Main Screen

Profiles

1. Title Bar

This shows the profile name (or description if it has no name) and the check-mark icon on the right shows whether the profile is enabled or not.

• Click on the name to expand / collapse the profile. When expanded, the contexts and tasks (described below), are visible.
• Long-click on the profile name to get profile options
• Click on the check-mark icon to toggle whether the profile is enabled or not.
• Click-and-drag the area at the right side of the title bar drag it around. Note that the enable icon can also be used for dragging.

Important: the check-mark does not mean the profile is active (will run its tasks), it means that the profile can become active if its conditions are met.

2. Contexts

On the left hand side of the profile are an icon and text for each context in the profile. The contexts dictate when the profile should become active. When all contexts are active then the profile will be active.

• Click on the context to edit it
• Long-click to show management options, such as editing or adding a new context

You can configure what clicks and long-clicks on contexts do in Menu / Prefs / UI.

3. Tasks

On the right hand side of the profile are one or two tasks to carry out based on its activation status.

• Click on the task to edit it
• Long-click to show management options.

A task indicated with a green, right-pointing arrow is an entry task, executed when the profile first becomes active.

A task indicated with a red, left-pointing arrow is an exit task, executed when the profile becomes inactive again.

Exception: a profile containing an event context or a repeating or non-ranged time context has two green arrows, to denote that both tasks are executed immediately because the profile activation and deactivation is instantaneous.

Tasks

Scenes

Variables

The Variables tab is not shown if Menu / Prefs / UI / Beginner Mode is enabled.

Bottom Controls

Cancel Button

Accept Button

Plus Button

Create a new Profile, Task, Scene or Variable, depending on the current tab.

On/Off Toggle

Projects

Tasker allows organisation of profiles, tasks, scenes and variables into groups called Projects, each with a separate Project Tab.

The projects tabs are accessed by dragging entity tabs down via the faded arrow just underneath them. Drag the other way to hide them.

If no arrow is there, you probably need to disable Menu / Prefs / UI / Beginner Mode.

• Click-and-drag a profile, task or scene to a project tab to move it to that project
• Click on a project tab to switch to viewing only things in that project
• Long-click on a project tab for options, including adding a new tab

The first tab has a slightly special status, it cannot be removed and anything which is not a member of another project is placed there.

Menus

Menu Item: Browse Solutions

Menu Items: Data

Clear

Backup

Restore

Application Context

The button in the bottom right indicates whether the context is inverted or not. If the button is lit-up, this context will become active when any application apart from the selected one is launched.

Application Checking

If you would like quicker response, or you suspect this is severely increasing your battery usage, you can change this value in preferences (select Menu / Preferences / Monitor from the main screen).

Time Context

A Time Context specifies a particular range, or one (or more) points in time. There are three major components in the selection dialog, one of which must be selected (by enabling its checkbox on the left):

• From Time: the starting time of the range. If it's not specified, 00:00 is assumed.
• To Time: the end time of the range. If it's not specified, 11:59 is assumed.
• Repeat: if no repeat is selected, the context is assumed to be a continuous range which starts at From Time and ends at To Time. If a repeat is specified, the first occurrence is at From Time and then every X hours or minutes until End Time.

Notes:

• to specify a precise time, set From and To times the same. In that case, the context is treated as an instant event, it it only active for a fraction of a second, so no setting restoration is done.
• each repeat (if Repeat is set) is also treated like an instant event.

Day Context

Month Specification

Day of Week/Month Specification

Selecting no day has the same meaning as selecting every day.

If you select both days of the week and days of the month, it requires both conditions to be fulfilled for the profile to become active e.g. selecting Mon,Tue and 11th means the profile will become active when the day is a Mon or Tuesday and simultaneously the 11th day of the month.

If you are unsure if you have specified the day(s) you require, click the Done button and you will see a verbal description at the top of the Profile Edit screen. You can click on this to try again if it's not correct.

Location Context

A location context specifies a circular geographical area in which it is active. It is formed by a centre point (latitude, longitude) plus a radius around that point.

Location Providers

GPS

The most accurate provider available (around +-10m), but its performance degrades quickly indoors and it uses a relatively large amount of power.

To set the frequency of GPS fixes, see Menu / Preferences / Monitor. GPS Check Time determines the check frequency in seconds while the device is awake, Off Check Time while the device is asleep.

GPS will only be used for a particular context if it is specified in the location edit screen.

Network

Network will only be used for a particular context if it is specified in the location edit screen.

Location Edit

State Context

The State Edit screen allows configuration of the state and its parameters.

State Name

Next to the name is a button to show help for the displayed state type and its parameters. Be sure to check the help text if you have trouble with a particular state.

State Parameters

General Parameters

Event Context

Events are a little different to other contexts because they are instantaneous whereas other contexts usually have a duration.

Event Edit

Tasks

Named / Anonymous Tasks

Task Edit

Action Edit

General

Bottom-right is a help button. Please be sure to read the action help of every action before you use it for the first time, there may be e.g. device specific restrictions you should know about.

Action Parameters

Text Parameters

Introduction

A scene is a graphical user-interface consisting of a collection of elements to which tasks can be attached to be run when the user interacts with them e.g. by tapping them.

Tasker uses scenes for things like popup dialogs, menus and getting input from the user but scenes can actually be displayed by the user whenever desired, meaning they can be used for things like creating simple user-designed applications or showing extra controls over the top of (selected) existing applications.

Scene Edit

The scene editor is used for designing custom scenes.

Display Area

Preview Mode

• Click-and-drag on the edge of the scene to resize it

Editing Mode

• Long-click on an empty area to create a new element positioned there
• Long-click on an element to get options for the element
• Click on an element to edit it.
• Click-and-drag on the centre of an element to move it
• Click-and-drag on the edge of an element to resize it

When moving and resizing, the sides of elements are snapped to a grid to make alignment easier. The grid size is unique to each scene and can be changed via Menu / Grid Size.

Tool Bar

Undo

New Element

Touch Mode

Menu Options

Background Colour

Set Background

Pin

Set Depth

Orientation

The geometry (position and size) of each element can be configured independently for portrait and landscape display orientations by rotating the device to the desired orientation in the editor.

If no geometry is configured for a particular orientation when the scene is displayed, Tasker will attempt to fit the elements into the scene based on the geometry of the elements in the other orientation.

Scene Element: Button

About

Parameter: Position

Events

Scene Element: Doodle

About

Click the Doodle parameter to edit the doodle.

Doodles are stored on external storage in the directory /sdcard/Tasker/cache/doodles in case they are masterpieces which demand publishing.

Events

Scene Element: Image

Events

Scene Element: Oval / Rectangle

About

Events

Scene Element: Map

About

It's only possible to have one Map element per scene and Map elements cannot appear in Overlay scenes.

Related Actions

Scene Element: Menu

About

Parameter: Source

In the case of manual specification, click on the Items tab in the element editor to specify the items.

Parameter: Selection Mode

• single: tapping an item deselects any other item selected
• multi: several items can be selected at the same time
• none: tapping an item never selects it

Selected items are highlighted. There are two ways to find out the selected items:

• assign a task under the Item Tap element event tab. Every time an item is tapped, the selected items are available in the local variable %select_indices
• query the selected items at any time using the action Element Get Value

Parameter: Item Layout

There are two pre-defined layouts you can choose from (click the magnifying glass icon). 'Icon and Text' is the default.

Events

Scene Element: Slider

About

Events

Scene Element: Text

About

Parameter: Position

Parameter: Text Width Scale

Parameter: Vertical Fit Mode

Parameter: Text Format

• Plain Text
  just show the text as-is
• Text With Links
  things that look like links are clickable (though not in the scene editor) e.g. URLs, email addresses, phone numbers
• HTML
  interpret the text as a piece of HTML. Only simple tags are interpreted and no images are displayable

Events

Scene Element: TextEdit

About

TextEdit elements cannot appear in Overlay scenes.

Parameter: Position

Parameter: Text Width Scale

Events

Scene Element: Web

About

Parameters: Mode / Source

• URI: the Source parameter refers to a URI (e.g. http://) from which the WebView should retrieve content.
• File: the Source parameter contains a local file path from which the WebView should retrieve content.
• Direct: the Source parameter directly specifies the HTML and/or JavaScript content to load

Parameter: Allow Phone Access

Scene Element Edit

Allows configuration of the properties of a scene element. The different types of property are divided into tabs.

