Tasker not relaying notifications

[Christian Simpson]

Hi, this post is the product of months of trying to get multiple Notification plugins working properly with my Kevo front door lock, particularly the popular AutoNotification plugin.

The end result of a lot of testing seems to be, according to the dev of AutoNotification:

"it seems that AutoNotification is correctly intercepting and sending to Tasker info that it has received the notification but Tasker is not responding. This usually happens if Tasker is currently processing tasks and is not done with them. Tasker has a max queue size of 10 Tasks by default. If more than those run at the same time other tasks will have to wait. This is what's probably happening! :)"

However I do not have '10 other tasks' running at that time. At most, I sometimes have 1 other task running at the time.

I present the full thread discussion and testing below:

https://goo.gl/kMWgeW

I'd greatly appreciate any input on how to fix things at Tasker's end.

Thanks!

[John Doe]

It's an interesting problem. It seems strange it's a task queue length problem because you created a profile with a filter based on the text. In my opinion the problem is the persistent notification. Every 500ms the plugins need to perform a requery and Tasker needs to verify the match. According to Locale protocol, it's possible that the host app doesn't "accept" the requery in some cases. So it could be a bug due to requery "pressure", an Android problem about intent delivery or an intentional rate limiter.

[Cjsnet]

Any smart ideas on how to overcome this?

[Rich D]

> Any smart ideas on how to overcome this?
>

What does the tasker run log show?

[Cjsnet]

Hi, unfortunately it shows literally nothing at that time.

Screenshot 

The Kevo unlock notification appeared at 21:07 in that example. There's nothing in the log. Tasker literally seems blind to the notification appearing on the phone.

[Rich D]

> Hi, unfortunately it shows literally nothing at that time.

If I read the other post correctly joao thought tasker was getting the information from his app and the issue was in taskers task queue.  The absents of any run log entries disproves this theory.

Could you post the relevant profile and task descriptions here?

 

>
To post your profile or task here...  Long press on the profile or task name / ( 3 dot menu with 4.0+ ) export / export "DESCRIPTION" to clipboard (not XML)

Any linked tasks will be exported with the profile they are linked to..

To be able to export, The beginner mode needs to be off and the profile needs to be named by you (Not the Tasker listed name.  Tasker will list your profile with the context name if you have not given it one).

[Rich D]

I did notice one strange thing with the run log. When task ID 58 is shown running it starts at action #2.   Could you name and post that task as well?

[joaomgcd]

Just to add to this, when the notification wasn't being detected, he tried to run a simple Task with a flash action and that wasn't running either, so that's why I came to the conclusion that Tasker was "stuck" itself somehow.

[Rich D]

> Just to add to this, when the notification wasn't being detected, he tried to run a simple Task with a flash action and that wasn't running either, so that's why I came to the conclusion that Tasker was "stuck" itself somehow.

Yes, I did see that post when he tried to run the task from a shortcut just after a failed trigger and nothing happened.  It would be very useful if the OP could recreate that and capture the tasker run log.

[Rich D]

@ OP,   not sure if the doze mode could be related to this issue but it would be a good place to start..  check here in the guide fans apply any relevant suggestions.

http://tasker.dinglisch.net/userguide/en/androidpowermanagement.html

[Cjsnet]

Profile: 🔓 Door Unlocked (42)
Event: AutoNotification Intercept [ Configuration:Event Behaviour: true
Persistency Type: Both
Has Reply Action: false
Notification Apps: Kevo
Notification Text: Welcome
Get All Fields : false
Get Internal Actions: false
Get Internal Actions Big: false ]
Enter: Kevo Set Nest Home (56)
A1: Flash [ Text:%antext Long:Off ]
A2: Wait [ MS:0 Seconds:1 Minutes:0 Hours:0 Days:0 ]
<Press Yes>
A3: AutoNotification Actions [ Configuration:Intercept Action ID: %anbutton1action Timeout (Seconds):0 ]

[Cjsnet]

Task ID 58:


Profile: 🏡 House Notifications (57)

Event: AutoNotification Intercept [ Configuration:Event Behaviour: true

Has Reply Action: false
Notification App: Wink

Get All Fields : false
Get Internal Actions: false
Get Internal Actions Big: false ]

Enter: Clear House Notifications (58)
A1: Wait [ MS:0 Seconds:30 Minutes:0 Hours:0 Days:0 ]
<Clear house notifications>
A2: AutoNotification Cancel [ Configuration:Cancel All: false
Notification Apps: Nest,Wink,IF Timeout (Seconds):0 ]
<Clear house notifications>
A3: AutoNotification Cancel [ Configuration:Cancel All: false
Notification Apps: Nest,Wink,IF Timeout (Seconds):0 ]

[Cjsnet]

Reliable Alarms was set to never. Have changed to When Off and will monitor.

