with location, time, battery, etc. You choose the Locale Button and it presents a list of widgets that you have installed on your home screen. Then you set the settings, such as volume and screen brightness. Now, when you tap the widget, it will trigger the condition. But, like I said, there's no way to have it automatically reset after X amount of time.
It is nice to be able to trigger conditions quickly, but I still really need a way for locale to react to these manual triggers.
As for the fear that other incoming conditions might not get triggered or whatever, I think the solution is in the hierarchy. It depends on how high you place the condition. If this manual trigger condition is placed at the top, no other conditions will over-ride it.
Works for me. :)
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Ipsquiggle
commented
I can't find this app. Is it a paid app? Can someone post its qualified name so I can search it directly?
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tolstoy
commented
This latests "solution" seems to be part of twofortyfouram's overall marketing strategy: nickel and dime the customer. First there was the overpriced base "full" Locale. Now everything which is missing costs additional. Locale was a good idea, won a big prize and got good reviews. That was then.
Now I have returned all the Locale stuff for a full refund. I am happy with Setting Profiles: cheaper and easy to use. That's a reasonable solution for me and Locale is not.
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jagguar7
commented
The button plug-in doesn't work as a manual override. It can be added as a condition, but the conditions are ANDed, which means that the Situation would ONLY occur if the button is pressed.
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tolstoy
commented
Can't a manual mode just have an option "allow Locale override?" That would mean you can say you want the mode to be a perement profile (disable Locale checking) or you want to only be in effect until some other situation becomes true (Locale keeps checking).
I could easily make the case for wanting either behavior at different times.
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danapple0
commented
The newly released Locale Button Plug-in allows for adding button widgets to the home screen which can act like Conditions for Locale Situations. In this way, you can manually enable or disable Situations from firing. The buttons can also act as Settings, to be indicators of active Situations. If a Situation tests a button to be On as a Condition, but then sets the button to be Off as a Setting, the Situation acts like a "momentary Situation", active only long enough to apply the Settings once.
There is a choice of four simple colored buttons, and a cute Maneki Neko (Welcoming Cat) for a little variety.
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novoid
commented
My proposal for a nice implementation of this feature:
Add a button to the Locale main screen which is easy/fast to access (important!) the manual mode. This button will be changed to a "cancel manual mode"-button once a manual mode is active
When button is pressed to activate, show a screen with following elements:
(activate|enable|disable) <list of conditions> from <fromtime> for <duration> and leave it (enabled|disabled)
with:
fromtime = list of: now, 5min, 10min, 15min, 30min, 45min, 1hr, 1.5hrs, 2hrs, ..., 8hrs
and
duration = list of: forever, 5min, 10min, 15min, 30min, 45min, 1hr, 1.5hrs, 2hrs, ..., 8hrsI am not happy about the limited number of minutes/hours but I could not think about a nice interface including the now and forever entry. Probably you got a better idea here...
Very important to me are the default values for the settings. My favourite defaults are:
activate <last selected condition> from now for <last selected duration> and leave it <last selected value of enabled or disabled>
... with probably <last selected fromtime> instead of "now" for the sake of consistency.Wow, together with a feature that activates conditions upon regular expressions in the calendar and no problems with (or support for the stable versions of) CyanogenMod, I'd pay lots of dollars for this app - honestly!
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janiskfp
commented
Like Ryanryo88 (I suspect) , I have two profiles/Situations at the top of my list, one named "metting" that basically shuts everything off, including sound & vibration, as if I'm in a meeting and pretty much not using my phone. Then above that, one named "vibrate," and all it does is set volume to 0 and turn on vibration. I could, if I wanted to be thorough, have a third named "mute" that only mutes the sound.
I can use one or both, depending on whether or not I want just the sound off, or if I really want everything off. I have the schedule set from 12:00 a.m. to 11:59 p.m., since not having anything in the conditions has been unreliable for me in the past.
I have a Home shortcut for Locale, and just enable them when I want them. It's a two-click process. I'm having a hard time seeing how this isn't "manual mode." It really is entirely manual, though, and I won't get my sound back until I shut the Situation off.
I'm all for some kind of timer on these.
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gordon byers
commented
A widget to select the profile would be great.
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fataki
commented
- Icon in the statusbar when manual mode is active, so it's harder to forget you have it set
- Widget for bringing up a selection of manual modes and one (topmost) option to revert back to automatic mode
- Option to use manual mode for certain amount of time of indefinatelyBasically when manual is set, nothing can change it. This should be "easy" to implement since you don't have to think about complex scenarios.
Now I have to disable locale and use other apps to set my phone to complete silence (no alarm sounds) or turn my phone off when in movies.
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Steven Rothkin commented
It would be really helpful to temporarily enable a profile for a specific length of time (selected at the time of enabling the profile). This would be useful for things like silencing the phone during the High Holidays (which happen only a few days each year and on different dates each year) and automatically re-enabling the sound/vibration after services are over.
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jedijunk
commented
@Max: I do agree that it would be convenient to be able to manually turn on/off existing profiles, and hopefully the developer can find a way to implement that which preserves Locale's simplicity and design philosophy. But if I understand what you're saying I still think that it is already possible to accomplish what you're after by creating an extra profile or two.
For example, let's say your "Home at night" profile is set to be active from 11PM to 6AM, but you sometimes go to bed earlier. Just create a "Force Silent" profile and set it to be active from 6PM to 11:01PM. Put it above your home profiles and leave it off by default. When you go to bed early, turn it on and it will override your "Home" volume settings until expires at 11:01PM and hands off control to your normal "Home At Night" profile. You have until 6PM the following day to remember to take 5 seconds to turn your "Force Silent" condition off. No big deal given that even if we get a "Manual mode" built in to Locale, it will probably require some type of manual action to disengage it.
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Max
commented
@jedijunk: by overriding all profiles settings with another profile you'll disable Locale's capabilities of recognize a different situation untile that profile will be manually disabled. A manual triggered event, at least as I intended, should not avoid Locale to continue to work and override again my manual settings with another profile when the situation occours.
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jedijunk
commented
If I understand this suggestion correctly, we can do this already. At least, I think I've been doing it for the last day or two and it seems to work?!?!?
For manually-triggered situations/overrides I define a condition that always true (i.e. Time = 3AM to 2:59AM) to fire the desired actions. Then I put them at the top of the situation list (so they will override any conflicting actions), and leave them toggled off except when I need them. Doesn't that do what you're describing here?
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Royalness
commented
I think that twofourtyam shouldn't spend too much time on this, but use a third party developer to do something like this. For example, the app Quick Settings could have a setting for enabling/disabling Locale service. That way you have a solid manual mode where you just need to remember to enable Locale again at some point.
