[Announce] ProfileMatic for Harmattan
 

ProfileMatic changes automatically profile (Silent, Beep, Ringing) and other settings according to user specified rules.

Current features (2.1):

• Time based conditions: start/end time, weekdays
• Location based conditions (cell tower id)
• WLAN based conditions (connected to specified WLAN)
• Idle condition
• NFC tag condition
• Network connection type condition (WLAN, mobile, any, none)
• Charging condition (charging or not charging)
• Calendar condition
• Battery level condition
• Setting of profile and ringing volume.
• Setting of availability
• Setting of flight mode / power saving mode
• Setting of BlueTooth mode
• Setting of mobile network mode (Dual/GSM/3G)
• Setting stand-by screen enabled/disabled
• Setting device volume
• Alarm action
• Launching applications
• Executing custom commands

Known issues

• PR1.3: Condition: "Internet connection" does not work if either "Allow background connections" is off, or "Power Saving mode" is on. This seems to be N9 platform bug.

The program is released under GPL license.

Relevant URLs:

• If you find ProfileMatic useful, please consider donating whatever you find (un)reasonable! Donations using PayPal and Flattr are possible.
• Download from OpenRepos.net
• Using OpenRepos for getting updates to ProfileMatic (usually faster updates than Nokia Store)
• Homepage
• Sources of ProfileMatic

One more thing, as you can see from the icon I'm not much of a graphics artist. So if anyone wants to create a nicer looking icon (SVG file), I'm grateful. I have to send here also many thanks to Javispedro for creating the excellent Harmattan Squircle generator, which allowed me to create an icon that at least looks like it belongs to Harmattan.

Created by: me
Contributors:

• Philip Lorenz (Availability action)
• Ferdinand Mayet (stand-by screen action)

Collecting ProfileMatic debug information
When encountering a problem, I might need the debug output if the problem can't be solved otherwise. If I ask for it, see this post how to do it

Latest ProfileMatic testing version
If you want to test new features, or help making sure the upcoming release is free of bugs, go and see this post for instructions. Please first check the version that is included in the post, so that you don't end up with older version that you have installed - I will only update the post when new test versions are available.

Translating ProfileMatic
Please see this post on translation instructions

Recipes:

• Custom Action: Launching applications
• Custom Action: Running scripts as root
• Custom Action: Fixing sudden drop of battery level to 4%:
• Custom Action: Disabling smartsearch to save battery
• Custom Action: Changing Background connections
• Custom Action: Fixing "Twitter not responding" by clearing cache
• Custom Action: Switching off GSM without WLAN disconnection
• Custom Action: Setting internet connection on/off
• Custom Action: Activating/deactivating Facelock
• Custom action: Wallpaper auto-changer
• Custom action: Stopping and starting Billboard and calendar notifications
• Custom action: Night clock (brightness and color change)
• Scripting: Listing current active rules (for example usable with Billboard)
• Scripting: Timing a rule and setting it active by an alarm with a keyword as title
• Misc: Setting alarm from command-line
  
• Using NFC tag to switch BT on, pair
  device and launch applications
• Launching applications automatically at boot

Re: [Announce/WIP] ProfileMatic for Harmattan
 

Very welcome addition to the app world!

Is it possible to run this as daemon / without GUI?

Re: [Announce/WIP] ProfileMatic for Harmattan
 

Thanks.

It doesn't have a background daemon. I wasn't sure if it would be confusing for user that the profile changes even when application is not running. But that's something that I'm interested in input from users too, would that be desirable? For now I just went with the easiest route, not doing a separate daemon.

Re: [Announce/WIP] ProfileMatic for Harmattan
 

Nice start!
I would like to do the following suggestions:
-insert option to allow your app to work without it being opened, then users have the choice (I get your point about it)
-can you integrate a setting for airplane mode? That's what I use at night and would be nice to deactivate it automatically and allow internet connections to look for feeds and mails etc. when I'm in the shower:)

Re: [Announce/WIP] ProfileMatic for Harmattan
 

This is what pains me with N9 apps the most.

GREAT app BTW, used the equivalent on N900.

Re: [Announce/WIP] ProfileMatic for Harmattan
 

That'd solve the problem, good point. I'll see what to do after the user feedback. Maybe a setting is not needed at all, if the great majority just want it to work even when the application is not open. Just wanting to minimize amount of code :P.