I had already made all the other Doze recommended changes.

[Rich D]

> Reliable Alarms was set to never. Have changed to When Off and will monitor.
>

OK, post back if it still occurs.

Is this the only notification that is not working? I noticed  'House Notifications' has the same context only without a text field to match.  Does 'House Notifications' work consistently?

I did see on the other post where you changed the matching text to 'Welcome'. I would definitely try it without any text match.  The text may appear to be the same every time but there can be hidden items in the text field that will cause a match to fail. 

[Cjsnet]

On Monday, May 9, 2016 at 9:43:14 AM UTC-7, Rich D wrote:

> Reliable Alarms was set to never. Have changed to When Off and will monitor.
>

OK, post back if it still occurs.

Is this the only notification that is not working? I noticed  'House Notifications' has the same context only without a text field to match.  Does 'House Notifications' work consistently?

That one does seem to work consistently.

 

I did see on the other post where you changed the matching text to 'Welcome'. I would definitely try it without any text match.  The text may appear to be the same every time but there can be hidden items in the text field that will cause a match to fail. 

How would I match to the notification then? I can't use App matching because the persistent notification is also from "Kevo". The only distinction is "Welcome back...". I also don't want it to trigger an action when I leave home, which also throws up a Kevo notification asking if I want to set the Nest thermostat to "Away", which sometimes I don't if someone else is home. 

[Rich D]

> How would I match to the notification then? I can't use App matching because the persistent notification is also from "Kevo".

OK, that part was not clear to me.  I was just suggesting this for testing proposes to rule out any type of matching issue.
I am not very familiar with auto notification.  Will it still activate the profile without the text match? IE any notification from the app

The only distinction is "Welcome back...". I also don't want it to trigger an action when I leave home, which also throws up a Kevo notification asking if I want to set the Nest thermostat to "Away", which sometimes I don't if someone else is home. 
>

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[Rich D]

Do you have any other notification contexts that do work consistently with a text match?

[Cjsnet]

Yes it will.

[Cjsnet]

I think all such actions fail intermittently.

Interesting that it usuallt works if the screen is on.

Let's see if the alarms setting helps.

[Cjsnet]

Unfortunately changing the Alarms setting has not helped :(

I'm all out of ideas. Hoping someone here has another wise suggestion.

[Cjsnet]

Could the developer of Tasker jump in? Determined to get this working!

[Rich D]

> Could the developer of Tasker jump in?

Hopefully pent will chime in..

Could you post your device, android version,tasker version, custom rom?, using any modules?.

I would suggest trying 'notification listener'  to help confirm it is a tasker issue.

You could also try capturing a sd log.  It is at menu / preferences/ misc.

[Cjsnet]

Nexus 6P
Not rooted
Very latest Android April security update
Stock everything
Latest Tasker from Play Store

Where do I find notification listener and how should I configure it per your suggestion?

[Rich D]

> Where do I find notification listener and how should I configure it per your suggestion?

It is on the play store.

[Cjsnet]

Oh I thought that sounded familiar! https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.balda.notificationlistener I tried this extensively after trying AutoNotification. It has exactly the same problem. I believe Tasker is where the fix is to be found.

[Rich D]

> Oh I thought that sounded familiar! https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.balda.notificationlistener I tried this extensively after trying AutoNotification. It has exactly the same problem. I believe Tasker is where the fix is to be found.
>

I know there are a lot of users out there using auto notification so with the lack of any other complaints (that I have noticed) the most likely suspect in my opinion is the kevo app notification. Or the persistent notification option (perhaps not  used a lot by others).

Have you confirmed that this issue is present with other apps or without a persistent notification (you did not seem sure before)

The next likely suspect would be device or rom specific issue. But your set up seems very vanilla so this seems a bit  'unlikely'.

In any event as far as the tasker side goes,  since there is no run log activity I would try searching the sd log for clues. The option is in menu / preferences / misc.  There is information in the help text.  You could try searching the log for the text match you are looking for or the app name or package name.

