Guest PaulOBrien Posted September 13, 2012 Report Share Posted September 13, 2012 Welcome to part 3 of our feature, 'Mastering Tasker'. In this series of articles, we'll take you through getting the most out of the powerful, versatile but also scary-to-newcomers Tasker application. Today - Using external plugins. If you are new to Tasker I recommend you work through the tutorials in order, part 1 is available in this post and part 2 is available in this post. What today's article covers Today we're going to talk about using external plugins. Although Tasker has a huge amount of functionality built in, there are a number of great 3rd party addons in the Play Store which let you take Tasker even further. We're going to use the 'Home' profile we created in part 2 and add some more cool stuff. Downloading 3rd party plugins To start today we need to download the third party plugins we're going to use. To have a browse around what's available you can obviously search for 'tasker plugin', but you can also search for 'locale plugin'. Locale is a similar context-based-functionality application to Tasker (it was actually around before Tasker) and Tasker can use it's plugins... giving you even more choice! :) For this part i'm going to demonstrate configuring a number of 3rd party plugins, so you can go ahead and download the ones you like the look of! The one's i'll talk about are...Locale Gtalk Plugin - use this to have your Gtalk status changed when you're home, e.g. to say 'around the house' or 'out and about'Locale Wake On Lan plug-in - use this to wake up your PC when you arrive homeLocale Password Lock Plugin (99p) - use this to disable PIN lock when you are at homeWiFi ADB - turn on ADB over WiFi when you are at home Adding new plugin actions to your profiles Let's start by opening up tasker and then clicking our 'Home' profile that we created in part 2. This reveals our entry and exit tasks, which we are going to edit. I'm going through each of the above plugins, just skip any that you don't want to try out. :) Locale Gtalk Plugin The Locale Gtalk Plugin lets you change your Gtalk status changed when you're home, e.g. to say 'around the house' or 'out and about'. Pretty cool! :) To set it up, do the following:Press the box with the green triangle 'WiFi On' to open the entry task.Click the '+' icon to add a new action.From the list that appears, choose 'Plugin'.For the plugin action, choose 'Gtalk'.This is the standard plugin configuration screen. To configure the plugin specific options, you need to click the 'Edit' button.This box is where you enter your Google Talk details. Enter your username, password and the status you'd like displayed when you're at home. You can click the 'green blob' to toggle status between available, busy and invisible too.You can use the checkboxes to choose whether you see 'toasts' from the app (the little messages that pop up on screen).When you've finished setting up, you need to press the menu button and select 'Save'. This applies to any plugins you set up!Click the green tick at the next screen to save and you'll see your new GTalk setting in the list! You can test with the 'Play' button or press the tick again to save.Now you are back at the main profile screen. You probably want to set up a status for when you're not at home too, so you do that in the exist task, by clicking the red triangle and repeating the above steps.That's it - you're done! Easy eh? Locale Wake On Lan plug-in The Locale Wake on Lan plug-in lets you up your PC when you arrive home. To set it up, do the following:Press the box with the green triangle 'WiFi On' to open the entry task.Click the '+' icon to add a new action.From the list that appears, choose 'Plugin'.For the plugin action, choose 'Wake On Lan'.This is the standard plugin configuration screen. To configure the plugin specific options, you need to click the 'Edit' button.This box is where you enter your PC details. Enter your PC MAC address and leave the other fields at their default settings.When you've finished setting up, you need to press the menu button and select 'Save'. This applies to any plugins you set up!Click the green tick at the next screen to save and you'll see your new Wake On Lan setting in the list! You can test with the 'Play' button or press the tick again to save.That's it - you're done! Easy eh? Locale Password Lock plug-in The Locale Password Lock plug-in lets you disable PIN lock when you are at home. To set it up, do the following: [*]Press the box with the green triangle 'WiFi On' to open the entry task. [*]Click the '+' icon to add a new action. [*]From the list that appears, choose 'Plugin'. [*]For the plugin action, choose 'Password Lock'. [*]This is the standard plugin configuration screen. To configure the plugin specific options, you need to click the 'Edit' button and approve the Device Administrator prompt that appears by pressing the 'Activate' button. [*]This box is where you configure your lock settings for when you are at home. So, you are probably going to want to set the toggle button to 'OFF'. [*]When you've done this, you need to press the menu button and select 'Save'. This applies to any plugins you set up! [*]Click the green tick at the next screen to save and you'll see your new Password Lock setting in the list! You can test with the 'Play' button or press the tick again to save. [*]Now you are back at the main profile screen. You probably want to set up a status for when you're not at home too, so you do that in the exist task, by clicking the red triangle and repeating the above steps. This time though you set the toggle button to 'ON', choose a password and also choose an activation delay. [*]That's it - you're done! Easy eh? WiFi ADB The WiFi ADB tasker integration allows you to enable WiFi access to ADB on your device when you are at home. To set it up, do the following: [*]Press the box with the green triangle 'WiFi On' to open the entry task. [*]Click the '+' icon to add a new action. [*]From the list that appears, choose 'Plugin'. [*]For the plugin action, choose 'WiFi ADB'. [*]This is the standard plugin configuration screen. To configure the plugin specific options, you need to click the 'Edit' button. [*]This box is where you configure your lock settings for when you are at home. So, you are probably going to want to set the toggle button to 'ON'. [*]When you've done this, you need to press the menu button and select 'Save'. This applies to any plugins you set up! [*]Click the green tick at the next screen to save and you'll see your new Password Lock setting in the list! You can test with the 'Play' button or press the tick again to save. [*]Now you are back at the main profile screen. You probably want to set up a status for when you're not at home too, so you do that in the exist task, by clicking the red triangle and repeating the above steps. This time though you set the toggle button to 'OFF'. [*]That's it - you're done! Easy eh? Coming up next In part 4 we're going to look at locking your device via Bluetooth proximity. Please post your feedback in the comments, together with any requests / ideas for future parts! View full item Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Harroguk Posted September 16, 2012 Report Share Posted September 16, 2012 Im looking to make a profile that will automatically log in to my works Barracuda Webfilter. The problem is that once it has an unsecured wifi connection to it, it then needs the user to log into a web page and fill out the required fields (Username/Password) before it actually gets a connection to the internet. I imagine that this would need an HTTP POST request sending to it but have no idea how to construct one that works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest PaulOBrien Posted September 17, 2012 Report Share Posted September 17, 2012 If you PM me a 'saved page' from your browser of the login page I'll try and help you with that. :) P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest siedkins Posted January 27, 2013 Report Share Posted January 27, 2013 Hi Paul, Might be useful for other's using your password plug-in. I used a Pattern for my lockscreen and neither of the Apps by Willem Stoker worked for me. I found the following app that was free and worked a treat: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.intangibleobject.securesettings.plugin Note you need root but I'm guessing quite a few of Android users who are messing with Tasker might be rooted. Also I've been doing some reading and it's suggested to have two profiles for being "in" and "out" of home (with out being set as not on home wifi state). This is to avoid the situation where - wifi enabled at home hence password is disabled, phone turned off and phone leaves home, then turn phone on and the password is still disabled because the "exit" task is never triggered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts