Re: Cascading Profiles?

[Matt R]

I'm guessing the prioritization you're looking for is first the work profile, then the normal profile from 7am - 11pm, then the night profile from 11pm - 7 am?  You could do it this way: instead of using just a specific time (11pm or 7am), have your profiles span that range of time (11pm - midnight, midnight - 7am).  Since your time-based profiles are instant profiles (occuring at an instant in time) instead of a state profile (occuring over a range of time), you're getting settings that aren't restored.  Another option would be to add an exit task to your work profile that restores the volume to the desired level, though that would only work in this specific scenario and wouldn't give you the "cascading" I think you're looking for.

 

Matt

[Alex Brekken]

Thanks Matt, I'm going to try changing my time profiles to have a range rather than just a single start or end time.  (oddly, I thought that's the way I had them setup but I didn't - not sure how I missed that..)  One other question though: how do I set the priority of the profiles?  As you said I'd like to have my "Work" profile take precedence over other profiles, but I don't see how that's done.  (I can't seem to re-order the profiles)  Thanks!

[easiuser]

Add the context State->Variable->Variable Value %PACTIVE doesn't match *,NAME_OF_WORK_PROFILE,* to the timed profiles.

[Alex Brekken]

Thanks, but before getting into setting variables I need help understanding a few basics.  First, is there a concept of prioritizing profiles?  (through the UI?)  In my very simple case, my "daytime" profile (which sets the volume during the time range of 7am until 11pm) happens to be higher in the list than my "Work" profile.  So when I get to work and my Work profile activates, Tasker shows both this profile AND my daytime profile as green.  

I'm not exactly sure what the ramifications are of having 2 profiles active, but clearly the order in the list must matter because if I happen to be at work very early in the morning (when my "nighttime" profile would otherwise be active) only my work profile is active/green.  I'm assuming this is because my nighttime profile happens to be lower in the list of profiles so therefore the work profile is taking precedence?

[easiuser]

I don't know of any priority you can set on profiles.  Any enabled profile becomes active when all the context conditions are met and exits when any one of them is no longer met.  If you want to override it, you need to disable it or unmeet one of it's contexts.

 

This may be a bit more involved than you want to go and it may be difficult to manage if you end up with a lot of priority levels, but might suggest then a global variable like %PPriority.  Each profile would have an associated priority level.  Each profile would include the context of %PPriority being less than its priority.

 

The first action in the entry task is Variable Set %PPriority to the prioritity of the profile.
The last action of an exit task is Variable Set %PPriority to zero IF %PPriority = priority of the profile  (You don't want to reset it if another higher priority profile became active.

 

If you do have a lot of priorities, you might consider saving priority levels in an array or file that could more easily be modified.  All of this is untested of course :-)

[Dave Fisher]

Take a look here, my reply (2nd post) : https://groups.google.com/d/topic/tasker/VRBiOECTptM/discussion

Its not the profiles that you want to prioritise per se, having a dozen profiles active is a non-issue. When the profiles become active, clearly there are times when the tasks that are executed that clash. Its these cases you want to control.

In your example, the night profile, the day profile and the work profile all control the volumes and vibrate modes. So you want one task to control the volume/vibration, which is called by all 3 profiles. Each profile will set variables, and you will use these variables to control the volume/vibration settings and their order. So having the work settings at the top, will override the day settings, which will override the night settings (by using the Stop command to halt any further execution).

Hopefully my post in the above thread explains it further. I know it sounds complicated, but really its the most flexible way of achieving priorities.

[Alex Brekken]

Awesome, thanks for the help - I will try it out this weekend and see how it works.  

[Richard Davis]

I think understand  what you are looking for....

Dave has it exactly correct ... I started this response when you first posted and did not have time to finish but see you have some expert advice already and probably have enough to get you started but thought i would finish and give you some more info....

You need a task to to control or " cascade " your profiles you do not want to try to cascade them them using context's.

I have included some of my settings profiles with some explanations  to try to help. This is not the only ( or even the best) way it is simply what I have done and it works great for me..

I use what I call toggles to set variables and then trigger  one profile called "settings" that decides which profile should actually be set.

