Expanding the extended data field to contain settings that may be non-optimal for operation

[wir3z]

I added additional functional to a fork of 2.4 that added:
@JsonProperty("wifi") -- wifi is on/off
@JsonProperty("ps") -- phone power save mode
@JsonProperty("bo") -- app is configured with battery optimizations
@JsonProperty("hib") -- app can hibernate if not used
@JsonProperty("loc") -- app location permissions

They get returned in the extended attributes to allow the central host to see misconfigurations that can impact good location operation. And then added a summary to the friends tile drawer (including a battery icon that changes when charging):

If I do a pull request, will this be considered?

[ckrey]

I don't think this more or less "static" data should go into each location message. Rather put it into an extra attribute when the configuration is dumped (or requested by cmd/dump

[ckrey]

The current network status is already in then location message as conn booklet

[jpmens]

I agree that this rather static information should be reported otherwise if at all.

[wir3z]

The current network status is already in then location message as conn booklet

It reports mobile/wifi data source, not if the wifi is disabled which basically breaks significant monitoring mode.

[wir3z]

All of the above settings can be changed by the user and basically render decent presence detection useless. Is there a cmd/dump command (I was looking for that!)? Retrieving it that way would be just as valuable.

[jpmens]

Our Booklet details the supported commands on the JSON page.

[ckrey]

The current network status is already in then location message as conn booklet

It reports mobile/wifi data source, not if the wifi is disabled which basically breaks significant monitoring mode.

It is not supposed to report a "data source" but

conn Internet connectivity status (route to host) when the message is created

[ckrey]

I don't think this more or less "static" data should go into each location message. Rather put it into an extra attribute when the configuration is dumped (or requested by cmd/dump

There are the configuration settings as described in [booklet|(https://owntracks.org/booklet/tech/json/#_typeconfiguration)

You could add an object to this object like:

{
   "_type":"configuration",
   ...
   "local": {
     "wifi": true/false,
     "ps": true/false,
     "bo": true/false,
     "hib": true/false,
     "loc": "app location permissions"
     }
}

[growse]

I'm not sure about putting it into configuration - this is meant to be for the configuration of the app, rather than the status of the device. I also agree that the location message type is meant to just contain fields that might conceivably change from one location message to the next.

I think there might be value in getting the device to report its status (in a separate message type), on request from the remote endpoint. Open question as to what extend it's android/ios/whatever specific, rather than genericised.

including a battery icon that changes when charging

Does the icon currently not reflect charging status? That's a bug if so.

[ckrey]

Good idea @growse: How about defining a new "_type":"status" message, which can be retrieved by a {"_type":"cmd", "action":"status"} command. In addition, the app may send this message when requested by the user or when the status changes

[ckrey]

If we do have the "status" message, we can have a genericised part and an iOS/android part like

{
  "_type": "status",

  ... generic attributes (if any)
  
  "android": {
     "wifi": true/false,
     "ps": true/false,
     "bo": true/false,
     "hib": true/false,
     "loc": "app location permissions"
     }
     
... or ...
   
  "iOS": {
    "altimeterAuthorizationStatus": "CMAuthorizationStatusAuthorized",
    "altimeterIsAbsoluteAltitudeAvailable": false,
    "altimeterIsRelativeAltitudeAvailable": true,
    "locationManagerAuthorizationStatus": "kCLAuthorizationStatusAuthorizedAlways",
    "UIBackgroundRefreshStatus": "UIBackgroundRefreshStatusAvailable",
    "version": "17.2.3/de_DE"
  }
}

[growse]

Which topic should status messages live on? /info?

[ckrey]

I think on a new topic owntracks/user/device/status. This can be optionally subscribed to by the backend.
.../info is already used for cards and is subscribed by other clients

[growse]

Worth sketching out a quick schema with some types for each value?

[wir3z]

https://owntracks.org/booklet/tech/json/#_typeconfiguration

Is cmd/dump applicable for Android? It's listed as iOS only: "dump Triggers the publish of a configuration message (iOS)"

[wir3z]

Does the icon currently not reflect charging status? That's a bug if so.

No, did not appear to be so in the 2.4.12 PlayStore version.

[wir3z]

Would you like a PR for this? I realize that it's in the location message vs status, but you can cherry pick the API's to collect the desired info from Android.

[growse]

Yes please - I suspect at a minimum we'll need:

• New message type for status message
• New enum value for command message action
• handler in the service to process the incoming command, and generate the status message, before sticking it on the outbound queue.
• somewhere between 2 and 385 tests.

I've probably missed something.

Worth also saying that these are incremental - we can introduce a new message type as an atomic change without doing the other bits, so might be easier to break it up.

[wir3z]

Sorry about the late reply -- just tied up on another project. I'll try to get the first bits into a PR this weekend to start chipping away at this.

[wir3z]

@growse Other project wrap-up took longer than expected so I'm just getting back to this one. How would you like this PR structured? I can submit it as is, or I can add in the message types that you listed above? Do you have specific ENUM's in mind, or that can get scrubbed in the PR? Let me know!

[growse]

I don't think I have strong opinions, my only real criteria for contributions are:

• Tests pls (unit and espresso if you appropriate)
• Update the CHANGELOG.

I'm generally ok with long-lived PRs that we can work on until it's good to merge, so feel free to shove something up and mark it as a draft or something until you're happy.

[wir3z]

I've added the status command/response to the PR. Downfall of using a separate status message is being able to display friends status on the friends drawer isn't possible (the UX image from the first post) since that information cannot be returned with contact card updates. I'll need to add a way to store the past status and then trigger a new adhoc one if there is a change if that is a desired operation.

Thoughts on putting the data as a subset of the extended data that only gets populated on change for the adhoc changes? That way the information is cached for the user as well as the friends. I do like the separate status command to allow a query of state as well.

[wir3z]

Ok, PR is complete to support the status command:

• A status response is sent when a status command is received.
• A status response is sent when a user initiated location is triggered.