Re: Moving the Calendar App forward *

[kunreddy ramakrishna reddy]

Hello Andreas,

--> I read your discussion.It was nice. I would be more interested to know what are the bugs you find in android calender App and what changes you want to make.So that we also contribute something to that project

Thanks
Ramakrishna
Graduate Student (Computer Science)

On Tue, Oct 5, 2010 at 12:19 PM, A.Grunewald <andreas....@gmail.com> wrote:

Junk Score: 2 out of 10 (below your Auto Allow threshold) | Approve sender | Block sender | Block domain |

Hello everybody,
I have been watching Android and the ASOP for quite a while now, just
recently I got my Nexus One and am really enjoying it. But there is
one sore spot in Android that really bugs me and that is the Calendar
App which is behind its potential in my eyes.
I have some great ideas for the Calendar Application and I would also
like to tackle a few of the currently outstanding Issues in the
Android Issue Tracker with regards to the Calendar App. My question
now would be if there are people currently working on Android that I
could connect with in order to bring the Calendar App first to compile
against the SDK and then to move it forward. I would like to
contribute the changes and fixes I make back to the Android Open
Source Project and not do a fork since I think having the core
Calendar app improved will help the overall community more than just
forking the project.
Please let me know what you think and if you have any advice or could
point me to contacts that could provide knowledge around the Calendar
app please share. I know that there are minor developments going into
the Calendar app behind closed doors at Google but it would be great
if the open source community could step up and contribute some code
too.

Kind Regards

Andreas

[Andreas Grunewald]

Hello Ramakrishna,
besides focussing on a few of the issues and enhancements from the official issue tracker at
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/list?q=label:Subcomponent-Calendar
I am also thinking about some usability enhancements on how the information is presented to make better use of screen real estate, reduce clicks and scrolling. Many of the ideas I have come from the original Palm OS Calendar app that in my eyes did more with 160x160 pixels than the Android Calendar with 480x800 pixels.
So I am really hoping to hear from someone inside Google, to get some support on this, especially with the initial build. All contributions will be open source and will be sent through Gerrit at https://review.source.android.com/ parallel to things being approved or not there will be a fork of the Calendar app that will be available in the Market with the latest features. The idea is to merge in any of the changes from the official Android releases when they are happening. That way I am hoping to provide a faster development path for the Calendar app similar to the K9-Mail project.

I will give this discussion another week, if I haven't heard anything from Google till that point I will start the fork with the first goal of Getting a SDK compliant Calendar APK out of the door. And then I will start adding features and maybe some bugfixes. You are invited to join the project as soon as it launches.

Cheers

Andreas

[kunreddy ramakrishna reddy]

Respected Andreas,

Thanks for the prompt and informative reply.I am still a beginner in Android App development i will definitely go through the links provided by you.

Thanks once again.

Ramakrishna

--
Ramakrishna Reddy K, 

M.E. Computer Science,

Project Assistant,CAHU,BITS-Pilani,Rajasthan.

[Dianne Hackborn]

The calendar app is being deeply rewritten right now; I think it is unlikely that contributions made to it would be able to be accepted.

I think the top priority for me would be to get the calendar provider in the SDK, so developers can develop their own versions of the calendar app that provide the features they want.  Unfortunately it has been a challenge getting to a point where it can be in the SDK, because it has been evolving rapidly (adding multiple account support, exchange support, etc).  I think we are close, though.

And do note -- the calendar provider is *not* public at this point, so if you put an app on Market that is using it you are going to encounter between some or a lot of trouble with it breaking due to relying on private APIs.  The correct thing to do would be to also fork the content provider into the published app as well...  but that means you wouldn't get to operate with Google's sync adapter.

--
Dianne Hackborn
Android framework engineer
hac...@android.com

Note: please don't send private questions to me, as I don't have time to provide private support, and so won't reply to such e-mails.  All such questions should be posted on public forums, where I and others can see and answer them.

[kunreddy ramakrishna reddy]

@Dianne Hackborn

Sorry for posting a private message in forum.Actually it was intended to Andeas.I did not checked while replying.

Sorry once again.