This first profile simply sets a variable when I get near my house.  It has a few waits and checks in the enter and exit tasks to prevent short cycling as the signal fades in and out.

Profile: Cell Network A (72)
Priority: 10 CoolDown: 180
State: Cell Near [ Cell Tower / Last Signal:Scan for cell towers. / 0
CDMA:4790 / 2 ]
Enter: Cell A On (70)
A1: Wait [ MS:0 Seconds:0 Minutes:3 Hours:0 Days:0 ]
A2: Stop [ With Error:Off ] If [ %PACTIVE !~ *,Cell Network A,* ]
A3: Variable Set [ Name:%CELLA To:1 Do Maths:Off Append:Off ]

Exit: Cell A Off (71)
A1: Wait [ MS:0 Seconds:0 Minutes:3 Hours:0 Days:0 ] If [ %TRUN !~ *,Cell A On,* ]
A2: Wait Until [ MS:0 Seconds:15 Minutes:0 Hours:0 Days:0 ] If [ %TRUN !~ *,Cell A On,* ]
A3: Stop [ With Error:Off ] If [ %PACTIVE ~ *,Cell Network A,* ]
A4: Variable Set [ Name:%CELLA To:0 Do Maths:Off Append:Off ]

This second profile is activated by the variable (%CELLA) that Is set in the first. I have it split into 2 profiles like this so I can activate the Home Toggle Profile From additional profiles as well. 

This profile sets the variable '%Hometoggle'

In the enter task----
You can ignore A2
A3 will wait for the task from the next profile to finish ( if it is already running)
A4 sets a variable that triggers the next profile

In the exit task---
A1 and A2 are actions that prevent the exit  task from running before the entry task finishes. ( if you search the group you will find info on this but basically if you have any waits in your enters task and your profile cycles active and inactive the exit task can actually run while the entry task is waiting.. )

Profile: Home Toggle (50)
State: Variable Value [ Name:%CELLA Op:Maths: Equals Value:1 ]
Enter: Home Toggle On (53)
A1: Variable Set [ Name:%Hometoggle To:1 Do Maths:Off Append:Off ]
A2: Write File [ File:data/tasker/Home times.txt Text:togl IN   %TIME.  :   cell a  %CELLA.   :   proflock %Profiletoggle.  :  %DATE Append:On ]
A3: Wait Until [ MS:500 Seconds:0 Minutes:0 Hours:0 Days:0 ] If [ %TRUN !~ *,Settings,* ]
A4: Variable Set [ Name:%Settings To:1 Do Maths:Off Append:Off ]

Exit: Home Toggle Off (64)
Stay Awake
A1: Wait Until [ MS:500 Seconds:0 Minutes:0 Hours:0 Days:0 ] If [ %TRUN !~ *,Home Toggle On,* ]
A2: Stop [ With Error:Off ] If [ %PACTIVE ~ *,Home Toggle,* ]
A3: Variable Set [ Name:%Hometoggle To:0 Do Maths:Off Append:Off ]
A4: Wait Until [ MS:500 Seconds:0 Minutes:0 Hours:0 Days:0 ] If [ %TRUN !~ *Settings* ]
A5: Variable Set [ Name:%Settings To:1 Do Maths:Off Append:Off ]

The third profile sets the variable %cartoggle when in my car dock

Profile: Car Toggle (45)
Priority: 5 CoolDown: 4
State: Docked [ Type:Any ]
Enter: Car Toggle On (46)
A1: Variable Set [ Name:%Cartoggle To:1 Do Maths:Off Append:Off ]
A2: Variable Set [ Name:%Docked To:1 Do Maths:Off Append:Off ]
A3: Notify Cancel [ Title:Dock Check Overide Warn Not Exist:Off ]
A4: Wait Until [ MS:500 Seconds:0 Minutes:0 Hours:0 Days:0 ] If [ %TRUN !~ *,Settings On,* ]
A5: Variable Set [ Name:%Settings To:1 Do Maths:Off Append:Off ]

