Hi,

the first thing I wanted to learn when developing android apps were the new desktop widgets (available since CUPCAKE = Version 1.5). I could find a few examples but they were all much more then a "Hello Widget" so I took these examples and tried to come up with some simple ones.

I hope it helps you to get started on desktop widgets. I'm still learning so if you find any bugs or incorrect explanations I'd be thankful for any feedback and corrections.

You can find the tutorial and source codehere.

Really useful. Thank you for your work.

There is a thing I'd like to know.

I'd like to make a single-buttoned widget (a switch).
A widget isn't an activity, so I can't call findViewById() to find a view.

So how can I attach an onClickListener on the ImageButton I create on the widget??
How can I get that view from my AppWidgetProvider without findViewById()?

Thank you

Hi daliz,

you have to go via RemoteViews. Here's some code that might help:

Code: Select all

RemoteViews remoteViews = new RemoteViews(context.getPackageName(), R.layout.main);

// Connect click intent to launch ClickActivity
Intent detailIntent = new Intent(context, ClickActivity.class);
PendingIntent pending = PendingIntent.getActivity(context, 0, detailIntent, 0);

// if you click on your widget now, it will launch ClickActivity
remoteViews.setOnClickPendingIntent(R.id.widget_textview, pending);


HI

I gone through this app..is it possible to show gif image on the home screen(desktop)...for a while.....

thanks a lot in advance

Hi desuvinodkumar,

to be honest, I don't know. Did you try using a gif already? If not, just give it a try and let us know.

If you plan to use a gif as animated image I'm not sure if this is working.
I could add the ProgressBar of Android to a widget and it was working so it is somehow possible to use animation I guess. Unfortunately I could not set the ProgressBar to invisible.

There is another way of animating images in android but I don't know if it's working with desktop widgets:
http://developer.android.com/guide/topi ... phics.html see chapter "Frame Animation"

Hi

Thanks for ur response
from here i learned how to play the gif animated image..
how_to_play_gif_file_in_android-t3492.html

i need to show it on the mobile desktop screen...by using this app_widget is it possible to do it...
u mention that desktop widget what it means exactly.....
please give the some more info regarding these....

Hi desuvinodkumar,

with desktop widget I mean the UI elements on your home screen .. like the AnalogClock i.g.
I just say "desktop widget" to avoid confusion with other UI-Elements since the android package "android.widget" has all visual elements (like checkbox, button, TableLayout etc.) under it.
When you tab and hold on your homescreen (or desktop .. however you call it), you will get a popup menu where you can select "Widgets" a desktop widget is exaclty that.

First of all you need Android 1.5 (aka CUPCAKE) to use/create desktop widgets. They work different then an android applikation and have restrictions to what is working on them (i.g. you can't use a TableLayout on a desktop widget ... and don't ask me why)

Just jump into my tutorial and test it.

Hi

i gone through that blog...

if i try to rum the project

these errors are coming

[2009-07-30 12:14:10 - HelloWidget] No Launcher activity found!
[2009-07-30 12:14:10 - HelloWidget] The launch will only sync the application package on the device!

Of course there is no activity since we are using AppWidgetProvider.

Do you have the latest SDK installed and are you using the eclipse plugin to develop android? You must have Android 1.5 to create desktop widgets.

Looks like you're having a problem with your development environment, not with the code. Can't help you with that, sorry.

Hi

Me working on Android sdk 1.5 development environment only...

Cracking demo

but i'm having problems killing the app.

even after deleting the widgets and restarting the emulator onUpdate is continually called!

Am i missing something?

Used the tutorial and feel I understand it well enough, but the widget does not update. When i remove the widget and re place it it shows the current time, but then again will not update at all. set for 60000ms as well as 1000 and 100 and 10, no difference.

Used on both 1.6 emulator and latest cyanogenmod.

Is this source code not viable in 1.6 or is it probably something ive done wrong?

Hi foebea,

no, you're probably not doing anything wrong. I recently posted this issue on my blog here.
The night when SDK 1.6 was released I tested my 2 applications available on the market against it. Unfortunately my widget app didn't pass exactly because of the same problem you mentioned.
The bug, that the onDelete() method isn't called properly was fixed, but somehow the onUpdate method is not called after the updateTimeMillis are over. I tested my widget (same code) with 1.5 and it is running fine.

I have no workaround for now because I actually don't want to use the updateTimeMillis functionality any more. It's not configurable for the user and therefore not a convenient way to do that. You have to use an AlarmManager to do so. I hope I'll find some time soon to change it and then I'll put it into the widget tutorial.
Sorry that I can't help you with the 1.6 issue at the moment.

Norbert

If it helpful, nexsoftware tells me that for his androidandme widget he has it set an alarm to perform the update and then makes a new alarm after updating, this lets him use user customizable frequencies.