Thanks

Ramakrishna

[Andreas Grunewald]

Hello Dianne,
thanks for the feedback. And it's good to hear that there is work on the Calendar App being done, it's about time ;-). I agree the Calendar Provider would have to be moved into the published app too for Phones that don't have the Calendar Provider available. I haven't tested but I am thinking of doing some conditional testing where I would use the google provider if it existed and would use my own in other cases. if there is something we the opensource community can do, to help with the Calendar Provider or the actual Calendar App you now know that we are out here and we want to contribute.
So let us know if here are ways that we could get involved and make a difference.

Thanks for the feedback

Andreas

[Dianne Hackborn]

Fwiw, there has been work on the Calendar app in pretty much every release.  It may not be the work you want, but a fair amount has been done.  (Multiple account and exchange support are the most recent significant things.)

[Andreas Grunewald]

Oh absolutely and the displaying of the free/busy time in the month view and Agenda scrolling and all those things absolutely made the app better.
But there are still some people, including me that would love to see the Calendar app move forward faster than with every major Android release.
Also a fork could and evolve faster and drive ideas from users that then could flow back into the official app. I am looking forward to the next version, what you have been saying sounds promising :- )
Cheers

Andreas

[Andreas Grunewald]

Hello Everybody,

now that Gingerbread has been released. I am wondering what kind of work I could get into the ASOP on the Calendar app. I have seen in the Honeycomb Demos that there is a new Calendar Widget so I am assuming there is some work being done on the Calendar app, would it make sense to work on the Calendar app develop fixes and even if I don't get them into ASOP rebase the changes on the Honeycomb code once it is ready. I could probably release the fixes independently through the market until I get them into ASOP. So my question would be is the Calendar app going through a complete rewrite or will the code evolve from the current state? I don't want to be left with work that I have to throw away once Honeycomb gets released.

Cheers

Andreas

[Dianne Hackborn]

It's probably safe to assume that the UI part, at least, is going through a fairly major overhaul.  In fact the GB source is kind-of irrelevant -- you'll notice it has few changes to the apps there.

[A.Grunewald]

Hello,
now that Honeycomb is close to being released I am wondering how the
Calendar Content Provider is moving along, I have taken a Quick look
at API 11 and could not find anything with regards to a SDK Calendar
Provider, are there any plan of bringing this into the API in the near
future say the next 6 months?
I would assume that the Honeycomb sources of the calendar app rely
heavily on fragments and are not compatible with Gingerbread, is there
a way forward for the Calendar app with all these changes happening, I
would love to contribute some long requested features but I would like
to have the feeling that those changes actually have a chance of
getting rolled into the official code base. I don't want to have to
fork the Calendar App just for the sake of adding a few features.

Cheers

Andreas

> >> On Fri, Oct 8, 2010 at 12:05 PM, Dianne Hackborn <hack...@android.com>wrote:
>
> >>> Fwiw, there has been work on the Calendar app in pretty much every
> >>> release.  It may not be the work you want, but a fair amount has been done.
> >>>  (Multiple account and exchange support are the most recent significant
> >>> things.)
>
> >>> On Fri, Oct 8, 2010 at 10:24 AM, Andreas Grunewald <
> >>> andreas.grunew...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >>>> Hello Dianne,
> >>>> thanks for the feedback. And it's good to hear that there is work on the
> >>>> Calendar App being done, it's about time ;-). I agree the Calendar Provider
> >>>> would have to be moved into the published app too for Phones that don't have
> >>>> the Calendar Provider available. I haven't tested but I am thinking of doing
> >>>> some conditional testing where I would use the google provider if it existed
> >>>> and would use my own in other cases. if there is something we the opensource
> >>>> community can do, to help with the Calendar Provider or the actual Calendar
> >>>> App you now know that we are out here and we want to contribute.
> >>>> So let us know if here are ways that we could get involved and make a
> >>>> difference.
>
> >>>> Thanks for the feedback
>
> >>>> Andreas
>

