Watch face variations best pracice

When might we expect that the settings functionality is available? I have serveral users of my watch face "Svettigklockan" that wants different settings and I am not that keen on producing a bunch of apps so if its in the near future I might just wait.

When might we expect that the settings functionality is available? I have serveral users of my watch face "Svettigklockan" that wants different settings and I am not that keen on producing a bunch of apps so if its in the near future I might just wait.

Garmin is saying it will be in SDK 1.2.0, which sould be out "late september".

http://developer.garmin.com/index.php/blog/post/looking-forward-connect-iq-release-schedule

I was the one who used the user weights as different codes for color schemes.

I wanted some feedback as to what people liked. Interestingly I got almost no feed back, maybe two people responded out of thousands of downloads. On top of that I got the usual handful of requests "can you make it a white face" even though there were code options for two different white faces. Go figure.

So I decided to remove the color code options. I was worried people would complain so I offered to send a custom colored watch face to anyone that had been using one of the codes. I think I sent out four.

I learned that almost no one cared to change the color. I don't know why, I thought it was kind of fun.

btw earlier, for myself, I had hooked the colors to start with a different random scheme every time the face was restarted.

Also, I was using a large DICT array for all the color options that was easy for me to use but that seemed to chew up memory when unusual events happened like getting a Bluetooth message while in high power mode. I think that created about ten (one per second while the message was displayed) recursive calls (stack pushes) that filled the runtime memory and crashed the watch - so keep that in mind.

Using "weight" may have scared off a bunch of folks from using that option, as when you mess with weight, it messes up things like your Calorie burn, as that is based on your weight.





For me, my watchfaces are set to use an object store if available. I default stuff, but if the OS is there, I can read in a handfull of colors, and a couple Boolean options. (for colors, I'm using "numbers", so each can be any value, and they are used "as is".)

So for example, in the OS, for "background" it's got the value of "Gfx.COLOR_BLACK" (0x000000) and for the time, "Gfx.COLOR_WHITE" (0xffffff), but could be set to "0x00ffff" (a real light blue on the va)

As an example of a boolean, I have "AllSameColor", so if someone wants a watchface that's all green, they will be able to set the background to "black", the time to "green", and allsamecolor to "true", and all the icons, etc, are then green".

I'm not sure how this will work when actual "user config" will come out, and may have to change the way I do things then.

I also have a key in the OS for "scheme", but that would mean coding a specific set of colors for each scheme in the .prg, which I want to try to avoid, as someone will always want something a bit different!

Just a note... There is a new watch face in the app store that uses gestures to rotate through 4 possible color schemes. You execute 4 low-to-high power mode gestures in a brief time period and it advances to the next scheme.

https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?300298

Travis

Personally, any kind of an auto changing scheme would drive me nuts, as per Murphy's Law, the worst scheme would be used based on the current light conditions! :)

If you do want to try it, the "leave Low Power" scheme would be workable, as you could just "gesture" for another one, but it will be different the next time you look at it!.

Other ideas:
-CIQ knows the configured wake and sleep times (it's in the user profile), and schemes can be switch in even divisions for the time someone is awake

-do a mod on the julian date and rotate schemes on a daily basis

-change schemes based on date For example, a orange/black scheme for Halloween, red/green for Xmas, red/white/blue for July 4th...

-set up a site where .prg and .str files can be sideloaded, with known names (this would be far simpler if Garmin could just use consistent names for .prg files, regardless of version, or an install of the .prg by GE vs GCM


The consist names for stuff installed from the app store would make this all much easier, IMHO!

Hey Jim,

I structured the gesture change so that the movement has to be very deliberate. I have been trialling it for over a month and it hasn't misfired (changed colour scheme) other than when intended. The action of 4 gestures each within 8 seconds of the last seems to ensure that it doesn't happen unintentionally.

Hey Jim,

I structured the gesture change so that the movement has to be very deliberate. I have been trialling it for over a month and it hasn't misfired (changed colour scheme) other than when intended. The action of 4 gestures each within 8 seconds of the last seems to ensure that it doesn't happen unintentionally.

You cant not "structure" an enter/leave of low power mode (except by trying to count them). This is a hack, and nothing more, and to me, would be quite random at best. This may work for you, but would NOT work for me on a watch.

You cant not "structure" an enter/leave of low power mode. This is a hack, and nothing more, and to me, is quite random at best. I bet you only use schemes YOU like, so don't notice the change...

Really? quite random?.. The code performs a count of gestures and the time between each gesture. If the time elapsed from the last gesture commencing is greater than 8 seconds the counter resets. This the structure I was speaking of. There is nothing random about it. The colour scheme will not change unless four gestures are performed with less than eight seconds between each gesture commencing.

I am not sure it classifies as nothing more than a hack either, the gesture is a valid way of interacting with the watch face..I am merely harnessing this for a practical use.

Give it a try :)

Using a specific, contrived, series of gestures is a really cool/creative way to perform configuration!

Other ideas:
-CIQ knows the configured wake and sleep times (it's in the user profile), and schemes can be switch in even divisions for the time someone is awake

-do a mod on the julian date and rotate schemes on a daily basis

-change schemes based on date For example, a orange/black scheme for Halloween, red/green for Xmas, red/white/blue for July 4th...

Also very cool ideas! A couple more:
-Adjust color scheme according to sunrise/sunset times.
-Adjust color scheme after achieving your daily step goal as a "reward".
-Adjust color scheme to reflect the Move Bar status (been there; done that). ;)

-set up a site where .prg and .str files can be sideloaded, with known names (this would be far simpler if Garmin could just use consistent names for .prg files, regardless of version, or an install of the .prg by GE vs GCM


The consist names for stuff installed from the app store would make this all much easier, IMHO!

I whole-heartedly agree with this! ;)