Limited usefulnesss of complications

trudelta 5 days ago

I tried making a complication that publishes data. But it looks like stock Garmin watchfaces cannot subscribe to 3rd party complications. Only FaceIt and other 3rd party watchfaces can subscribe, assuming that the complication is set to public access mode. So it seems to me that for typical users who won't develop their own watchface, and don't use FaceIt, complications that publish data are not useful. Comments?

PeterN 5 days ago

But this gives you more opportunities to make watchfaces! ;)

jim_m_58 5 days ago

I have a few widgets that publish, and not only can they be seen by my watch faces and faceit, but other 3rd party WFs can easily be made smart enough to use them and have been , in the same way faceit can look for CIQ published complications. The thing is you need to publish something that others are interested in, For me, it's weather data and a watch face used to need it's own background process and it's own copy of an APIKey to do that. Now a WF just needs to subscribe to something like "JmWuTemp" (Weather Underground Temperature) and the data updates every 15 minutes by default.

jim_m_58 5 days ago in reply to jim_m_58

Also, if you released a publisher right now, I have watch faces that could use it immediately without changing a line of code.

If you understand how to write a publisher, it can still be used on devices from long before complications were introduced.

trudelta 5 days ago in reply to jim_m_58

Interesting. So the watchface has settings to allow the user to specify the complication name? Which watchface is that?

jim_m_58 5 days ago in reply to trudelta

I use on device settings and create a menu with the list of complications found and the user picks one. Here's a WF that supports Garmin Weather (native comp), OWM, and WU (both CIQ comps) for example. Only what is installed on the watch will be shown.

https://apps-developer.garmin.com/apps/c051f37a-8fad-4907-b124-0112fe010c91

It also uses other native comps, where native or CIQ both use onPress. The number I support is really determined by allowing for large fingers with onPress.

trudelta 5 days ago in reply to jim_m_58

I see. I installed it to try this out, but I don't see any on watch settings menu item that has a pick list of complications.

jim_m_58 5 days ago in reply to trudelta

You go to settings for the watch face on the watch? As I said, you'll only see a choice if more than Garmin weather is available. If it's the only one, no choice for "Weather Source"

Install my OWM widget, and go to the OWM site and get a free APIkey. It's basically the same for WU, but getting the key requires you have a weather station that send them data.

https://apps-developer.garmin.com/apps/6a740b9d-7bba-4ed8-bedd-2cabaef4bdcf

trudelta 4 days ago in reply to jim_m_58

OK. So this is a list of your own complications. I misunderstood and was looking for a list of all 3rd party complications.