> >>>> On Fri, Oct 8, 2010 at 10:43 AM, Dianne Hackborn <hack...@android.com>wrote:
>
> >>>>> The calendar app is being deeply rewritten right now; I think it is
> >>>>> unlikely that contributions made to it would be able to be accepted.
>
> >>>>> I think the top priority for me would be to get the calendar provider
> >>>>> in the SDK, so developers can develop their own versions of the calendar app
> >>>>> that provide the features they want.  Unfortunately it has been a challenge
> >>>>> getting to a point where it can be in the SDK, because it has been evolving
> >>>>> rapidly (adding multiple account support, exchange support, etc).  I think
> >>>>> we are close, though.
>
> >>>>> And do note -- the calendar provider is *not* public at this point, so
> >>>>> if you put an app on Market that is using it you are going to encounter
> >>>>> between some or a lot of trouble with it breaking due to relying on private
> >>>>> APIs.  The correct thing to do would be to also fork the content provider
> >>>>> into the published app as well...  but that means you wouldn't get to
> >>>>> operate with Google's sync adapter.
>
> >>>>> On Fri, Oct 8, 2010 at 8:53 AM, Andreas Grunewald <
> >>>>> andreas.grunew...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >>>>>> Hello Ramakrishna,
> >>>>>> besides focussing on a few of the issues and enhancements from the
> >>>>>> official issue tracker at
>

> >>>>>>http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/list?q=label:Subcomponent-Cal...

> >>>>>> I am also thinking about some usability enhancements on how the
> >>>>>> information is presented to make better use of screen real estate, reduce
> >>>>>> clicks and scrolling. Many of the ideas I have come from the original Palm
> >>>>>> OS Calendar app that in my eyes did more with 160x160 pixels than the
> >>>>>> Android Calendar with 480x800 pixels.
> >>>>>> So I am really hoping to hear from someone inside Google, to get some
> >>>>>> support on this, especially with the initial build. All contributions will
> >>>>>> be open source and will be sent through Gerrit at

> >>>>>>https://review.source.android.com/parallel to things being approved

> >>>>>> or not there will be a fork of the Calendar app that will be available in
> >>>>>> the Market with the latest features. The idea is to merge in any of the
> >>>>>> changes from the official Android releases when they are happening. That way
> >>>>>> I am hoping to provide a faster development path for the Calendar app
> >>>>>> similar to the K9-Mail project.
>
> >>>>>> I will give this discussion another week, if I haven't heard anything
> >>>>>> from Google till that point I will start the fork with the first goal of
> >>>>>> Getting a SDK compliant Calendar APK out of the door. And then I will start
> >>>>>> adding features and maybe some bugfixes. You are invited to join the project
> >>>>>> as soon as it launches.
>
> >>>>>> Cheers
>
> >>>>>> Andreas
>
> >>>>>> On Fri, Oct 8, 2010 at 6:59 AM, kunreddy ramakrishna reddy <
> >>>>>> rkreddy....@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >>>>>>> Hello Andreas,
>
> >>>>>>> --> I read your discussion.It was nice. I would be more interested to
> >>>>>>> know what are the bugs you find in android calender App and what changes you
> >>>>>>> want to make.So that we also contribute something to that project
>
> >>>>>>> Thanks
> >>>>>>> Ramakrishna
> >>>>>>> Graduate Student (Computer Science)
> >>>>>>> On Tue, Oct 5, 2010 at 12:19 PM, A.Grunewald <

> >>>>>>> andreas.grunew...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >>>>>>>>  Junk Score: 2 out of 10 (below your Auto Allow threshold<https://www.boxbe.com/mail-screening>)
> >>>>>>>> | Approve sender<https://www.boxbe.com/anno?tc=5188273958_1623280956>| Block
> >>>>>>>> sender <https://www.boxbe.com/anno?tc=5188273958_1623280956&disp=b>| Block
> >>>>>>>> domain<https://www.boxbe.com/anno?tc=5188273958_1623280956&disp=b&dom>| [image:
> >>>>>>>> Boxbe] <https://www.boxbe.com/overview>

> >>>>> hack...@android.com

>
> >>>>> Note: please don't send private questions to me, as I don't have time
> >>>>> to provide private support, and so won't reply to such e-mails.  All such
> >>>>> questions should be posted on public forums, where I and others can see and
> >>>>> answer them.
>
> >>> --
> >>> Dianne Hackborn
> >>> Android framework engineer

> >>> hack...@android.com

>
> >>> Note: please don't send private questions to me, as I don't have time to
> >>> provide private support, and so won't reply to such e-mails.  All such
> >>> questions should be posted on public forums, where I and others can see and
> >>> answer them.
>
> --
> Dianne Hackborn
> Android framework engineer

> hack...@android.com