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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

New Quick Calendar icon

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.

230 Comments »

David Shay:

Love the calendar! It’s the only thing out there I’ve found that merges the corporate calendar events and regular google calendar events — something I find completely invaluable! What I would love to see, though, are more views that also do this — i.e. ones that would help me schedule an appointment, so ones like the day view on the regular calendar that shows blocks of available/used time with the event in it instead of a list. Just an idea, and one I’d pay for, at that…

February 17th, 2010 | 8:27 pm
Blaine:

Today only shows up in notification bar not on the screen list. Is this how it is supposed to work? Thanks for your help.

February 18th, 2010 | 6:51 pm
tobi:

Hello jim, thank you very much for this fantastic application – Developers like you are making android overtaking iphones :-)
One short question: If I put the refresh rate to 0 – does it stop refreshing at all?I don’t need refreshing as I only use quick calendar for search function (google, shame on you! they should employ you asap)

thanks & greetings from germany,
tobi

February 25th, 2010 | 8:16 pm
jimblackler:

Thanks tobi, if you set the number of notification icons to zero and don’t put any widgets on your home screen, you will be able to use the application without anything happening in the background that might affect your battery life.

Jim

February 25th, 2010 | 10:28 pm
Mike:

Great app but I found after a few days all the appointments start showing up twice. If you help with it would be appreciated.

March 4th, 2010 | 11:07 pm
Will:

Great App. I’m using Gde home for my Sprint Hero so the HTC calendar doesn’t work. How can we donate for such a great app!?

March 8th, 2010 | 9:38 pm
jimblackler:

Thanks Will, no donation necessary, I just like to have fun with my hobby and develop skills for my career. If people tell me they like the apps that makes it doubly worthwhile!

Jim

March 8th, 2010 | 9:48 pm
twim:

Great app. I rated it 5 star on the marketplace.

I suggest the following improvements.
1. Configurable font size in the notification bar. Smaller default is also welcome.
2. A 4×2 widget.
3. The widget should group events by day as the notification page.

Thanks again for your great app!

March 17th, 2010 | 11:49 pm
anne:

How do I get my google calendar to sync after I update it with quick calendar?

March 18th, 2010 | 8:00 am
Sasil:

Hi i am new tto android .

i want develope a calendar application .

can you help me in that.

if u have any calendar applications do mail me.

and how to i run apk file in android

March 23rd, 2010 | 8:05 am
Cory:

how do I get the widget to appear on the home screen? only the icon appears so far

March 23rd, 2010 | 7:59 pm
Vince:

Hi,
Quickcalendar is a great app !
Couldn’t it be translated in french ?
I can give you the translations if you like ?
Would be great to have days and months in our own language.

Vince.

April 7th, 2010 | 9:37 pm
elliot:

works great!!

good job!

April 13th, 2010 | 4:31 am
lenny:

great app! i’ve been using this for a few months and love it. however today the widget became invisible (however i can still drag it and delete) and it no longer shows up in the notification bar. anyone else get this problem?

April 13th, 2010 | 5:54 pm
freesunny:

Hello Jim!
Thank you for your great application! I would like to suggest to have optional check mark to show locations for the events and I would also like to suggest to have options between launching your quick calendar or a regular google calendar app when you click on the gadget.
Your widget is really great! Thank you for your amazing efforts.
This is what I miss from my windows mobile smartphone :)
fressunny

April 16th, 2010 | 1:09 am
Roy:

Hi, can I connect this app to my exchange calendar? I’m using moxier.
Regards,
Roy

April 16th, 2010 | 2:34 pm
Michael:

Great app, thanks much, just what I was looking for.

Is it possible to have this or another app provide a nag alert for both Calendar and Corporate Calendar? I am a former Blackberry user, and having it alert continually until snoozed or dismissed was absolutely KEY.

It has been a drag not having this feature on the Droid :)

April 22nd, 2010 | 6:56 pm

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April 25th, 2010 | 7:02 pm
Jason:

Good app, best free app for what it does. Would b nice to have ability to add an event to calendar. Or even have button or menu option to open full cal.

May 1st, 2010 | 7:54 am
laura:

Display date alongside the day? Possible and weekly calendar instead of icon?

May 9th, 2010 | 6:37 pm
Gary:

Great App Jim., Thank you. A coupl eof things that would eb sueful but would not (I think) detract from the objectives.

