Notices

Thank you for your comments.

Regarding your comment here, the reason you couldn't vote is that you were looking at an older version. The latest version is 0.8.0-1 and can be found here. You can vote there if you want.

Regarding the existing thumbs down over there, I'm still in contact with Emanuele in order to find out what is causing his problems. I've tested it but didn't manage to reproduce the problem myself. If you experience any similar problem (missing widgets) then please contact me here or via e-mail.

NOTE: GPE Summary widget has a bug (at least in my N900) that crashes hildon-home and results in missing widgets. This is a bug of GPE Summary which is triggered whenever it gets removed, either by hand or by this program.

voted, cheers

Hi v13, awesome application!!!
I happened to install this from the repos without reading up on it first and was pleasantly surprised at how well it worked. I did encounter a couple issues with the disappearing widgets and being unable to click on the statusbar or any shortcuts/widgets on the desktop. I've been forced to reboot every time so far to resolve it. It has worked for me to switch profiles once in a while, the desktop widgets and shortcuts and bookmarks that I have separated into "Home" and "default" profiles are saved and come back after a reboot if they disappear for when switching profiles. If this becomes more stable (or maybe its something else installed on my end) I'd be happier than a clam in chowder, because this blows away the E71 and its "measly" two activity screens.

Which widgets do you use?

At least GPE Summary is buggy and crashes hildon-home whenever it is removed.

If you remove all widgets from your desktop by hand, does it crash hildon-home? You can find this out by looking the pid of "hildon-home" before and after removing all the widgets.

Hey there v13.
I love and use actman every day (every time I get into my car in fact) as i've said before this is an absolutley brilliant app!
I have 2 things to ask, number 1 is way more important than number 2!

Number 1 - whats the chances of actman automatically changing the mode i am in from NormalMode to CarMode automatically when i plug in my car charger AND headphone wire (headphone wire connects into my car stereo)
Then back from CarMode to NormalMode when disconnected?
This would be fantastic as it would save me having to switch modes manually each time I get in & out of the car?
How lazy am I? but seriously this would be incredibly impressive!
note: it would have to be when both wires are connected as wouldnt want it changing when i plug in the charger or headphones when at home.


Number 2 - I have a bit of a problem with a widgit i have called 'simplenotewidgit' basically what happens is i have 2 desktop sets saved with actman
The first (called NormalMode)has 4 desktops - Number 1 desktop being my main one with all my main apps and widgets on it, the rest have other crap i dont use quite so often but do go to to use from time to time
The second (called CarMode) has 2 desktops and Number 1 desktop has all my main apps and widgets for use in the car only such as maps, roadrunner, media player, a few contacts and a couple of other things on there.
My problem is on my NormalMode desktop number 1 I have 'simplenotewidgit' which is like a post it note with various things i need to remember on there, i dont want this widgit on CarMode desktop number 1. It cant be done - the post it note has to be on the same desktop, in the same position on both modes for some reason. if i move it around on one desktop its moved on the other???? this does not occur with other widgits such as media player widgit & calender widgit?

the simplenotewidgit does work slightly differently from other widgits though as in to activate it you have to click the actual application program to load it (rather than the add widget menu as you use to load widgets normally) perhaps that has something to do with it?

It doesnt really cause me any massive pain but it would be nice not to have this widgit on my CarMode desktop.

fraaaaaanka, they do have an app that pauses the media player when the headphones are unplugged, so its probably possible to sense that, though having it as a config option would be nice for those of us that charge and plug in the TV out/headphones at home.

One thing I had wondered about that was related was having actman change activities based on GPS location, eg when I'm at home I have some shortcuts on my desktop that access my local network resources, but when I'm away from home I either don't need the resources or I have an alternate remote shortcut, being able to set locations with ranges to activate profiles would be amazing (but something I'm content with having much later).

v13, I've changed up my widgets a bit, one that I don't think is related to actman at all is that my Google Voice contacts (using the Conversations plugin for GV) disappear on a reboot no matter what, I think its because it doesn't have network connectivity immediately when it comes up so it can't find them. Otherwise I haven't switched my desktops very much recently, but its been working perfectly every time. Occasionally one of the widgets has been moving around, but I think its a bug in that widget and its registering its location period.

I had automated-switching in mind when I started this app. As long as you can discover those changes, it shouldn't be difficult to do it. actman can be used from command line: you'll just have to call: "activity change car" or "activity load car" to switch to activity "car".

As you said, the simplenotewidget is not exactly a widget. AFAIK it is an app that is started by the user. actman can only interact with hildon-home's widgets which simplenotewidget isn't.

The best thing here would be having the simplenotewidget change the way it works but I don't know if this is possible. Most probably its author had his reasons.

fraaaaanka, I've found using Conboy works pretty well, and I can add/remove the shortcuts from separate desktops with no issue.

@v13 Number 1 - would be great if this was implemented into the UI of actman or even if you could help with a noobs step by step instruction for command line implementation (i am a very very noob user)
Number 2 - no worries, i can live with this.

@dragon_788 conboy is an app which starts up a note, simplenotewidgit is like a post it note that constantly sits on the desktop displaying the notes visually, so if i realise in the morning i need to get milk i add it onot the postit note and its then constantly on the desktop for me to see all day so i dont forget when on the way home

I like the unix way (do one thing and do it well), so I'm against including too many features in one application :-)

I believe there are many ways to do this (using periodic runs, perhaps using udev hook, using a script/program that runs all the time and either monitors or listens for dbus events, etc..) but none of them is simple enough.

Perhaps this can be a push for you to have a deeper look in n900 and in scripting/programming. It is fun! Really! :-)