Automating Android Using Tasker

Tasker can lock applications so that they require a passcode to enter. This is useful for applications that require an email/password combination. It’s easier to enter a 4-digit pin than a full password. Set up the application to remember your password and lock it instead. Please note that this DOES make the application less secure, but it works for my needs.

Follow these steps to set up this profile inside Tasker:

1. Click New and enter the name “App Lock” or any other name you like. Leave it blank if you want to name it later.
2. Select Application and wait for your apps to load
3. Select the app you wish to lock. You can select more than one. Select Done when you are finished.
4. Select New Task + at the top of the list to add a task
5. Name the task “Lock an App” if you wish.
6. Select the + at the bottom left to choose a task
7. Select category Display and action Lock
8. Have a look at the help text if you like by selecting ?
9. Enter a passcode in the Code field. I use 4 digits
10. Scroll down and press Done
11. At this point, you could add more tasks, but here press Done
12. Press Apply at the Profile List screen

At night, you usually turn your phone to silent and turn off vibrate. This way your phone won’t wake you if someone calls, texts, or sends an email. However, sometimes you forget a step or forget to do it altogether. That’s usually when you get drunk texted by one of your rowdy friends or someone dials a wrong number at 4am. However, if you do have your phone on silent and someone really needs to reach you for an emergency, you’re out of luck unless you pay for home and mobile service – which a lot of people don’t. This Tasker profile will fix all of that.

Follow these steps to set up this profile inside Tasker:

Sleep Mode

1. Click New and enter the name “Sleep Mode” or any other name you like. Leave it blank if you want to name it later. (Note, I set up one for weekends and one for weekdays with different times. You can always rename it later.)
2. Select the Time context
3. Select how long you want your phone to be in sleep mode – like 11PM – 7AM would be from 23:00 to 07:00. Then select Done.
4. Select New Task + at the top of the list to add a task
5. Name the task “Sleep Tasks” if you wish.
6. Select the + at the bottom left to choose a task
7. Select category Audio and action Silent Mode
8. Turn Mode to On and select Done
9. Select the + to add another task – Audio action Vibrate on Notify
10. Turn Mode to Off and select Done
11. Select the + to add another task – Audio action Vibrate on Ringer
12. Turn Mode to Off and select Done
13. Select the + to add another task – Variable action Variable Set
14. Set the Name to %WeekSleep and the To field to 1 then select Done
15. Back in the task list, select Done
16. When your new profile appears in the Profile List, tap the task box on the right.
17. Select Add Exit Task <. The exit task will turn the phone off of silent at your wake time (7:00 above)
18. Name the task “Wake Tasks” if you wish.
19. Select the + at the bottom left to choose a task
20. Select category Audio and action Silent Mode
21. Turn Mode to Off and select Done
22. Select the + to add another task – Audio action Vibrate on Notify
23. Turn Mode to On and select Done
24. Select the + to add another task – Audio action Vibrate on Ringer
25. Turn Mode to On and select Done
26. Select the + to add another task – Variable action Variable Clear
27. Set the Name to %WeekSleep and select Done
28. Back in the task list, select Done

Allow Emergency Calls

1. Click New and enter the name “Emergency Sleep” or any other name you like. Leave it blank if you want to name it later. (Note, I set up one for sleep and one for work with different caller permissions. You can always rename it later.)
2. Select the Event context, then the event Phone and action Phone Ringing
3. Click on the search button (looking glass logo) and match to A Single Contact – or you can select from your Favorites if you have them set up.
4. You can repeat step 3 over and over until you have everyone you want in your emergency list. It is not necessary to put a comma or anything, the app will automatically separate multiple contacts with a slash (/)
5. Select Done when you are finished.
6. Select New Task + at the top of the list to add a task
7. Name the task “Allow Calls” if you wish.
8. Select the + at the bottom left to choose a task
9. Select category Task and action If
10. Enter the following: %WeekSleep = 1 where you are using Math Equals (=)
11. Select Done
12. Select the + to add another task – Audio and action Silent Mode
13. Turn Mode to Off and select Done
14. Select the + to add another task – Task action Wait
15. Choose 5 minutes and select Done
16. Select the + to add another task – Audio and action Silent Mode
17. Turn Mode to On and select Done
18. Select the + to add another task – Task and action If
19. Enter the following: %WeekSleep = 1. This is part of the if loop – If you’re a programmer, you’ll understand. Just do this again or it won’t work properly.
20. Back in the task list, select Done

You can follow these steps again to set up the same situation for weekend sleep, or for working hours. For working hours, I suggest you turn vibrate on.

I got this Profile from the Tasker Wiki. You can download the profile .xml there for faster loading. I recommend working it out by hand so that you better understand the capabilities of the Tasker program and can then make your own profiles or edit the ones out there to better suit your needs. Additionally, I didn’t particularly like the pack of images they used. I went to Talk Android’s Wallpapers and got some prettier ones that suited my tastes and provided more variation.

