Anyone using Tasker?

[A.Nonymous]

My phone crashed and burned and I can't bring myself to hassle with setting everything up when a replacement is coming tomorrow. I'm realizing how much I really use Tasker and how useful the thing really is.

I plugged into my car adapter and found that my mileage tracking app did not launch. I also could not see my screen because it was too dim. And BT didn't turn on automatically? What's up with that? I came back from lunch and plugged in my headset. I got no message asking which media player I wanted to play. Then when I started playing my music it started blasting full blast since the phone didn't turn the volume down when I plugged the headset in. You don't realize how handy this program is until you don't have it.

 

[goku31640]

I have a small problem, and I was hoping somebody here can help. I have one profile that determines my location with the cell towers, so when I'm at work it disables wifi and bluetooth, changes my background, etc. it works perfectly. I have a second profile that automatically responds to people when I miss their calls, and I have that one activate during work hours.but lately my work schedule has been a little erratic. Is there any way that when my work profile gets activated, it can also activate my missed call profile?

 

[UncleMike]

Could you give me a complete morons guide of the first few steps? I just don't see how to get the SMS software to interact (more south-end of a horse facing north).

Thanks

k

If you're not using the stock messaging app, that may be the problem. I don't think Tasker will detect incoming SMS if you're using non-stock messaging app.

 

[UncleMike]

I have a small problem, and I was hoping somebody here can help. I have one profile that determines my location with the cell towers, so when I'm at work it disables wifi and bluetooth, changes my background, etc. it works perfectly. I have a second profile that automatically responds to people when I miss their calls, and I have that one activate during work hours.but lately my work schedule has been a little erratic. Is there any way that when my work profile gets activated, it can also activate my missed call profile?

You can use the Profile Status action as part of your work enter/exit tasks to enable/disable the missed call profile, or add a location context to your missed call profile - Just tap the existing context on the profiles screen and select add. I know it's possible to use the same location in multiple profiles, but the only way I know to do it is to tap the context in an existing profile and select Clone. I don't know how to add an existing location context to an existing profile.

 

[reno55]

- When Maps is launched GPS is turned on.

.

can you post how you set this? Also can you set it so when places or maps are launched the gps turns on?

 

[goku31640]

You can use the Profile Status action as part of your work enter/exit tasks to enable/disable the missed call profile, or add a location context to your missed call profile - Just tap the existing context on the profiles screen and select add. I know it's possible to use the same location in multiple profiles, but the only way I know to do it is to tap the context in an existing profile and select Clone. I don't know how to add an existing location context to an existing profile.

Thanks for the help, but after messing with it for 3 hours at work, I learned how to make one profile call to other profiles, and enable them. All I did was do a Variable add %ATWORK > Set value to 1 Then Variable Set %ATWORK >Set Value to 1. And make sure to do a Variable Clear upon exit, otherwise it will stay on until you reboot your phone.

On the other profile, i set it to enable with 2 contexts. First one is obviously the missed call, but the second was when the %ATWORK Variable was in place.

Works like a charm.

 

[brianw1967]

Is anybody using Tasker? There are a couple of threads that mention it and Pent, the dev, is on Phandroid. Here is a link to the Tasker site at Tasker for Android. It has some basic tutorials to follow.

My intent is to start a thread with some other examples of what people are doing with this app.

Hello all. I have a question/problem setting up a task in tasker. What I want to do is customize a ringtone for when my wife calls. I am using Evo/froyo/taker. What i've done so far is:
- Set up a new event profile "Received SMS from wifes #"
- Added task Flash text %SMSRF received
-Notify sound (pointed towards a sound I have on SD card)
Last task Flash text Made it to end
This way I can see if all 3 are being processed.
Now, what happens is:
I get a text from anyone else but my wife and all is normal (good thing)
when I get a text from my wife 1 in 10 times it fires as per taskers profile
however the other 9 times I hear the wife notification start for a split second and then the default notification plays till its conclusion. The kicker is no matter which way the wife profile goes off, meaning default or taskers I get both tasker flash, meaning the first says rec...and my wifes # and last the one that says "made it to end" so it had to pass bye the ringtone to give the final text about the end. But sometimes the ringtone does not stick...

