[Announce] Qalendar -- a replacement for the default calendar
 

Why, oh why?

I think that the default calendar application is quite good, but the alarm which is always set to 15 minutes when creating an event had been increasingly driving me mad, up to the point when I decided to rewrite the whole thing. ;)

General notes

As you might have already guessed, the application is called Qalendar because it is written in Qt/C++. It is a full replacement for the stock Maemo 5 calendar application.

There is a multitude of subtle differences and additions, many of them are listed on Qalendar's wiki page: http://wiki.maemo.org/Qalendar.

There are also some minor bugs and shortcomings like uninformative value text on the "Repeat" button, blinking details in the date picker, some keyboard shortcuts and gestures are missing, etc. If you find anything strange, you can let me know.

Portrait mode

Implementing a nice portrait mode for month and week is not a trivial thing, so they're locked to landscape, but the rest of the application can be used in any orientation.

Untested parts

The two most significant things that were not tested are synchronization and switching time zones, so I'm looking forward for feedback from people use them.

Recurrence editor

Qalendar has a powerful recurrence editor for events. It might look scary at first glance, but I think it's pretty easy to use for what it offers. For example, to set the recurrence to Friday 13th, configure it like on the screenshot below.

Attachment 32800

Another example: every third year, all Fridays in May and June and second to last Monday of each of those months.

Attachment 32801

How to get it?

You can download Qalendar from extras-devel. The name of the package is qalendar.

From my experience the application is safe to use, but don't trust me -- better make a backup if you don't want to lose your calendar. ;)

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] Qalendar -- a clone of the default calendar
 

May I be the first to thank you for your Qt Calender :)
Looks very good. I'll give it a go on my testing device.
Autobuilder should work AFAIK but it can take a while for it to come through.

Have you seen this project/thread it may help
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=86736

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] Qalendar -- a clone of the default calendar
 

Great!! It is possible to backup?

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] Qalendar -- a clone of the default calendar
 

It's not really Autobuilder, it's a package in extras-devel causing some issues.

See for a work-around:
http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p...37&postcount=5

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] Qalendar -- a clone of the default calendar
 

looks nice. will give this a try.

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] Qalendar -- a clone of the default calendar
 

Excellent initiative, thanks!
I really hope you can create a portrait month/week view. When portrait locked, the screen now flips from landscape to portrait and vice versa while using the different parts. But I can imagine that would indeed be a troublesome task.

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] Qalendar -- a clone of the default calendar
 

YES! I'll print this post and store it securely as 100% evidence that I'm not (completely) (going) nuts. Thank you gidzzz.

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] Qalendar -- a clone of the default calendar
 

Yes please an easy backup on pc or cloud is a must that we don`t have with the stock calendar

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] Qalendar -- a clone of the default calendar
 

The recurring events feature makes this worth trying even if there are bugs. Thanks so much for writing this, and for all your other reimplementation projects over the years!

Hopefully I'll be able to test this with Radicale at some point too.

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] Qalendar -- a clone of the default calendar
 

Thanks gidzzz, I was hoping someone would do this. The alarm choices for the stock calendar always bother me.

@guilledoc: This appears to use the stock calendar database, so I would assume that any exsiting calendar backup/sync options would still be possible. I think that there is syncevolution and someone was working on a caldav file export.

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] Qalendar -- a clone of the default calendar
 

For me ability to syncronize with pc and cloud storage would b an excellent addition as I am so fade up by failed attempts of some guys to make qvernote and dropN900 work seamlessly

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] Qalendar -- a clone of the default calendar
 

I used syncevolution itMs not so reliable(lost some apoinments from time to time) and caldav file export didn't work for me ether
Ofcourse it could be just me. Thats why I would like a working easy sync with pc

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] Qalendar -- a clone of the default calendar
 

A little feedback:

The package is placed in Section: user/games. user/office would be more appropriate :rolleyes:

What's your view on localization? Some elements obey the device language setting, but most elements are English. Any plans for adding translation files like in OMP?

And finally: will you publish the source code any time soon? I am interested see how you implemented some parts of the date picker.

Edit: P.s. I see you are trying to upload to extra devel. I can always get the source there once that succeeds.

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] Qalendar -- a clone of the default calendar
 

I added it to build dependencies, but it seems to be ignored. :(


That's not a mistake. With enough imagination even this calendar is an entertaining game. For example, you can create an event with a blindly picked date and then go looking for it -- you've got an adventure game. Click some random buttons in the recurrence editor and try to guess them using just the month view -- a puzzle game! ...Alright, apparently I used gpspmgui as base for the packaging and somehow it slipped through. 0.5-2 is in the right section.

I think translations will be possible in the next release.

Although it failed in the autobuilder, looks like the source is still there: https://garage.maemo.org/builder/fre...0.5-2/sources/.

