For some time now, I have been trying to get around the issue of not having a clipboard manager on my phone. There are third-party applications and some keyboards that come with their own clipboard manager built in, but I personally find many third-party keyboards to be slow and clunky, therefore I generally stick with Gboard. Furthermore, I usually try to avoid installing a new application dedicated to one purpose if I can get away with it. This is where my very own Clipboard Manager made in Tasker comes to play!
Tasker – Clipboard Manager
While you could have a floating action button (FAB) to pull up the clipboard, I prefer using a swipe gesture instead. To mitigate potential performance issues, I’ve set up the Tasker Clipboard Manager project to have a very small footprint on your phone’s memory as the profile can be limited to work with certain applications only. In the video down below, you can see me linking the clipboard menu to only the Google+ and Pages Manager applications. Bear in mind, though, that the collection of the clips occurs in the background anytime you make changes to the current stored clip.
If you are using the Join application, this project should not interfere with it. But by using Join, then you can also share selected clips from my project with your other devices. For this project, I’m using AutoTools WebScreens action so make sure you have the plugin installed. Anything else is just stock Tasker. Access to the clipboard manager is driven by the applications themselves. Thus, I don’t need this profile to be active when I’m watching YouTube or playing a game, so my profile is set to only activate on those applications that require it.
Here is a video showcasing my creation in action:
If you would like to import my project as-is, then you can do so by clicking the link below which will take you to the AndroidFileHost download page.
Download the Tasker Clipboard Manager Project
Download the above ZIP file and extract the contents onto the internal storage of your Android device. Open up Tasker and disable “Beginner Mode” in Preferences. Then, go back to Tasker’s main page and long-press on the home icon in the bottom left corner. You will see an option to “import” a project. Tap that option then find the .prj.xml file you extracted earlier. Once imported, you will see a new tab at the bottom alongside the default home icon in Tasker.
Take note that this project requires you to have AutoTools installed in order to work. If you would like to customize various aspects of my project, then I recommend you continue reading below so you have a handle on how this works and what changes can be made. Note that at the very least, you should change the applications in the Application Context so that this clipboard manager can be summoned in more applications than the default set I’ve made it active for.
PROFILE – Apps with Clipboard
In this example, I’m using Google+ and Pages Manager to enable the WebScreens swipe.
TASKER PROFILE - Apps with Clipboard
Profile: Apps With Clipboard
Restore: no
Application: Google+ or Pages Manager
Enter: Launch Menu
A1: AutoTools Web Screen [ Configuration:Screen Preset: Swipe
Display Mode: Overlay
Close Overlay ID: Swipe
Source: /storage/emulated/0/AutoTools/swipe/page.html
Toast Duration: 5000
Background Color: #00CE93D8
Width: 10
Height: 400
Gravity: Bottom Right
Animation: Slide In From Bottom
Overlay Id: Swipe
Show Duration: 500
Hide Duration: 250
Drag: Not Draggable
Hide Dialog Shadow: true
Inject In Header: var a=1;
Commands Prefix: swipe
Swipe Left: left
Swipe Right: right
Swipe Up: up
Swipe Down: down
Border Color: #AB47BC
Border Witdh: 3
Border Side: Right Timeout (Seconds):30 ]
Exit: Exit Clip Gesture
A1: AutoTools Web Screen [ Configuration:Screen Preset: Swipe
Display Mode: Close
Close Overlay ID: Swipe
Source: /storage/emulated/0/AutoTools/swipe/page.html
Toast Duration: 5000
Background Color: #00CE93D8
Width: 10
Height: 400
Gravity: Bottom Right
Animation: Slide In From Bottom
Show Duration: 500
Hide Duration: 250
Drag: Not Draggable
Hide Dialog Shadow: true
Inject In Header: var a=1;
Commands Prefix: swipe
Swipe Left: left
Swipe Right: right
Swipe Up: up
Swipe Down: down
Border Color: #AB47BC
Border Witdh: 3
Border Side: Right Timeout (Seconds):30 ]
Select the applications you want to enable in the context then create a Task called Launch Menu. This task will enable the WebScreen swipe in the Tasker Project – Clipboard manager.
TASK – Launch Menu
In the AutoTools WebScreen option import a Screen preset (swipe) and remove all commands but ‘left‘ in the commands section of the setup page.
Set up the Window settings to your preference. I have the Gravity set to Bottom Right while the Width is 10 and Height is set to ‘fill‘.
TASK – Exit Clip Gesture
We need to disable the gesture when it’s not needed. Add an exit task and create another WebScreens action. This time use the Display Mode to set the ‘close‘ action. This will terminate the WebScreen and swipe recognition.
PROFILE – Show Menu
By default, swiping right will issue an AutoTools Command swipe=:=right. When this happens, I want my clipboard manager to open. Create a new Profile with the AutoApps context set to ‘swipe‘ as the filter. When the swipe is done, a nice menu will appear with all the clips we need.