I'll investigate that. The flight-mode is not controlled like profiles, but if I find a way I'll include it. I agree it would be nice.

Re: [Announce/WIP] ProfileMatic for Harmattan
 

Hi, I just wanted to thank you for a great app. It's incredibly useful and avoids embarrassing situations in the office or at meetings. An automatic profle switcher is a brilliant addition. Seriously, you have made my day ! :)

If it can be made to switch profiles without the app running, that would be a huge bonus.

Re: [Announce/WIP] ProfileMatic for Harmattan
 

Something I have looked for month since I switch from symbian phone to harmattan phone. Thanks!!!:D

Re: [Announce/WIP] ProfileMatic for Harmattan
 

Thanks for your work. I'm trying out the profile switcher now. Here is some feedback:

1. Nice UI so far :-)

2. I don't like the current time selection lists very much. If you keep them, change the minute list to 5 minute intervals, most users won't need to set it to an exact minute and scrolling is reduced significantly.

3. If possible it would be great to have the N9 time dial (as in alarms) for time selection. I'd really like that :-).

4. Provide a Wifi in range event. I work at different times during the day and like to have silent when in Office Wifi and normal when I leave or go to lunch.

5. Its impractical to leave the app open all the time. Use the Harmattan "timed" (http://meego.gitorious.org/meego-middleware/timed/) to schedule events or write your own daemon (http://harmattan-dev.nokia.com/docs/...g_daemons.html).

6. Have a look at Nokia Situations (http://betalabs.nokia.com/apps/nokia-situations), plenty more ideas for you.

Thanks again and good luck with the project.

Re: [Announce/WIP] ProfileMatic for Harmattan
 

Thanks for the great work with this app!

I think it's clear most (all?) people want the app to work in the background, even when it's not explicitly started by the user, or at least have an option for it to do that. The reason being, I suppose, that the application is designed to change the profile setting automatically because it's hard to remember to do that manually. If you then have to remember to start the app manually to actually do that, then it defeats the purpose a bit doesn't it ;-)

It was an unexpected downside of buying the N9 that stuff that happens automatically or in the background in the N900 isn't so easily done in the N9 (I guess because of the widget design of the N900).

Re: [Announce/WIP] ProfileMatic for Harmattan
 

I don't like the time selection list either. I'd surely use the N9 time dial if possible, but unfortunately it has not been made for applications using QML Components. At least not yet. There's only that somewhat cumbersome time selection list, and AFAIK there's no control to make it in 5 minute intervals. I could of course code my own, but it's something I don't want to use limited time into.

I hope we won't be stuck with that time selector forever.

Good suggestion. Seen that from other people as well. I'll add it into my TODO list.

Will do. A daemon is the only flexible enough solution since in future the application is not only time based.

Good stuff. Seems to have many of the things I want to do.

Re: [Announce/WIP] ProfileMatic for Harmattan
 

Good point.

I think based on the user feedback that the background switching version must be the next release.

Re: [Announce/WIP] ProfileMatic for Harmattan
 

Great app but what about by geographic location either by cell tower id (fast and no gps overhead) or by GPS location i.e. I had a similar app installed on my last phone (android gap phone between N900 and N9) and I would have it switch to silent when I was in class and when I was in work. The rules were not time based but location based.

Also what about the potential for a rule which would take effect depending on the orientation of the phone - i.e. flip it over so that the screen is pointing down etc.

Also time is good but it would be nice if you could set the start and the end time for a rule instead of setting two rules. Also a default mode rule which would take effect if none of the other rules were in effect.

Re: [Announce/WIP] ProfileMatic for Harmattan
 

Thanks for your great app!

Just stating like most people that it should definitely be a daemon in the background. Also, a WiFi based rule is really handy. Different profile for home and work.

As an ex N900 user, I sorely miss firing a script of my own when an event occurs. I have a few things around the house that I can control using HTTP requests and it would be awesome to be able to send one when something happens (alarm goes off, profile changes at some set time interval, home wifi is found, etc...). I realise this is probably way beyond the scope of your app but I like to ramble :D

Thanks again!

Re: [Announce/WIP] ProfileMatic for Harmattan
 

This kind of rules are definitely in the "roadmap".

Not sure about that... Thinking about it, it seems too often recurring incidence (also by accident) that making rules based on that would not make sense. Do you have some concrete example in mind?

