Research.md

kivy-androidwidgets

Home screen android widgets for kivy

For now this repo will contain Research on creating Android widgets.

i think it only needs it's java class - broadcast listener, editing AndroidMainfest and creating some xml files.

Will release a version when or if it's successful testing

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Research

From AndroidMainfest point to AppWidgetProviderInfo The AppWidgetProviderInfo XML Will contain info about the widget, should be saved in res/xml/

<appwidget-provider xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:minWidth="40dp"
    android:minHeight="40dp"
    android:targetCellWidth="1"
    android:targetCellHeight="1"
    android:maxResizeWidth="250dp"
    android:maxResizeHeight="120dp"
    android:updatePeriodMillis="86400000"
    android:description="@string/example_appwidget_description"
    android:previewLayout="@layout/example_appwidget_preview"
    android:initialLayout="@layout/example_loading_appwidget"
    android:configure="com.example.android.ExampleAppWidgetConfigurationActivity"
    android:resizeMode="horizontal|vertical"
    android:widgetCategory="home_screen"
    android:widgetFeatures="reconfigurable|configuration_optional">
</appwidget-provider>

The AppWidgetProvider class handles widget broadcasts and updates the widget in response to widget lifecycle events. Tags:

receiver

• android:name specifys AppWidgetProvider which should be combination of app name and package name, In my case org.laner.lan_ft.ExampleAppWidgetProvider" according to my last working receiver
• android:exported remains False unless another process communicates with Listener( Not sure what it means i think another process apart from app)

intent-filter:

• android:name="android.appwidget.action.APPWIDGET_UPDATE is required, specifies Broad Listener accepts the ACTION_APPWIDGET_UPDATE broadcast.

meta-data:

• meta-data android:name
• android:resource points to location of AppWidgetProviderInfo in resources folder

<receiver android:name="ExampleAppWidgetProvider"
                 android:exported="false">
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="android.appwidget.action.APPWIDGET_UPDATE" />
    </intent-filter>
    <meta-data android:name="android.appwidget.provider"
               android:resource="@xml/example_appwidget_info" />
</receiver>

AppWidgetProvider class extends BroadcastReceiver class, i.e it's a child class:

It receives only the event broadcasts when widget is updated, deleted, enabled, and disabled. Use method onUpdate which is called in every updatePeriodMillis

Widget layout - What will display Need to learn more about layouts. Needs to be saved in res/layout

From this stackoverflow answer AppWidgetProvider calls a Sticky Service

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Resources:

BroadCast Listener and XML Adding

android docs

StackoverFlow AppWidgetProvider call service