Create an App Launcher with an AutoTools Web Screen 2017-03-28

Learn how to create a full app launcher using a Web Screen

  1. joaomgcd
    After completing this tutorial you'll be able to do something like this:

    We're going to

    STEP 1 - QUERY APPS AND SHOW TOTAL COUNT


    • Create a task and Add an AutoLaunch Query action
    • Accept settings right away to get all apps
    • Add a Flash action that shows the count for the icons, labels and package names (this is done just to make it easier to use these variables in the next steps)
    • Run the task and check that the app count is correct in the toast


    STEP 2 - MERGE AS HTML


    • Add an AutoTools Arrays action and set the input to %alpackages()|%allabels()|%alicons()
    • In the Merging section check the Merge Arrays option
    • Set the Merged Array Name to html
    • Set the Merge Format to <a href="autotoolscommand://openapp=:={0}"><li><img src="{2}">{1}</li></a>
    (i) This creates a piece of HTML for each queried app.
    It creates a link with the format autotoolscommand://openapp=:={0} where {0} is the first array in the input of the action, which are the app package names. The link will send the command openapp=:= followed by the package name of each app. The package name is like a unique ID that each app has.
    It also creates <img src="{2}"> where {2} is the third array in the input which are the app icons.
    Finally it adds the labels ({1}) to the HMTL.
    • In the Join Merged Arrays insert a single new line



    After this step is ran you should have a piece of HTML containing links, icons and labels for all your apps all in the %html variable

    STEP 3 - INJECT TITLE


    (i) This is a page created by me to illustrate this example. You can download the page and customize it however you want and then use the local file on your device as the source.
    /!\ Notice how in the source of the page there's an element with the title id. This is where we're going to inject the title now
    • In the HTML Injection section, set the Content Element ID to title
    • In the HTML to Inject field set %alpackages(#) Apps
    (i) This will make the page title be something like 66 Apps
    • Select the Get HTML option so that the page is not immediately displayed. You will get the injected HTML in the task instead, inside the %athtml variable.


    STEP 4 - BUILD FINAL PAGE


    /!\ Notice how in the source of the page there's an element with the list id. This is where we're going to inject the app items now

    • Add another AutoTools Web Screen action
    • Set the source to %athtml which is the output of the previous action
    • Enable Fullscreen
    • In HTML Injection set Content Element ID to list
    • In HTML to Inject write %html (which contains the HTML we generated in the AutoTools Arrays action before)


    If you now run the task you can see list of apps, but clicking them doesn't do anything yet. Let's make the apps open now.

    STEP 6 - OPEN APP ON CLICK


    • Create a new profile with the AutoApps Command event condition
    • Set the command filter to openapp=:= (which is the same kind of command that is sent from each link in the HTML we built above)
    • Set the variable name to %app
    • In the task add a flash action with the text Opening app %app
    • Add an AutoLaunch action and set the package name to launch to %app
    • Enable the Exact Package Name option
    • Exit Tasker to save


    STEP 7 - TEST


    If you now run the initial task again you'll get the list of apps and when you click each one, the app will launch! :cool:

Recent Reviews

  1. 07UA599A
    07UA599A
    5/5,
    Version: 2017-03-28
    This is a great start to figure out how to get tasker to make scrolling launcher/navigation