I hope this makes sense, it did to me.. any ideas

btw fwiw the ringtone is in a dir that all my notifications are. I have tried on in my ringtone folder as well with similar results. Even tried different ppl's phone numbers and same. I know this is a tuffy, I think i've exausted trouble shooting methods..

 

[UncleMike]

I hope this makes sense, it did to me.. any ideas

I think I got it. It's possible that the default notification and the notification triggered by Tasker are conflicting. You could try adding a "wait 5 seconds" before the notification in Tasker, or using Media Play instead of Notify Sound, or both. With Media Play you won't have a second notification to clear.

 

[kriemer]

Uncle Mike

To paraphrase Shakespeare; The fault lies not in the APP, but in the user. I just can't wrap my head around this macro. Some real step by step direction to start the context is what I think I need to kick-start my brain. Until then I keep going in circles with no progress to the problem.

Thanks for any help.

k

 

[brianw1967]

I think I got it. It's possible that the default notification and the notification triggered by Tasker are conflicting. You could try adding a "wait 5 seconds" before the notification in Tasker, or using Media Play instead of Notify Sound, or both. With Media Play you won't have a second notification to clear.

Ok, but wont i have to listen to two notifications that way? I am looking to only hear the one i've designated for my wife.

 

[brianw1967]

I think I got it. It's possible that the default notification and the notification triggered by Tasker are conflicting. You could try adding a "wait 5 seconds" before the notification in Tasker, or using Media Play instead of Notify Sound, or both. With Media Play you won't have a second notification to clear.

Ok, but wont i have to listen to two notifications that way? I am looking to only hear the one i've designated for my wife.
BTW, I have tried all 3 debug settings and no erroes have been reported. Tried didfer tones notifications, contacts... all withsimilar results.

 

[UncleMike]

Ok, but wont i have to listen to two notifications that way? I am looking to only hear the one i've designated for my wife.

Yes, you would hear two notifications. I've been experimenting with silencing notifications upon receipt of an SMS and it does seem to work in time to silence the triggering SMS, so what I would suggest is:

Context: Received SMS <parameters>
Task:
Variable Set %VOLNOT = %VOLN
Notification Volume = 0
Wait 5 seconds
Media Play <sound>
Notification Volume %VOLNOT
Variable Clear %VOLNOT

This attempts to silence the normal notification until after is has completed, then plays an alternate sound, then restores the notification volume. Because this is an event context, Tasker won't restore any settings on its own, so we have to take care of that ourselves.

Or you might want to try this (completely untested):

Context: Received SMS <parameters>
Task:
Variable Set %WIFESMS = 1

Context: Variable Value %WIFESMS = 1
Enter Task:
Ringtone Notification <sound>
Wait 5 seconds
Variable Clear %WIFESMS

What this does is use a variable with the event context along with another task/context so that Tasker will restore settings. The intent here is to chance the notification sound before it plays, and then let Tasker change it back again. It may not take effect quickly enough to affect the pending notification though.

If you run into problems with it intermittently working, you may want to look at setting the task properties to keep the device awake.

 

[Aftashok]

i want to do something fairly simple, if possible.... can one set up a tone of some sort (thru the headset or speaker, either or) for when a call is dropped? i hate that sometimes a call drops and im unaware, and find myself talking for 1-2 minutes to noone in particular.

 

[UncleMike]

Uncle Mike

To paraphrase Shakespeare; The fault lies not in the APP, but in the user. I just can't wrap my head around this macro. Some real step by step direction to start the context is what I think I need to kick-start my brain. Until then I keep going in circles with no progress to the problem.

Thanks for any help.

k

At the profiles list select the Event context tab (far right, triangle with exclamation mark). If the context selector tabs are not visible, just press Menu and select Show Context Selector, and then select the Event context selector.

Press New > Phone > Received SMS; this brings up the Received SMS dialog. You'll want act only on certain messages, so you should enter something in the Message field that only you would know, kind of like a password to trigger the rest of the process, then tap Done.

