We need to get rid of the icon

Everything about using the stand-alone Adblock Plus app on Android
Andrey Novikov
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Joined: Fri Feb 03, 2012 1:18 pm

Re: We need to get rid of the icon

Post by Andrey Novikov »

Wladimir Palant wrote:It looks like setting the adjustment to 0 would have the same effect as actually running a foreground application. Can we use it to prevent being killed despite not having an icon?
I tried it, it works. But only until user switches to any other application. Then adjustments are recalculated in response to user activity and our adjustment is reset to default because service is not marked as foreground in internal ServiceRecord. We can try to access it via reflection, but it's private, can change at any time, it's an ugly hack and obviously not a hot fix solution.

BTW, without High priority our service became "The B list of SERVICE_ADJ -- these are the old and decrepit services that aren't as shiny and interesting as the ones in the A list." only after 15 minutes of inactivity.
Andrey Novikov
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Re: We need to get rid of the icon

Post by Andrey Novikov »

ggravier wrote:What about this. When user selects the icon in the notification area, there is displayed, first thing, a notice that says "This icon is required to keep Adblock Plus running properly in memory and not be killed by the OS." ?
Nice proposal, but it should continue with "You can turn it off in advanced settings."
fhd
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Re: We need to get rid of the icon

Post by fhd »

ggravier wrote:What about this. When user selects the icon in the notification area, there is displayed, first thing, a notice that says "This icon is required to keep Adblock Plus running properly in memory and not be killed by the OS." ?
That's a good idea, but I fear we have some space restrictions there...
Andrey Novikov wrote:I thought about it last night and came to the following proposal:

1. We rename "High priority" option to "Priority notification" and leave it in advanced settings.
2. We add "Transparent icon" option to main settings which is off by default and add a warning that it will still reserve space in notification bar.

Implementing only item 2 will make things worse: some people will laugh on us, some will become angry thinking that we mock them.
I don't think so. We can point them to Google's very own blog post, clearly stating that this is how background services are supposed to keep themselves alive, I wasn't fully aware of that when I started this thread.

We can still have the priority checkbox. I'd call it "Foreground service" though, that's basically what it does. And I wouldn't point people actively to it anymore, as I recommended before, when I thought that this might be our long-term solution.
Andrey Novikov
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Re: We need to get rid of the icon

Post by Andrey Novikov »

fhd wrote:That's a good idea, but I fear we have some space restrictions there...
I have understood the proposal in a different way: notification message stays the same. But when user taps it the explanation message appears asking if user wants to switch it off instead of raw preferences screen.
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greiner
ABP Developer
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Re: We need to get rid of the icon

Post by greiner »

fhd wrote:How exactly did you reproduce it? I've been switching back and forth between several memory exhausting applications (GTA 3, Max Payne, Curiosity, ...) and ABP never disappeared from the running apps. Just tested to reload a site right after switching back from Curiosity, worked just fine.
I didn't say say that it was no longer in the running apps list, only that I couldn't connect to the internet anymore and got the proxy connection failed error that signifies that. (the connection usually returns after some page reloads though)
fhd
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Re: We need to get rid of the icon

Post by fhd »

Andrey Novikov wrote:
fhd wrote:That's a good idea, but I fear we have some space restrictions there...
I have understood the proposal in a different way: notification message stays the same. But when user taps it the explanation message appears asking if user wants to switch it off instead of raw preferences screen.
Hm, not so sure. I personally like to use the notification to switch to ABP, I don't want to see a notification message each time. Anyway, if we have a Hide notification icon on the first screen, that's kinda the same effect. We can have a small info dialog explain the issue whenever it's switched on. Like this:
Adblock Plus needs to keep running in the background to be able to block ads. All Android apps that want to run in the background need to have a permanent icon in the notification bar.

We will hide the icon for you, but there will still be a gap in the notification bar. If you really want to get rid of it for good, uncheck Foreground service in the advanced preferences, which will however make the system stop ABP after a while, like any other app.
Or, you know, shorter :)
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ggravier
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Re: We need to get rid of the icon

Post by ggravier »

Andrey Novikov wrote:
fhd wrote:That's a good idea, but I fear we have some space restrictions there...
I have understood the proposal in a different way: notification message stays the same. But when user taps it the explanation message appears asking if user wants to switch it off instead of raw preferences screen.
No no... My proposal was to have an explanation. But if there are space restrictions, why not do it the following way :

User clicks on Adblock Plus notification. In the notification list, there is a message saying "Why is this icon here?". When you click on that, it takes you to a page in the app that explains that turining it off means that the application isn't sure to stay in memory and be active when needed. That way short space in the notification area, but a full page of explanation space available when user clicks on the notification.

Gilles
Andrey Novikov
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Re: We need to get rid of the icon

Post by Andrey Novikov »

fhd wrote:I personally like to use the notification to switch to ABP, I don't want to see a notification message each time.
This would be one-time warning only.
fhd
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Re: We need to get rid of the icon

Post by fhd »

Andrey Novikov wrote:
fhd wrote:I personally like to use the notification to switch to ABP, I don't want to see a notification message each time.
This would be one-time warning only.
Hm, I'm not sure if that'll be enough. Users often don't read stuff, I think we should show it more than once.

Don't you think the "Hide icon" checkbox would be sufficient? I'm guessing that if someone's annoyed by the icon, he's going to fire up ABP. There he'll see the checkbox, tick it and have a chance to read a short explanation on why the icon is there. If he unchecks/checks it, he can read it again.
Wladimir Palant

Re: We need to get rid of the icon

Post by Wladimir Palant »

As I said, we shouldn't add an option to remove the icon unless we can ensure that it won't result in a dead internet connection. For now it should definitely be "Hide icon" only.
Andrey Novikov
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Re: We need to get rid of the icon

Post by Andrey Novikov »

We can not hide it, so only "Transparent icon".
fhd
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Re: We need to get rid of the icon

Post by fhd »

Andrey Novikov wrote:We can not hide it, so only "Transparent icon".
That's why we have the explanatory message, saying we cannot really hide the icon, just make it transparent. I'd still vote for "Hide icon" because it's what the user wants.
tonyp

Re: We need to get rid of the icon

Post by tonyp »

Is it possible to push the transparent icon to the farthest right of all visible icons? This would eliminate the gap.

I could be wrong, but I believe this is how Tasker's transparent notification icon works.... I don't recall ever seeing a gap caused by that one.
Skunk

Re: We need to get rid of the icon

Post by Skunk »

guys its very easy to fix this. long press on ad block in the notification area then go to app info when it pops up.. uncheck the box that says display notifications... done.
tonyp

Re: We need to get rid of the icon

Post by tonyp »

Skunk wrote:guys its very easy to fix this. long press on ad block in the notification area then go to app info when it pops up.. uncheck the box that says display notifications... done.

Good call, thanks! This trick will come in handy for other apps that run in the foreground.
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