Exit: Car Toggle Off (47)
A1: Wait Until [ MS:500 Seconds:0 Minutes:0 Hours:0 Days:0 ] If [ %TRUN !~ *,Car Toggle On,* ]
A2: Stop [ With Error:Off ] If [ %PACTIVE ~ *,Car Toggle,* ]
A3: Variable Set [ Name:%Cartoggle To:0 Do Maths:Off Append:Off ]
A4: Variable Set [ Name:%Docked To:0 Do Maths:Off Append:Off ]
A5: Wait Until [ MS:500 Seconds:0 Minutes:0 Hours:0 Days:0 ] If [ %TRUN !~ *,Settings On,* ]
A6: Variable Set [ Name:%Settings To:1 Do Maths:Off Append:Off ]

The fourth profile is the one that Takes the toggles and figures out which profile I really want activated.

Profile: Settings (24)
Priority: 10 CoolDown: 0
Event: Variable Set [ Variable:%Settings Value:1 ]
Enter: Settings On (25)
Stay Awake
A1: Notify Cancel [ Title:No Power In Dock Warn Not Exist:Off ]
<Startcarif>
A2: If [ %Cartoggle = 1 ]
<car set>
A3: Variable Set [ Name:%Car To:1 Do Maths:Off Append:Off ]
A4: Goto [ Type:Action Label Number:1 Label:Endsettings ]
<Endcarif>
A5: End If
<Startbedif>
A6: If [ %Bedtoggle = 1 ]
A7: Variable Set [ Name:%Bed To:1 Do Maths:Off Append:Off ]
A8: Goto [ Type:Action Label Number:1 Label:Endsettings ]
<Endbedif>
A9: End If
<start not home if>
A10: Variable Clear [ Name:%xxx Pattern Matching:Off ]
A11: If [ %Hometoggle != 1 ]
A12: Variable Set [ Name:%Nothome To:1 Do Maths:Off Append:Off ]
A13: Goto [ Type:Action Label Number:1 Label:Endsettings ]
<Endnothomeif>
A14: End If
<set home>
A15: Variable Set [ Name:%Home To:1 Do Maths:Off Append:Off ]
<Endsettings>
A16: Variable Set [ Name:%Settings To:0 Do Maths:Off Append:Off ]

The fifth and sixth are the ones that actually do the settings. These could be incorporated into the fourth but splitting them up gives me a little more flexibility. 

Profile: Home (9)
Event: Variable Set [ Variable:%Home Value:1 ]
Enter: Home On (10)
A1: Write File [ File:data/tasker/Home times.txt Text:home IN.   %TIME.  :   cell a  %CELLA.   :   proflock %Profiletoggle.  :  %DATE Append:On ]
A2: Notification Volume [ Level:9 Display:Off Sound:Off ]
A3: Media Volume [ Level:6 Display:Off Sound:Off ]
A4: System Volume [ Level:12 Display:Off Sound:Off ]
A5: In-Call Volume [ Level:4 Display:Off Sound:Off ]
A6: Display Brightness [ Level:115 Disable Safeguard:Off Ignore Current Level:Off Immediate Effect:On ]
A7: Ringer Volume [ Level:10 Display:Off Sound:Off ]
A8: Display Timeout [ Secs:0 Mins:5 Hours:0 ]
A9: Car Mode [ Set:Off Go Home:Off ]
A10: Bluetooth [ Set:Off ]
A11: GPS [ Set:Off ]
A12: Notify Cancel [ Title:Car On Warn Not Exist:Off ]
A13: Notify Cancel [ Title:Bed On Warn Not Exist:Off ]
A14: Notify Cancel [ Title:Not Home Warn Not Exist:Off ]
A15: Notify [ Title:Home On Text: Icon:<icon> Number:0 Permanent:On ]
A16: Variable Set [ Name:%Activeprofile To:home Do Maths:Off Append:Off ]

