widget to display a text file and be able to refresh

[fubaya]

I have scripts that download things every hour and would like to have them displayed automatically in a widget and have the widget refresh every hour. I couldn't find anything in the market that would simply display a file, let alone refresh.

That's the general idea, here's some brainstorming:

Should have a transparent option, I hate most non-transparent widgets.

It should be able to display any text file on /sdcard but might as well make it work for any location for rooted users.

Instead of coding a battery draining scheduler for the refresh, I suppose it wouldn't hurt if the refresh was handled only by an intent. Tasker and Locale are the only ways I know of to change a file on a schedule, so there's probably not many other people who will have a use for the refresh and anyone with Tasker/Locale should be able to figure it out and schedule the update through those.

 

[rzabcio]

I know, old topic, but maybe somebody find some idea?
I cannot find anything like that...

 

[cr5315]

I've been looking for an idea for my first widget. I'll look into making this happen.

 

[Metric]

Even though this is my first post, I have been lurking for quite a while.

Now to the point, over the past week or so I have been working on a widget that will do just this.

So far everything is working on the virtual device, but I will need some real testers soon.

Current features:

• Widget can be resized with a launcher to display more text at a time.
• Widget has two buttons to scroll up and down. However, the scroll is based on the individual lines / paragraphs.
• Widget reads in the file only every 30 minutes / first time load of widget and then caches the file contents for scrolling.
• Widget has a selection between black backing / transparent, and black text / white text.
• On widget configuration, the configuration searches the device and sdcard for available compatible text files.
• Widget can read in .txt, .docx, and .pdf. Future release will hopefully be able to just extract the text from an .rtf file also. Note: any images / tables in the docx and pdf are discarded. Only the text is extracted from them. PDF text extraction isn't perfect, but will suffice.
• There can be more than 1 version of the widget active. Want to view 2 different files? No problem, just add another widget and select a different file to view. Each widget operates independently of one another. Meaning the contents and scrolling does not affect the other.

I am hoping to complete it by next week, and get it out for testing. It currently is only lacking some code optimizations that are pointed out in the android design documentation.

 

[Saney]

That's exactly what I'm looking for. I'm switching from google to a text-based calendar and would sync my calendar with dropbox. Then I could display it (after parsing the file, but I think this won't be too hard). Please keep us up to date.

 

[Metric]

If you would like to help test the widget please see this post in the alpha / beta testing forums: http://androidforums.com/alpha-beta...dget-text-file-widget-viewer.html#post2763675

To tell you the truth, if it is successful with beta testing the retail version will be $0.99. I see $0.99 as a fair price for the widget for all the time I have put into it over the past 3 weeks.

 

[Metric]

The widget is now on the android market for free, but with ads. The ads are only in the configuration screen.