Tasker‘s scene system has a lot of uses, but creating a scene takes a bit of time. That’s why there are some actions that allow you to create a scene quickly, without having to manually create it. The two I use the most are Menu and Variable Query, which each let you set a few options and then a scene is created from those options, rather than having to create a separate scene.
A feature that is often overlooked is the ability to change the template used for these quick-create scenes. The first time you use an action that creates a scene like that, the default template becomes available in the scene tab in the home project tab. The first time you use Variable Query, for instance, you will notice a new Variable Query scene. This scene can be cloned and/or edited to look the way you want, and then be used in place of the default template when you use the related action. The basic elements need to be there (you can’t for instance delete the Text Edit field in a Variable Query scene), but as for colors, layout, and so on, you can do a lot.
You can also create scenes from scratch. In those cases you should take a look at the default templates and see which elements they use, and what they’re named. I created a Variable Query scene from scratch, and was actually able to get images to take the place of the buttons in the original template by naming them Accept and Cancel, and adding Destroy Scene actions to them. Making sure names match up is important, as some of the elements have to have specific names to work. The template system works by remotely manipulating the elements in the templates (similar to some of the actions available in the scene category), so without the proper references, it won’t work.
The look of the Tasker UI has been a topic of discussion many times, and since that’s what’s used for the default templates, a lot of people might want to switch them out. I’ve known about this possibility for ages, but I’ve done little but change some colors on the default templates until now. Yesterday I sat down and made black holo-themed templates for Variable Query and Menu, which are the two I use the most. I’m quite happy with the result, and the pop-up boxes fit in a bit better with the look of my phone now.
Bravo Andreas, using tasker to change tasker, It’s genius.
Nice article as usual. Is it possible to export/import these templates in tasker?
Sure, they’re scenes like any other, so just long press on them in the scenes tab and export them
So I am having a few issues I hope you can help me with. I did as you said above and created a menu alert scene and after setting it up I had a pop up scene in my my main tab but not a menu scene. I went with it and updated the template how I wanted. After updating I check if the menu I originally created was the new template but it wasn’t. Deleted my created template and recreated it but to no effect. I then deleted the pop up scene in my main tab as I though I wouldnt need it but now I am completely lost how to fix this template issue.
Edit: I deleted my created menu not the template first
You have to select your new template in the menu action config afterwards. All scenes are listed, you pick the template, and then it will tell you if it doesnt contain what’s needed for it to work. Ths doesnt just support redoing the template, it supports a bunch of templates, and sometimes you make scenes that could be emplates but aren’t, so it cant pick automatically.
Alright thanks, another question though. When the template is created is it supposed to be a menu scene or a pop up? Because I had a pop up scene in my main tab and deleted it as I thought it had no correlation.
The names should give them away. Menus can be just icons or icons and text, the latter is a scene called Icon And Text Menu. Variable query scenes are called Variable Query. You can also make these from scratch
Alight because when I created an Icon and Text Menu scene by using the Alert->menu. It did not create a scene template in my main tab. I would like to be able to make this template all black and white, similar to your theme styling, but can not seem to get a template to create in my main tab when I implemented this in my current scene. I am working on a car locator app that records the gps position when you tell it to but I wanted to include a menu pop up if you long tap on the status text box, that will allow you to reset this location to zero. Thanks for all the help btw, your guide has definitely inspired me to dive into the more complicated aspects of tasker.
Have you ever used the menu option before? This is created the first time you do it. You may have to run the task so the menu pops up before it’s created, not quite sure.
No not before this so I am slightly confused. Do you know of any resources so I can recreate the menu template?
You can download a slightly edit icon and text menu scene here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/q99losby6l3tnba/IconAndTextMenu.scn.xml
Other than that, no clue, sounds like a case for the dev if it doesnt generate the templates as it should
Thanks for all the help and great articles. I am working right now on a personal voice assistant for my galaxy nexus and my old droid x. The droid x will be integrated into my room speaker system and work via autoremote from the gnex. It will play music and and various other tidbits from the droid x all by voice command.
Sounds awesome! You should do a video when it’s set up. People have been suggesting a “readers’ tasker creations” series, this would be perfect.
Yeah I would love to if I have the time. Right now I am really busy with work and school so have very limited time to actually mess around with tasker/ haven’t fully mapped out my project plan yet. It is still in the very early stages of development.
One other thing that I am looking to include would be light automation as you have with Nelly but as I am in the US I have not looked into the controllers that much. Do you know of any good brands here?
No, sorry, I really have no clue about the US market :/
Alright I will have to do some digging. I actually have another issue I was wondering if you could try and help me with. With my car locator app I mentioned above, I have a popup display what the location status is and I would also like to have it say the status. I cannot seem to get the pop up and the say action to sync together. Any tips?
I assume you tried putting one right before the other and switch them around to see the effect? You could try to run one of them via Perform Task, and play with the priorities to see what happens
Alright thanks for all the help. Out of curiosity, do you frequent any tasker forums/ can you recommend any if so? would love to see other peoples work as you have put yours out
there’s an official google group, but it’s mostly help requests rather than sharing/discussion
ah ok thanks again, ill keep you posted if I make any major progress on my project
Nice article. Using own template I’m able to use it in few random profiles using simple YES/NO questions and change text, color of this text etc. But, is there a way to change tasks assigned to YES/NO buttons, depend on profile, like this:
profile 1 -> yes=task1; no=task2
profile 2 -> yes=task3; no=task3
etc.
All using same template?
I think you’ve mistaken scenes and scene templates. This post is about scene templates, used with actions that can use templates, such as Menu. In those cases, you cannot change the text on a per-use basis, like you say you have, but you CAN change what tasks they trigger, like you’re asking. Check out the actions mentioned in this post and you’ll quickly realize what it’s actually about
I was thinking about scene templates but not with Menu, which indeed would be much easier. The problem is that I don’t know how to put two menu option, side by side in horizontal position. So I just make a simple template scene with Text element and change everything I want (task they trigger also) using variables.
Hi
my “Variable query” scene dosn´t work.
The buttons (accept and cancel) don´t react on any click.
I named them “Accept” and “Cancel” as in the preinstalled scene “variable query”.
The orig. scene also doesn´t work…
..I can type in the var. value but I have to wait till the timeout in order to proceed with my task.
Any idea how to fix this issue?
br
All I did for mine was to name them that, and it worked. Do note I used images, not buttons. Make sure nothing else in the scene is called those names, and make sure you didn’t put the names in the label field, but in Name, and capitalized them. Only things I can think of :/
Did you ever find a solution to this? I’m having the same issue, and the only way I can find to solve it is to copy the button from the original preinstalled scene and paste it into my new scene. Not ideal as I would like to use images instead of buttons.
Hi Andreas,
Is there anywhere we can download the scenes you’ve created to replace variable query and menu? It looks great and I would like to be able to use them myself. Thanks
Not sure how much good they will do you, but here they are: https://www.dropbox.com/s/mo3xrj352xsvnnc/scenes.zip?m
At this point I don’t remember exactly why I have several versions of each, but I’m sure I had a perfectly good reason for doing it xD
Requires the Holo icon pack by the Tasker dev, free in Google PLay
Thanks