Table of Contents

Widgets

This chapter is designed to guide new and intermediate Total Launcher (TL) users on the types, functions, and customization options of widgets within the launcher environment. Widgets in Total Launcher provide both essential dynamic functionality and highly customizable wrapper containers used to hold applications, windows, folders, launcher actions, application shortcuts and system status displays.

Overview and Types of Widgets

In Total Launcher, the widget is one of the three main object categories, alongside Layout and Graphic. A widget is an individual object that has independent specialized design and features for their specific purpose.

Total Launcher offers two primary categories of widgets:

Widget Selection Dialog

To locate this dialog, navigate to Edit On > Object Design menu (top) + > Widget. This dialog will be seen. The selections are explained below on this page.

Widget - Placement and Advanced Uses

Add a Widget

To add an Application Widget, enter ''Edit On'' mode [long-press an empty area on the Page, Drawer, or Window] and select Add (+) icon , then select Widget from the Add dialog list. A visual thumbnail of all widgets will display in non-alphabetical order. Application Widgets will contain only widgets for apps installed on the user's device.

Widgets can be added to a page, sliding drawer or window. Folders will not accept widgets.

Widget - Built-in

There are fourteen built-in widgets in Total Launcher:

Below is a more detailed discussion of each built-in widget. An understanding of the differences between similar widgets, such as App Drawer, App Drawer (pager), App Group, and Contacts, is difficult. If the descriptions below still leave questions, this spreadsheet representation may be more helpful for those interested.


Widget: App Drawer

The App Drawer widget is critical for advanced setup customization, offering flexibility in how apps are accessed. It can be placed directly on a page, within a window (to create a floating pop-up app drawer), or anchored to a screen edge (simulating a sliding drawer).

Interaction & Navigation

The bottom Menu Bar of the widget is the control center for finding and organizing apps. It contains the Add, Sort, Tag, and Search icons.

To customize the visual appearance of this bar (background, icon sets, text color/typeface), enter Edit On > select the App drawer (highlight) > select Object Design Menu (top) > Options .

The Search icon on the bottom menu bar offers two modes:

Creating a Custom Search Window

To fully customize the search experience (position, background, font), create a Window containing an App Drawer widget. Set the window's Action on open to Launcher Action > App search or Contact search. This forces the keyboard to open immediately when the window launches.

Sorting

The Menu Bar allows a managed Sort icon on the menu bar.

Visual Design

The design options are, again, available once the widget is selected and the Option icon is tapped.

Layout & Scrolling

Widgets placed in windows that have native scrolling will retain their own internal scrolling characteristics.

Item Aesthetics (Icons & Labels)

Users have detailed control over the visual presentation of apps. These can be applied globally via the Shared Options tab.

Backgrounds & Menu Bar

Transparency Trick:

Users can set a color to Hex code #00000000 to make an element transparent (hidden) while keeping the item functional.

Animation & Badges

Widget: App Drawer (pager)

The App drawer (pager) is a distinct, built-in widget that offers an alternative to the standard 'App drawer' for displaying and organizing applications.

It is designed as a customizable container that holds user-selected apps and folders, featuring either vertical or horizontal scrolling.

Its primary difference lies in its presentation and built-in functionalities, which can provide a more structured and efficient user experience.

The App drawer (pager) can be accessed and added by entering Edit Mode > Add icon (+) > Widget, and navigating in the list of built-in widgets and selecting it.

Key Differences and Benefits

While the standard “App drawer” is highly customizable, the App drawer (pager widget provides a different structural approach and unique features. A user may prefer this format for the following reasons:


Widget: App Group

The App Group shares many core customization and aesthetic features with the App Drawer widget but does have some differences noted below. It allows users to create specific groups which makes it ideal for creating static docks, categorized groups (like “Work Apps” or “Games”), or quick-access panels, rather than displaying all applications on the device (which is the primary function of the App Drawer).

Customizable Application Container

The App Group widget is primarily used to display a focused selection of icons, relying heavily on user organization and selection. This selection can include applications, windows, folders, or shortcuts.