I started out with having an end range for time. But during implementation I came to the conclusion that when having only time/date based rules like the current version has, it only adds to complexity and would make the behavior of the program less easy to understand. Example: start time 8am, end time 10am, set profile silent. What if the user manually switches the profile between 8am and 10am? Does ProfileMatic restore at 10am the profile that was before 8am or keep the one that was manually set? Also then there is the issue of overlapping rules. All in all it just adds to complexity without real benefit. I also started out with a default rule but it has similar kinds of problems.

That said, end time will be needed for location based rules. It may turn out default rule will be needed then also. I'll see about then.

Thanks for the feedback.

Re: [Announce/WIP] ProfileMatic for Harmattan
 

Thanks.

I've started working on that. The next release will be about having a background daemon as it's the most requested feature.

Agreed. This goes with the other location based rules. I'm not sure in what order I will do these, GPS/AGPS/Cell based rules or WiFi first, but I intend to implement this also.

I'm not opposed to building some sort of support for running scripts as an action. It'd probably be a "pro" user kind of thing, like editing yourself the configuration file. So if and when ProfileMatic has "conditions" that do some action and you'd like to fire a script at the same time, let me know. I'll see about what's the best way to have support for it then.

Re: [Announce/WIP] ProfileMatic for Harmattan
 

The product on android that I used before was locale which offers a wide range of customization options - http://www.twofortyfouram.com/product.html

I think one of those was phone orientation, I guess the idea I had in mind was to turn it over and automatically switch to silent profile or something along those lines.

The default rule worked really well in locale as it always set the phone back to a default state when no rule was in effect.

Regarding overlapping rules, would you enforce the logic that only a single rule/profile could be in effect at any given point in time? Does this really need to be enforced, ignoring this would potentially remove some of the complexity...

By the way, always great to see a developer actively engage the community.

Re: [Announce/WIP] ProfileMatic for Harmattan
 

Sorry for long delay in responding due to various issues...

Thanks for the example. I can see how that can be useful. I'll add that to things to investigate.

Not enforcing that rule might remove some of the complexity, but would probably raise some other issues. At least for the predictability of what rule is activated for user.

With ranged times a default rule is quite welcome, and at least solves the issue of having to keep state for what profile to restore. But ranged times are still more complex than only start time. With start times the algorithm becomes very simple: find the nearest start time and wait until it's reached. With ranges it becomes more complex: find nearest start or end time, wait until it's reached and then find out if time is inside any of the ranges. If inside several ranges, choose profile to use. If not inside any ranges, then use the default rule.

So I how I see the negatives:
- More complex implementation
- More possibilities for bugs
- Unclear operation with overlapping ranges

For me it doesn't seem worth it right now, just to avoid making a new rule. Making the rules is quite fast done, and as they're meant to automate common happenings they should not change often.

That's how I feel at the moment anyway, but all these suggestions and ideas are very welcome - they brew in my subconscious and when I advance with the application they might become very handy.

Thinking about this, the ranges and default rule are a possibility in the future. But ProfileMatic must have more comprehensive conditions (location based conditions etc.) before that makes sense.

Re: [Announce/WIP] ProfileMatic for Harmattan
 

Bad news: Setting flight mode programmatically seems not to be possible due to Harmattan's Security Policy. Same applies to setting Power Saving mode. I've dispatched a question to Nokia Developer forum about this, and I'm considering filing a bug report if the developer forum doesn't provide a solution:

http://www.developer.nokia.com/Commu...146#post872146

Good news: Running ProfileMatic on background is ready and was sent to Nokia Store last monday. So it's reasonable to expect it to arrive to store early next week, if it passes QA.

Re: [Announce/WIP] ProfileMatic for Harmattan
 

So far I've understood that you can request policy restricted functionality from Nokia for your application, and they provide it in a certificate. I do not know how to request one though...

Re: [Announce/WIP] ProfileMatic for Harmattan
 

I see, that's good to know. I'm a bit worried how that would work with an open source application though, ie. can you include the certificate in the sources.

But thanks, I'll try investigating that possibility.