TASKER PROFILE - Show Menu
Profile: Show Menu
Event: AutoApps Command [ Configuration:Command Filter: swipe ]
Enter: Clipboard Menu
A1: AutoTools Web Screen [ Configuration:Screen Preset: Card List
Display Mode: Dialog
Source: /storage/emulated/0/AutoTools/cardlist/page.html
Toast Duration: 5000
Width: 100
Height: fill
Gravity: Bottom Right
Animation: Slide In From Top
Show Duration: 500
Hide Duration: 250
Close On Command: true
Wait For Command: true
Title: Clip
Card Titles: %ClipPosition()
Card Subtext Left: %ClipAbrev()
Card Commands: %ClipPosition()
Commands Prefix: clipboard
Background Color: #BDBDBD
Accent Color: #F9A825
Max Card Width: 90%
Max Image Height: 75
Title Text Size: 5
Card Padding: 0
Card Alignment: Center
Item Separator: , Timeout (Seconds):30 ]
TASK – Clipboard Menu
The layout has been ‘borrowed’ from Joao’s tutorial. I liked how the side launcher looked so there was no point in reinventing the wheel. Obviously, the variables used in that WebScreen will be different, but the layout is pretty much the same.
Add an AutoTools Web Screen action and select the Card List preset. Under Window Settings set:
- Width to 100
- Height to fill
- Gravity to Bottom Right
Under Command Options enable both Close On Command and Wait For Command, then under Cards set:
- Card Titles to %ClipPosition() (will contain numbers from 1-9)
- Card Subtexts to %ClipAbrev() (contains short snippet)
- Card Commands to %ClipPosition() (used to identify the press)
- Commands prefix to clipboard
- Max Card Width and Min Card Width to 90%
- Max Image Height to 75
- Title Text Size to 5
Feel free to modify the look of the notification by playing around with these numbers on your own. Bear in mind that opening the WebScreen without the next step won’t give you any previews.
TASK – array numbers
We need an array that will contain the numbers from 1-9. These will be used to identify our clipboard entries and will be stored in the %ClipPosition() array.
TASK - array numbers
array numbers
A1: Variable Set [ Name:%ClipPosition To:1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.9
Recurse Variables:Off Do Maths:Off Append:Off ]
A2: Variable Split [ Name:%ClipPosition Splitter:. Delete Base:Off ]
Create this task then generate the array. This will create the global array.
PROFILE – Clipboard Monitor
This profile will monitor changes in the %CLIP system variable that contains the current clipboard value. Create a profile with the Event trigger Variable Set and set it to monitor for the variable %CLIP. When a new clipboard entry has been set by the user (you), Tasker will detect the change.
PROFILE - Clipboard Monitor
Profile: Clipboard Monitor
Event: Variable Set [ Variable:%CLIP Value:* User Variables Only:Off ]
Enter: Clipboard Manager
A1: Variable Section [ Name:%CLIP From:1 Length:6 Adapt To Fit:On Store Result In:%abrev ]
A2: Array Push [ Variable Array:%ClipboardArray Position:1 Value:%CLIP Fill Spaces:Off ]
A3: Array Push [ Variable Array:%ClipAbrev Position:1 Value:%abrev Fill Spaces:On ]
A4: Array Process [ Variable Array:%ClipAbrev Type:Remove Duplicates ]
A5: Array Process [ Variable Array:%ClipboardArray Type:Remove Duplicates ]
A6: Array Process [ Variable Array:%ClipboardArray Type:Squash ]
A7: Array Process [ Variable Array:%ClipAbrev Type:Squash ]
A8: Array Pop [ Variable Array:%ClipAbrev Position:10 To Var: ] If [ %ClipAbrev(#) eq 10 ]
A9: Array Pop [ Variable Array:%ClipboardArray Position:10 To Var: ] If [ %ClipboardArray(#) eq 10 ]
TASK – Clipboard Manager
Our clipboard content is stored in the %ClipboardArray(). Each time a new clipboard is saved, an Array Push (A2) action moves it to the 1st position of the array. Because I don’t want the entire text to be visible on the side menu, I created another array %ClipAbrev() (A3) that will store the first X letters of the clipboard. To shorten the clipboard, use (A1) Variable Selection and limit numbers of characters to 6 (make sure that Adapt to Fit is checked) and store that value in the local %abrev variable which is used to populate the (A3) Array Push action.
Now that we have the clipboard collection ready we have to clean up the mess. The array will collect all the clipboards. This means that when we pick a clipboard from our side menu, it will collect the new value and assign it as a duplicate to the menu. Therefore, each time we save a clip I want to remove duplicate entries (A4, A5) and remove empty spaces (A6, A7). Array process actions are performed on both %Clipboard Array() and %ClipAbrev().
Lastly, I want my menu to contain 9 entries only. You can have more, but I find that the 9 menus fit great on my screen without scrolling. To do this, use Array Pop (A8, A9) and remove the 10th position. Do this ONLY if the array contains 10 elements. Otherwise, the last element is removed. We achieve this by checking if the number of elements %ClipboardArray(#) = 10.
PROFILE – Set Clipboard
We are nearly done. This is a very simple profile. We are using the AutoApps command clipboard to check if the command has been received. The command will look like this: clipboard=:=1 where the number stands for the button pressed on our side menu.
PROFILE - Set Clipboard
Profile: Set Clipboard
Event: AutoApps Command [ Configuration:Command Filter: clipboard ]
Enter: Set New Clip
A1: Set Clipboard [ Text:%ClipboardArray(%aacomm) Add:Off ]
TASK – Set New Clip
The task is very simple as well. Set the clipboard to the value of the %ClipboardArray() we want to choose the element specified by the %aacomm part of the received command. So set clipboard as %ClipboardArray(%aacomm) and you are done. The Tasker Clipboard Manager is now completed.
Now, within your selected applications, you can swipe right to open your own custom clipboard manager! Follow the XDA-Developers Tutorials feed for more posts such as this. Also, check out our Tasker Tips & Tricks forum for the latest creations among the automation enthusiasts in our community.
0 comments:
Post a Comment