UI

Items

Only relevant to Menu elements.

Each row configures an item in the menu. Starting from the left, the controls are:

• selection checkbox
  this is only present when Selection Mode is set to Single or Multi. It stipulates whether the item will be shown as selected when the menu is displayed.
• icon button
  the icon to show for the item. If you don't want to show an icon, hide the icon element in the Layout parameter in the UI tab
• label text
  the label to show for the item. If you don't want to show a label, hide the label element in the Layout parameter in the UI tab
• action button
  an action to run when the item is tapped
• trash can
  used to delete the item

To add an item, click the plus button at the bottom of the screen.

Background

Event tabs stipulate what Tasker should do when the user interacts with the element in some way. Most consist only of a task to specify but some allow a filter specification so that the task only runs if the event matches the filter.

To help the task to decide what to do with the event and to allow a single task to handle many different events if desired, Tasker sets certain local variables which give specific information about it. The variables are easily accessible by clicking the usual variable tag icon in any action in the task.

The following variables are available in all such tasks:

• %scene_name
  the name of the scene containing the element
• %element_name
  the name of the element that the user interacted with (e.g. Button1)
• %element_type
  the type of element (e.g. Button)
• %event_type
  the name of the event (e.g. Tap)

Text Changed

This event is triggered whenever the text changes e.g. because a letter key has been pressed while the element had focus.

• %new_val
  the new text
• %old_val
  the old text

Tap, Long Tap

In a Map element, the following variables are available:

• %coord
  the latitute,longitude of the tapped location on the map
• %label
  the label of the tapped GeoMarker (if any). You can add GeoMarkers to a Map element with the action Scene / Element Add GeoMarker

Value Selected

• %new_val
  the new value of the element (e.g. 50)
• %old_val
  the last selected value (e.g. 43)

Item Tap, Item Long Tap

• %select_indices
  a comma-separated list of currently selected items in the list (e.g. 3,4)
• %select_labels
  a comma-separated list of the labels of currently selected items in the list (e.g. Blue,Yellow)
• %tap_index
  the index of the item that was tapped to cause this event (e.g. 3)
• %tap_label
  the label of the item that was tapped to cause this event (e.g. Blue)

Stroke

A stroke has two filter parameters.

• Direction
  the direction from the start point of the stroke to the end point
• Length
  minimum distance in (approximate) pixels from the start point of the stroke to the end point

If either of these parameters don't match the event, the task will not run.

• %stroke_dir
  Direction, as described above
• %stroke_len
  Length, as described above

Link Tap

A Link Tap has two filter parameters:

Page Loaded

• %url
  the URL of the page (e.g. http://i.hate.fruit/except/mangos.html)

App Creation

Introduction

Tasker allows creation of completely standalone apps (APK files) which have no requirement for Tasker to be installed on the device they're used on.

The intention is to allow people to create their own apps for fun, for sale or just to share with friends. Or if you are concerned about all the permissions Tasker needs you can create an app that has only the permissions you require!

App creation is uncomplicated and takes only a few seconds once you're setup.

To create apps, you need the following on your device (not necessarily on the device(s) the app will run on):

• Android 2.3+
• Tasker App Factory (free, see below)
• a device with an ARM or x86 processor (the vast majority of devices have one of those)

App creation is accessed by long-clicking on a project (not the base project) or task and selecting Export then As App. Any linked resources needed (e.g. other tasks, images) are included as part of the new app.

To export anything except a single task, you need to create a project and put anything you wish to export in the project.

Hello World Example

1. Create A Task

• make a new task
  click on the Tasks tab then click + to add a new task. Give it a name Hello World.
• give the task an icon
  long-click on the colourful icon in the bottom right and pick any icon
• add the Popup action
  click + in the bottom left to add an action, select category Alert and then action Popup. Fill in Hello World! in the Text parameter, then click the accept button bottom left to accept the action, then again to accept the task.
• ask Tasker to create an app
  long-click on the task you just made, select Export then As App. A popup appears mentioning a Missing App.

2. Install Tasker App Factory

To generate apps, Tasker needs a free helper app called Tasker App Factory. It's available on Play Store and from the Tasker website.

Click the accept button on the popup to install the helper app.

3. App Generation

Tasker should now start generating your app, which will take maybe 12 seconds depending on your device.

If all goes well, the Cancel button will turn into an OK button meaning your app is ready!

We can't run the app straight away though because it hasn't been installed. Click on the rightmost bottom button with the Android icon to ask Android to install your app.

Once Android is done installing, you can click it's Open button to run the app, or you can simply go to the home screen and click on the app's icon in the launcher.

You should see a Hello World popup!

App Configuration

When in Beginner Mode, and if you only have one task to install, Tasker will make guesses about how to configure the resulting app.

More usually, before an app is generated you will be presented with a configuration screen which lets you specify various options for the new app.

App Signing

Android requires that all apps be signed i.e. that they certify who created them. By default, Tasker uses an automatically-generated insecure certificate to sign apps and doesn't bother mentioning it.

However, if you want to release an app via a public site (Play Store for example), you will need to sign it with a proper (secure) certificate. That's done so the site knows that it's you that's giving them the app each time you submit a new version.

Certificates are kept in a keystore which is protected with a password. To generate a keystore with a secure certificate, use Menu / More / Developer Options / Create Certificate.

Once you've generated the keystore, Tasker will often need to ask you for the certificate password before app generation so that it can be used to sign each new version of your app.

Tasker makes an automatic backup of your keystore to

	/sdcard/Tasker/factory/keystore.user

when it is first created and when you backup your profile data with Menu / Data / Backup. It's highly advisable to make a copy of that file and keep it safe away from your device.

Target Device Requirements

• have the Google Maps library installed, even if the exported project or task does not use location in any way
• the minimum SDK version specified in the Kid Config screen
• have hardware corresponding to features specified in the Kid Config screen

Miscellaneous

Accessibility Service

Android accessibility support changed in Android 4.1 (JellyBean). If support is needed for accessibility services in 4.1+, the Minimum Android Version in the child Configuration screen must be set to 16 or higher. If support is required pre-4.1, it must be set to less than 16.

In other words, to support both pre- and post-4.1 devices, two APKs must be generated.

This applies to all features that rely on an Accessibility Service (events Notification, New Window, Button Widget Clicked, Notification Click, variables %NTITLE, %WIN)

Google Play Store allows publication of APKs targetting different Android versions under the same package name, however this has not been tested by the developer of Tasker.

Monitor Service

Most child apps include a service which constantly monitors for events. If you know that you don't need to monitor events anymore (in-between app launches) you can use the Disable action in the Tasker category to stop it.

It will be automatically started again next time the app is launched.

Widgets / Shortcuts

• it's not possible in Android to auto-create widgets with any app
• it's not possible *currently* to offer the user child-app widgets, that may be available in the future to some extent

Memory Problems

Preferences

The new app currently has the same default preferences as Tasker with a couple of exceptions.

You can use the Set Tasker Pref action in the Tasker category to change some of the preferences when the app is running.

Available Tasker Features

The Test action in the Misc category allows you to check which Tasker features are available at run time (when the app is being used).

Images

Plugins

When the new app is launched, it checks that all referenced plugins are installed on the device and prompts the user to install missing ones.

Some plugins may not work on other devices if they themselves store something about the action to be performed, since that data will not be available on the other device.

Task / Shortcut Widgets

Standard Widgets / Shortcuts

Clicking on the icon runs the associated Task.

Task Timer Widgets

When the timer expires (reaches 0) the associated Task is run.

Tapping on the icon of the widget shows a configuration screen where the timer can be configured.

Tapping on the timer section of the widget will pause, restart or reset the timer, depending on its current state.

Note that the timer updates more rarely when it is still a long way from expiry in order to minimize power usage.

