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Tasker: How To?

G

gripweed

Android Enthusiast
I'm trying to do a couple of things with my minor experience with Tasker. I like what it can do so I'd like to expand. I tried searching and didn't really see anything, unless I'm missing it.

I figured out how to do a headphone plug in and have a window pop up and let me pick between MP3 and Pandora.

My next few ideas are a little more complicated though, so any help would be appreciated.

I want to turn the GPS ON anytime I open Maps, Weatherbug, Weather Channel, Car Dock, Yelp, and a Pet Care app.

I want to Sync every time I open Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, and Calender.

I want to Sync every time I close Calender.


I haven't played much with the calender syncing, but if it's pretty much instantaneous between my phone and my google account, then that's fine. I just don't want to add something on my computer and it takes 4 hours to sync to my phone or something.

Is there a way to just associate reasons to turn on GPS? Like a "turn on GPS if" command and then add all the apps I want? Or do I have to create a profile for each app and have it turn on the GPS?
 
gripweed said:
Is there a way to just associate reasons to turn on GPS? Like a "turn on GPS if" command and then add all the apps I want? Or do I have to create a profile for each app and have it turn on the GPS?
Click to expand...

In the Tasker APPS tab (Rocket image) - create a new profile. It will open up an app drawer where you can select all the apps you want to act upon. Then create a Task for that context to turn on GPS.
 
gripweed said:
I want to turn the GPS ON anytime I open Maps, Weatherbug, Weather Channel, Car Dock, Yelp, and a Pet Care app.
Click to expand...


There is a context called Application, and it allows multiple selections.

So, create a profile with an Application context, and select all the apps you listed above.

Enter Task > GPS on
Exit Task > GPS off

I have mine setup this way and it works fine.


gripweed said:
I want to Sync every time I open Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, and Calender.

I want to Sync every time I close Calender.
Click to expand...

As above, you can use an application context and have a task turn on Auto Sync whenever certain apps are open. I don't believe you can specify to do something when a task closes, though.


Also, note that the Auto Sync setting only controls whether that is set to On or Off. It doesn't force a Sync to occur at that moment. However, if you normally have Auto Sync off all the time, the phone should try to Sync immediately when you change it to on.


gripweed said:
I haven't played much with the calender syncing, but if it's pretty much instantaneous between my phone and my google account, then that's fine. I just don't want to add something on my computer and it takes 4 hours to sync to my phone or something.
Click to expand...

I've never had a delay with Google calendar/contacts/Gmail syncing of more than a few seconds. My suggestion is to wait and see if you even have a problem before you try to fix something that might not exist.
 
I think I got the GPS working.

I'm going to work on the facebook and twitter today.

Thanks for the help.
 
amlothi said:
There is a context called Application, and it allows multiple selections.

So, create a profile with an Application context, and select all the apps you listed above.

Enter Task > GPS on
Exit Task > GPS off

I have mine setup this way and it works fine.
Click to expand...


Ok, this is where I got a problem. I set it up and I have Task Edit open and I have 1. GPS Set On

So that turns them on, but I see when I open the app, it comes on, but when I close it, it keeps the GPS on, so I have to turn it off. But I don't see where to turn it off when exiting? Do I use the + sign, then App, then Kill App, and then reselect all the programs, and then Set Off?
 
Ok, new question.

I got it set up so when I plug in my headphones I get Pandora and Music to pop up in a menu and turns my media volume to 50%.

Is there a way so when I unplug my headphones, it closes whatever App I have open? Do I use the Kill App?
 
gripweed said:
Ok, new question.

I got it set up so when I plug in my headphones I get Pandora and Music to pop up in a menu and turns my media volume to 50%.

Is there a way so when I unplug my headphones, it closes whatever App I have open? Do I use the Kill App?
Click to expand...

Kill app no longer works with Froyo. There is no way to do this. If you were using the stock music player, you could control the media by pausing it. With Pandora, I haven't discovered any way to do this. Pandora really needs to act the same as a media player so it can respond the same way.
 
