Official myLock thread - we don't like the lockscreen

[petjakob]

the widget button is a toggle. you press it to enable lockscreen suppression. you can press it again if you find yourself facing some kind of bug that you don't want to deal with and so you can just disable myLock rather than going through a longer uninstallation process.

Are you saying that the main problem is that when you press power, you see the lockscreen, then can get out of it by pressing the home key? that would be extremely odd and I would want to know what other programs you are using

 

[Martin030908]

Alpha 1 is still the most consistent version for me. I'm going to try alpha C again... and the Lite Beta version....

update: The Lite Beta version works fine.... thought it would anyway since you said it's the alpha 1 coding. The widget isn't bad

 

[ValkF6]

The widget works great, it removes one of the few irritants of the Droid for me. It did take me awhile to figure I had to do something with the screen within five seconds or so or it would turn back off. A nice touch, actually.

 

[petjakob]

I'm doing some maintenance on the lite version code to eliminate some rare scenario force closes I've found and get it commented so I can use it as a tutorial for a few of my collaborating devs. I am just doing some final testing and I will upload it.

The only key change is that the widget button automatically turns off your pattern setting if you had it on, then toggles it back on if you disable myLock. That means you can enter your pattern, press myLock, and from then on you won't need to use your pattern and will enjoy instant unlock. When you are ready to Lock Down again, just hit the button again and your pattern mode is back on.

 

[Martin030908]

My findings...

Alpha 1 = This is the only version that works consistently for me. Phone calls cause no issues.

Alpha 2a = Never bypassed the lock screen for me
Alpha 2b = Worked sometimes, but was a 50/50 ratio whether or not it bypassed the lock.
Alpha 2c= Worked for the first 10 minutes... then wouldn't bypass lock screen.

myLock Lite = worked great until I received a phone call... myLock disabled for the call and when I re-enabled it, it no longer bypassed the lock screen. Did an uninstall, fresh reboot, re-installed, worked fine until I received a call again.

With every version I've done an uninstall and a fresh reboot (battery pull). Then I would install each version. For whatever reason, Alpha 1 is the most stable version for me. It does 'flicker' the lock screen occasionally but it bypasses it 99.9% of the time so it doesn't bother me at all.

Just wanted to give you my results, if it helps it helps

 

[petjakob]

Did you re-enable it while the call was in progress? I haven't tried that in the emulator. I hope you didn't because it's set up to re-enable automatically when the call ends. In the update I put new ticker text while calls are in progress that clearly states that it is pausing necessarily because of the phone call.

Alpha 1 didn't have any phone call detector, so it caused you to always see the lockscreen when you were trying to dial things into your call. If found that it would only happen if you let it sleep initially after dialing on the timeout. If you put it up to your ear immediately - as would most people when dialing calls - the prox sensor would capture the screen off event fully such that it would behave as expected going forward. On the converse you would never escape the lockscreen if you allowed that first timeout screen off to happen after dialing. This is probably why version 1 has been rock solid for you.

The complete "stop working" behavior is when the lockscreen gatekeeper blacklists us for breaking the rules. lol. I've done extensive case testing in the emulator with the myLock lite update and I cannot get it to crash or fail. I basically tried hard to make it break the rules with various call start and stop states (examples: receiving a call while the device was asleep, then hanging up from the device while it was awake & the opposite receiving a call while device was awake then making the other party hang up while it was asleep again), and it was rock solid. I'm sure bugs will still turn up but try it out and let me know if it is feeling more reliable.


Thanks to everyone who has downloaded and posted or emailed feedback. You guys are my testers-- because this is open source & we aren't a software company with paid testers, your patience with the bugs is crucial to continued success and improvement.

For me on day to day use I have 2c running in foreground mode and I never experience problems. I am working on complete version 2d update which implements lite mode option, the phone listener fixes, some options for pattern mode users, and a semi-usable wakehome mode.

 

[ValkF6]

I'm running the lite version, downloaded today, it's worked well, even after incoming and outgoing phone calls.

 

[Martin030908]

Did you re-enable it while the call was in progress? I haven't tried that in the emulator. I hope you didn't because it's set up to re-enable automatically when the call ends. In the update I put new ticker text while calls are in progress that clearly states that it is pausing necessarily because of the phone call.

Alpha 1 didn't have any phone call detector, so it caused you to always see the lockscreen when you were trying to dial things into your call. If found that it would only happen if you let it sleep initially after dialing on the timeout. If you put it up to your ear immediately - as would most people when dialing calls - the prox sensor would capture the screen off event fully such that it would behave as expected going forward. On the converse you would never escape the lockscreen if you allowed that first timeout screen off to happen after dialing. This is probably why version 1 has been rock solid for you.