1) A link to the main Android calendar. It’s fine that a tap on the widget takes us to your own agenda view, but from there can I not access the main calendar? Otherwise I need a sepaarete widget or shortcut on my home screen to be able to look at the year ahead.

2) Any chance of being able to customise the colours on the widget – I’m not that fond of green.

Great work though.

May 13th, 2010 | 10:08 am
Mike Weil:

Jim: Thanks for the ap. As a long time Palm user, I miss this feature.

I do have a request/suggestion…again, as a Palm user, my many devices had a neat search feature that would search all of my data bases for something. I find I use this several times a week. It will search forward, or backwards in time. For instance, “when was the last time I met with XXX?” The Quick Calendar will find the next, but not the last. Or all of the times. I find this to be a ‘must have’ feature that I sorely miss.

Additionally, the Palm searches for other data. For instance, suppose I am looking for some piece of data I stored in Palm’s “memo” section (now stored in the contact section of G1/Google)…Palm would find it easily. I would use this for all kinds of data…passwords, account numbers, etc. Is there a better way to store this on the G1? And search for it?

Thanks for the ap as written to date….hope you can modify to take advantage of the date selector you have written in…which goes backward as well as forward.

Thanks.

May 17th, 2010 | 12:02 pm
Eric:

I commented on Android Market as well. Great App. Couple quick things I noticed, though.

1)On 0.9.30, the 3×1 widget is actually 4×1 (which sux ‘cuz I wanted a 3×1 widget)…

2)It’d also be very nice to be able to change the background color of the widget so it goes better with my background (or better yet, make it transparent like it is on the WinMo homescreen?)

3)Also, though there’s an option to make the text bigger on the widget, there’s nothing to make it smaller, making the 2×1 widget less useful. For those of us who like small fonts, a font size selector would be better than just the option of normal or large…

Other than that, it works great on my Moto Droid…

May 22nd, 2010 | 10:56 am
Dave:

Hi,

was working perfectly on my HTC Desire until the FroYo update. Now the widget FCs.

Restored older version.

May 24th, 2010 | 4:20 pm
Dave:

Igore the last comment. 0.9.50 now working perfectly on HTC Desire after reinstallation.

May 24th, 2010 | 4:29 pm
BARRY:

IS THERE A WAY TO SET THE REMINDER DEFAULT TO ‘NONE’ SO I DON’T HAVE TO RESET IT WITH EACH CALENDAR ENTRY?
PLS ADVISE.
THX,
BP

June 3rd, 2010 | 9:28 pm
Tatiana:

Big thank you for laoptional option.
Some people have poor vision and large font helps tremendously. For those with perfect vision it’s optional. Bravo!

June 5th, 2010 | 2:31 pm
laura:

Ap started bugging . Times wont enter have to edit to reset correct time. This morning all days and times are scrambled. And now so is my life, please fix!

June 16th, 2010 | 3:00 pm
Alistair offer:

Hi
Just loaded your app and it looks just what I want.
However it does not populate the full screen, should it do this?
I am running it on an HTC hero and would like to have full use of it but as it is it only shows one appointment and the rest is blank
Any fix for this.

Regards

Alistair Offer

June 20th, 2010 | 10:34 am
BARRY:

PLS ADVISE HOW I CAN RE-SET THE REMINDER DEFAULT TO ‘NONE’.
THANKS,
BP

June 22nd, 2010 | 10:35 pm
TheReal:

Awesome app! But the german translation could be highly improved. if you need help, give me a sign!

July 16th, 2010 | 10:01 am
bioklima:

Weekday and month is displayed as numbers after-hours update to Android 2.2 (froyo).

August 2nd, 2010 | 1:33 am
sergio:

This is an awesome app, no doubt a 10! is there a way to change the color of the widget to a darker tone?

August 5th, 2010 | 12:01 am
Mogens:

Great app.*****
Suggestion: translation into several languages:)

August 8th, 2010 | 11:42 am
Barry:

Great program! I love it. I have a suggestion. This should probably be a configuration option because I suspect that some will not want this. I would like Quick Calendar to show all events for today – even if those events have already finished. Frequently I put reminder notes into a calendar event, and I want to glance at them after the fact: for example I put the names of meeting attendees into the meeting event, and during the meeting I want to glance at those names, even if the meeting has gone longer than scheduled. So, for me, I’d prefer it if all of today’s events are displayed, even if the event is over.

After the day is over, of course, the events would go away.