Wallpapers: Get my wallpapers HERE. Or, use or create your own and give them the following names:

• • Clear.jpg
  • ClearNight.jpg
  • Cloudy.jpg
  • CloudyNight.jpg
  • Default.jpg
  • DefaultNight.jpg
  • Rain.jpg
  • RainNight.jpg
  • Storms.jpg
  • StormsNight.jpg
  • Sunny.jpg
  • SunnyNight.jpg

Follow these steps to set up this profile inside Tasker: (Still working on this one… ignore for now)

1. Click New and enter the name “Weather Background” or any other name you like. Leave it blank if you want to name it later. (Note, I set up one for weekends and one for weekdays with different times. You can always rename it later.)
2. Select the State, Power, then Battery Level context
3. Decide at what level you want it to stop checking. I set mine from 30% to 100%. That way if the batter falls below 30%, it won’t keep using up battery power checking the weather. Select Done.
4. Select New Task + at the top of the list to add a task
5. Name the task “Weather Tasks” if you wish.
6. Select the + at the bottom left to choose a task
7. Select category Variable and action Variable Set
8. Create a %ZIPCODE variable, and set it to be whatever the zipcode of you want the background to be set for and select Done.
9. Select the + to add another task – Net action HTTP Get
10. Set the port=”rss.accuweather.com/rss/liveweather_rss.asp?metric=1&locCode=%ZIPCODE” without the quotes. Leave the path, attributes, and output file blank, set the timeout to 10 and the Mime Type to text/xml. Select Done.
11. Select the + to add another task – Variable action Variable Split. This will split the returned weather status properly into the variable, deleting the unnecessary bits.
12. Set the Name to  %HTTPD, the Splitter to  “Currently:” without the quotes, and check the box next to Delete Base. Select Done.
13. Select the + to add another task – Task action Stop. The stop event prevents the program from failing if there is an error. It will just end cleanly.
14. Make sure the If checkbox is selected and fill in the variable %HTTPD2 and select the Isn’t Set button that looks like “! Set”. Select Done.
15. Select the + at the bottom left to choose a task
16. Select the + to add another task – Variable action Variable Split. This will split the second item left over from the first split. Last time, the HTTPD was split into HTTPD1 and HTTPD2. This time we will split the weather data on the “:” and will get our final result in HTTPD21.
17. Set the Name to  %HTTPD2, the Splitter to  “:” without the quotes, and select Done. (Do not delete the base this time)
18. Select the + to add another task – File action Write File. This will write out the variable with the weather data so that you may troubleshoot.
19. Set File to “external_sd/wallpapers/httpd21.txt” without the quotes. (or to the location of your wallpaper images on your SD card)
20. Set Text to “%HTTPD21” without the quotes so that we can see the value of the variable at this point. Select Done.
21. Select the + to add another task –Variable and action Variable Set
22. Set Name to %HTTPD21 and variable To “Sunny” without the quotes.
23. Check the box next to If, and create the statement If %HTTPD21 ~ *Sunny*. This will check the HTTPD21 variable and see if it contains the word Sunny. This would include Partly Sunny or Mostly Sunny. If it does contain it, it changes the variable to Sunny.
24. Select Done
25. Select the + to add another task –Variable and action Variable Set
26. Set Name to %HTTPD21 and variable To “Cloudy” without the quotes.
27. Check the box next to If, and create the statement If %HTTPD21 ~ *Cloudy*. This will check the HTTPD21 variable and see if it contains the word Cloudy. If it does contain it, it changes the variable to Cloudy.
28. Select Done
29. Select the + to add another task –Variable and action Variable Set
30. Set Name to %HTTPD21 and variable To “Storms” without the quotes.
31. Check the box next to If, and create the statement If %HTTPD21 ~ *Storm*/*storm*. This will check the HTTPD21 variable and see if it contains the word Storm or storm. This is necessary to match up to Thunderstorms, Stormy, etc. If it does contain it, it changes the variable to Storms.
32. Select Done
33. Select the + to add another task –Variable and action Variable Set
34. Set Name to %HTTPD21 and variable To “Rain” without the quotes.
35. Check the box next to If, and create the statement If %HTTPD21 ~ *Rain*. This will check the HTTPD21 variable and see if it contains the word Rain. If it does contain it, it changes the variable to Rain.
36. Select Done
37. Select the + to add another task –Variable and action Variable Set
38. Set Name to %HTTPD21 and variable To “Clear” without the quotes.
39. Check the box next to If, and create the statement If %HTTPD21 ~ *Clear*. This will check the HTTPD21 variable and see if it contains the word Clear. If it does contain it, it changes the variable to Clear.
40. Select Done
41. Select the + to add another task –Variable and action Variable Set
42. Set Name to %HTTPD21 and variable To “Default” without the quotes.
43. Check the box next to If, and create the statement If %HTTPD21 !~ Sunny/Storms/Rain/Cloudy/Clear. To get !~, choose Doesn’t Match. This will check the HTTPD21 variable and see if it has been set by one of the statements above. If it has not, it will set it to the Default.
44. Select Done
45. Select the + to add another task – File action Write File. This will write out the variable with the weather data so that you may troubleshoot.
46. Set File to “external_sd/wallpapers/weather.txt” without the quotes. (or to the location of your wallpaper images on your SD card)
47. Set Text to “%DATE %TIME %HTTPD21” without the quotes so that we can see the value of the variable at this point. Select Done.
48. Select the + to add another task – Variable and action Variable Set
49. Set Name to %HTTPD21 and variable To “Night” without the quotes.
50. Check the box next to Append. This will add the word Night so that you can use a different image for Storms and StormsNight, for example.
51. Check the box next to If, and create the statement If %TIME > 19. If the time is after 19 (7pm), the word Night will be added to the filename.
52. Select Done
53. Select the + to add another task – Display action Set Wallpaper
54. Set the Image to “external_sd/wallpapers/%HTTPD21.jpg” without the quotes and select Done
55. Back in the task list, select Done
56. Apply the changes.