Gear Fit Hacks

UPDATE: September 2016: This blog pages covers the "old" Gear Fit model. The current model works completely different. 

A couple of things caught my attention during developing for the Gear Fit:

• The Programmers Guide is not fully in line with the 1.0.0 Version of the jar file. There is no setAnimationType() call availanle. The Guide does mention it, but never explains the specifics.
• Built-in apps use a bar to separate UI elements. This is also not mentioned in the guide. Fortunately enough, there is a class for it in the SDK.
• Build-in apps use a vertical orientation, while the custom apps use a horizontal orientation. When wearing the watch, the portrait mode is better readable.

Below, I'm describing how to adress the above listed points.

Using setAnimationType()

The programmers guide lists a couple of constants for the animation type, but does explain their meaning. The types are:

ANIMATION_ALPHA,

ANIMATION_NONE,

ANIMATION_ROTATE_X,

ANIMATION_SCALE,

ANIMATION_TRANSLATE

ANIMATION_TRANSLATE_REVERSE

The animation type determines how an dialog widget is drawn. By default it "just" appears. By using specific animation types, it appears with an effect. For example the ANIMATION_ALPHA results in an effect where the dialog fades in.

TIn order to expose the setAnimationType API, access to the ScupCommunicator class is needed. This class is declared private. So it is only visible to classes inside the same package. This means that we have to extend the SDK package with our helper class:

package com.samsung.android.sdk.cup;

import android.content.Context;

import com.samsung.android.sdk.cup.ScupCommunicatorFactory;

public class ScupHelper {

public static final int ANIMATION_ALPHA = 3;

public static final int ANIMATION_NONE = 0;

public static final int ANIMATION_ROTATE_X = 2;

public static final int ANIMATION_SCALE = 3;

public static final int ANIMATION_TRANSLATE = 1;

public static final int ANIMATION_TRANSLATE_REVERSE = 4;

public static final int ANIMATION_WITHOUT_BUTTON = 256;

private static ScupCommunicator instance = null;        

private static final byte FUNC_SET_ANIMATION = 40;

public void initialize(Context context) {

instance = ScupCommunicatorFactory.getCommunicator(context);

}

/**

 *

 * @param paramInt ANIMATION_ALPHA, ANIMATION_NONE, ANIMATION_ROTATE_X, ANIMATION_SCALE, ANIMATION_TRANSLATE, or ANIMATION_TRANSLATE_REVERSE

 * @param id  - get this is by calling getId() on ScupDialog instance

 */

public void setAnimationType(int paramInt, short id) {

if (instance == null)

return;

instance.packCommand(id, id, 2, FUNC_SET_ANIMATION);

instance.packIntParam(paramInt, false);

instance.send();

}

As the SDK defines the ANIMATION_ constants as private, a public definition is added to this class.

In order to use the helper class, it needs to be initialized first:

ScupHelper sh=new ScupHelper();

sh.initialize(context);

sh.setAnimationType(ScupHelper.ANIMATION_ALPHA, getId());

The context needs to be obtained from the android application which executes this code. The getId() is a member of the ScupDialog class. The sample above assumes that this code is part of a derived class:

public class HelloCupDialog extends ScupDialog {

private Context context;

public HelloCupDialog(Context context) {

super(context);

this.context=context;

}

@Override

protected void onCreate() {

super.onCreate();

ScupHelper sh=new ScupHelper();

sh.initialize(context);

sh.setAnimationType(ScupHelper.ANIMATION_ALPHA, getId());

....

The animation seems to be not working in combination with the potrait mode (described below).

Changing to Portrait Mode

In potrait mode the widgets appear in the same orientation as the built-in apps:

We add this function to the helper class created above:

private static final byte FUNC_SET_POTRAIT_MODE=4;

public void setPotraitMode(short id) {

if (instance == null)

return;

instance.packCommand(id, id, 2, FUNC_SET_POTRAIT_MODE);

instance.send();

}

By default, widgets appear in landscape mode. If an app should use the potrait mode, it needs to be set explicitly. There seems to be no way back from the mode for a dialog - so once it is set, it remains set.

ScupHelper sh=new ScupHelper();

sh.initialize(context);

sh.setPotraitMode(getId());

Using Separators

The ScupSeparattor class can be used to separate widgets on the UI.

ScupSeparator sep=new ScupSeparator(this);

sep.setLineColor(Color.RED);

sep.setLineThickness(1.0f);

sep.setWidth(100);

sep.show();

The width parameter seems to be percent value. The thickness cannot be more than 5.0f.