Now you'll be at the Task Edit screen. At this point you can choose to name the task you're about to create or use an anonymous (unnamed) task. If you want to name your task (no harm, and may come in handy later), tap New and give your task a name. Now you're ready to create the task; this is where you tell Tasker what you want it to do when it sees your phone has received an SMS matching the parameters you entered above (i.e. the "password").

Since I don't know where you're getting stuck, I'll keep the task as simple as possible to make sure it works up to this point. Press "+" to add an action to your task, and select Alert > Flash, and enter a message that you want to appear indicating that things are working so far, then press Done > Done.

You should now have a profile setup that will flash a message on the screen when your receive an SMS matching the "password". Now just send yourself an SMS with the "password" and see if it works.

Let me know how it goes.

 

[UncleMike]

i want to do something fairly simple, if possible.... can one set up a tone of some sort (thru the headset or speaker, either or) for when a call is dropped? i hate that sometimes a call drops and im unaware, and find myself talking for 1-2 minutes to noone in particular.

There's no way in Tasker to detect when a call is dropped. The closest you can get is detecting that the phone has become idle (hanging up on a call, disconnecting), but it will be triggered on every call.

 

[JGGRN]

A question...

Like several other people I'm trying to create a little task that turns on WiFi when I get home, and turns off APN. When I leave home it turns off Wifi and turns on APN. I have a task that basically looks like this:
OnEntry (set by location): WiFi On, MobileData Off
OnExit: WiFi Off, MobileData On

Location is set by network (with a 200m radius) rather than GPS to save battery.

It doesn't work. 1) it doesn't normally update for ages, 2) when it does it only does half the instruction.

I have no idea about 1. I have a 20 minute walk to the station that takes me well outside the 200m radius by about 10 minutes (wifi scan is the default 2 minutes). When I get to the train I inevitably have to set the preferred settings myself.
Coming home, when I reach my front door neither wifi nor APN is set i.e. APN switches off without switching WiFi on. I thought for a while that this was because APN had switched off and therefore could not get a location, but then I remembered that this was because a task had been activated and surely therefore it would complete.

Anyone got any ideas what might be going wrong?

I suggest reading the "location without tears" section on the Tasker web site. My suggestion in your situation would be to use your home wifi network as the location identifier. Creat a context "Wifi Near" and set the SSID to the name for your home network. Tasker will frequently turn the wifi on just long enough to get a list of nearby wifi networks then turn itself off. If your home network is present, then it will activate the profile. When your home network is no longer present, the profile will deactivate. Set up a entrance profile and an exit profile linked to that state and you should be in business. Taskers default setting is to check wifi networks every 10 minutes (600 seconds) when the screen is off. You can change this under settings. With the screen on, it is 120 seconds.

It's important to note as someone mentioned earlier: If you are using a CDMA phone (with Verizon, for example), there is not a way to allow a tasker profile to switch your mobile network on and off.

 

[JGGRN]

Hello all. I have a question/problem setting up a task in tasker. What I want to do is customize a ringtone for when my wife calls. I am using Evo/froyo/taker. What i've done so far is:
- Set up a new event profile "Received SMS from wifes #"
- Added task Flash text %SMSRF received
-Notify sound (pointed towards a sound I have on SD card)
Last task Flash text Made it to end
This way I can see if all 3 are being processed.
Now, what happens is:
I get a text from anyone else but my wife and all is normal (good thing)
when I get a text from my wife 1 in 10 times it fires as per taskers profile
however the other 9 times I hear the wife notification start for a split second and then the default notification plays till its conclusion. The kicker is no matter which way the wife profile goes off, meaning default or taskers I get both tasker flash, meaning the first says rec...and my wifes # and last the one that says "made it to end" so it had to pass bye the ringtone to give the final text about the end. But sometimes the ringtone does not stick...

I hope this makes sense, it did to me.. any ideas

btw fwiw the ringtone is in a dir that all my notifications are. I have tried on in my ringtone folder as well with similar results. Even tried different ppl's phone numbers and same. I know this is a tuffy, I think i've exausted trouble shooting methods..

You could go to your phone settings and disable sms notifications.