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] Qalendar -- a clone of the default calendar
 

1) There is an additional libx11-data in the second pair of braces, please remove this (see edited http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p...37&postcount=5). If this is not enough, try to omit the 2: and/or use Build-Conflicts with libx11-data (=1.1.99.6+0m5+withxcb)

2) The source is there because the build failed.

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] Qalendar -- a clone of the default calendar
 

I've corrected that and tried all 4 combinations (depends/conflicts, with/without epoch), but the builder is pretty stubborn, totally ignores it.

[2013-07-24 14:05:49] cd /home/builder1/maemo-fremantle-armel-extras-devel/work/qalendar-0.5 && dpkg-checkbuilddeps
[2013-07-24 14:05:50] Trying to install build-deps
[2013-07-24 14:05:50] Try to install static depends: libqt4-dev calendar-backend-dev
[2013-07-24 14:05:50] fakeroot apt-get -y -q -o APT::Get::AllowUnauthenticated=1 install --no-remove libqt4-dev calendar-backend-dev </dev/null

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] Qalendar -- a clone of the default calendar
 

A little feedback:

The Polish translation is borked. It should be "lipiec" instead of "lipca" and so on.
There's no animation like with the stock calendar (but it's a minor thing, that's no problem)
There's should be more spacing between the bars which mean the events
If I click the week the menu on the top still says it's month

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] Qalendar -- a clone of the default calendar
 

fremangordon and joerg_rw fixed the autobuilder (or rather removed libx11-data and fixed stuff related to extras-devel), you should try uploading qalendar again.

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] Qalendar -- a clone of the default calendar
 

Quick reply...
I'm going to try new Qalendar, for several reasons. First, it doesn't seem like it's going to corrupt my Calendar database - not that it's large. Second, it's open-source, and therefore can be more easily modified-extended in the future. Third, I want to leave my feature requests. Such us, make sure that Qalendar doesn't use too much memory or processor, or react too slowly - default Calendar is one of the fastest opening applications. Don't include sync inside your application - sync should be an optional extension, not a vital part. Fourth, I do have an event happening on Friday 13th, which should be added to my diary, and your recurrence editor is an excellent feature.
Best wishes.
_________________
Per aspera ad astra...
Written and posted from MicroB.

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] Qalendar -- a clone of the default calendar
 

First impressions...
'First day of week' setting is absent (default calendar offers too limited choice, by the way). Scrolling effect of default calendar is achieved by jumping to previous-or-next month when days outside the current month are clicked, and is greatly missed in Qalendar.
Best wishes. Thank you.
Written in Leafpad.

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] Qalendar -- a clone of the default calendar
 

I think it is fixed now.

Edit: Nope, it is not (I did not want to reboot the phone earlier to test it, because I had some applications running). Next time it will be fixed for sure.

Originally I was planning to add it, but after seeing how fast it is possible to navigate without the animation, that effect in Calendar became a little annoying. ;) It might eventually appear in Qalendar, but probably in some sped up form or with an option to turn it off.

I assume this is about the week view. I am aware of the difference, but I thought it is for better -- more space for the text inside. In reality, do you ever try to create an event by clicking the tiny area between two other events? For me it is too hard to be practical, even with the stylus.



It is one of those situations when I think that the stock calendar tries to be too smart -- when I click a day, I expect to see what happens on that day, not change the viewed month. I wonder if you miss it because you consider that a convenient feature or perhaps you have not noticed that months can be quickly changed by swiping up and down?



It works indeed. I have uploaded 0.5.1 to the repositories, with the following changes:

• Added keyboard shortcuts to jump between years in the month view (Left/Right).
• Fixed week item in the menu not being toggled when activating the week view using month view's week button.
• Support for translations.

If you wish to see Qalendar in your language, you can provide a translation at https://www.transifex.com/projects/p/qalendar/ (account required).

From other news, I have created a page in the wiki (http://wiki.maemo.org/Qalendar), currently it contains only some differences between Qalendar and Calendar.

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] Qalendar 0.5.1 -- a clone of the default calendar
 

Installed it from -devel. Launched it and thought "why normal Calendar launched instead of Qalendar" :]] This is not a critism. Awesome, it even used custom month backgrounds!

Some comments:

* Month names are in Regional settings language, not in Device language. Kinda stands out from other applications.

* Fast switching between months feels kinda strange, brain is used to Calendar and expects at least a little visual feedback

* Awesome left/right swipe to change a year!

* I know it's like in Calendar, but it would be awesome when clicking week number in month view, week view would get arrow to go back to month view in top right corner, instead of close.

* Finally minute freedom for alarms and appointments!

Thanks for creating Qalendar

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] Qalendar 0.5.1 -- a clone of the default calendar
 

how can I get the cal widget replacemet to open qalendar and not the stock one sorry if is oftopic

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] Qalendar 0.5.1 -- a clone of the default calendar
 

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] Qalendar 0.5.1 -- a clone of the default calendar
 

I agree with above, year jumping is excellent and I am slowly getting used to the speed of the transitions between pages.
Option to change or switch off the background images would be handy.