Functions and Tagging

The fundamental purpose of the App Group is to act as a grouping container as determined by the user. Once set by the user it will not automatically update.

Layout and Display

The App Group widget provides extensive control over its layout, supporting both grid and list formats:

*Scrolling: The layout allows for vertical scrolling, essential for displaying numerous items. Users can customize the scrolling experience using options such as system scroll animation, snap scroll (to ensure items settle without being cut off), and hide scrollbar. Notably, currently, the App Group does not support horizontal scrolling (paging) like the specialized App Drawer (pager).

Customization Highlights

App Group shares the rich visual customization settings found in the App Drawer when in Edit On mode and selected:


Widget: Contacts

Contacts widget functions as a specialized container for displaying user contacts with extensive customization options for appearance, layout, and interaction as discussed below.

General Functions and Filtering

The Contacts widget can operate in either a Grid type or List type format. Switching off the “Grid type” option makes it a list view.

Image and Photo Handling

The Contacts widget integrates photos associated with contacts through the system contact manager.

Customization Details

Customization options for the Contacts widget are accessed via the options button (gear icon) while the widget is selected in Edit Mode.


Widget: Media Controller

This controls a media application and specifically works with media player apps that adhere to the MediaController API of the Android framework. Rather than attempt a listing of compatible media players, if the widget does not perform, the user should determine if the media player meets this criterion.
The Media Controller displays a set of controls (buttons) along with media metadata (title and artist) and album art for managing audio or video playback.

Key Functions and Configuration

Configuration for the Media Controller is handled through its dedicated options menu:

Visual Customization

The Media Controller offers detailed options for customizing its appearance:


Widget: Page indicator

The widget serves as a visual aid to show the current location within the setup's available pages.

The default page indicator consists of a “house” image representing the home page, and multiple dots for setups with more than one page, all in white. (The image shown is for a 15 page setup.)

As a user's action causes the viewable page to change, the indicator representing the current page will enlarge slightly. This means each indicator (page) has 2 states:
• focused -or- current
• unfocused -or- available but not being viewed

Customization and States

Customization options are accessed by selecting the widget (pressing and holding it in Edit Mode On) and tapping the Options icon (cog wheel) in the object design menu located at the top of the screen.

All customization for the page indicator elements use the widget's Edit dialog which access the launcher's standard Edit dialog consisting of: Reset, Color, Dynamic color, Icon pack, Shape, Image and Dynamic image. These options are fully discussed here.

For the Page indicator function, the above customizations are accessed by the selecting the specific element of the indicator to modify:


Widget: Analog clock

This functions as a clock face, displaying time with hour, minute, and second hands.

Customization and Features

All customization for the analog clock elements use the widget's Edit dialog which access the launcher's standard Edit dialog consisting of: Reset, Color, Dynamic color, Icon pack, Shape, Image and Dynamic image. These options are fully discussed here. The features to be customized with the above options are:


Widget: Compass

The Compass provides directional functionality.

All customization for compass elements have access to the widget's Edit dialog, which access the launcher's Edit dialog, in the follow manner:

  • Compass skin
    • Reset
    • Icon pack
    • Shape
    • Image
  • Color filter
    • Reset
    • Color
    • Dynamic color
  • Background
    • Reset - Returns to the previous setting and saves no changes.
    • Color
    • Dynamic color
    • Icon pack
    • Shape
    • Image
    • Dynamic image

These options, discussed below allow users to fully define the visual appearance of the directional elements and the container itself:


Widget: Circle indicator

Device resouce Data Value Image
Battery % available
RAM usage % available
Storage
(internal storage)
% available
SD card % available
(if inserted)
The Circle indicator displays the current status of a specific device resource in a visual, circular format.

Key Functions and Customization

Configuration of the Circle indicator allows users to select which system data is represented and how the indicator is displayed. The selection of which data value to present is made in the dialog's Target option.

Customization options for the widget container and indicator appearance are:


Widget: Drawer handle

This serves as an expanded trigger area to pull out a specific sliding drawer which is particularly useful if the default used by Total Launcher (a narrow invisible trigger area on the edge of the screen) is deemed too narrow or not accessible.
Total Launcher supports four sliding drawers (left, right, top, and bottom).