Creating a Widget / Shortcut

Differences Between Widgets and Shortcuts

Advantages of Shortcuts

• they can be created in some places that widgets can't e.g. in home screen folders
• their layout probably better matches the default launcher layout
• long shortcut labels will scroll when selected in the default launcher
• they use slightly fewer system resources, though it's probably not noticeable

Advantages of Widgets

• they can use image files from SD for their icon
• their icon and label can be dynamically changed after creation via the Set Widget Icon and Set Widget Label actions.
• timer widgets are possible
• they can be created without a label

General

• you can create as many Tasker widgets and shortcuts as you like. You can even have several Timer widgets running at the same time.
• Timer Task widgets continue to update even when the screen is off.

Beginner Mode

In Beginner Mode, Tasker attempts to simplify things for inexperienced users, mostly by UI elements which are unlikely to be needed by inexperienced users.

Beginner Mode can be disabled by unchecking the option:

Menu / Prefs / UI / Beginner Mode

Some of the changes made in Beginner Mode are:

• main screen, Variables tab removed
• main screen, export options removed
• main screen, project tab not accessible
• task edit screen, task properties icon removed
• action edit screen, Label, Continue On Error parameters removed
• prefs screen, many options removed

In the userguide, when references are found to things which do not appear on the screen. It's worth disabling Beginner Mode to see if that's the problem.

CPU Control

Note: CPU control can damage your hardware e.g. by the CPU overheating. As for all Tasker functions, you use it at your own risk!

General

On a rooted device (only) Tasker is able to control the CPU frequency of an Android device to some extent. This is usually done either to save battery or make the device more responsive depending on the circumstances.

The relevant control action is CPU in the Misc category. You can monitor the current state with the variables %CPUFREQ and %CPUGOV.

There are two aspects which can be controlled, the Frequency Range and the CPU Governor. You will need to experiment with combinations of these to achieve the best results.

Frequency Range

You can set the minimum and maximum frequency which the CPU is allowed to run at. Only certain frequencies are valid, depending on the CPU (click on the magnifying glass button to select a valid value).

The maximum frequency is probably initially set lower than the maximum frequency that the CPU can actually handle. If that is the case, you should be very cautious about setting it higher. Tasker will warn you the first time you try to do configure an action to do that, assuming you have not been using other apps to change the maximum frequency limit.

CPU Governor

The active governor decides what the CPU frequency should be set to at a particular time, within the frequency range you have set. Each has it's own unique strategy. Here are the most common governors:

• Performance
  keeps the CPU frequency always at the maximum. Most power-hungry, most responsive.

• Powersave
  keeps the CPU frequency always at the minimum. Least power-hungry, least responsive.

• Ondemand
  when the CPU is needed, immediately sets it to maximum frequency. Slowly reduces the frequency back down to the minimum as time passes. Responsive, reasonable power usage.

• Interactive
  like Ondemand, but more responsive with slightly more battery usage.

• Conservative
  when the CPU load is needed, slowly increases the frequency to maximum. When the CPU is no longer needed, immediately drops back to the minimum. Less power-usage than Ondemand or Interactive, less responsive.

Not all governors are available on all ROM versions. Your device may also have a governor not described here. You can still set that governor with Tasker.

CPU Action Not Available

• root not recognized
  Tasker decides that a device is rooted if /system/app/Superuser.apk is present and su is present in one of the directories of $PATH
• no available frequencies
  Tasker needs to know what frequencies it can set the CPU to. It looks for the files /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpuX/cpufreq/scaling_available_frequencies, /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpuX/cpufreq/stats/time_in_state and /system/etc/scaling_available_frequencies (in that order). If you know what your CPU frequencies are, you could write them (space-separated, in numerical order) to the first (any number of CPUs) or last (1 CPU only) of those files.

Widget / Shortcut Configuration

Flow Control

Overview

Conditions

A condition consists of an operator ('equals' etc) and two parameters. The possible operators are:

Foreach Loop

Goal: perform a set of actions for each of apple, pear and banana.

Result: Action One and Action Two are performed three times. The first time, the variable %item is set to apple, the second time pear and the last time banana.

You can insert a Goto action in the loop with either Top of Loop (meaning continue, skip to the next item straight away) or End of Loop (meaning break, stop without doing any more items) specified.

In adition to simple text, the For action accepts any comma-separated combination of these Items:

Encryption

Note: encryption functions are not available on the Play Store version of Tasker due to US export restrictions.

Since decryption can be automated, you have the possibility to keep data files encrypted outside of certain times, locations, applications etc.

Warning: make backups of your files while setting up encryption until you understand how the system works and are sure the encryption/decryption process does not cause any corruption.

Keys

If no key name is specified, default is used.

Once a passphrase for a key is entered, the ciphers it generated are stored in memory until explicitly deleted. The deletion might be specified after an Encrypt/ Decrypt File action, or explicitly with the Clear Key action.

Setting Up Encryption

General Preferences

First thing to do is check whether the encryption preferences for Encryption Iterations and Encryption Algorithm are as you wish. Once you start encryping things, it's time consuming to start again with new encryption preferences.

The preferences can be found at Menu / Prefs / Action. Be sure to have a look at the help text for each item.

Initial Encryption

To do that, create a task called Encrypt or similar and add one or more Encrypt File or Encrypt Dir actions to it.

By default, the key is cleared once the file is encrypted, so click 'Leave Key' for all but the last action, otherwise you'll have to enter your passphrase for each file.

Gestures & Shaking

General

When you later redo the gesture while using your device, Tasker will carry out the corresponding task(s) you have attached to its profile.

Like normal events, gestures are restricted by other contexts. For example, if you define a profile with a Gesture (Event) and Application context, the gesture will only be recognized while using that particular application.

Note: it might be a good idea to disable Tasker before setting up new gestures, as otherwise you are likely to trigger previously defined ones.

Recording A Gesture

Gesture Points

You can record as many points as you like, but in general it's best to record only the points where the phone is not moving.

Recognized Movements

Moving the phone backwards or forwards, up or down or side to side cannot be recognized.

Procedure

1. create a new Gesture Event and give it a name (so you can differentiate between different gestures).
2. put the phone in the position where you want the gesture to start and press-and-hold the Call, Camera, Menu, Search or Volume hardware buttons to record the point. The device will buzz.
3. move to another (preferably not-moving) point on the path of your gesture, and press the button again (not a long press). The device will buzz.
4. on the final inflection point, press-and-hold the button to mark the end of the gesture. The device will buzz again and the "Recorded." message should now flash up.
5. Press Done, and add a Vibrate action so you can hear when your pattern matches when testing it.

Activation

Calibration

Tasker now has some idea what kind of values the accelerometer in your phone produces.

You only need to calibrate once.

Matching

If not, try playing with the values in the Gesture Settings screen. For instance, you could try raising the Match Radius (but be careful not to raise it too much or you'll get a lot of matches by mistake).

Power Usage

• monitoring for gestures only takes place when all the other contexts in a profile are already active (and so the gesture might have a chance of activating the profile). For example, if you combine an Application and Gesture (Event) context, gesture monitoring will only take place while using that particular application.
• Gesture monitoring is by default turned off when the display is off unless a power source is connected to the device, unless specified otherwise in Menu / Prefs / Monitor / Display Off Monitoring
• updates from the accelerometer are at the minumum rate until the start of a gesture is detected.

Icons

JavaScript Support

Introduction

Local Variables

In JavaScript(let) actions, local variables (all lower case, e.g. %myvar) are directly accessible in the JavaScript without the % sign (e.g. myvar). If the script changes the value, the new value is transparently used by subsequent actions in the task.

Global Variables

Arrays

Local Tasker arrays are transparently available in Javascript(let)s and vice-versa. They are not available in WebViews.

Arrays which are not existing Tasker arrays must be declared in the JS as such i.e. in this case arr will not be visible to the remainder of the task:

	var arr = getSomeArray();

Whereas in this case it will:

	var arr = [];
	arr = getSomeArray();

Note that:

• JavaScript array indices start at 0, whereas Tasker array indices start at 1
• JavaScript uses [] while Tasker uses ()

So, for example, %arr(1) (Tasker) is equivalent to arr[0] (JavaScript).

Settings

Execution

Execution Instances

Working Off-Device

1. JavaScript action

To test in your JavaScript code whether you're on-device or not, use

var onAndroid = ( global( 'sdk' ) > 0 );

By using the JavaScript action rather than JavaScriptlet you can easily access a file synced from PC to a file on the Android device.

2. Using WebView

Builtin Functions

Tasker makes most of it's actions available via functions which can be called directly via name in JavaScript(let) actions and WebView elements.

