Suggestion: "Run on background" as permission for data field

Former Member over 10 years ago

Most data field don't need to be active when not displayed on screen. I noticed however that at the moment the Connect IQ datafields is still active, even when it's in the background, using valuable resources.

Couldn't it be helpful to have a "Run on background" permission for a data field? This would make it possible to have more than 2 Connect IQ data fields in a profile, as long as they're not on the same page. (And it would probably also save battery.)

tonny.madsen over 10 years ago

If you extended Activity.Info to include some information of the most immediate history - say the last 20-60 seconds - then even fewer data fields will need to run the background.

hawken over 10 years ago

I've reported this for consideration. I don't know whether this has already been discussed or if there's a reason why this was not or cannot be implemented, so I think it's worth taking a look at. Thanks for the suggestion!

bwd1 over 10 years ago

I have a datafield that counts the number of events based on a speed and time threshold (if >9 km/hr for longer than 4s then it is counted). But it only works when the datafield is visible. I assumed this was by design...but it sounds like it should be running in the background ??

Former Member over 10 years ago

I have a datafield that counts the number of events based on a speed and time threshold (if >9 km/hr for longer than 4s then it is counted). But it only works when the datafield is visible. I assumed this was by design...but it sounds like it should be running in the background ??

I would expect your data field to work if it's not visible. I would have to see the code to maybe understand why it's not. I have a data field in the store that shows the heart rate with the zone as a color on the background. While testing this data field I've build a version that added 1 to the heartrate each second and deployed that to the device. It just kept increasing the value while on the background (as expected of course).

travis.vitek over 10 years ago

But it only works when the datafield is visible.

The DataField.compute() method should be getting called once a second, even when your field is not in the foreground (visible). If you have your calculation logic into onUpdate(), I'd expect to see the problem that you are seeing.

bwd1 over 10 years ago

Indeed I do have it in onUpdate() ...thank you :) If I read the manual in more detail I would have seen that small detail about "When a View is active, onUpdate() is used to update dynamic content"

Former Member over 10 years ago

Your data field does look great! I'm almost sad I don't surf.

bwd1 over 10 years ago

Thank you TeunMo. Hopefully I can do an on-water test this weekend. There may not be too many surfers+920xt owners, but hopefully there is someone out there that can use it.