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When did the process of sending settings from the CIQ Store App change!

markdotai

I just noticed that in the CIQ Store app (Android) the operation of saving/sending settings to an app appears to have changed Grinning Originally when the app came out, when you clicked save then the settings would close (like in GCM) and you would have to reopen the settings to see them again. But now when you click save the settings stay open, and instead the user has to back out themselves.

I'm wondering if this is an intentional and permanent change or not?

For most situations this functionality may be an improvement, as it allows you to send the settings multiple times in order to make adjustments to an app, without having to reopen the settings each time. Although it does mean an extra button press for the user if they only make one change to the settings.

But for apps which modify the values of settings themselves and use them to send data back to the user (e.g. as a string), this new functionality may not be as helpful as the original method where the settings automatically closed. When the user reopened the settings, then the data values sent by the app on the device would now be visible in the settings.

I've been working on a watchface where you can export the settings as a string in order to copy them to another device. But currently in the CIQ Store app if a user tries to initiate this, then it can be confusing as they look at the string property where they expect to see the exported settings, but instead they see nothing as the values have not been updated on their phone yet. If the settings displayed in the CIQ Store app were automatically updated to match the values that the watchface has set them to, then that would be really nice! What the user currently has to do to see the updated values is manually back out of the settings, and then reopen them again. (Just like you have to in the simulator, but unlike what you have to do in GCM).

I'll need to update the instructions on how to use my watchface settings - unless anyone knows if the current functionality is just temporary?

  • Actually as an addendum (and subtle bump) when I said "If the settings displayed in the CIQ Store app were automatically updated to match the values that the watchface has set them to, then that would be really nice!" - I was imagining that to happen dynamically, but now I don't think it would be such a good idea ...

    My watchface also switches it's display at regular or random times, and when it does that it also updates the values of the properties in the settings. This means a user can open the settings and they see the values that correspond to whatever is displayed on the watch. Now if the CIQ Store app dynamically updated the values it was displaying to a user currently editing the settings, and the watchface display happened to do an automatic change, so the Store app changed the values displayed to the user then it could muck everything up. Just pointing out this scenario in case anyone was considering it.

    Although it might be a nice addition anyway if it was possible for device apps to be able to tell when the settings were currently open and being edited by a user.

  • There's a new Wiki about App settings in general:

    https://forums.garmin.com/developer/connect-iq/w/wiki/14/changing-your-app-settings-in-garmin-express-gcm-ciq-mobile-store

    If you think what you're seeing is a bug, post in the bug reports area.  This could be something unique to your app though, as I don't think there are many apps that change their own settings in the way you do.

  • in reply to jim_m_58

    I do something similar where I let the user reset a color scheme through settings using a boolean.

    So once the color scheme has been reset, I restore the value of the setting back to false, so that next time the settings is displayed, it won't reset the color scheme again, until being toggled on explicitly.

    I never thought about this scenario and that it would affect me as well until I read this.

  • in reply to jim_m_58

    Ooh, that new Wiki page is great, thanks! I will definitely link to it from my instructions now.

    I don't think the way the CIQ Store app works is a bug, it's just "how it works" - but it's different from GCM (and different from when I first checked the Store app out which surprised me!)

    For my particular case I'd prefer it to work like GCM (to improve my users experience), but I think my case is a minority. And it may work better (or not) for most as it is now (or others may just prefer it). Or there may be a plan underway for settings and how they will work in the future. I don't know Slight smile And I don't have data overall on how different apps and users actually use the settings.

    So I just started this thread to see what others felt Slight smile And maybe bring it to someone's attention if that particular case hadn't been considered (or was forgotten since GCM was originally developed).

  • in reply to HermoT

    I do change settings in a couple of mine too, but it is kind of uncommon even in a given app.  I guess if it comes up as an issue, I'll just instruct the user to exit settings after changing one of the fields that could change, maybe in the text if the specific setting itself.