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] Qalendar 0.5.1 -- a clone of the default calendar
 

US regional settings have a peculiarity:
Dates are represented as month/day/year

In the stock calendar in Week View, it picks this up at the top of the columns correctly as month/day

Qalendar in Week View represents it as day/month, which makes today (August 04) look like April 08 if expecting the usual presentation.

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] Qalendar 0.5.1 -- a clone of the default calendar
 

Nice program, but i have one aesthetic/practical problem with my theme that i would like some help to solve.

http://home.electroaudio.se/screenshot.png

Looking at the day/date box then the text is black on darkgray (the original calendar is white on darkgray which is a combination that is easier to see)
-So, is there any way to change the colors used here?

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] Qalendar 0.5.1 -- a clone of the default calendar
 

It belongs to the theme in my opinion. If you want to customize or remove the images, you can find them in /usr/share/themes/*/calendar/qgn_calendar_bg_*.jpg. The extension is misleading, the files are often PNGs.



Calendar seems to use hardcoded colors, Qalendar takes them from theme. For the first line on weekday buttons DefaultTextColor is used and SecondaryTextColor for the second. For current day both of them are painted with ReversedTextColor. DefaultTextColor and SecondaryTextColor seemed to be the most reasonable (I checked various colors from here: http://maemo.gitorious.org/fremantle...specificgtk.rc).

Some possible solutions:

• modify calendar_weekday image in the theme,
• modify DefaultTextColor and SecondaryTextColor value in the theme,
• modify Qalendar to use a different color (but I do not know if other available colors are more appropriate than those already in use).

By the way, the dark horizontal lines are not visible, because Qalendar does not draw them yet.

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] Qalendar 0.5.1 -- a clone of the default calendar
 

Ok no problem, I am sure replacement worldclock has a QSetting to disable them so I thought I'd ask.
I will have a look at that location, thank you.

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] Qalendar 0.5.1 -- a clone of the default calendar
 

Thanks!
I dont think the win95 theme i use is complete, so i will try to attack the themefiles and see what i can do :)

Edit.
I deleted every picture that was too dark and now it looks (mostly) good, but atleast it dont give any unecessary eyestrain anymore :D

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] Qalendar 0.5.1 -- a clone of the default calendar
 

Recently installed this and so far think it's fantastic.

I do have one feature request though, though I'm not sure the best way to implement it.

It's in the repeating events section, which I think you've done a great job of (it's a tough thing to get right).

If I say, have a repeating event for the 25th of every month, but only on a Mon-Fri and if it falls on a weekend, then it should occur on the Friday before I can't see any way to implement that. If it's there then I've missed it, sorry.

Maybe an option to say "Selected Day of Week Before/Selected Day of Week After/Miss" if the date falls on an unselected day?

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] Qalendar 0.5.1 -- a clone of the default calendar
 

I'm not able to change the day the week starts for ex. sunday and not the default monday

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] Qalendar 0.5.1 -- a clone of the default calendar
 

It does appear that this option is missing from Settings.
Also the option to select Alarm tone.

It would be nice if possible to have an option to delete things older than 18 months or 2 years, just incase you need to look back at previous years information. Especially now that jumping between years is a breeze.

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] Qalendar 0.5.1 -- a clone of the default calendar
 

sorry to ask
The database is the same right?
So if I add an event in qalendar will also appear in stock calendar?
Thanks

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] Qalendar 0.5.1 -- a clone of the default calendar
 

Yep. And, indeed, the stock Calendar widget or Nicolai's splendid Calendar home widget. The Calendar back end could always handle repeating entries, it's just the front end is rather underpowered.

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] Qalendar 0.5.1 -- a clone of the default calendar
 

Edit: see below.

Oh no!
It's affected by that Qt bug that renders Ukrainian (and some other) keyboard layout useless.
While I try to type "тест" I get "ÔÅÓÔ" in any input field.
Here is the bug report: https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=12609
Can somebody help?

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] Qalendar 0.5.1 -- a clone of the default calendar
 

Both settings are marked as absent in the Qalendar wiki, so are known "issues". :)

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] Qalendar 0.5.1 -- a clone of the default calendar
 

I've found a workaround:
By default it's just uk_UA which doesn't work.

UPDATE:
System-wide workaround would be to
and then select the new locale in System > Settings > Language... > Device language (Both looked the same, needed one wasn't selected).

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] Qalendar 0.5.1 -- a clone of the default calendar
 

about the bars: I was talking about month view not week view. using cordia theme

Re: [Announce][Fremantle] Qalendar 0.5.1 -- a clone of the default calendar
 

I am so excited about trying this out it's ridiculous. Can Qalendar display multiple remote calendars (e.g., two or more Google Calendars)?