QuickCalendar, an application for Android written in Java
Posted by jimblackler on Jan 30, 2009
I’ve just released a simple utility QuickCalendar onto the Android Marketplace.
It’s a simple application that displays the current and the next (or the next two) events on the notification bar of your Android phone.
I wrote it because I miss a similar feature from my last phone, a Windows Mobile device. The trickiest part was getting access to the calendar data. There is a provider for calendar data, but unlike the contacts provider it is not part of the standard SDK. However the functionality can be obtained if you get the source (Android is open source), adjust the exported items and build your own SDK.
I may write an article on how to do this if there is demand. Also I will release the source for the application when I have OKed it with my employer. In the meantime you can use the application yourself by going to the Android Marketplace on your phone and searching for QuickCalendar.
Downloading
Get it from the Market, or here
Update
I’ve had some nice comments and feature requests (always welcome). As a result I’ve fixed some bugs and added some features.
- 0.9.29:
Search button supported on devices that have a hardware search button.
Corporate Calendar supported on Motorola handets.
Widgets refresh immediately when calendar is modified, when preferences are modified, and when the screen is enabled.
Progress indicator for main page.
Widgets to not refresh when screen is off, to save battery.
Refresh rate can be configured in preference screen.
Bug fixed with widget font size. - 0.9.18 : Cupcake version! Gadget for home page available. Colored indicators in task bar. Also: German language support.
- 0.9.17 : Bug fix release (service not starting on phone power up since 0.9.13).
- 0.9.16 : 24hr (aka military time) format not used in category view unless is on in phone preferences.
- 0.9.15 : Bug fix release (preference changes not taking effect).
- 0.9.14 : Context menu selection for time events. Day group headings correct in all time zones.
- 0.9.13 : Now possible to specify any time (up to 999 weeks) to look ahead for notifications and for the main event list. You are not limited to the pre-set durations. New notification icons more in keeping with the Android conventions. New choice of event list format of ‘grouped by day’ or the original classic layout. Events can be shown colored by the calendar color.
- 0.9.12 : Fixed bug introduced in 0.9.11 (time zones didn’t work). Sorry everyone. Daylight savings time should also work properly now though.
- 0.9.11 : Improved progress indicator. Attempted bug fix on calendar preference screen.
- 0.9.10 : Search option – now possible to search calendars! Minor cosmetic improvements.
- 0.9.9 : New icon from Darrel Austin. Another ‘all day’ event fix. Fixed problem with apk size.
- 0.9.8 : All day events sort correctly in all time zones. All day events future day names correct.
- 0.9.7 : Up two four alerts. All day events work in all time zones.
- 0.9.6 : aDogTrack support. Notification icons can be enabled in preferences.
- 0.9.5 : Less obtrusive notify icons. Start service on power on option.
- 0.9.4 : Ability to select/deselect calendars to alert (where you have multiple calendars).
- 0.9.3 : Fixed problem where the notifications stopped updating.
- 0.9.2 : Fixed problem where the time zone was ignored.
- 0.9.1 : The first published version.
Thanks Matt, re. 1 if you set the number of notifications to zero that should achieve that, let me know if it doesn’t. Re. 2. not sure what you mean by event lines, re. 3. French is on the way, probably in about a week!
Jim
1. I got it. I was experimenting too much with the “time ahead” settings to notice it. I can confirm that works just fine. Thanks.
2. On the main screen (which appears after “clicking” on the widget), there are dates (with a grey background) and, between them, events (that you can click on). I find these events a bit small for my finger. But it’s not a big deal…
3. Yippeeee !
Matt
Hello,
Congrats for this very useful software !
Do you have a release date for code publishing ?
A have few ideas for widget versions :
– multiple sizes, themes & skins, french support…
I have published a weather widget ‘Forecast widget’ (by Francois DESLANDES)… source is available here if you want : http://code.google.com/p/android-sky/source/browse/#svn/branches
I’d like to have the same themes ;)
Hi Jimblackler,
I getting an ERROR “Calendar service could not be found”
Do i need to do any setttings?
I Downloaded App from “here” link on this page & installed using command “adb install C:\QuickCalendar.apk”
Please help me, I want to add it to my Demo Project
Regards,
Pravin
Very nice. Thanks! :)
Hi, can I direct you to this thread at xda devs – a slight problem you may be able to fix?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=526872
I like quickcalendar, it is very useful. I come from WindowsMobile and I am missing PocketInformant features. Quickcalendar solves some of “my” loved features ;)
If you want to add spanish to your supported languagues list, please, send me a text file and I will translate it
Hello Jim
I was wondering if there was a way to have quick calendar to stay open as your home page.
Can’t wait to hear from you. Thanks alot
i used this app before cupcake and i the notifications bar display wasn’t for me… but i’ve just found it again and the widget presentation is awesome.
I would second the call for an optional 3×2 display – though i’m sure everyone has a different preference. One solution i’ve seen (e.g. the London Weather app) is that it could comes with multiple widgets – so you could offer both a 3×1 and 3×2 widget and keep everyone happy!
