Message App UI simplicity

Whoops, I broke that in the metadata, should be ok(ish) now.

Having two message apps is a bit of a problem:

• android,ios and messagesmusic declare "dependencies": {"messages":"app"}
  
• I think that even means updating those will (re)install messages
  
• (Didn't test this, but I think) uninstalling messages while keeping smessages erases all your messages. (or at least it will once it also uses a StorageFile)
  
• We can't change the apps/dependencies to "type":"messages", because then it won't show up in the launcher
  
• The dependency can't be reversed, because you need to choose between android and ios
  
  

I think ideally we would want to keep the dependencies, or people will go "I installed the android app, and it doesn't do anything", but maybe we should settle for putting a big "You also need to install a messages app" in the android/ios README?
Alternatively, I guess we could complicate the dependency system, so e.g. android could declare "dependencies": {"messages|smessages":"app"}...

Many things to consider I see ;)

I tested it again, new report :)

• It shows up now without having to install original messages app first.
  
• The shortcut to the settings page seems to be linked to original messages. If I install only smessages a blank screen appears upon pressing it. If I install messages first and then smessages, settings page for original messages is loaded instead.
  
• As I saw you mention in PR#1498 now Messages Music doesn't seem to work. However, I think it did before you did the latest fixes today (again, I had first installed messages and then smessages)? Which seems weird since you mentioned breaking it a month ago?
  
• The left and right music screen buttons have question marks on them on my Bangle.js 2. (I have seen a similar question mark in my widgets before and I think that was either the messages or smessages widget)
  

The shortcut to the settings page seems to be linked to original messages

Yeah, I broke that with the last update, along with auto-open :-(
Not near my PC now, but will (probably) fix it tomorrow. You can at least launch the app manually, and get to settings through the global settings->apps.

The left and right music screen buttons have question marks

That's because I just quickly slapped in the code, without drawing the images yet ;-) I'll get to those Soon™

Ok, should be fixed now, and I added some images

Everything seems to work. Groovy! Thanks! :)

Found a bug! ;)

1. Just received message(s) to my Bangle. When the message is received a yellow ring with an exclamation mark appears in the widget field and the "Loading"-box appears as well. And then it's stuck there.
   
2. Long press physical button to load the clock works and after that I have two smaller rings with exclamation marks flashing yellow/black as well as a "2" encircled by black.
   
3. When I then press the widget the Bangle is once again stuck with a "Loading"-box, and the exclamation mark rings are solid yellow.
   
4. Long press the physical button again brings back the clock and the widget starts flashing yellow/black again.
   
5. When I open the Scrolling Messages app via "Quick Launch"-app two new messages are there and I can read them as expected.
   
   

I use BW Clock, Quick Launch, Calibration, Android Integration, Scrolling Messages and more. Bangle.js 2 Firmware 2v15

Whoops, I fixed (another) "loading..." bug yesterday, but neglected to mention it here, sorry about that.
...and I just noticed that it's still broken for touching the widget :-(

The yellow exclamation ring is what you now get for apps which don't have an icon yet. (I don't suppose you have the message srcs so we can add them?)

I decided I didn't like the widgetbar filling up with icons, so instead you get a grid with icons (1 per app, scaled down so they all fit) and the total number of messages.
So that should mean you got 1 message each from two different apps?

Thanks for testing!

Cool ideas with the widget!

Yes, one message each from two apps. One message was from a radio app and the other from KDE Connect.

I don't really know about src's or how to get them :P

Ok, I definitely think I squashed all "loading..." bugs now (even found another one in the process...)

I don't really know about src's or how to get them :P

No problem, I've added logging unknown apps to my TODO list ;-)

Also (a bit worrysome): the app may or may not cause storage corruption after you receive too many messages...

• To play it safe, you might want to run Settings->Utils->Delete all every now and then. (even if you don't have any messages: deleted messages are also stored, but this really erases them)
  
• If you bravely want to see if you run into the same problem, please check your backups are up to date.
  

As I understand that thread about storage corruption it's not permanent and fixable via the app loader? In that case I won't worry.

I continue on with two more bug reports :P

1. I send a file with "KDE Connect" to my phone which then gets a notification which is relayed to the bangle.
   
2. The bangle receives the notification and promptly starts loading it.
   
3. A blank black screen appears, except for the widget field. No red back button present. Short physical button press does nothing. Long physical button press loads the clock.
   