[Cjsnet]

OK I have confirmed that the persistent notification is tripping things up. Without it, Tasker correctly intercepts notifications.

But, without it I can't unlock Kevo, making the entire procedure pointless.

What I need is a smart idea to work around this problem, or a fix from Pent for what is essentially an app working as intended (Kevo).

[Rich D]

> OK I have confirmed that the persistent notification is tripping things up. Without it, Tasker correctly intercepts notifications.

One step closer..

> What I need is a smart idea to work around this problem, or a fix from Pent for what is essentially an app working as intended (Kevo).

I do not want to sound like I am defending tasker However I would think this would put the ball back in Joao's court. I am not a developer but I would "assume" when AN gets triggered whether it is a persistent notification or a non persistent the call sent to tasker would be the same call for both.  If it uses a different method then this would be good information to get from João .

I realize he has already done some testing and looked at some logs but perhaps something was missed.

I am not sure exactly how he is matching the text but I do know there can be hidden characters (possibly occasionally sent by the app) that will cause a seemingly perfect match to fail. This is high on my most likely list. Hopefully João can chime back in..

 

[Rich D]

> What I need is a smart idea to work around this problem, or a fix from Pent for what is essentially an app working as intended (Kevo).

I do have a work around in mind but it requires root.  You would just trigger on any notification from the app then you could look in the shell dumpsys to see if has the required text for the notification.

Not sure if you planning on rooting?

[Rich D]

> I am not sure exactly how he is matching the text but I do know there can be hidden characters (possibly occasionally sent by the app) that will cause a seemingly perfect match to fail. This is high on my most likely list. Hopefully João can chime back in..
>

You should be able to test this theory by removing the text match and see if it always triggers.

[Cjsnet]

I don't want to root but I'll try removing the text match. That won't be the fix though because when LEAVE home there is a separate notification asking if I want to set Nest to Away and I DON'T want Tasker to click that, as sometimes the girlfriend is home when I leave.

Unless there's a way to say "text doesn't match Away"?

[Cjsnet]

Don't worry I found the invert option.

But with it matching the app only not the text my phone is slowing down and it's constantly displaying the toast I set up. Eek. This isn't ideal for testing as it's an intermittent issue so I'd need to leave it in this crippling state to truly test.

[John Doe]

I already said what the problem is. Every 500ms the plugin needs to ask a requery because the match must be performed by Tasker. There is something in relation with this high rate (for me there is no point to update a notification with that rate so Kevo developer could fix it). The only way to fix this problem from plugin point of view is to filter the notification without asking a requery. You would need a filter in the plugin not in Tasker. Maybe Pent can say something about this problem.

[Cjsnet]

Is there a way to set wildcards in the text? That way I can exclude both "Tap" from the persistent notification and "Away" from the departing notification, leaving only the returning notification.

[Rich D]

> I already said what the problem is. Every 500ms the plugin needs to ask a requery because the match must be performed by Tasker. There is something in relation with this high rate (for me there is no point to update a notification with that rate so Kevo developer could fix it). The only way to fix this problem from plugin point of view is to filter the notification without asking a requery. You would need a filter in the plugin not in Tasker. Maybe Pent can say something about this problem.

Well, that sounds like a 'very educated' and 'very likely' response.  Thanks john.. 

[Rich D]

> Is there a way to set wildcards in the text?

Not sure. I found it interesting that john said tasker is the one that does the matching, I would not have guessed that.  If that is true then you could just try a simple pattern match with your existing text like *match this*  that should match even if there are hidden characters.
However it sounds like John is on the three right track...

[John Doe]

Just to be clear the exact sequence is:
1) kevo update the notification
2) plugin ask for a request
3) Tasker calls back the plugin in order to perform the check on every profile/condition
4) the plugin replays to every request

The problem is between 2) and 3) IMHO just because the rate in this case is too high. As I said maybe an Android bug, maybe a Tasker one. Who knows? However I think the plugins can't do anything. It's the reason why I said that you would need a filter in the plugin i.e. point 2) and not in Tasker condition i.e. point 3) in order to avoid the requery and stop the problem to the source.

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[Cjsnet]

Thanks John, Is there a way to set wildcards in the AN text? That way I can exclude both "Tap" in the persistent notification and "Away" from the departing notification, leaving only the returning notification. Worth a try.