Thanks again for all the work – brilliant app
Ever since the update it constantly force closes. I never had a problem with it until now. I thought it might be an overclock widget i downloaded by i ditched that and it still happens. Noticed it is happening to other people now too.
New update force closes :-(
I liked better the bigger font size.
Could we have a 3×2, or 3×3 widget with the old font size? (so that it shows more than only 2 future events)
Keep up the great work!
Hi Jim,
Very cool app!
I found another bug with the preferences. The ‘Show all day events’ and the ‘Enhanced date format’ seem to be linked somehow.
I can either see the non-enhanced date (my preference) but then it wont show the all day events, or i can show the all day-events but only with the enhanced date format.
Keep up the good work!
Hi Jim!
First, thx for your great free app!
But it is not perfect for me
i used 5 years nokia S60 with “aktiv standy”
http://www.areamobile.de/images/tests/nokia/N95/display/Standby.jpg
what i miss are some preferences to change the size of the widget (2×2, 2×3, 2×4, 3×2, 3×3, 3×4, 4×2, 4×3, 4×4)
in case of 4x? (4 widget wide) you can write the date (eg: 29.06, 19:30) left (one widget wide) and the event (conference …) like in the 3×1 widget
so you have more place and more lines –> more events
that would
i would be nice to disable that the widget change size when info changes
Keep up the good work!
Hey – thanks so much for implementing the multiple widget idea – it is great… thanks for being so responsive…
….with one problem – the reason it was suggested was so we could see more appointments… the 3×1 and 2×1 options extend horizontally, so we can still only see two upcoming appointments
What I was hoping for was a “taller” widget – so that you can see four or 6 upcoming appointments (so 3 blocks high). My personal favourite would be 3 (high) x2 (wide)….
hope this is something you can do for us!
Hello,
Thanks for this program. I am using it on my Magic (Cupcake) and I have two suggestions:
a) Taller widget showing more upcoming events (something akin to the Home screen on Nokias (N95) or Windows handhelds. I would even remove the agenda view and just keep the widget with a similar view if it was possible.
b) Please, make the widget(s) align with the edge of the screen! I have tried both the 2 and 3 slots widgets in the new version and the default widget in the previous version and no matter what, the widget was always jumping towards the middle of the screen depending on the length of the even title. It should stay constant size – I like my screen tidy. Better wrap the event title or truncate it.
Right now I have a tiny widget with tiny text sitting about 1/3 from the left edge of the screen (the 2 slot one), the three slot one sits straight in the center, but has the size of about a single slot, perhaps little wider. That looks terrible and is not usable with the tiny font.
You have mentioned on this page that you will document the compilation of a custom SDK if there is interest – I am certainly interested in that. Could you post a how-to somewhere, please?
Thanks,
Jan
OK it seems as if people want taller widgets, and an option for a larger font.
I can look into the issue of it centering in the available space.
Thanks for the detailed feedback.
Thanks a lot, Jim, really appreciated. Your app is replacing a glaring omission on Google’s side, actually.
Jan
Thanks a lot, Jim, really appreciated. Your app is replacing a glaring omission on Google’s side, actually.
What about the SDK how-to?
Jan
Awesome! Thanks for this Jim :-)
By the way, is it me or in the previous version sometimes the time for the immediately next event was sometimes written in a nicer format, i.e. “in 2 hours”, or “in 14 minutes”? I liked that feature a lot, but it doesn’t seem to be there any more.
Thanks again man!
Lluís
Thanks Lluis, have a look in the preferences for Enhanced Date Format – is this selected?
Hey Jim… any news on the new vertical widgets…. ?
That is going to make this the must-have application…..
Yup, it is checked on.
I’ve noticed that unchecking “show all day events” actually unchecks “enhanced day format” — they are connected somehow.
Might be a small bug?
Thanks,
Lluís
Cool app. Three things I would love to see is the ability to edit the font color of the text, and also the color of background (I would prefer no background and white text), and also have a few options for the border of the box.
Oh yes, and the ability to add events from the event list is a necessity. With that, I could use the quick calendar instead of the regular calendar for 90 % of things.
Hello, jim. Is it possible explain in detail on how to access android.provider.Calendar class?
Thank you.
I believe the latest update was meant only for cupcake and it wasn’t stated in the market page.
Is there a possibility for the pre-cupcake versions to be uploaded again?
Hi Jim,
Thanks for your excellent and much needed app! I appreciate all the recent work on the widget, but I’d really like to see this force-close problem fixed before any more new features.
I’ve been having a pretty serious force-close issue with Quick Calendar for some time now, and it seems many others do as well- noted in these comments plus many more on the Market comments. I’ve tried lots of different ROM builds and desktop replacements, and the problem seems to be Quick Calendar itself, force closing as often as every 10 minutes or so if I’m actively using the phone. The problem’s improved since I upgraded to Cyanogen’s optimized mod, but it still occurs roughly every 10 minutes. (On my old JF build, it would get stuck in constant force-close loops.) Strangely enough, it seems it may have something to do with some sort of radio issues. I notice when I lose and gain signal, (going in or out of the subway tunnel,) I immediately get a Quick Calendar force close, as it seems the phone resources get briefly bogged down trying to find the signal, which is maybe just enough to tip QuickCal over the edge and make it crash? To be clear, it also crashes even with no change in signal- even in airplane mode.