Profile: Car (8)
Event: Variable Set [ Variable:%Car Value:1 ]
Enter: Car On (5)
A1: Car Mode [ Set:On Go Home:Off ]
A2: Media Volume [ Level:15 Display:Off Sound:Off ]
A3: Notification Volume [ Level:15 Display:Off Sound:Off ]
A4: Ringer Volume [ Level:15 Display:Off Sound:Off ]
A5: System Volume [ Level:11 Display:Off Sound:Off ]
A6: In-Call Volume [ Level:6 Display:Off Sound:Off ]
A7: Stay On [ Mode:With AC or USB Power ]
A8: Alarm Volume [ Level:15 Display:Off Sound:Off ]
A9: Bluetooth [ Set:On ]
A10: Display Timeout [ Secs:0 Mins:15 Hours:0 ]
A11: Display Timeout [ Secs:0 Mins:3 Hours:0 ] If [ %Power != 1 ]
A12: Notify [ Title:No Power In Dock Text: Icon:<icon> Number:0 Permanent:On ] If [ %Power != 1 ]
A13: Display Brightness [ Level:71 Disable Safeguard:Off Ignore Current Level:Off Immediate Effect:On ] If [ %TIME < 06.00 ]
A14: Display Brightness [ Level:188 Disable Safeguard:Off Ignore Current Level:Off Immediate Effect:On ] If [ %TIME > 5.59 ]
A15: Display Brightness [ Level:255 Disable Safeguard:Off Ignore Current Level:Off Immediate Effect:On ] If [ %TIME > 6.30 ]
A16: Display Brightness [ Level:71 Disable Safeguard:Off Ignore Current Level:On Immediate Effect:On ] If [ %TIME > 19.00 ]
A17: GPS [ Set:On ]
A18: Rotate [ Configuration:Portrait Package:nl.fameit.rotate Name:Rotate ] If [ %Profiletoggle = 1 ]
A19: Notify Cancel [ Title:Bed On Warn Not Exist:Off ]
A20: Notify Cancel [ Title:Home On Warn Not Exist:Off ]
A21: Notify Cancel [ Title:Not Home Warn Not Exist:Off ]
A22: Notify [ Title:Car On Text: Icon:<icon> Number:0 Permanent:On ]
A23: Variable Set [ Name:%Activeprofile To:car Do Maths:Off Append:Off ]

Hope this all helps....  Rich

BTW if you do need help with a profile one of the best ways is to do what I did above and post the profile with your question ..

You simply long press on the profile name and select EXPORT / COPY TO CLIPBOARD

[electricpete]

I haven't digested the logic of what you were trying to do and solution you came up with. I will just mention that in reading the thread down to easiuser's response, I thought he gave a good response to the general question of how to manage profiles so as to be mutually exclusive (by examining the contents of PACTIVE as part of the profile conditions to see if other profiles are active or inactive).  Let's say you never want night task to run if the two others are active, then the night task profile conditions (there can be many conditions per profile) checks that the other profiles are not active based on the contents of PACTIVE.  If the check is not met, the night profile does not enter. In effect you have made night task lower priority through the logic established in the profile conditions.

[Richard Davis]

I should have mentioned that the basic logic behind the way i set it up (which is the way dave recommended as well) is that if you simply  use one profile control all of the settings on the phone you will not have to worry about priorities because a single task executes one action at a time in a sequential order that is controlled by the logic you set.  So if you want to change any settings it has to be done with your one main profile.  Of course there will always be exceptions  but if they are kept to a minimum then troubleshooting becomes far easier.  

Hope that makes sense ...   Rich...

On Aug 31, 2012 4:40 PM, "Alex Brekken" <bre...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Dave Fisher]

Well I kinda do mine differently - I have dozens of profiles that always, no matter what else may or may not be active, will trigger if the contexts are right. But they all call the same tasks - setVolumes, setDisplay etc. These tasks then do what I want, in the order I want them - which are where my priorities come in.

For example, Night will activate at 2300 no matter what else I am doing. It will call setVolumes, and my set the volumes to silent. But say I am out, and when I get home at 2330, my phone connects to my WiFi and my Home profile goes active. Both are true, as I am at Home and its Night. However, in this case I don't want my ringer set to max as would usually be the case when I get home, as its night time. So when setVolumes is called, the If %NIGHTTIME = True statement is above the If %LOCATION = Home statement. So the task is executed, the If statements evaluated, and volumes are set to silent and the task aborted at the end of the If statement, so the Home settings are never triggered.

