Second shot (Still in the beta channel) ! With the following fixes:

– reworked the way the grid cell size is computed with panels (the old way, and the default panel size/config is adjusted to match the desktop)

– fix item preview in customize screen

– fix a crash when using a gesture to open a folder

– fixes problems with image pickers

No time to have a look at folders/panels configuration inheritance, this will be for the next one 😉

Just uploaded, it will appear in around two hours !

v9.0.b1

I am calling beta testers again to thoroughly test this release, because this is a special one. Stress it, shake it, turn it upside down without pity !

While adding support for panels, I felt like this was not enough for a single release… So I went on and started to tackle another long awaited feature 🙂 Afterall, Christmas is almost in a week, isn’t it ?

The special thing in this release is the new combined grid/free mode. Well, in fact there is no more mode at all. You have a grid, some items, and those items can simply be detached and attached again to this grid, and that’s all. It was like a mountain ride, but now it’s done. And the truth is that this is much more easy this way.

And, in case you may feel this is not enough, I have also dropped one limitation for background images (box and folders): in addition to nine patches, it is now possible to use any kind of image (but no animated gif… yet).

And a few other goodies:

– allow Template files to be reloaded from the backup/restore screen (without an APK, directly from a file). Such template files can be renamed and shared (email, dropbox, drive, etc.). APKs will still ensure a way larger audience though.

– restablish pin attribute copy when copying the style

– icons in menu have been removed

Enjoy !

Including panels.

This time this is in the alpha channel, download only if you don’t fear to be on the bleeding edge, and make a backup first. There are various caveats that need to be fixed before a release. You have been warned 😉

Available in around two hours on the Play Store:

https://play.google.com/apps/testing/net.pierrox.lightning_launcher_extreme

https://play.google.com/apps/testing/net.pierrox.lightning_launcher

Just a minor update with the following fixes/improvements:

    – add an animation when dropping an item into a folder, to help visualize the delay

    – fix an Android 4.4 specific bug (the desktop may seem unresponsive until home is pressed)

    – try to fix the background/theme in settings screens

    – fix several occasional crashes here and there

The goal of this version is to fix and improve a lot of small things. Here is the change log (in no particular order):

– fix a problem with wallpaper size not correctly set (Android 4.1+)

– fix widget being clickable in edit mode under some occasions

– upon rotation, the geometry toolbox is adjusted so that it doesn’t become unreachable

– don’t take hidden items into account when computing the desktop size (app drawer + fit desktop to items)

– if a desktop has been deleted, add it again to the list of configured desktop if it is accessed again through a link

– fix settings screen background

– move cursors at the end in some text editors (custom label, style name, backup name, screen name, settings)

– fix color picker paste

– fix rotation bug in app drawer

– upon rotation, attempt to keep the view at the same location

– in the app drawer, do not allow the content to be behind bars when they are transparent

– fix management of edit mode with folders

– copy folders window attributes in style, and restore them when applicable

Thank you all for your feedback and bug reports 🙂

Well, this is mostly the current beta, but without the beta status…

To recap the differences with v8.8:

– improve edit mode tap and drag behavior (made it the default)

– introduce a small delay before to drop an item in a folder

– allow zoom in edit mode, unconditionnal

– add a “folder options” menu item to directly jump to folder settings without having to open it

– fix a few bugs (translation and crashes)

Update is rolling out 😉

In the coming weeks I will have quite a lot of work, hence I probably won’t have the time to work on big features. I will instead focus on polishing things a bit. And this new version is exactly this: it improves (a bit) the layout editor:

– a brand new “geometry editor” is available through the item menu / position / geometry. This will allow setting precise values for position, scale, rotate scale and skew of any item (even stop points though this is weird and I still need to improve this, lol)

– an new option in general settings “Single finger scroll in edit mode”. Basically what it does is switch between tap and drag item moves the item or scroll the desktop. The purpose is to avoid false moves in edit mode. By default it is off to preserve the current behavior, but according to your feedback I may toggle it in a future release.

A few bug fixes also found their way in this release:

item preview size in landscape mode, home key occasionally not working, some random crashes.

Oh, and I finally added these transparent status and navigation bars options for Android 4.4 !

Edit: and here is a small video of the geometry editor: Lightning Launcher – Item geometry editor

And there is a BIG changelog. I don’t even know myself how it could grow this way. Maybe this has something to do with the beta…

Since the v8.6b1 release:

– add folder placement options as well as new animations (this is an easy way to create side bars)    

– add open folder action

– add an option to close other folders when opening a new one, and the auto close option will now also work for the desktop

– add support for nine patches (item box and folder window)

– better backup/restore screen

– add support for label selection in Unread Gmail Dynamic Text

– add rotation change events (useful to configure one desktop per orientation for instance)

– improved icon pack support (mask)

– add copy to desktop menu item (only for apps and shortcuts)

– scale stop points when they do not fit in their cell, instead of truncating them (better for small grids)

– add match edge options for stop points

– remove hardcoded ‘close folder’ action in some situations

– folders are no longer automatically closed when returning to home with the home key so that this is consistent with the back key

– enable the dual position option for the app drawer too

– add desktop&position launcher action (same as the shortcut, but easier to configure)

– fixed a problem with unread sms count not always updated

– fix dynamic text tabs

– fix a bug with styles that prevented the use of this feature (crash and other problems)

– fix several bugs with stop points (direction not taken into account, wrong vertical snap and some problems with barrier)

– fix direct dial shortcuts when use in item or gesture events on some devices

– fix a few other minor bugs

Have fun !

Oh well, I thought the previous beta was the last one, but I made so many changes that I prefer to publish one more.

Don’t be afraid, I didn’t break everything – I hope 😉 But a particular bug required some important architecture changes, and also I added support for nine patch. This needs some experimentation before to be thrown into the wild.

Wondering what is a nine patch ? More infos here : http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/graphics/2d-graphics.html#nine-patch

More precisely those nine patches will allow this kind of effect:

– way better item selection effect (not a square anymore, but more complex shape/style is possible, such as button style items

– shadows

– rounded corner

– custom borders

In LL, nine patches can be configured in the box section. This applies to both items and folders window. Please read the doc first (long tap on the setting), I put a link to sample nine patches here.

Using nine patches is not, from far, the easiest to do. But this is so great that “_insane or not, it had to be done_” 😉

Links:

https://play.google.com/apps/testing/net.pierrox.lightning_launcher

https://play.google.com/apps/testing/net.pierrox.lightning_launcher_extreme

If you read previous posts you already know the main new feature, but here is the full changelog anyway, a few other items are worth an update:

* add folder placement options as well as new animations (this is an easy way to create side bars)    

* add copy to desktop menu item (only for apps and shortcuts)

* scale stop points when they do not fit in their cell, instead of truncating them (better for small grids)

* add match edge options for stop points

* fix several bugs with stop points (direction not taken into account, wrong vertical snap and some problems with barrier)

I expect that the folder placement options will trigger new feature requests or bug report (in some situation it reveals some weakness that were already here but not visible), so I am waiting for your feedback 😉

Links:

https://play.google.com/apps/testing/net.pierrox.lightning_launcher

https://play.google.com/apps/testing/net.pierrox.lightning_launcher_extreme