GUI and Notification requests

[KarlM256]

Hi,

Thanks for the work you are doing to make BasicSync available to share. I like its simplicity.

My use case is family and friends that thing of this as just Syncthing that runs on Android. I really like that you use the
Syncthing WEB GUI with no duplication of settings. I'll just set out my wish list and I'm fine with yes or no for each one.

Could you harmonize your versioning with Syncthing? For example, the current release is 2.1.1, so could use something like Syncthing-Fork does like 2.1.1.n to make it obvious what versions of BasicSync correspond to what version of Syncthing?

Could you use the Syncthing logo?

Could you add an option to open directly in the Syncthing WEB GUI when launching from the BasicSync Icon? And then perhaps an optional stop button next to the BasicSync back arrow above WEB GUI? I'd like to have the settings tucked away so users don't accidently touch something they shouldn't.

When running BasicSync from the Notification, I'd like to hide the auto/manual tile and just have start and stop. For the same reason as above.

Thanks for all your work,

Karl

[chenxiaolong]

Thanks for the suggestions!

Could you harmonize your versioning with Syncthing? For example, the current release is 2.1.1, so could use something like Syncthing-Fork does like 2.1.1.n to make it obvious what versions of BasicSync correspond to what version of Syncthing?

I definitely see the benefit to this, but I'd prefer to keep the versioning scheme the same across all my Android projects.

Could you use the Syncthing logo?

Probably not for this one. BasicSync is not an official Syncthing project.

Could you add an option to open directly in the Syncthing WEB GUI when launching from the BasicSync Icon? And then perhaps an optional stop button next to the BasicSync back arrow above WEB GUI? I'd like to have the settings tucked away so users don't accidently touch something they shouldn't.

Would it be good enough if I added a launcher (long press) shortcut that directly opens the web UI? Most launchers should allow that to be added to the home screen as its own icon.

The reason I hadn't added something for this yet is for the scenario where "Keep Syncthing alive" is disabled and Syncthing currently isn't running. Currently, there is no way to open the web UI in this state, but if there was a way to launch the web UI directly, it would open and then immediately close.

When running BasicSync from the Notification, I'd like to hide the auto/manual tile and just have start and stop. For the same reason as above.

I could maybe add an option for this similar to the current "Show Exit button" option, but I'm not sure how it would work when in auto mode. Would it just not show any buttons?

[KarlM256]

Syncthing-Fork uses the Syncthing logo without complaint from the core developers.

I use Action launcher and I'm not sure how adding extra Icons works. But if from the user's perspective, if a single touch on an Icon launched to the Syncthing WEB GUI (with an implied set Syncthing status to run) and swiping the screen to close it gave an implied set Syncthing status to stopped, that would be great. The user would see tap the Icon, let it sync, and close it even though the daemon continues in the background, consuming no battery.

Would you also temporarily turn on "Keep Syncthing alive" so the WEB GUI could open and turn "Keep Syncthing alive" off again when the window is closed?

When you say long press, do you mean to create the Icon or to use it?

For the notification questions, how about greying out "Don't show Auto/Manual Button" when Auto mode is selected? Or your thought of don't show any buttons would work too.

[chenxiaolong]

I probably won't add anything that changes the state of Syncthing based on whether a certain screen is open. Doing that reliably in Android is painful and although BasicSync's screens are visually simple, there is a lot of asynchronous events they're keeping track of internally. I intend for BasicSync's UI to be something that's rarely opened and users mostly just interact with the app via either the notification or the quick settings tile.

Regarding the launcher, this is what I'm referring to:

screen-20260604-223853-1780627126078.mp4

For the notification questions, how about greying out "Don't show Auto/Manual Button" when Auto mode is selected? Or your thought of don't show any buttons would work too.

I'll think about this more. I'm not too keen on adding ways to hide functionality in general.

I might add a way to disable auto mode entirely, which would remove the button from the notification and also change the quick settings tile to only cycle between manual start and manual stop.

[KarlM256]

So backing up a little, what I'm trying to accomplish is something similar to the way I use Syncthing on a PC or laptop.

The user clicks on the Syncthing shortcut on the desktop or start menu and watches the synchronization or comes back to
check on when it's done. (when all devices and folders show Up to Date) Then selects Actions and Shutdown and then closes the browser tab.

So if you added the ability to hide/disable auto mode then the quick settings tile could cycle through running and stopped. If you then added text to the tile you could show when everything was "up to date". So states might be
Disconnected - when any remote device is disconnected.
Out of Sync - when all remote devices are connected and any remote device is out of sync
Scanning - none of the above and local or remote shows out of sync
Up to Date - the local and all remote devices show up to date

This might get you more into the internals of Syncthing than you would like. But if I run Syncthing from the tile I would like a way to know when everything is up to date.

Now another possibility would be when I tap on the BasicSync Icon, I just see a first screen with a selected set of controls like Syncthing status (Run/Stop), Open WEB UI, and Settings, where everything else is tucked under Settings. Then for a couple of other items you might have optional visibility on the first screen. That way the user isn't confronted with all of the settings especially if someone else set BasicSync up for then and you don't have to see inside of Syncthing.

[chenxiaolong]

I've just merged #151, which adds a new option to completely disable auto mode. It'll remove all related functionality from the settings screen, the notification, and the quick settings tile.

I probably won't make any further changes to the UI, but having the notification show more details about the sync status is something I would like to implement at some point.

In the meantime, I think the closest way to accomplish a similar flow to what you do on your computer would be:

1. Start Syncthing via the notification or quick settings tile
2. Tap on the main/empty area of the notification to open the web UI
3. Stop Syncthing via the notification or quick settings tile

[chenxiaolong]

It turns out adding the additional information to the notification was pretty easy due to preexisting infrastructure added for the sync schedule idle feature. This is now implemented in #152.

[KarlM256]

Hi,

The status information in the notification is great and does everything I need for folks to run Syncthing until everything is
up to date and then stop it. On phones, my primary use case is backing up files and pictures. That way if a phone is lost, it's
just a phone to replace. I also periodically push some shared files to the phones.

Do you think the status information would be useful in the BasicSync Quick Settings Tile?

Thanks,

Karl

[KarlM256]

Hi,

I realized that the status information doesn't necessarily tell me that synchronization is complete.

Suppose I have one folder and one device configured in Syncthing.

Now suppose I download one large file to my phone.

A Notification Status of "1 device connected" and "1 folder up to date" could mean everything is synchronized with my remote device, or it could mean my local folder has been scanned (and so up to date), my remote device is connected, and my phone is still transferring data to my remote device. So, I don't know that my phone and my remote device are synchronized yet, and I need a little more information.

Thanks,

Karl

[chenxiaolong]

Do you think the status information would be useful in the BasicSync Quick Settings Tile?

Sadly, Android's quick settings tile implementation for 3rd party apps is very buggy. Updating the icon or text can sometimes prevent interacting with the tile or even other app's tiles for a period of time. In another one of my apps, I've found that even updating it a couple times can be enough to hang the app and force Android to kill it. (This can sometimes be reproduced just be tapping BasicSync's current tile a few times.) Until Google fixes that, I'll probably leave the tile as it is now.

A Notification Status of "1 device connected" and "1 folder up to date" could mean everything is synchronized with my remote device, or it could mean my local folder has been scanned (and so up to date), my remote device is connected, and my phone is still transferring data to my remote device. So, I don't know that my phone and my remote device are synchronized yet, and I need a little more information.

Oh good point. I'd definitely like to add something for this if Syncthing provides an event for a device's sync status. This might need to wait until I'm back from a business trip next week though.