Thanks, and keep up the good work,

-barry

August 13th, 2010 | 6:07 pm
Gregor:

Thank you Jim! You saved my day!
Simple and yet so practical application.

Regards,
Gregor

August 18th, 2010 | 7:33 pm
cunni:

hey, nice work jim. this is for sure a handy app. I was wondering if this app could have notification sound option within the icon notification. it would be 5 star if available :)
see ya

August 23rd, 2010 | 4:16 am
bioklima:

Date format fails in froyo on Desire switch on German. Some apps already fixed this, please fix quick calende too.

August 31st, 2010 | 9:01 pm
Matthias Tidlund:

Hi, really good jon Wirth Therese app. I use it every day and gåve recomended it to many people.

But I would really appriciate one feature…

To show the location of the meetings directly in the statusbar

Thanks again

September 1st, 2010 | 7:06 am
Matthias Tidlund:

I wrote “job with the app “

September 1st, 2010 | 7:08 am
Karen:

Hi,

I love this app. Been looking for one that is similiar to the iphone calender. One more thing to make it even better is if u can also show the past events.

September 9th, 2010 | 9:52 pm
jan:

I wish that events lasting more than one day showed up on every day in question. Not only on the starting day.

September 11th, 2010 | 12:58 pm

Yes, PLEASE PLEASE fix the date format!!! On my new HTC Desire it looks like “3 5 10” instead of “Tuesday 5. October”.

October 5th, 2010 | 7:36 pm
HYEOKCHEON KWON:

Great App!! really appreciate for simplest and neatest function.

And if you could, would you do me a favor?

I just want to see the past list with current.

I can set how many weeks i wanna see,
but it would be better if i could choose the number of
weeks gone already.

And it would be much better if i draw to left can see yesterday’s events
and right to tomorrow’s events.

I’ll be looking forward to it.

Thanks again. :-)

October 9th, 2010 | 2:52 am

Hello, is there a way to have the app keep notifying me until I acknowledge or dismiss the item? Or does it do that now and I can’t see where the setting is?

Great APP!

November 15th, 2010 | 11:10 pm
Mike Nichols:

Great app. I have a T-Mobile MyTouch 3G slide, and my wife and I share multiple Google Calendars. One odd feature that I would like to see improved is that for multi-day appointments, it ONLY is depicted on the first day and none of the following.

For example, my wife is going to a 3-day conference in January. When she entered the even in Google Calendar, she listed it as beginning on Friday, and ending on Sunday. In Quick Calendar that event is only listed on Friday, though in the native Android and online Google calendars it is shown throughout the entire three days.

In order to see the multi-day event each day in Quick Calendar, you need to go to Google Calendar, create a one-day event, then depict a “repeat daily” pattern until your desired end date. While this is not a big deal, it does seem a bit of a needless hassle.

All that said, this might just be a limitation of my individual phone. The MT3GS has a lot of great features, but at times the HTC “Sense” overlay software has needlessly encumbered the phone.

Thanks, however, for a great app.

November 30th, 2010 | 4:07 pm
Stefan Burde:

Hi there, great app. I would love to be able to change the way the date is displayed though. Would it be possible to have sth. like Mo, Tue … instead of the day-number? Or could the day-numbers start on Monday at least?
Thanks again for the wonderful application. I would love to hear from you, Stefan

November 30th, 2010 | 5:53 pm
Filipe Ferreira:

Hi, some cool features that i miss in it:
– Display number of events in a day ( like event count app)
– Instead of displaying full text of last event in notify bar, display only something like 3 events today (better is to be able to configure that, a custom string)
– The “now” looks horrible for me, ability to configure or remove, please :)

Your app is nice anyway…
I would like to see a donating version also.
Keep your good work!

December 2nd, 2010 | 10:12 pm
vareblade:

Hi, thanks for this great app i really lo:e it but is there a way to skin it? Mostly the widget cause its pretty ugly imo. Thanks.

December 13th, 2010 | 1:26 am
sendi:

Hi Jim, Thanks for very nice work.

I am trying to develop a Calender Application for android market, and I tried to compile the kernal and all the way I could, but still can’t get the calender working on emulator, can you please send me an email with your set up, mostly it looks like I am hung up on the CalenderProvider!

But I would like to use gmail. I don’t know how to set it up, on the internet there is no definite walk through, can you help ?

I have listed my email in the reply box you have it.

thanks!

December 13th, 2010 | 3:02 am
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