HoochieCoo said:
Kill app no longer works with Froyo. There is no way to do this. If you were using the stock music player, you could control the media by pausing it. With Pandora, I haven't discovered any way to do this. Pandora really needs to act the same as a media player so it can respond the same way.
Click to expand...

Alright.

It looks like if I plug it in, my menu comes up and if I pick music player, it goes, and when I pull the headphones out it closes.

If I pull the headphones out with Pandora, it just keeps going. Hopefully Pandora makes that happen at some point. Would be useful, especially for people using it in their cars and what not. You just want to grab and go, not turn everything off.

Any way to get the volume to respond? I added a task of 50% volume with the headphone in context, but it doesn't seem to work. When I plug the headphones in, it just shows up in the menu as an option to turn on. So I probably need to create two seperate profiles, one as a menu with apps and one as an execute with volume, eh?
 
gripweed said:
Alright.

It looks like if I plug it in, my menu comes up and if I pick music player, it goes, and when I pull the headphones out it closes.

If I pull the headphones out with Pandora, it just keeps going. Hopefully Pandora makes that happen at some point. Would be useful, especially for people using it in their cars and what not. You just want to grab and go, not turn everything off.

Any way to get the volume to respond? I added a task of 50% volume with the headphone in context, but it doesn't seem to work. When I plug the headphones in, it just shows up in the menu as an option to turn on. So I probably need to create two seperate profiles, one as a menu with apps and one as an execute with volume, eh?
Click to expand...

Not sure what music player you are using. Many music apps will monitor the headphone status and automatically pause when unplugged. This is a function of the music app. Though... Tasker does have a way to pause media. You would have had to explicitly add that to the task (that just doesn't work with Pandora though).

I have a Headphone profile that pops up a menu and sets volumes (specifically to turn the alert and ringer volumes down so I don't jump through the roof when those come on).

Not sure what you did... But I have a task created to set my headphone volumes. From the entry task for the Headset Plugged, I just added a Perform Task and chose that task. But, I could have just as easily just set the volumes directly. After the volume is set, I display the menu.
 
Well what I did is...I have a Headphone profile and that has the context of Headset Plugged and then I have a task in there to show a pop up menu of Music, Pandora, and Youtube.

That all works.

Now, I also have a profile called Headphone Volume and that is controlled by Apps (again Music, Pandora, Youtube). I then have a task called Media Volume On that turns the volume to 50%. I then have an exit task called Media Volume Off that turns the media volume back to 0%.

So, that should mean, when I plug in my headphones, pop up menu shows, I pick Pandora and now since Pandora opens, the other profile should go off and turn my media volume to 50%...but it doesn't.
 
I downloaded a lot of applications from the market and the all in my main menu but I don't want them there because there are a lot of apps and it is impossible to find anything so I made a folder for them and I put the apps in the folder but they are now in the folder and in my main menu. I tried to put the apps in the main menu into the waste basket but it didn't go there. Help me to get rid of the apps in my main menu.
 
KimikoTohomi said:
I downloaded a lot of applications from the market and the all in my main menu but I don't want them there because there are a lot of apps and it is impossible to find anything so I made a folder for them and I put the apps in the folder but they are now in the folder and in my main menu. I tried to put the apps in the main menu into the waste basket but it didn't go there. Help me to get rid of the apps in my main menu.
Click to expand...

What?? This is about Tasker.

And you can't remove apps from your main app screen. That shows everything.
 
gripweed said:
So, that should mean, when I plug in my headphones, pop up menu shows, I pick Pandora and now since Pandora opens, the other profile should go off and turn my media volume to 50%...but it doesn't.
Click to expand...

try it another way then

for example, when you're using 'pop up task list' (or whatever it's called) instead of setting 3 options (load youtube, load pandora, load the other one) and then a profile to act once the option is selected, you can just build in the 50% volume into each of the options in the menu.

just create three new independent tasks:

task 1 - load youtube , volume 50%
task 2 - load pandora, volume 50%
task 3- load music, volume 50%

then in the 'pop up task list' use 'run task' instead of 'load app', and add each task to the menu (eg. tasker > run task > task 1)

takes longer, but sometimes you just have to do things the long way with tasker lol

edit: apparently the 'pop up task list' only allows 2 tasks?! if this is the case, change the headphone profile task from an 'execute' task to a 'menu' task, then add the 3 tasks from there, you can make pop up menus of as many options as you like this way.
 
gripweed said:
Ok, new question.