Customization and Configuration

The customization options for the drawer handle widget are specific to its function of linking to a sliding drawer and styling the trigger element.


Widget: Slider

Offering on-screen control of screen brightness and volumes (media, ring, notification, alarm, or call) through a linear representation with a “thumb” or bulb indicating the current point within the data range of the target.

Key Functions and Customization

The default slider is basic. A horizontal line with a “thumb” or bulb which can be grabbed and slid for adjustment. All visual aspects of this object can be modified in the widget's edit dialog:


Widget: Photo slide

A slide show of sequential or random display of images from a designated folder at user-selected intervals. and customization options (such as grayscale or corner radius).

Key Functions and Customization

The Photo slide support of image types is not documented, but uiTLM has successfully test these types:

  • .bmp
  • .gif
  • .ico
  • .jpeg
  • .jpg
  • .png

Customization features available in the widgets Edit dialog are:


Widget: RSS reader

An RSS reader integrates _R_eally _S_imple _S_yndication feeds (for news, podcasts, or aggregated channels) through any RSS service. The reader supports the display and content of user-selected services (3 defaults included but a user search for rss sports or rss podcasts etc) which can include images with text and text-only layouts.

Functional Characteristics

Toby says: Scroll with RSS in Windows!

  • Scrolling in Windows: Although windows themselves do not scroll their contents, widgets placed inside a window that possess native scrolling functionality will scroll correctly. This allows users to view long news feeds within a floating pop-up window or sliding panel.

Widget: Checklist

This is a “To Do” list with each item preceded with a active checkbox for a user to indicate “completion” and an edit icon to enter the checklist dialog for creating, deleting, and managing the list.

Key Functions and Customization

The Options dialog offers initial setup

Functional Characteristics

The following describes the everyday use and management of the checklist widget:

The item entry dialog offers the following options:

There is no stated limit of entries or character limit of an entry. uiTLM successfully tested 500 character entries and 10 entry items.


Widget: Application

The Application Widget serves as a container for third-party widgets provided by other apps installed on the user's device (e.g., Weather, Calendar, Music Player). Total Launcher extracts these standard Android views for user placement in the setup.

Visual Customization

While the specific data and internal layout are controlled by the app developer, Total Launcher allows you to customize the “wrapper” or container of the widget. Options for customization will vary with app Android app permissions or the app developer's design, but normally include these basics:

Scaling vs. Resizing

There is a functional difference between resizing and scaling a widget and how it affects the widget's background size. Resizing the widget frame (dragging the corner handles) changes the container size, but the content inside does not automatically stretch to fill the new space. If the widget content appears too small or floats in empty space after resizing, use the rotate-transform icon (then tap it's Transform button and use the top slider [10-100]) to zoom the widget with it's contents which will not change the background size.

Many third-party widgets come with built-in, non-removable padding. Total Launcher's object negative margin may “crop” this outer space which is useful for achieving perfectly rounded corners that hug the actual content of the widget.

Interaction Handling

Application widgets retain their native functionality. If a widget contains a scrollable list (like a generic RSS reader or Calendar), it will intercept touch inputs. Swiping directly on the widget will scroll the list content rather than swiping the launcher page.

Limitations of App Widget Backup & Restore

It is critical to remember that Total Launcher only saves the placeholder for Application Widgets, not the widget or it's internal settings when a backup is made.

When restoring a backup, the specific configuration of the third-party widget (e.g., the specific city in a weather widget or the account in a mail widget) is not restored. The user must tap the placeholder to re-initialize the widget and manually re-apply its internal settings unless the widget's developer has has offered a save setting or restore feature itself.

Widget Not Updating?

If a widget (such as a Clock or Battery monitor) lags or stops updating, the issue is usually with the Android System, not the launcher. Go to the device's Android Settings > Apps, locate the app providing the widget and ensure that app is excluded from “Battery Optimization” or “Deep Sleep” features of the device.