The complete "stop working" behavior is when the lockscreen gatekeeper blacklists us for breaking the rules. lol. I've done extensive case testing in the emulator with the myLock lite update and I cannot get it to crash or fail. I basically tried hard to make it break the rules with various call start and stop states (examples: receiving a call while the device was asleep, then hanging up from the device while it was awake & the opposite receiving a call while device was awake then making the other party hang up while it was asleep again), and it was rock solid. I'm sure bugs will still turn up but try it out and let me know if it is feeling more reliable.


Thanks to everyone who has downloaded and posted or emailed feedback. You guys are my testers-- because this is open source & we aren't a software company with paid testers, your patience with the bugs is crucial to continued success and improvement.

For me on day to day use I have 2c running in foreground mode and I never experience problems. I am working on complete version 2d update which implements lite mode option, the phone listener fixes, some options for pattern mode users, and a semi-usable wakehome mode.

If it's gonna benefit you and development more... should I run 2c? instead of Alpha 1?
I did not try to re-enable during the call, as I assumed it would re-enable after it concluded

 

[petjakob]

Really, run whatever you like the best. If you like 1 better than even the Lite release, the file is yours to use and it is still also available to be obtained on our site. It's gloriously unpolished ;]

I think you were the one that inspired the Lite version idea. I'm starting to wonder if using notifications is more overt than the Lite version even needs to be. I am pretty sure I can change it to only send popup text (called making Toast in the code) to be even more minimal.

 

[Martin030908]

Really, run whatever you like the best. If you like 1 better than even the Lite release, the file is yours to use and it is still also available to be obtained on our site. It's gloriously unpolished ;]

I think you were the one that inspired the Lite version idea. I'm starting to wonder if using notifications is more overt than the Lite version even needs to be. I am pretty sure I can change it to only send popup text (called making Toast in the code) to be even more minimal.

I've since done an uninstall of Alpha 1 and a fresh reboot and install of AlphaC. It's working fine right now. Trying to see if and what problems I run into. So far so good.
I do like myLock Lite... but I like to disable the notification icon in AlphaC, and with the Lite version it rears it's head again

I know I can run what version I want since you've been kind enough to make them all available... but I'd like to help you out by running most recent updates to help you trouble shoot... or at least get some real world feedback.

 

[petjakob]

Well in lite you just dismiss the notification :iphone: I realize that I should not use notification for such events because its not something the user should be asked to attend to.. lol :icon_ devil:

Guess I didn't learn anything after my iPhone sadness. LOL

---fixing this right now. going forward the lite version never pushes anything into notifications.

 

[Martin030908]

Back again...
I uninstalled 2c, as it reached a point after a Handcent Pop-Up where it became blacklisted, as you mentioned, and would no longer bypass the lock screen. Worked fine since last night and all this morning until this instance. Many other Pop-Ups from Handcent came through fine before the final one that seemed to blacklist myLock.

Back to Alpha1. It's rock solid for me

 

[petjakob]

And the culprit is revealed. Handcent pushes popups by calling the same keyguard manipulations we're using.

It's actually most likely that handcent is the one breaking the rules with version 2c. myLock is causing it to fail because the two try to go off at once. It appears once the rules are broken nobody gets to disable the keyguard again after that.

I'm actually shocked you can get any functionality at all with both of these running. I'd expect it to be a complete train wreck. :iphone:

I've noticed that it is possible to get programs like this to co-exist. One of my favorite apps executive assistant has options in it for if you use SMSPopup. That is the only way to overcome what you're experiencing though. Root cause is the fact that what we really want to do isn't supported by the SDK. If a dev wants to release a totally redone home screen, hey no problem. But they didn't make the same courtesy about the lockscreen, just gave us 2 functions to pause or unpause for the purpose of popups.

 

[Martin030908]

Glad we found the culprit! It makes sense, because once myLock gets blacklisted, the Handcent Pop-Up doesn't disable the slide to unlock either.
For some reason Alpha1 works flawlessly in conjunction with Handcent's pop-up.
So what would be the solution moving forward? Disable the Handcent pop-up? I'd like to purchase your app when it's available, regardless that I have 'free' versions. I just don't want to run into this issue. If I gotta I'll just 'donate' for Alpha1 so my conscious can rest

 

[petjakob]

You might be able to do well with the app executive assistant, which gives you the option of a widget that will collect unread sms & supports other kinds of events also. I know handcent has more features besides popups and I find the exec asst widget to be the perfect complement to disabling the lockscreen when you place it on your main homescreen