I then plug the phone into power. setDisplay is called. Again the IF %NIGHTTIME = True statement is above the If %POWERED = True statement, so the display settings are again set to min timeout, the task aborted before the powered settings are triggered.

In essence its the same thing, but handled slightly differently - which is the beauty of Tasker (although perhaps also its downfall!)

BR

Dave

[Richard Davis]

On Sep 1, 2012 6:43 PM, "Dave Fisher" <da...@the-darkside.co.uk> wrote:
>
> Well I kinda do mine differently - I have dozens of profiles that always, no matter what else may or may not be active, will trigger if the contexts are right. But they all call the same tasks - setVolumes, setDisplay etc. These tasks then do what I want, in the order I want them - which are where my priorities come in.
>
> For example, Night will activate at 2300 no matter what else I am doing. It will call setVolumes, and my set the volumes to silent. But say I am out, and when I get home at 2330, my phone connects to my WiFi and my Home profile goes active. Both are true, as I am at Home and its Night. However, in this case I don't want my ringer set to max as would usually be the case when I get home, as its night time. So when setVolumes is called, the If %NIGHTTIME = True statement is above the If %LOCATION = Home statement. So the task is executed, the If statements evaluated, and volumes are set to silent and the task aborted at the end of the If statement, so the Home settings are never triggered.
>
> I then plug the phone into power. setDisplay is called. Again the IF %NIGHTTIME = True statement is above the If %POWERED = True statement, so the display settings are again set to min timeout, the task aborted before the powered settings are triggered.
>
> In essence its the same thing, but handled slightly differently - which is the beauty of Tasker (although perhaps also its downfall!)
>
> BR
> Dave

OK, I get it now... like you said similar but different.  I think the important concept is the same to control the actual setting of a setting with a single task to avoid conflicts .

Dave --  how many settings do you actually have a controlling  task for??  It sounds like a good idea and I might start incorporating it in my tasks....

Thanks,   Rich

[Dave Fisher]

Sorry Richard, was away for a few days and then forgot to reply!

I tend to have a setXXXX task for ANY setting, even if its only called by one profile, under one condition - that's simply for flexibility so I can expand it if I need to, as is often the case. Most of my profiles call an enter/exit task named after the profile, which then calls the setXXXX tasks, eg.

Profile: Home

Enter Task: enterHome

Exit Task: exitHome

Task: enterHome

setVolumes

setDisplay

setBluetooth

setWiFi

etc

etc

I must admit I am kinda in the middle of things at the moment as I started again when I installed ICS, and I am trying to use the same config on both the phone and tablet (sharing the config via DropSync), so all of my experimental stuff is in a mess and I am only running my core profiles at the moment. But the above is how it was set up before, and is how it will be set up once I get the time to sit down and go all through it again!

BR

Dave

[Richard Davis]

Thanks for the reply dave.... looks like the way to go..... 

Rich......

[Alex Peters]

An alternative not explicitly mentioned so far in this thread is, rather than using variables, making profiles from both the conditions and the volume levels themselves.  Consider these five profiles to solve the problem presented in the original post:

1. Sleepy hours
   
2. At work
   
3. Phone should be silent
4. Phone should only vibrate
5. Phone should have moderate volume

The activation conditions of Profiles 1 and 2 are set up as one would expect (e.g. 11PM <= current time < 7AM; Wi-Fi connected to access point XYZ), but these two profiles have no associated actions--that is, their tasks do nothing (e.g. Task > Stop).

The activation conditions of Profiles 3 to 5 all rely on the content of the %PACTIVE variable to check whether they themselves should be active, and then their entry tasks do the appropriate thing.  Profile 3 would check that the "Sleepy hours" profile is active and the "At work" profile is inactive; Profile 4 would check that the "At work" profile is active; Profile 5 would check that neither of Profiles 3 or 4 are active.

The end result is that one of Profiles 3 to 5 is always active, and so the correct volume setting is always actioned even when crossing "overlap boundaries" (e.g. time reaches 7AM when already at work; leaving work when work was started before 7AM).  Because one of these profiles is always active, exit tasks are not necessary (and Tasker doesn't need to revert to the now-possibly-incorrect previous setting).