I got it set up so when I plug in my headphones I get Pandora and Music to pop up in a menu and turns my media volume to 50%.

Is there a way so when I unplug my headphones, it closes whatever App I have open? Do I use the Kill App?
Click to expand...

Can't you just setup up an exit task? Exit task--app--go home takes me back to my homescreen when I unplug the headphones.

Edit: I guess that won't close the app, but it will put it to sleep which should effectively zero out any effect on battery life.
 
lifeonmtv said:
try it another way then

for example, when you're using 'pop up task list' (or whatever it's called) instead of setting 3 options (load youtube, load pandora, load the other one) and then a profile to act once the option is selected, you can just build in the 50% volume into each of the options in the menu.

just create three new independent tasks:

task 1 - load youtube , volume 50%
task 2 - load pandora, volume 50%
task 3- load music, volume 50%

then in the 'pop up task list' use 'run task' instead of 'load app', and add each task to the menu (eg. tasker > run task > task 1)

takes longer, but sometimes you just have to do things the long way with tasker lol

edit: apparently the 'pop up task list' only allows 2 tasks?! if this is the case, change the headphone profile task from an 'execute' task to a 'menu' task, then add the 3 tasks from there, you can make pop up menus of as many options as you like this way.
Click to expand...




Interesting thought. I'll give that a shot today.
 
Now I'm also trying to create one for my camera, so when I open the camera it turns my screen brightness to 80% (I usually keep it really low) and turns the phone to silent mode so I don't have the shutter sound. Then when I exit, the screen goes back to dim and volume goes back.

It's kind of working...in that the screen will go bright and then dim upon open and closing the camera. Sometimes it turns it back to Auto brightness though, so I have to tweak that a bit. The sound never works though. I have a widget on my home screen that lets me toggle between Ring, Silent, and Vibrate, so I wonder if that's causing a problem.
 
Ok, so I got a car mount for my Droid X.

I'm trying to make it so when I dock it, which opens Car Dock app, it will turn on the bluetooth.

So I go into tasker and create a thing so when Car Dock opens, that will turn on bluetooth. I can't find anywhere to turn on bluetooth though, I only see bluetooth settings.

Any help?
 
On a related note:
I also have a task that will popup a menu of audio apps when I plug in my headphones.

Before I had that, my poweramp would pause the player when I unplugged the headphones and restart the song when I plug them back in all without "waking up" my screen. It STILL does the pause/unpase part of my music, but each time I plug it back in, the tasker pops that menu up which wakes my screen up.

I know it's a long shot, but is there a way for tasker to know if one of the apps from the popup menu is already running and NOT popup the menu list?
 
Crodley said:
I know it's a long shot, but is there a way for tasker to know if one of the apps from the popup menu is already running and NOT popup the menu list?
Click to expand...

You'd have to setup a variable of your own for this.

Context > App
Variable Set > %APPON =1
Exit Task > %APPON = 0

Then you can use "if %APPON = 0" in your other tasks so that they only run if the app isn't open already.

Just be aware that the App context is only for when the app is running in the foreground. If it's running in the background, this probably won't work.
 
amlothi said:
Just be aware that the App context is only for when the app is running in the foreground. If it's running in the background, this probably won't work.
Click to expand...

I assume if the app is running and then I hit the power button to put the screen to sleep the app is still in the foreground?

I'll give it a try and see what happens. I've never worked with variables in Tasker, but now's a good time to try it. :)

Thanks for the tip.
 
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