Exception: in WebView content where mode is set to URL, the functions must be prefixed by tk e.g. tk.flash('Woo!')

alarmVol / btVoiceVol / callVol / dtmfVol / mediaVol / notificationVol / systemVol / ringerVol

var ok = alarmVol( int level, bool display, bool sound )

Set the relevant system volume to level.

If display is true, the new level will be flashed up on-screen.

If sound is true, a tone will sound at the new level.

audioRecord

var ok = audioRecord( str destPath, str source, str codec, str format )

• destPath: where to put the recording. Note that a file extension is not necessary, it will correspond to the selected format.
• source: def, mic, call, callout or callin
• codec: amrn, amrw or aac
• format: mp4, 3gpp, amrn, amrw or amrr

The JavaScript does not wait for the audio recording to complete.

audioRecordStop

var ok = audioRecordStop()

browseURL

var ok = browseURL( str URL )

Open the default browser at the specifed URL.

button

var ok = button( str name )

Simulate a press of the named button.

name must be one of back, call, camera, endcall, menu, volup, voldown or search.

This function requires a rooted device.

call

var ok = call( str num, bool autoDial )

Make a phone call.

If autoDial is false, the phone app will be brought up with the number pre-inserted, if true the number will also be dialed.

callBlock

var ok = callBlock( str numMatch, bool showInfo )

callDivert

var ok = callDivert( str fromMatch, str to, bool showInfo )

callRevert

var ok = callRevert( str numMatch )

carMode

var ok = carMode( bool onFlag )

Turn on or off Android Car Mode.

clearKey

Clear the passphrase for the specified keyName.

composeEmail

Show an email composition dialog with any specified fields pre-filled.

The JavaScript does not wait for the email to be sent before continuing.

composeMMS

Show an MMS composition dialog with any specified fields pre-filled.

The JavaScript does not wait for the MMS to be sent before continuing.

composeSMS

Show an SMS composition dialog with any specified fields pre-filled.

The JavaScript does not wait for the SMS to be sent before continuing.

convert

Convert from one type of value to another.

conversionType must be one of: byteToKbyte, byteToMbyte, byteToGbyte, datetimeToSec, secToDatetime, secToDatetimeM, secToDatetimeL, htmlToText, celsToFahr, fahrToCels, inchToCent, metreToFeet, feetToMetre, kgToPound, poundToKg, kmToMile, mileToKm, urlDecode, urlEncode, binToDec, decToBin, hexToDec, decToHex, base64encode base64decode, toMd5, toSha1, toLowerCase, toUpperCase, toUpperCaseFirst.

createDir

var ok = createDir( str dirPath, bool createParent, bool useRoot )

Create the named dirPath. If createParent is specified and any parent directory does not exist, it will also be created.

If useRoot is specified, the operation will be performed as the root user (where available).

createScene

var ok = createScene( str sceneName )

cropImage

var ok = cropImage( int fromLeftPercent, int fromRightPercent, int fromTopPercent, int fromBottomPercent )

decryptDir

var ok = decryptDir( str path, str key, bool removeKey )

decryptFile

var ok = decryptFile( str path, str key, bool removeKey )

Decrypt the specified file using the encryption parameters specified in Menu / Prefs / Action.

If removeKey is not set, the entered passphrase will be reapplied automatically to the next encryption/decryption operation with the specified keyName.

deleteDir

var ok = deleteDir( str dirPath, bool recurse, bool useRoot )

Delete the named dirPath. recurse must be specified if the directory is not empty.

If useRoot is specified, the operation will be performed as the root user (where available).

deleteFile

var ok = deleteFile( str filePath, int shredTimes, bool useRoot )

Delete the named filePath.

shredTimes has range 0-10.

If useRoot is specified, the operation will be performed as the root user (where available).

destroyScene

var ok = destroyScene( str sceneName )

displayAutoBright

var ok = displayAutoBright( bool onFlag )

Whether the display brightness should automatically adjust to the ambient light or not.

displayAutoRotate

var ok = displayRotate( bool onFlag )

Whether the display orientation should change based on the physical orientation of the device.

displayTimeout

var ok = displayTimeout( int hours, int minutes, int seconds )

How long the period of no-activity should be before the display is turned off.

dpad

var ok = dpad( str direction, int noRepeats )

Simulate a movement or press of the hardware dpad (or trackball).

direction must be one of up, down, left, right or press.

This function requires a rooted device.

enableProfile

var ok = enableProfile( str name, boolean enable )

Enable or disable the named Tasker profile.

encryptDir

var ok = encryptDir( str path, str keyName, bool rememberKey, bool shredOriginal )

elemBackColour

var ok = elemBackColour( str scene, str element, str startColour, str endColour )

elemBorder

var ok = elemBorder( str scene, str element, int width, str colour )

elemText

var ok = elemText( str scene, str element, str position, str text )

elemTextColour

var ok = elemTextColour( str scene, str element, str colour )

elemTextSize

var ok = elemTextSize( str scene, str element, int size )

elemVisibility

var ok = elemVisibility( str scene, str element, boolean visible, int animationTimeMS )

endCall

var ok = endCall()

Terminate the current call (if there is one).

encryptFile

var ok = encryptFile( str path, str keyName, bool rememberKey, bool shredOriginal )

Encrypt the specified file using the encryption parameters specified in Menu / Prefs / Action.

If rememberKey is set, the entered passphrase will be reapplied automatically to the next encryption/decryption operation with the specified keyName.

If shredOriginal is specified, the original file will be overwritten several times with random bits if encryption is successful.

enterKey

var ok = enterKey( str title, str keyName, bool showOverKeyguard, bool confirm, str background, str layout, int timeoutSecs )

Show a dialog to enter the passphrase for the specified keyName. The JavaScript waits until the dialog has been dismissed or the timeout reached.

filterImage

bool ok = filterImage( str mode, int value )

flipImage

bool ok = flipImage( bool horizontal )

exit

exit()

Stop execution of the JavaScript.

flash

flash( str message )

flashLong

flashLong( str message )

getLocation

var ok = getLocation( str source, bool keepTracking, int timeoutSecs )

Try to get a fix of the current device location.

source must be one of gps, net or any.

If keepTracking is set, the specified source(s) will be left tracking with the purpose of providing a much quicker fix next time the function is called.

getVoice

str result = getVoice( str prompt, str languageModel, int timeout )

Get voice input and convert to text.

result is 'undefined' if the voice acquisition failed, otherwise it's an array of possible matching texts.

prompt is a label for the dialog that is shown during voice acquisition.

languageMode gives the speech recognition engine a clue as to the context of the speech. It must be one of web for 'web search' or free for 'free-form'.

goHome

goHome( int screenNum )

Go to the Android home screen. screenNum is not supported by all home screens.

haptics

var ok = haptics( bool onFlag )

Enable/disable system setting Haptic Feedback.

hideScene

var ok = hideScene( str sceneName )

global

Retrieve the value of a Tasker global variable. Prefixing the name with % is optional.

listFiles

str files = listFiles( str dirPath, bool hiddenToo )

List all files in the specified dirPath.

files is a newline-separated list of subfiles.

Example:

	var files = listFiles( '/sdcard' );
	var arr = files.split( '\n' );
	flash( 'Found ' + arr.length + ' files' );

loadApp

var ok = loadApp( str name, str data, bool excludeFromRecents )

Start up the named app.

Name can be a package name or app label, it's tested first against known package names. Note: app label could be localized to another language if the script is used in an exported app.

Data is in URI format and app-specific.

When excludeFromRecents is true, the app will not appear in the home screen 'recent applications' list.

loadImage

var ok = loadImage( str uri )

Load an image into Tasker's internal image buffer.

The following uri formats are currently supported:

• file:// followed by a local file path

lock

var ok = lock( str title, str code, bool allowCancel, bool rememberCode, bool fullScreen, str background, str layout )

Show a lock screen, preventing user interaction with the covered part of the screen. The JavaScript waits until the code has been entered or the lock cancelled (see below).

local

Retrieve the value of a Tasker scene-local variable. Prefixing the name with % is optional.

This function is only for use by JavaScript embedded in HTML and accessed via a WebView scene element.

mediaControl

Control media via simulation of hardware buttons.

