Saturday, March 31, 2012

[android-developers] Will we ever be allowed to make custom widget pickers?

...or at least have something slightly nicer than the simple list in
gingerbread.

Currently there is no way to avoid using the built in widget selection
UI (the list of widgets you get in gingerbread when you add a widget).
This kind of sucks because it means you can't have anything like the
ICS launcher's widget page.

Are there any plans to ever fix this? I'd bet on "no" since it isn't a
problem for Google (since their launcher is included with the system
and can do what it likes). Here are some ways you could fix this
without compromising security:

1. Add an optional "Are you sure you wish to add <widgetname>?"
activity, so you can at least have a custom-picker-with-confirmation.
2. Have something like flashblock, so you have to click the widgets
before they are shown. (I don't know if there is a way to send
synthetic clicks though?)
3. Just allow the damn permission and call it "Access any of your data
from any of your apps." or something scary sounding. After all, isn't
the point of the permission system that you *can* do dangerous things?
The original justification for denying custom widget pickers is:

> Widgets can expose a lot of private data of all types, so it is not safe
> to allow an application to arbitrarily bind to them without the user implicitly approving

Well in that case, why are apps allowed the read SD card permission?
That can expose a lot of private data of all types...

Sorry for the slightly-ranting-ness. I'm just annoyed that this makes
it impossible for my to have the stock ICS launcher on ICS. Mostly I'm
annoyed at Samsung. They suck.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
Groups "Android Developers" group.
To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
android-developers+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home


Real Estate