Re: [Announce/WIP] ProfileMatic for Harmattan
 

Hi again. I seached around and it seems I came to my previous conclusion remembering this discussion about Bedside clock.

http://forum.meego.com/showthread.ph...bedside&page=3

See the upmost message by Jaffa. I'd suppose the flight-mode should be similar permission provided by Nokia Store.
If it is certificate based as I suspect it will be, I think it shouldn't be too hard to implement one on GPL software just technically. But of course it just wouldn't work when someone made changes to the code.
Hopefully open kernel comes available soon for us less experienced with linux, which should cure this problem altogether (and one might argue bring a million security woes along with it, of course).

Re: [Announce/WIP] ProfileMatic for Harmattan
 

Thanks! I took a look at the Bedside clock's sources, and its aegis manifest doesn't list any extra credentials that would be needed. So it doesn't seem to require the "forbidden" credentials that are needed for Flight mode. Furthermore that discussion is from july mostly, and it's my understanding the security framework has been tightened since - so the discussion might not be relevant anymore, but the sources are and I didn't see it requesting extra credentials :(.

Of course I unfortunately too little about the security framework so I might have missed something.

Re: [Announce/WIP] ProfileMatic for Harmattan
 

I've now researched this issue further, and am convinced it is currently impossible due to the security policy to have Flight mode or power saving mode settings.

I've made a support request to Nokia about this, but I doubt anything is going to change without a lot of users complaining to Nokia. If even then.

Re: [Announce/WIP] ProfileMatic for Harmattan
 

This support request, was it an enhancement request via the bug-tracker?
Might be best to do it that way....
Then also mention it in the bug-tracker thread, so as to get more people concerned & voting.

I considered using the bug tracker, but:

1) there's already a more general discussion there about security policy
2) it's not exactly a bug but works as designed. I didn't know it's also for feature requests.

And as I happened to have 2 free support tickets I decided to try it this way. Seemed like the more proper approach.

Maybe bug tracker would have been better for the visibility.

Re: [Announce/WIP] ProfileMatic for Harmattan
 

ProfileMatic v1.1.0 is now downloadable from Nokia Store!

New in v1.1.0:

• Application can be closed and rules are still active
• Following rules can be disabled from application menu

Re: [Announce/WIP] ProfileMatic for Harmattan
 

Fair enough, can't hurt to do all three I guess, if anything it should increase visibility :)
So long as you've explained that you've doubled-up, as you're not sure where the single-best place is.

Re: [Announce/WIP] ProfileMatic for Harmattan
 

Since it's such a long time without update, I'm putting out a beta of the upcoming version for those interested:

<removed>

This version has:
- end time
- default rule
- location conditions by cell id
- some UI tweaks
- (and much code refactoring that user doesn't care about)

I haven't done extensive testing yet, so use at your own risk etc. It should work as intended, but the UI needs still work and polishing. If you have installed ProfileMatic from Nokia Store, you must first uninstall before installing this version.

EDIT: oh forgot to mention, this version has setting flight mode support too. But you need open mode kernel and some tweaking to activate it. I can provide instructions if someone wants to try. I have not tested it myself.

Re: [Announce/WIP] ProfileMatic for Harmattan
 

And on the same day I pull out the beta... the reason being that on my tests I found that matching by cell id is not very practical. There's just too many cell ids flying around in any one spot - it's confusing and not practical for users to make conditions based on those.

I will do a rewrite using Qt Mobility's geo location APIs.

If you downloaded the beta, you should not use the Location condition as it most likely won't be supported in the released version.

Feature Request for next Release
 

Hello,

you have developed a great App so far and I use it every day at work. Because of that I miss 2 major features for it:

Is it possible to support the feature to enable/disable the Bluetooth by a rule?
How about providing a rule based on calendar events? I synchronize my N9 with Outlook for my meetings.

Regarding your ranges [Start/End Time] discussion:
How about creating a rules with priorities? Means define within the rule setup in the condition the priority e.g. Highest, High, Mid, Low, Lowest. This is the important priority for Start and End Time. Anyhow, I don't know your new implementation of Start/End Time. Maybe you have something similar implemented.


Thanks in advance

Re: Feature Request for next Release
 

Thanks. Always good to hear if people find use for the creation.

That should be possible, since there is already an application in Nokia Store that switches Bluetooth on/off. I just didn't find the API to do it with a quick look. Maybe it can be done with DBus call. It should be relatively fast thing to implement, if anyone knows the API or DBus call to do it, let me know and it might get into the next version.