Profiles 1 and 2 may simultaneously be active, but this accurately reflects the real-life situation.  The activation conditions of Profiles 3 to 5 ensure that the volume level settings don't conflict.

I use this technique profusely in my Tasker configuration and have had very few problems with it.  An example subset of my own profiles adopting this technique is:

• On home Wi-Fi*
• Definitely at home* ("On home Wi-Fi" and not "In car")
  
• Possibly at home* (not "Definitely at home" and not "Not at home")
• Not at home* (any profile beginning with "Not at home scenario #" is active)
• On duty* (busy Google Calendar entry)
• Not on duty* (not "On duty")
• Allow Wi-Fi (not "Disallow Wi-Fi")
• Disallow Wi-Fi ("On duty" or "Not at home," and also not actually connected to Wi-Fi)
• In car* (Bluetooth connection to specific device)

where * indicates a profile with no associated actions, and brackets denote the actual conditions of the profile.

By inverting things this way, it also becomes extremely easy to see exactly when a certain setting will be manipulated by Tasker.  In my example the Wi-Fi connectivity is entirely governed by the activation conditions of the "Allow Wi-Fi" and "Disallow Wi-Fi" profiles.

It also becomes easier to break down complex profile conditions into smaller chunks.  I work out that I'm definitely not at home if:

• in the car, regardless of Wi-Fi state
• not on home Wi-Fi and connected to a cell tower that isn't in my known list of cell towers servicing my home

Rather than trying to conceive a single profile that captures all of those conditions, I made a profile for each and named them "Not at home scenario #1" etc.  My "Not at home" profile then just checks that at least one of those is active.

On Thursday, August 30, 2012 11:30:44 AM UTC+10, Alex Brekken wrote:

Hey guys, new Tasker user here with a question.  Does Tasker support the concept of cascading profiles?  This is really handy in the case of setting volume.  Here's a real world example that I'm struggling with: 

At night I want my phone to be silent, during the day I want a moderate volume, and when I'm at work I want the phone to be in vibrate mode.  Right now I have that implemented in Tasker as 3 different profiles: 2 of them are time-based profiles (at 11pm switch to silent mode, at 7am switch to "normal" volume mode) and the 3rd is based on connecting to a specific wifi access point.  (when I'm connected to my work's wifi, go to vibrate mode)  This all works OK except when those 3 boundaries overlap.  

As an example, let's say I leave for work early this morning and arrive at work before 7am.  My device is in night-time mode, then when it connects to my work wifi it switches to vibrate mode.  Fine.  But when I leave work and disconnect from the wifi, it goes back to silent mode.  I'm assuming this is because it's simply reverting back to whatever volume was set prior to the work-wifi profile.  

So what I really want is a way to have a cascading set of rules, such that if it doesn't meet a specific profile rule, it would fall back to the next rule it matches.  So in my specific example, it will know that even though an event has occurred (disconnecting from work wifi), because it's 5pm it should be in "normal" volume mode rather than reverting to what it was at before.  

Is Tasker simply not the right tool for this, or am I overlooking something?  I've also been playing with Llama but it doesn't seem to support this either.  If any of you were Windows Mobile users back in the old days, you probably remember SPB Software.  They had a great app called "Phone Suite" which - among other things - supported this exact idea of cascading rules for handling volume.  

Thanks in advance for any help!

[TomL]

I like how in your example the first two profiles are profiles that detect current conditions ("sleep hours", "at work"), and the remaining profiles contain the business logic of what should happen when conditions are met.  Easier to visualize and troubleshoot when things don't work.

Tom

[Richard Davis]

Wow, that's bloody brilliant... Now I'm jealous..

My knowledge of just how versatile  the 'profile active ' could be came after I had already had my profiles setup. I have sense change a lot of them to utilize the profile active and did away with setting variables. I also knew you could 'or' them as a context but I just never put 2 and 2 together and thought about them as a entire profile structure ..  I actually use  %PACTIVE  so often I made a scene that allowed me to select my profiles from a list to be pasted into the actions.. very handy..

This is by far the best method I have read about so far IMHO. If i get some time I will most likely convert to it.

Rich..