Possible actions are next, pause, prev, toggle or stop.

micMute

Mute or unmute the device's microphone (if present),

mobileData

Enable or disable the system Mobile Data setting.

musicPlay

Play a music file via Tasker's internal music player.

musicSkip

musicStop

nightMode

var ok = nightMode( bool onFlag )

Turn on or off Android Night Mode.

popup

var ok = popup( str title, str text, bool showOverKeyguard, str background, str layout, int timeoutSecs )

Show a popup dialog. The JavaScript waits until the popup has been dismissed or the timeout reached.

performTask

Run the Tasker task taskName.

Note that the JavaScript does not wait for the task to complete.

profileActive

Whether the named Tasker profile is currently active. Returns false if the profile name is unknown.

pulse

Enable or disable the Android Notification Pulse system setting.

readFile

Read the contents of a text file.

reboot

Reboot the device.

type is one of normal, recovery or bootloader. It can be ommitted and defaults to normal.

Requires a rooted device.

Scale the current image in Tasker's image buffer to the specified dimensions.

rotateImage

Rotate the current image in Tasker's image buffer.

dir must be one of left or right. degrees must be one of 45, 90, 135 or 180.

saveImage

Save the current image in Tasker's image buffer to the specified file path.

say

Cause the device to say text out loud.

sendIntent

Send an intent. Intents are Android's high-level application interaction system.

Any parameter may be specified as undefined.

• targetComp: the type of application component to target, one of receiver, activity or service. Defaults to receiver.
• package: the application package to limt the intent to
• class: the application class to limit the intent to
• category: one of none, alt, browsable, cardock, deskdock, home, info, launcher, preference, selectedalt, tab or test, defaults to none
• extras: extra data to pass, in the format key:value. May be undefined. Maximum length 2.

sendSMS

Send an SMS.

setAirplaneMode

Enable or disable Airplane Mode.

Get the current value with:

var enabled = global( 'AIR' );

setAirplaneRadios

Specify the radios which will be disabled when the device enters Airplane Mode.

disableRadios is a comma-separated list with radio names from the following set: cell, nfc, wifi, wimax, bt.

Get the current value with:

var radios = global( 'AIRR' );

setAlarm

Create an alarm in the default alarm clock app.

confirmFlag specifies whether the app should confirm that the alarm has been set.

message is optional.

Requires Android version 2.3+.

setAutoSync

Enable or disable the global auto-sync setting.

scanCard

var ok = scanCard( str path )

Force the system to scan the external storage card for new/deleted media.

If path is defined, only that will be scanned.

setBT

var ok = setBT( bool setOn )

Enable or disable the Bluetooth radio (if present).

Test BT state with:

if ( global( 'BLUE' ) == "on" ) { doSomething(); }

setBTID

var ok = setBTID( str toSet )

Set the bluetooth adapter ID (the name as seen by other devices).

setGlobal

Set the value of a Tasker global user variable. Prefixing varName with % is optional.

setKey

Set the passphrase for the specified keyName.

setLocal

Set the value of a Tasker scene-local user variable. Prefixing varName with % is optional.

This function is only for use by JavaScript embedded in HTML and accessed via a WebView scene element.

setClipboard

Set the global system clipboard.

Test the value with:

var clip = global( 'CLIP' );

settings

Show an Android System Settings screen.

screenName must be one of all, accessibility, addacount, airplanemode, apn, app, batteryinfo, appmanage bluetooth, date, deviceinfo, dictionary, display, inputmethod, internalstorage, locale, location, memorycard, networkoperator, powerusage, privacy, quicklaunch, security, mobiledata, search, sound, sync, wifi, wifiip or wireless.

setWallpaper

Set the system home screen wallpaper.

setWifi

var ok = setWifi( bool setOn )

Enable or disable the Wifi radio (if present).

Test wifi state with:

if ( global( 'WIFI' ) == "on" ) { doSomething(); }

shell

Run the shell command command.

asRoot will only have effect if the device is rooted.

output is 'undefined' if the shell command failed. It's maximum size is restricted to around 750K.

showScene

shutdown

Shutdown the device.

Requires a rooted device.

silentMode

Set the system silent ('ringer') mode.

mode must be one of off, vibrate or on

sl4a

soundEffects

Setting the system Sound Effects setting (sound from clicking on buttons etc.

speakerphone

Enable or disable the speakerphone function.

statusBar

Expand or contract the system status bar.

stayOn

Specify whether the device should remain on when power is connected.

Possible modes are never, ac, usb, any.

stopLocation

systemLock

Turn off the display and activate the keyguard.

Requires Tasker's Device Administrator to be enabled in Android settings.

taskRunning

Whether the named Tasker task is currently running. Returns false if the task name is unknown.

takeCall

bool ok = takeCall();

Auto-accept an incoming call (if there is one).

takePhoto

bool ok = takePhoto( int camera, str resolution, str filePath, bool insertGallery )

Take a photo with the builtin camera.

type

var ok = type( str text, int repeatCount )

Simulate keyboard typing.

Requires a rooted device.

unzip

Unpack a Zip archive into the parent directory of the archive.

deleteZip causes the zip archive to be deleted after successful unpacking.

usbTether

Enable or disable USB tethering.

vibrate

Cause the device to vibrate for the specified time.

vibratePattern

Cause the device to vibrate following the specified pattern, which consists of a sequence of off then on millisecond durations e.g.

500,1000,750,1000

wait for 500ms, vibrates 1000ms, wait for 750ms, then vibrate for 1000ms.

wait

Pause the script for the specified time.

Warning: may cause some preceeding functions not to complete in some situations. If in doubt, use JavaScript setTimeout() instead.

wifiTether

Enable or disable Wifi tethering.

writeFile

Write text to file path.

If append is specified, the text will be attached to the end of the existing file contents (if there are any).

zip

Zip a file or directory.

level is the desired compression level from 1-9, with 9 resulting in the smallest file and the longest compression time.

deleteOriginal causes path to be deleted if the zip operation is successful.

Notes

Audio Streams

Colours

File Paths

Relative file paths are relative to the root of the external storage media (usually SD). So, for example, pics/me.jpg might resolve to /sdcard/pics/me.jpg.

Location Without Tears

State: Cell Near

Setup

About

When the display is off, frequency of checks is controlled by Menu / Prefs / Monitor / Display Off All Checks.

If your profile keeps deactivating, go back to the Cell Near state and click the magnifying glass icon to check for cells you may have missed in your scan.

Plus / Minus

• (+) virtually no extra power on top of power needed for normal phone service
• (+) when the display is on, context updates as soon as the tower is visible
• (+) when the display is off, only one check period is needed to determine context exit
• (-) highly inaccurate
• (-) must be physically at the location in order to record it

Location: Net

Setup

About

Net location accuracy varies greatly. It's very important that you create a large radius around the spot you wish to detect.

Frequency of checks is controlled by Menu / Prefs / Monitor / Network Location Check (screen on) and Menu / Prefs / Monitor / Display Off All Checks.

Location: Net & Wifi

Setup

About

Net location can be assisted by nearby access points when Wifi is turned on (Google has a map of APs for many areas).

Turn Wifi off when not needed to conserve power e.g. use a Time context to turn wifi off at night.

Plus / Minus

• (+) very good accuracy in built-up areas for relatively low power usage
• (-) must be physically at the location in order to record it

State: Wifi Near

Setup

About

Check the Wifi Toggle box if you don't want wifi on all the time. It will then be toggled when Tasker needs to do a scan.

Plus / Minus

• (+) very good accuracy and reliability
• (+) less power than GPS
• (+) works indoors too
• (-) need an AP nearby

Location: GPS

Setup

About

Frequency of GPS checks is controlled by Menu / Prefs / Monitor / GPS Check (screen on) and Menu / Prefs / Monitor / Display Off All Checks. Higher frequencies mean more battery usage but that location changes will be noticed more quickly.

When indoors, GPS will try a long time to get a signal, using a lot of battery. Adjust it at Menu / Prefs / Monitor / GPS Timeout. Make the timeout as low as you can until you start losing effectiveness.

Advanced Strategies

Multiple Contexts

Location Control

This works because Location contexts assume you are in the same location until there is a fix which says otherwise.