I love the functionality of QuickCal and I’ve tried uninstalling it, but living without it is a real pain with my active schedule. However living with it is almost as bad because it makes me unable to enjoy the other features of my phone.
Thanks,
Kris
Thanks for your comments Kris.
Let’s try to get the force close issue debugged.
I need more information on where the crash is. Could you download the Android SDK onto your computer ( http://developer.android.com/sdk/1.5_r2/index.html ) , turn on USB Debugging on your phone (I believe it’s under development tools in the settings), attach the phone to the computer, open a console and run the ‘adb’ program in the Android tools with ‘adb logcat’. This will show you a lot of diagnostic logging information. Use the phone while connected to the computer, until you get a force close message. Then paste the last few pages of the logs into an email to me or post them on the blog here.
Jim
Also, it would be very useful to me to physically see a phone from a user getting the force quit problem. If anyone is experiencing this right now and would be happy to bring their phone to my work office in Central London (Westminster area) some time in the day soon, drop me an email.
Jim
[…] […]
Hello,
can You explain the way, how to access calendar data via calendar data provider, and modifying of standard SDK?
Is it possible to publish source code?
Thank’s a lot!
Jiri
Hi, very nice app. I’d like to request a couple features:
– clicking on the widget will open the Calendar default app
– fixed width size of the widget
– Custom background color (+trasparency) for the widget
Thank you
Used to work until I updated, sorry, I’m not sure what version I had before, 0.9.25 now. Can’t get the widgets to load at all, not even the background. Rebooted phone & even uninstalled & re-downloaded from market, still nothing. That said, well done, I like it a lot and I appreciate the time &effort you’ve surely put in.
Brenton
Hi Jim,
I really like your QuickCalendar app, especially the widget where I can view up to 4 entries in my calendar. I was wondering if you could provide an option for users to select that background color of the widget window, and perhaps a transparent background.
Thanks again and keep up the good work.
Rock
It’s really good but make my G1 slow very serious…
May you solve it?
Fantastic app, the only one that have multiple event,
but please ADD MORE slots 2×4 4×4, even a full page will be great, and please keep the size fixed and not resize the background when there are only 1 or 2 entry. because all will be not aligned in the desktop. and looks like there is space for icons but it is not.
Can you make the widget look like this?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/82595757@N00/3664271542/
love the idea as this app, im the same as you, miss the home screen calendar from my old WM device
but this app force closes as soon as i open it….huge shame. great idea though.
Good job!!!
However for “all day” events in french “Now” is translated to “En ce moment”. This is so long that the title may not fit with the left place, e.g., “anniversary” is not displayed. It could be possible not displaying the string “en ce moment”?
Thanks for this great application
Gennaro
Gennaro, could you suggest alternative text? Is “Now” OK in French?
Also I have had one user email me and tell me (in French, a colleague translated it) that he was confused by the date format. Do you have any comment on the date format in the French version?
Jim
For me “now” will be better simply because of the limited space, but I don’t now if other people would appreciate. Why don’t simply use a different color or font? Concerning the date format I found it ok … maybe in French hours are more frequently displayed in the format xxhyy, e.g. 18:00 –> 18h00
Gennaro
Hi Jim,
I found a bug … I had three event displayed:
1) all – day event A for today
2) an event B for today at 6 PM
3) an event C for tomorrow at 10 AM
I removed from Calendar (from the PC) the all-day event
After sync the widget displays always three events
1) B
2) C
3) C (again)
In my case I display only events in two days and no other events than B and C exist in the chosen period.
Hope this helps you
Gennaro
Now the event B has disappeared and the event C appears three times …
Hi there,
Is there any chance I can get the non-cupcake version?
This app is exactly what I’ve been looking for.
Cheers
Stefan
Hi Stefan.. could I ask why you’re not using Cupcake? I am curious.
Jim
Iwould love to have a 4×2 og 4×1 widget to :)
Hi Jim,
Great application! I have been missing this feature since my WM6 device died.
One major problem is that it slows my HTC Dream to a crawl.
Would be willing to pay for an update that fixed this issue.
Oh Jim,
Just saw your reply to my previous question.
My provider (Optus Australia) only started pushing out Cupcake last week. They had been dragging their feet on it trying to get people to upgrade to the HTC Magic.
I have friends that still haven’t received the update.
Jim, this is a wondefull application that helps a lot. What i would really love to see, is the ability to list more events, and have a bigger size (taller) to see the events. Some color configurations for the widget would be great. A great desktop calendar widget i use is the day planner by pogopixels.
Thanks for the great work.
Is there a way to see all ongoing events on the widget? If not, I like to put is as a feature request.
Overall, great work!
Hi Jim,
I’m making an application that would benefit hugely from reading in calendar events from the android calendar. Would really appreaciate any help/advice on doing this. Cheers, Jay