attila77 | # 1 | 2009-09-10, 21:44 | Report

Have you ever left an app running only to let it run your battery dry ? Would you like to run a torrent client, but only if you're home and plugged in ? Well, there might be a way, but I need your input !

I wrote a script called Shepherd, which is basically a glorified scheduler (cron) that has not just time, but a power and connectivity axis, too. This way, for any process registered to Shepherd, you can define:

• hours allowed

• connection type allowed (I guess you could define exact connections, but I never got that far)

• power requirements (plugged in, or a minimum % of battery)

• user inactivity (also started to implement, but never actually finished)

I used it for a couple of things... Flipclock (turn on if charging), transmission (turn on if charging and on WLAN between 2AM and 8AM) and killing maps if battery gets below 25%. It's very simple - launches the app if it is not already running and the conditions are met, and kills it if they aren't (but only if they were started by the shepherd app).

It currently does not have a GUI which pretty much makes it unusable for most users, BUT, this is where you have your say ! What would you like to see in Shepherd in addition to what I described ? Can you think up more use-case scenarios ? Do you have ideas how the GUI should look ? (throwing it all on one page would really cramp it's style !)

Do you like/need something like this ? Comments, ideas more than welcome !

zerojay | # 2 | 2009-09-10, 21:46 | Report

This is a great idea. I can't think of any other vectors I'd like. Great job... and if you're interested in getting some UI design help from a member of the Maemo 5 UI team, please let me know and I'll get you in touch.

ColdFusion | # 3 | 2009-09-10, 22:00 | Report

Location maybe? When you get to the store it opens your grocery list.
For exact connection a use case could be that you want to run some app only on the corporate network, or don't run the torrent client on it.

attila77 | # 4 | 2009-09-10, 22:22 | Report

Excellent idea ! We could also make it chirp to know you should get off the bus, or just start Maps when you leave home Keep this rolling !

Yes, I agree completely, the sole reason it's not already implemented is that it required more mucking with the Diablo API than I could spare at the time. But if there is interest, I can certainly take another look

tso | # 5 | 2009-09-10, 22:22 | Report

heh, could it be made to control the updates checker so that it only uses wifi?

attila77 | # 6 | 2009-09-10, 22:30 | Report

Absolutely. My GTK+ UI skills are a little worse than that of a sleeping walrus

attila77 | # 7 | 2009-09-10, 22:36 | Report

Hm, Shepherd can't make an app (not) use wifi, however, it can start or stop it depending whether wifi is (not) available. Would that help ?

Saturn | # 8 | 2009-09-10, 23:02 | Report

Excellent idea!! Hope it prospers, I would really love to have this functionality.

I think in this case wouldn't help.

Another idea/workaround could be to play with the "next update" time. That is, increase it a lot when doesn't have a preferred connection and decrease it when in the opposite case.. but it's a little bit weird.

The best would be to ask to be given an option to disable the automatic updates and the ability to run them on request. Does this qualify for an enhancement request (if it doesn't already exist)?

lma | # 9 | 2009-09-10, 23:03 | Report

Other possible vectors: CPU load, RAM/SWAP usage, network load. Maybe contextkit integration down the line.

qole | # 10 | 2009-09-10, 23:09 | Report

So you could use this to send your IP address to a central server every time you connected to a new WiFi? (Still) thinking of a thief-catching utility...