Pattern Matching

What's Pattern Matching ?

Where's It Used ?

• in the If condition of an action, when the ~ (match) or !~ (not match) operators are specified.
• in text paremeters of State and Event contexts
• some other places :-)

Matching Rules

• if a pattern is left blank, it will match against anything
• if it is not blank it must match the whole target text
• / means 'or', it divides up multiple possible matches
• a * will match any number of any character. It's not possible to specifically match a * character.
• a + will match one or more of any character. It's not possible to specifically match a + character.
  Beware: the condition '%var matches +' will be true if %var has not been assigned a value, because Tasker does not replace variables which do not have a value.
• matching is case-insensitive (magic will match with MagiC) unless the pattern contains an upper-case letter e.g. Magic* will not match against magically, but it will match against Magic Roundabout
• a ! at the very start of a match means not e.g. !*Magic*/*Yellow* matches anything not containing the words Magic or Yellow
• it is not possible to specifically match a ! character at the start of a target (but you could use *!

Examples

• help matches help but not helper.
• help* matches helper
• *the* matches the (anywhere)
• 123+ matches 123 and minimally one more character
• + matches anything with at least one character (non-empty)
• the*way matches the other way and the first way, amongst others
• Help/*shell matchs Help or anything ending with shell, case-sensitively

Caller Matching

• C:ANY matches the telephone number of any contact
• C:FAV matches the telephone number of any favourite (starred) contact
• Otherwise: otherwise a match is attempted using the general matching rules against both the caller phone number and the associated contact's name (if there is one).

Examples:

• !C:ANY matches a number not belonging to a contact
• 077*/Geoff* matches a number starting with 077 or belonging to a contact whose names starts with Geoff
• C:FAV/0123456789 matches any favourite contact or the telephone number 0123456789

Regular Expression Matching

Where's It Used ?

• in the If condition of an action, when the ~R or !~R operators are specified.
• in the Variable Search Replace action
• in the condition of a Variable Value state

Matching Rules

Maths

Where Is Maths Used ?

• When you do Variable Set and click the Do Maths checkbox
• With the If action, if you select a mathematical comparison like < or =
• With individual action conditions when a mathematical comparison is selected

What's Available

Power

Context Monitoring

When a profile contains multiple contexts, power is saved by only monitoring for changes in order of the least-power-hungry first. For example, in a profile with a Time and App context, Tasker will not decide that it needs to monitor for a changing application unless the Time context is active (because the profile cannot become active until both contexts are active).

Tasker rates contexts for power-hungriness in the following (ascending) order:

• Other State
• Day / Time
• Calendar Entry State
• Cell Near State
• App
• Network Location
• Wifi Near State
• GPS Location
• Proximity Sensor / Gesture Event / Orientation State (accelerometer activation)

Items at the bottom of the list won't become eligible for monitoring until all items further up the list are active.

Display-Off Checks

Settings

What's A Setting ?

Settings have a cog icon next to them. Normal actions have a lightning bolt.

Single Profile

In other words, settings are only valid for the lifetime of their profiles.

Multiple Profiles

1. the setting has the value from the most recently activated profile
2. when all profiles are inactive, the setting has the value from before any profile was active

Special Cases

• if a setting is changed by the Exit Task the profile will never save the setting's initial value.
• settings changed in an instant profile (one with an event context or repeating/non-ranged time context) remain changed after the event. The reasoning is that there is no point in changing the setting for the half-second that the event lasts.

Notes

• settings are not actively maintained. If something else changes the setting once the Enter task has run, it's not the case that this is detected and the Enter task value automatically reapplied.

Variables

General

When Tasker encounters a variable name in a text, it replaces the name with the current value of the relevant variable before carrying out the action.

The main purposes of variables are:

Note On Location Variables

When the relevant provider (Net or GPS) of a location context is active, these variables report the values from the provider, which may be more recent than Tasker has seen if other applications are asking for location.

When the relevant provider is not active, these variables report the last values seen by Tasker, which could be the result of a Get Location action or of monitoring for a Location Context.

That means the the reported fix times could go backwards, if you turn off the location provider between two uses of the variables.

Location variables can also be manually updated by running the Get Location action.

User Variables

• they must start with the % character
• they are case-sensitive
• then must at least a further 3 alphanumeric characters
• they can also contain the underscore character (_) but not start or end with it

Global vs Local Variables

User variables which have one or more capital letters in their name are also global (e.g. %Car)

However, user variables which have all-lower-case names (e.g. %fruit) are local, meaning they are only visible in the task in which they are used (or the scene in which they are used, if the task was launched from by a scene event).

In general, it's best to use local variables wherever possible because:

• you know they won't be interfered with by other tasks
• they are more efficient in several ways

Note: multiple copies of the same task running at the same time each have their own separate copy of their local variables.

Escaping Variable Names

Variable Set, %new, \%old

In order to precede a variable name with a \ you can escape the backslash e.g.

Variable Set, %new, \\%old

Variable Lifetime

Uninitialized Variables

User-variables which have not had a value assigned do not have replacements carried out e.g. in the expression I love %fruit, if %fruit is uninitialized, the expression remains as it is, otherwise %fruit is replaced with the value.

Exception: uninitialized variables used in mathematical expressions are replaced with 0.

Variables In Plugins

Variable Arrays

They are especially useful when used with the For action, since you can perform a set of actions on each element in turn e.g. list a set of files then test each one.

Examples

If the four variables %arr1, %arr2, %arr3, %arr4 hold respectively a, b, c and d then we have an array with 4 elements. These variables can be used just like any other, however it is also possible to access them in special ways. Here are some examples:

• %arr(#)
  The number of defined array elements (4 in this case)
• %arr(#>)
  The index of the first defined array element, or 0 if none are defined (1).
• %arr(#<)
  The index of the last defined array element, or 0 if none are defined (4)
• %arr(#?b/c)
  A comma-separated list of the array indices (lowest to highest) with matching values, or 0 if none match (2,3 in the example)
• %arr(>)
  The contents of the first defined array element (a)
• %arr(<)
  The contents of the last defined array element (d)
• %arr() or %arr(:)
  All of the array elements separated by commas (a,b,c,d)
• %arr(2) or just %arr2
  The content of the element with index 2 (b)
• %arr(2:4)
  Contents of defined elements with indices 2 to 4 (b,c,d)
• %arr(:3)
  All the defined elements with indices up to 3 (a,b,c)
• %arr(3:)
  All the defined elements with indices starting from 3 (c,d)
• %arr(1:2)
  All the defined elements with indices from 1 to 2 (a,b)

• arrays will virtually always have all their elements defined so e.g. %arr(>) will be the same as %arr(1), %arr(#) will be the same as %arr(#<)
• index specifiers can themselves be variables (e.g. %arr(1:%MAX) or %arr(#?%FINDME))

Creating An Array

1. using Variable Split:
   Variable Set %arr a,b,c,d
   Variable Split %arr
   If your data has commas in it, you can separate the values with e.g. @ and specify @ also in the Variable Split action.
2. by assigning individual elements with Variable Set:
   Variable Set, %arr3, c.
3. using Array Push to add an initial element
4. some other actions also create arrays for their results e.g. List Files.

Inserting Elements

The Fill Spaces parameter might need more explanation. It is only relevant if one or more of the array elements are undefined. As an example, if we have the array elements %arr1 and %arr3 containing apple and banana:

• Array Push %arr1, 1, pear
  leaves %arr1, %arr2 and %arr4 containing pear, apple and banana.
  
• but Array Push %arr2, 1, pear, Fill Spaces
  leaves %arr1, %arr2 and %arr3 containing pear, apple and banana.

Removing Elements

Use the Array Pop action. Note the difference between Array Pop and Variable Clear: Pop reduces the number of elements in the array, while Clear merely changes elements to undefined.

Example: if we have the array elements %arr1, %arr2, %arr3 containing apple,pear and banana:

• Variable Clear %arr2
  leaves %arr1 and %arr3 containing apple and banana.
  
• but Array Pop %arr2
  leaves %arr1 and %arr2 containing apple and banana.

Deleting An Array

In most cases you could also use Variable Clear %arr* with Pattern Matching checked, but that would also delete variables called e.g. %arrTOODEETOO so Array Clear is safer.

