Android GalleryWidget

This is an application which helps users able to make their own widget.

They can put a photo and a text together in one widget.

It enables to edit the text with various kinds of fonts,alignments and colors.

Necessity

I used to crave putting a picture on homescreen, but not as background picture.

What I wanted is easy to be made and deleted and an app widget is just appropriate for it.

I had started making Gallery Widget, though, this kind of widget already exists as one of default widgets in Galaxy.

However, you can write text and customize features which is very distinguishable from the previous one.

Challenges & Solutions

1. Dealing with Multiple App widgets

updating Widget using individual update method
explicitly sending intent with Widget ID

public void individualUpdate(Context context,AppWidgetManager appWidgetManager,int appWidgetId){
        Intent intent=new Intent(context,ConfigWidgetActivity.class).addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_SINGLE_TOP);
        intent.putExtra(AppWidgetManager.EXTRA_APPWIDGET_ID,appWidgetId); // manually sending appWidgetId to update the data
        PendingIntent pendingIntent=PendingIntent.getActivity(context,appWidgetId,intent,PendingIntent.FLAG_UPDATE_CURRENT);

        RemoteViews updateViews=new RemoteViews(context.getPackageName(),R.layout.widget_layout);
        updateViews.setOnClickPendingIntent(R.id.mLayout,pendingIntent);

        // setting remoteview ...

        appWidgetManager.updateAppWidget(appWidgetId,updateViews); // real update here

    }

2. Saving Settings

using SharedPreference with key (Widget ID)

SharedPreferences setting=getSharedPreferences(String.valueOf(appWidgetId),0);
SharedPreferences.Editor editor=setting.edit();

editor.remove(PHOTO);
editor.putString(PHOTO,path);
editor.commit();

3. Customizing Text

changing TextView into ImageView using Bitmap and Paint

public Bitmap setText(AppWidgetManager appWidgetManager,Context context, Bitmap photo, String text, int font, int align, int color){
        Bitmap textImage=Bitmap.createBitmap(photo.getWidth(),photo.getHeight(),Bitmap.Config.ARGB_8888);
        Canvas canvas=new Canvas(textImage);
        Paint paint=new Paint();
        
        // set text features ...
        
        /* Draw text image in the right location */

        condition=true;
        start=0;
        textLength=0;

        while(condition){
            paint.getTextBounds(text,0,0,sampleBounds);

            while(sampleBounds.width()=text.length()){
                    condition=false;
                    break;
                }
            }
            if(textLength!=text.length())
                textLength--; // it finishes when text width is longer than photo width

            paint.getTextBounds(text,start,textLength,sampleBounds);

            x=(photo.getWidth()-sampleBounds.width())/2;
            canvas.drawText(text.substring(start,textLength),x,y,paint);
            y-=paint.descent()+paint.ascent()-10; // sentences have been overlapped without subtracting 10

            start=textLength;
        }
        
        return textImage;
    }

Wanjuuuuu/GalleryWidget

Android GalleryWidget

Necessity

Challenges & Solutions

1. Dealing with Multiple App widgets

2. Saving Settings

3. Customizing Text

Functions

1. Choose a photo

2. Edit text