4. Press the widget loads the message as expected.
   
   

It seems like the message hasn't "landed" completely on the bangle when it tries to auto-open it.

Next one:

1. Open Scrolling Messages settings
   
2. Click 'Utils'
   
3. Click 'Delete all'
   
4. Click either 'Yes' or 'No'
   
5. 'Utillities' page is displayed again. Some widgets do not display (RAM widget) as well as no red back button. Clicking 'Delete all' does nothing. Short press physical button does nothing. Long press physical button to go back to clock works.
   

As I understand that thread about storage corruption it's not permanent and fixable via the app loader?

Yes, basically the watch will reset to factory settings, so you'd lose all your apps+settings.

I fixed 'Delete all'. I also fiddled with filenames, so you might lose your settings when you update.

Seems like it hasn't updated on your app loader. But I tried copying the code in from here via the web ide and then the settings are updated with your latest changes. 'Delete all' works then.

Regarding what I mentioned in this thread before:

edit: A more general thing I think the Bip does well, that I don't think is mentioned in previous replies here, is that it does away with incremental scrolling with drags in favor of 'scrolling' the whole screen with swipes. I.e more like moving between pages. I think this is more efficient in daily use. I like the new main banglejs menu system, but it's not as quick to navigate as the bip menus.

I have now made an app that changes menus so they do this.

I updated smessages to depend on the default messages app instead of duplicating code.
New caveats:

• This is mostly just a big change to deduplicate the library code: it works, but you might want to wait a few days for me to polish it some more.
  
• I moved the widget code to a separate app (PR)
  
• It now depends on the default app, the installation procedure now is
  
  

1. Install the default messages app from my repo - you need the version from my repo, as it depends on some library changes that are only present in the storage file version.
   
2. Install the smessages app from my repo
   
   

Edit: icons are fixed now.

Updated to reflect recent changes (message library, fast loading)
I also renamed it to "Message List"(messagelist), it now lives here, as alternative to messagegui: installation procedure is now simply

1. Install default message library/apps
   
2. Uninstall "Message UI"(messagegui)
   
3. Install "Message List"(messagelist)
   
   

(After the initial installation you can skip step 1+2 when "updating".)

This is great, thanks! Do you want to add it to the main app loader now it can go in without conflicting?

... Or do you think we should have some code in the app loader to automatically uninstall 'conflicting' apps first?

Do you want to add it to the main app loader now it can go in without conflicting?

I've still got some items on my TODO list before I'd feel happy adding it to the public app store.
Shouldn't take too long though: now the library stuff is sorted out, I'm planning to mostly just remove/disable Stuff, and it can be added/fixed/improved later.

have some code in the app loader to automatically uninstall 'conflicting' apps first?

I hadn't thought of that, but maybe we should indeed have that first:
For the initial installation just saying "Uninstall Message UI, then install this app" in the README seems fine, but (un)installing different messagegui apps can lead to Interesting problems later on if anybody gets the order wrong.

Yes, it'd be nice to ideally have a warning before installing an app - Replace/Keep both (not recommended)/Cancel

I am using the message list app to try it and it seems that it does not handle Signal messages very well. Can someone else test and confirm the same?
For me it will vibrate the watch but the screen will have two icons of "no messages" and "Settings" only.

I don't have Signal installed.
Could you maybe install messagesdebug, and post the log after you get some broken messages?

I tested Message List just now and noticed that it has a bug with watch faces that doesn't use fast load: the app will open when a notification is received, but there will be no message. This was fixed in Message UI last week (not sure if it was 0.62 or 0.63 that fixed it).

Sorry for being a bit quiet about issues, somehow I expected to get things done during the holiday, but so far I haven't actually gotten round to coding at all :-(
Hopefully I'll get some fixes in next week though.

Hi. Great work @rigrig I do like the message-list app a lot. For me the way messages are dismissed works way better then the two buttons in the messages ui. I can confirm what @johan_m_o wrote. With the "deko clock" the messages list opens but does not display the first message received. With the "anton + clock" all seems to work as expected.
As this is my first post: @Gordon I am amazed what you and the community have built there. Great fun!

Thanks! I'm glad you're enjoying it!