Array Efficiency

In terms of storage efficiency, they are also fairly hopeless. You probably do not want to store tens of thousands of items in an array.

FAQ: How Do I... / Can I... ?

How can I contact the developer ?

How can I send the developer a short-term log ?

• download aLogcat, free from Play Store
• deselect Menu / Prefs / UI / Beginner Mode in Tasker
• enable Menu / Prefs / Misc / Debug to System Log in Tasker
• do whatever it is that causes the problem
• go to aLogCat, click Menu / Pause then Menu / Send
• the destination email is listed in Menu / Info / User Support in Tasker
• include at the top a brief description of the problem that the email concerns

Try to make the log as soon as possible after the problem occurs.

How can I send the developer a long-term log ?

• you'll need an SD card inserted
• deselect Menu / Prefs / UI / Beginner Mode in Tasker
• enable Menu / Prefs / Misc / Debug to SD Card in Tasker
• when the problem has occured, email the file /sdcard/Tasker/log.txt to the developer email listed at Menu / Info / User Support
• include at the top a brief description of the problem that the log concerns

Can I change an app's settings / press it's buttons ?

Standard Android doesn't allow an app to change, poke, prod or peek at anything within another app, including simulating keypresses and screen taps.

On a rooted device, you can use some of the actions in the Input category to navigate around an app, click on UI elements and enter text automatically.

Can I control / respond to events in application X with Tasker ?

How can I stop Tasker restoring a setting ?

1. deselect the Restore Settings in the Profile Properties of the relevant profile.
2. if you set the same setting in the Exit task of the profile Tasker will take that as a hint that the previous value shouldn't be restored.
3. create a separate task to run the settings actions and in the Enter task of the profile do a Perform Task action (from the category Tasker) on that separate task. This trick is known as Stefan's Setting Sidestep.
4. you can use the corresponding Javascriptlet function instead of the setting action. Settings made in Javascriptlets are not restored.

Can Tasker detect volume button presses ?

The closest you can get is to detect changes in a volume variable (e.g. %VOLR for the ringer volume) via event Variable Set.

Can Tasker be used from the SD card (apps2sd) ?

It's not that the developer 'can't be bothered to do it', it's because it's not possible.

Can I use Tasker to turn the screen on and off ?

Turning on, use the Display / Turn On action. Unfortunately, that action is inaccessible with Android 2.3+.

For turning off, you can use the Display / System Lock action with Android 2.0+.

For Android 1.6, you can set the Display Timeout to it's minimum (around 7 seconds) and then set it back to normal in response to a Display Off event.

How do I create my default settings ?

You don't have to configure 'default' settings in Tasker. The 'default' settings are how your device is configured before any Tasker profile becomes active. This 'default' is automatically restored as profiles become inactive.

Exception: changes to settings made in Exit tasks are not restored.

How can I run more than one task when a profile goes active ?

Warning:: settings in the called tasks will not be restored by Tasker, only settings changed directly within the Enter task.

Can I hide the notification list entry when Tasker is running ?

Please read the help text associated with this option first.

Can I change or remove the status bar icon when Tasker is running ?

To remove it, select the first icon in the dialog (it's transparent).

What if I want a repeating time context, but I need to do something that takes a while ?

• GPS On
• Wait 3 minutes
• GPS Off

How can I do something every minute ?

Set a repeat period of 2 minutes (the minumum allowed) and specify a task like this:

• Perform Task, TaDa
• Wait 1 Minute
• Perform Task, TaDa

How do I specify 9:30AM on Monday and 10AM on Tuesday with the same profile ?

You can't, because the Time and Day subcontexts operate completely independent of each other. You have to specify two profiles and run the same Task(s) with each of them (by giving the task a name).

How do I specify weekend night-times ?

Time: 23 - 09
Day: Friday or Saturday

But that won't work, because on Sunday at e.g. 3am the Day context (and hence the whole profile) won't be active.

For this kind of situation, you need to specify a profile for which morning you want to be active and another for which evenings. In the example, you want Friday and Saturday night plus Saturday or Sunday morning:

Time: 23 - 24
Day: Friday or Saturday

Time: 00 - 09
Day: Saturday or Sunday

How do I stop the screen dimming when I have the display Stay On set to e.g. 'With AC' ?

How can I stop Wifi Near toggling wifi on-off when the phone is in Airplane Mode ?

Can I divert incoming calls ?

You can then use Tasker's Phone / Call action (with Auto Dial checked) to setup and cancel incoming call diversions.

How can I detect if Wifi is connected (not just enabled) ?

An alternative trick is to match the word connected or connection in the %WIFII variable (the actual word and lower/upper case changes with Android version).

How can I import/export individual profiles, tasks or scenes ?

Import:

Export:

• ensure that Menu / Prefs / UI / Beginner Mode is unchecked
• go to the main screen
• long-click on the thing you want to export

How do I turn off the flashing notification LED ?

If you're wondering what a flashing light is doing in the Audio section: ask Google, that's where they put it in Android Settings.

>How do I put my phone in Silent or Vibrate mode ?

Do not try to do it with Volume Ringer or Vibrate on Ringer.

Can I automate sending of an SMS / Call through Google Voice ?

Can I change/remove the notification sounds for particular apps ?

Can I silence all notifications except from particular applications ?

Can I change the input method ?

How do I test whether I can reach the Internet (ping) ?

  HTTP Get URL (a known webpage), Continue Task On Error
  If [ %HTTPR = 200 ]
     ...
  Endif

How can I use whitespace (newline, tab etc) in action parameters ?

Therefore, if you want to use whitespace you should first assign it to a variable and then use the variable where you want the whitespace to appear:

Variable Set, %white, THISISANEWLINE
Flash, Here's a newline: %white

How can I run a task from a terminal login ?

am broadcast -a net.dinglisch.android.tasker.ACTION_TASK -e task_name YOUR_TASK_NAME

That's only possible on a rooted phone because otherwise there will be a permission problem.

FAQ: Usage Problems

Why won't Android let me uninstall Tasker ?

You can disable it by going to Android Settings / Location & Security / Device Administration.

Why doesn't the Kill App action work in Android 2.2 like it used to ?

From Tasker version 1.0.21 it's more effective again if you have a rooted device.

Why isn't GPS coming on for my profile with Time And GPS Location contexts ?

Why can't I select Tasker for an application context ?

Why does it take my Wifi Near state so long to exit ?

Wifi Near requires two check periods to pass without seeing the Access Point before the profile exits. This is intended to avoid the context activating and deactivating if the AP is briefly not visible.

Note also that there are different check periods for when the device is on or off, and by default the off-period is much longer than the on-period. See Menu / Preferences / Monitor/ Display On/Off Timings.

Why isn't Tasker detecting when my Location Context changes ?

Your radius is probably too small.

As an example, if you are not using GPS the accuracy of your fixes is probably around += 2km, so your radius should be also minimally 2km.

If you *are* using GPS, the accuracy may still be only +-400m in built-up areas.

Here's a good way to create a location context:

• go to the geographical location you want a context for
• make a new location context
• deselect GPS if you don't want to use it
• press Grab Fix, and wait till it's done

This will set your radius appropriate to the accuracy of the location providers at that spot.

If there's still nothing happening:

Why does Tasker mess up the app launching when I have an Application Context for it ?

Some applications are sensitive like this. Probably all you have to do is put as the first action in the Enter task the action Wait and give as a parameter e.g. 300ms. If that doesn't work keep increasing the value until it does.

That gives the application time to finish initializing before messing around with the screen brightness etc.

Why aren't my settings restored ?

• if your profile sets setting x to on, then if x is already on when the profile goes active, it will be left at 1 when the profile exits. Test for this by putting an Alert / Notify action in the enter task to see what the original value was.
• some other apps installed on the system can cause Tasker to be killed and therefore the original settings being forgotten e.g. this has been reported to be a problem with Titanium Backup.
• similarly, if the system is rebooted suddenly, some devices aren't fast enough to save all the settings before the system turns off.

Why does my profile not do anything ?

• 'Task Killers'
• Quick System Info
• Autostarts

After that:

Why does nothing happen when I click a Tasker widget ?

Why does Tasker crash when I try to create a Location Context ?

Why can't I see any Tasker widgets in the home screen widget selector ?