Try this profile:

Context: SMS Recieved
Task:
Notify Sound - [sound file] if %SMSRF equals [wife's #]
Notify Sound - [default sound] if %SMSRF does NOT equal [wife's #]

 

[DroidGnome]

Ok, I've got everything I need to get my phone to auto-lock with a custom password when a specific text is sent... except one thing...

LOCKING! haha.. maybe i'm blind.. but is there a task somewhere that actually 'locks' the phone (Forces it into Lock mode, as if you hit the power switch once)? If not is there a plugin?

I found one that lets me turn on and off the actual password locking and can set a custom password, but I cannot figure out how to tell it to lock the phone automatically when finished. The best I can do is set the display timeout to 1 second... but that only fires if the user isn't doing something.. I want a force lock

Anyone seen something like that?

 

[amlothi]

Quick question about the battery usage:

If I have 1 location context defined, is there any extra battery consumption for additional location contexts at that point?

In other words, does Tasker check the location once per cycle (regardless of how many profiles I have), or does it need to check each one?

 

[JGGRN]

Quick question about the battery usage:

If I have 1 location context defined, is there any extra battery consumption for additional location contexts at that point?

In other words, does Tasker check the location once per cycle (regardless of how many profiles I have), or does it need to check each one?

My understanding is that the Tasker application polls for location information according to the time periods defined in its settings. The location information is then passed on to any running tasks. Tasks are not seperate programs, they are components of one program: Tasker. So, theoretically, multiple tasks that use the same location information should not impact the battery life more than a single one.

 

[JGGRN]

Someone create an unofficial tasker forum...might be easier to have everyone start posting there so we can keep replies straight..

Unofficial Tasker for Android forum - Index page

There is one.

Tasker | Google Groups

 

[JGGRN]

can you post how you set this? Also can you set it so when places or maps are launched the gps turns on?

Open tasker to the context screen.

Create a new application context and select the application you want to trigger the GPS

On the Task Edit screen, click +.

Select Misc > GPS and set it to ON.

Save. Apply.

There is no need to do an exit task. When the application is shut down, Tasker will restore the GPS to its previous state (on/off).

Repeat one for each application you want to use the GPS.

I have one for Maps, Foursquare, etc...

 

[inspired]

Is there any way I can have it switched to my mobile connection if there is no wifi?

As an example, I have it set to switch on wifi and sync once an hour, and also to automatically switch on wifi whenever I open something such as facebook or the market place.

Is there any way I can set it to use my mobile network if wifi isn't available?

 

[brianw1967]

Yes, you would hear two notifications. I've been experimenting with silencing notifications upon receipt of an SMS and it does seem to work in time to silence the triggering SMS, so what I would suggest is:

Context: Received SMS <parameters>
Task:
Variable Set %VOLNOT = %VOLN
Notification Volume = 0
Wait 5 seconds
Media Play <sound>
Notification Volume %VOLNOT
Variable Clear %VOLNOT

This attempts to silence the normal notification until after is has completed, then plays an alternate sound, then restores the notification volume. Because this is an event context, Tasker won't restore any settings on its own, so we have to take care of that ourselves.

Or you might want to try this (completely untested):

Context: Received SMS <parameters>
Task:
Variable Set %WIFESMS = 1

Context: Variable Value %WIFESMS = 1
Enter Task:
Ringtone Notification <sound>
Wait 5 seconds
Variable Clear %WIFESMS

What this does is use a variable with the event context along with another task/context so that Tasker will restore settings. The intent here is to chance the notification sound before it plays, and then let Tasker change it back again. It may not take effect quickly enough to affect the pending notification though.

If you run into problems with it intermittently working, you may want to look at setting the task properties to keep the device awake.

Thankyou for your help. I like the first one better as I understand it. I hope the next update (droid) allows for customizable ringtones (notifications). Can tasker figure out why Sprint is denying my rebate? Hate arguing w/these people.... Once again, thank you for all your help...

 

[jr1125]

how does this keyguard when charging work?

i tried out from the profile to test it out
and when i put my phone on the charger it still goes to the lock screen (widgetlocker) and i have to slide to unlock... ???

edit: i found out. i had to set it to relaunch WL when not charging. Tasker is the bomb!