That's been asked by few people, and I will implement it. But most likely I'll do WiFi based rules first since that's been asked more.

Correct me if I misunderstood what priority means here, but if I understood correctly then that is implemented. The ordering of the rules defines their priority. The first rule has higher priority than the following rules. So for example if there is overlapping start/end times in different rules, the rule first in the list takes precedence.

And on unrelated note, I'm starting to again change my mind about cell id location rules. Their potential for energy efficient location matching is just too tempting that I think I will include it. For a program that is meant to always run on background, GPS rules are in my opinion out of the question and I'm sceptical even about cell id + geolocation using database. But I have to do some more experimenting before I make up my mind.

Re: [Announce/WIP] ProfileMatic for Harmattan
 

The beta is back on, now that I have done more tests and refined the UI to be more practical. I'm really happy about the impact on battery life (practically no impact) using this kind of location rules. So try it out and let me know how it works for you in practice.

<removed obsolete beta>

I still need to do small tweaks to the UI etc. before proper release. After version is released, I'll start thinking what to include to the next release. There's been many good suggestions.

Re: [Announce/WIP] ProfileMatic for Harmattan
 

I am not able to install this beta.On the terminal it fails with:

Package Profilematic denied 'mce: :DeviceModeControl' -- origin '' does not allow it

Re: [Announce/WIP] ProfileMatic for Harmattan
 

Thanks... For me it did install even as it gave that warning. Maybe its something to do with having developer mode on or off.

Anyway, I build a new one without requesting that credential, so there should be no problems now:

<Removed obsolete beta>

If anyone else tried installing the earlier beta I'm interested to know if it worked or not. I'd like to have request for that credential for open mode kernel support, but of course not if it's existence causes trouble with stock kernel.

Re: [Announce/WIP] ProfileMatic for Harmattan
 

beta 2 was installed without any issues. I have set cell ids for my office (both 2G and 3G ) . I hope this works well. I say this as I am a big fan of Nokia Situations which I used a lot on my N8. Incidentally, I also used cell id based rules as I found them to be least battery consuming (practically zero impact!)

This is a great application to have on my N9, makes the transition for symbian to meego/harmattan easier.

Now Profilematic has almost all the features I need. But I still miss the ability (from Nokia situations) to turn off bluetooth after 10pm , and also modify the ringtone when I am at the office. I hope you have these lined up in your roadmap for the future.

I would be very happy to beta test any further updates.

Thank you very much for this great application.

:)

Re: [Announce/WIP] ProfileMatic for Harmattan
 

Thanks for testing. Please let me know how it goes, good and bad. I'm curious how Nokia Situations handled input of cell ids, as I've never used it (haven't had a phone that could run it)?

Supporting Bluetooth will come if I can figure out a way to turn it on/off. I'm not sure about changing ringtones. I'll add it to the list of things to do, but I don't think I can do it anytime soon.

Re: [Announce/WIP] ProfileMatic for Harmattan
 

Situations handles cell ID inputs same as you do, you click on the cell ID based rule option and it starts recording cell ids. Only difference it, it does not show the actual cell ids recorded(as it is in profilematic), it only shows the total number of cell ids recorded.

Also, I please urge you to look into ringtones and bluetooth, it will really make the app complete :D

Re: [Announce/WIP] ProfileMatic for Harmattan
 

I have submitted version 1.2.0 of ProfileMatic to Nokia Store. Compared to the beta there came some changes as well.

Here's what's new compared to 1.1.0:

- Location conditions based on cell tower ids
- End time for condition
- Restore previous profile option
- Default rule
- UI/UX improvements

Nokia Store's slow QA process frustrates me, so I will publish here again beta version for feedback once functionality is present and only small polish remains.

I'm planning the next version to have these features:

- Rule activating by WiFi condition
- BlueTooth on/off action
- (possibly action to run a script)

Re: [Announce/WIP] ProfileMatic for Harmattan
 

Would it be possible to add support for headphones? Meaning that when headphones are attached the profile would change to "beep" and when the headphones are removed the profile would change back to "ringing".

It is very annoying that when I'm in a bus listening to music through the headphones the phone still uses the phones speakers to play the ringtone and the whole bus gets to hear my great ringtones (at least I haven't found any way to disable the speaker when headphones are attached). I always have to remember to select the silent profile and afterwards select the ringing profile.

This way I could ignore the whole speaker issue :)