Why doesn't my repeating Time Context work ?

It's important to understand that a repeating time context is a series of instant events.

Trying to combine a repeating time context with another context that does active monitoring usually won't work e.g.

Time: Repeating Every 5 Minutes
Task: Enable Wifi (no toggle)

State: Wifi Near
Task: XXX

Wifi Near is checked on a static schedule. You currently can't change the schedule dynamically, so the above two profiles will only do XXX when the 5 minute repeat happens to coincide with when Tasker is doing it's Wifi Near check.

Why aren't my exit tasks run / settings restored before the device shuts down ?

Therefore (as of 1.0.9), Tasker only attempts to run Variable Set, Clear, Add and Subtract actions when the device shuts down, since they take relatively little time.

In the future, Tasker will have some concept of default values which will then be restored when it starts after the device has booted again.

On Android 1.5 devices, Tasker cannot do anything at shutdown because the system does not send a notification.

Why does my location exit task fire multiple times ?

A quick fix is to add a Cooldown to your profile. Click on a context, select Profile then Properties and slide the Cooldown Time to 30 minutes.

The profile is then prevented from going active more than once every 30 minutes.

Why does my Cell Near state keep going inactive ?

When you notice your Cell Near state going inactive at your location (and assuming you still have a signal), launch Tasker, click on the Cell Near context and edit it. Click Scan and you should immediately see a new Cell added to the list. Click Done and then Apply and your context should go active again.

Sometimes the new cell will only be visible for a few seconds and will not appear when you press scan. In that case, press the Recent button and select it manually from the list.

Why doesn't Notify LED work ?

• not all devices support all colours. Many devices will only support red and green. In general, colours near the top of the list are more likely to be supported.
• some devices will only flash the LED when the device is off at the time the notification is received.

Why do Tasker widgets disappear after a reboot on my Wildfire ?

It's not possible for the Tasker developer to work around, but is reported as fixed in version 1.25.405.1 of the firmware.

Why isn't my docking station detected ?

Depending on other things you connect your device to, you might be able to use one of the following as a workaround:

• State: USB connected
• State: Power
• State: BT Connected (if it's a BT dock)

Why aren't I getting any cell data for the Cell Near state ?

I was able to fix this issue by going into the EPST menues using
##DATA# on the keypad and changing the EVDO Preferred mode from HDR to
Automatic.

It's possible that you will only be able to receive, not make, phone calls as another symptom of this problem.

Why isn't there a green light for the On/Off radio button on the main screen ?

Why does the action Display Brightness cause my keyboard or application to close ?

To avoid that, you can deselect the Immediate Effect checkbox in the Display Brightness action.

Why is the date in Tasker's notification list completely wrong ?

This occurs if you select a transparent Notification Icon at Menu / Prefs / Monitor, but don't specify a Custom Notification Layout.

Changing to a non-transparent icon or a custom layout will fix the problem.

Why won't Tasker install on my custom ROM ?

Why doesn't my Perform Task action work when I Test it ?

When task (a) runs a Perform Task action to start task (b), the order in which the two tasks are executed depends on their relative priorities.

A feature of the Test button is that the tested task (a) runs at extremely high priority to ensure that the task runs even if other tasks are running in the background.

So testing Perform Task with the Test button will only work as expected if in actual usage task (a) will always have higher priority than task (b) or the Perform Task action has Stop specified.

Why doesn't my App Context work ?

Some apps (very few) aren't detected by Tasker, usually due to their internal structure.

Some custom Android ROMs also have special configurations which prevent Tasker's app detection working.

For the latter problem, there are a few things you can try:

• look for special settings in your ROM that relate to 'keeping the launcher in memory'. They should be disabled.
• change the build properties file. Look in /system/build.prop (or possibly /system/local.prop or /data/local.prop) for a line like:

  ro.HOME_APP_ADJ=-17

  Change it in a terminal program to look like this:

  ro.HOME_APP_ADJ=1

  If you didn't find an existing line, just add the new line as above.

  Note: you will first need to make /system writeable. You can do that e.g. with Tasker's Remount action. Remember to make it not-writeable again after making the change.

• try detecting apps with a state using the %WIN (window title) variable; create a new state

  Variable Value, %WIN, Matches, TITLE

  where TITLE is the title of the window of the app you are interested in. For this solution to work, you also need to enable Tasker's Accessibility Service in Android Settings.

  You can check what %WIN shows for the app you are interested in with this profile:

  Event: Variable Set, %WIN
  Alert / Flash, Win is now %WIN

FAQ: Why... ?

Why am I an idiot if I use a pirated copy of Tasker ?

Why is GPS often scanning when I unlock my device ?

It's not because Tasker is constantly scanning while the device is off

You can change the frequency in Menu / Prefs / Monitor.

Why does Tasker need so many permissions ?

Unfortunately, Android requires that an app specify it's permissions even if they are never used, which means that permissions for all of the things which the user could potentially ask Tasker to do need to be specified.

If you are still concerned, consider that Tasker has over 25,000 downloads at the time of writing and any abuse taking place would quickly be discovered.

Why does Tasker need the INTERNET permission ?

• google maps downloading map data, only for setting up a Location context
• to carry out HTTP Post/Get actions and other actions that require an Internet connection by their nature
• to verify the order number, and only until it has been successfully verified
• to check whether a new Tasker version is available, if configured in Preferences

Tasker never directly uses Internet access for anything else.

Why isn't Tasker shown in the Application Context list ?

Why does Tasker have it's own music player and controls for the system music player ?

• the system music player is not guaranteed to be present or the same on all systems.
• finer control can be exercised over the Tasker player e.g. starting the track from a preset seek point
• Tasker's player is more discrete, there is no notification bar icon.
• by having two players available you can do things like alternating audio from different music sources or even playing simiultaneously.

Why does a Cell Near context not become inactive when I turn on Airplane Mode ?

Many people use Airplane Mode at night e.g. to save battery. If you also have a Cell Near profile that detects when you are home, it would become inactive at night if Cell Near wasn't sticky.

• the Cell radio isn't being turned on by Tasker in Airplane Mode.
• if you want a profile to become inactive for Airplane Mode, just add an Inverted state Airplane Mode to it.

To solve the shortcut problem, you can always use a widget though.

For notifications:

Why does my profile have 2 enter tasks ? Why can't I add an exit task ?

Does app creation support profiles ?

Sure. You can export projects as apps and projects can contain profiles, tasks and scenes.

For help accessing projects, see Menu / Info / Help This Screen in the main screen.

Why is the app always shown as running ?

Tasker tries to detect when it's monitor service is no longer needed but that is not always possible. You can put a Disable action from the Tasker category at the end of your launch task to ensure that it happens.

The monitor will be started again automatically each time the app is lauched from the home screen.

How do I do initialization on the first launch ?

If %LaunchCount = 0
   ...initialization actions...
Else
   ...normal actions...
Elsif
Variable Add, %LaunchCount, 1

Why isn't my app detecting background events ?

How can I send the developer a short-term App Factory log ?

• download aLogcat, free from Android Market
• disable Tasker in the main screen bottom-left
• in the App Config screen, check Advanced Properties and then Debug
• create and install the new app *twice*
• launch the new app from the home screen
• reproduce whatever conditions cause the problem
• go to aLogCat, click Menu / Pause then Menu / Send
• the destination email is listed in Menu / Info / User Support in Tasker
• include at the top a brief description of the problem that the email concerns

Try to make the log as soon as possible after the problem occurs.

FAQ: Other

Do you plan to include feature X ?

Should I worry about using Tasker's Accessibility service ?

Although the Android warning says Tasker might read passwords, in fact:

• Android doesn't allow apps to see the contents of fields labelled Password
• Tasker doesn't even ask Android for data about text fields, only buttons, windows and notifications

What's an Instant Profile ?

Most profiles have a duration. Their enter task fires, they are active for a while, then they go inactive and settings may be restored or an exit task fired. However, profiles with

• an Event context, or
• a Time context where the From parameter is the same as the To parameter, or
• a Time context with a repeat value specified

are only active for an instant and hence it does not make sense to talk about an exit task and restoration of settings.

There's no point setting brightness from 200 to 30, and then a millisecond later back to 200, therefore settings made by an instant profile stay at whatever value is specified.