feat(widget): add interactive notes widget by loloakira · Pull Request #3215 · nextcloud/notes-android

loloakira · 2026-06-04T22:16:09Z

Description

This PR adds a new home-screen widget called Interactive notes — a third widget alongside the existing single-note and note-list widgets, which are left unchanged.

What it does

Shows notes as a scrollable single column of rounded cards.
Each card shows the note title and a multi-line content excerpt (the whole note when it is short).
Tapping a card opens that specific note; a floating "+" button in the bottom-right creates a new note in the widget's configured category/account.
The favorite star is shown as a non-clickable indicator.
Reconfigurable via long-press on Android 12+, with a live previewLayout in the widget picker.

Implementation notes

Reuses the existing NotesListWidgetData storage and excerpt generation - no database migration.
Sort options are stored in per-widget SharedPreferences; notes are sorted in memory.
One shared change: WidgetNotesListDao.createOrUpdateNoteListWidgetData now uses @insert(onConflict = OnConflictStrategy.REPLACE) instead of a plain insert that aborted on the existing primary key, so reconfiguration can persist updated settings. This is transparent to the two existing widgets, which are not reconfigurable and never hit the conflict. A DAO test covers the upsert.
New source strings were added to values/strings.xml only (translations are handled by Transifex).
The two existing widgets and the shared data layer are untouched.
Added the explicit "Add widget" button so that saving is no longer triggered by tapping a category.
Added section headings and preselected "All notes".

Tested

./gradlew assembleDevDebug and ./gradlew lintDevDebug pass.
test DAO + assembleDevDebug/lintDevDebug pass
Manually verified on a device (Android 16): open note, create note, sort options, reconfiguration, light/dark mode.

🖼️Screenshots

🏚 Before	🏡 After
No equivalent widget

🏁 Checklist

🧪 Tests written - WidgetNotesListDaoTest covers the DAO upsert; the UI was verified manually.

Developed with AI assistance (Claude Code 2.1.219, Claude Opus 4.8 for the initial implementation and Claude Opus 5 for the review changes)

codacy-production · 2026-06-04T22:56:18Z

Not up to standards ⛔

🔴 Issues 1 high · 3 medium · 22 minor

Alerts:
⚠ 26 issues (≤ 0 issues of at least minor severity)

Results:
26 new issues

Category Results

Documentation 22 minor

ErrorProne 1 high

Complexity 3 medium

View in Codacy

🟢 Metrics 106 complexity · 7 duplication

Metric Results

Complexity 106

Duplication 7

View in Codacy

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github-actions · 2026-06-19T02:27:11Z

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tobiasKaminsky · 2026-07-03T06:17:30Z

Awesome!

Just a smal UX thing:
When I first set it up, I was unsure how to "save".
I had to click on "all notes" (or Favorites).
I am a bit unsure how to make this more understandable?
Maybe via a radio button and a real "save/add" button?

@jancborchardt do you have an idea?

loloakira · 2026-07-03T08:27:55Z

Thanks!

I don't like it either but as it was my first PR for this project I didn't want to change too much things. I reused the interface of the previous widget that wasn't editable but where the saving was done on selecting the category.

tobiasKaminsky · 2026-07-06T08:19:23Z

I understand.
Let's see if @jancborchardt has a good idea, which does not require too many changes.

jancborchardt

Looks very nice, and useful! :)

Regarding the settings, some details:

Settings regarding favorites on top and sorting could just follow in-app preferences. Either they can be used as a preset here, or we don't need to show them at all here
"All notes" could be preselected, and yes I would say a specific FAB in the bottom right saying "Add widget" would be nice (needs to be ("Edit widget" when editing of course)

loloakira · 2026-07-26T23:04:41Z

Thank you!

I had a little time to make those changes and upgrade the project to the last main commit.

I fixed the minSdk part in my widget and modified the saving menu.
I added a FAB.
I added titles to understand the different parts and made "All notes" selected by default. It's now a selection before saving the widget with the FAB and not a saving on selecting the category.
I checked the default configuration parts but found no place where the the newest/oldest and favorites on top are so I just let favorites on by default like the rest of the app.
I used the US form and not UK form for "Favorites" instead of "Favourites".

Now I like this menu. Tell me if it's ok.

alperozturk96 · 2026-08-10T07:17:58Z

+            return
+        }
+
+        if (!intent.hasExtra(AppWidgetManager.EXTRA_APPWIDGET_ID)) {


If we don't have this EXTRA_APPWIDGET_ID we update widget with

awm.getAppWidgetIds(ComponentName(context, InteractiveNoteListWidget::class.java))

Then still update widget with -1.

Why this approach is preferred? Shouldn't we use one of it only instead of both.

That was a copy of the existing NoteListWidget.kt but I made the fix on my widget. I didn't touch other widgets.

alperozturk96 · 2026-08-10T07:25:53Z

+ * SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2026 Nextcloud GmbH and Nextcloud contributors
+ * SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-3.0-or-later
+ */
+package it.niedermann.owncloud.notes.widget.interactivelist;


Can we use Kotlin for new class?

There were no instruction on new classes when I did the PR and old widgets were in java. As I said, I didn't wanted to make multiple changes on my first PR on this project but I just made the changes.

alperozturk96 · 2026-08-10T07:28:09Z

+import android.content.Intent;
+import android.widget.RemoteViewsService;
+
+public class InteractiveNoteListWidgetService extends RemoteViewsService {


Can we use Kotlin for new class?

alperozturk96 · 2026-08-10T07:33:12Z

+        }
+    }
+
+    @JvmStatic


No need @JvmStatic if we use Kotlin for other new classes.

alperozturk96 · 2026-08-10T07:33:34Z

+    private const val CATEGORY_ID_PREFIX = "category:"
+    private const val CATEGORY_SEPARATOR = '/'
+
+    @JvmStatic


No need @JvmStatic if we use Kotlin for other new classes.

alperozturk96 · 2026-08-10T07:34:08Z

This preview should be deleted from repo.

I don't think so because minSdk is 28 and previewLayout is API 31. Android 9, 10 and 11 only read previewImage so without the icon, we would have the app icon as preview. I initially added this screenshot because note_list_widget_preview.webp and single_note_widget.webp were in res/drawable/ and listed in REUSE.toml so I just copied previous widget formats.

If you're sure it must go, I just have to delete it, it's the last change I haven't done yet.

Add a third home-screen widget, "Interactive notes", that shows notes as a scrollable single column of rounded cards. Each card shows the note title and a multi-line content excerpt (the whole note when it is short). Tapping a card opens that specific note; a floating button in the bottom-right creates a new note in the widget's configured category/account. The favorite star is a non-clickable indicator. The configuration screen groups its controls under headings and separates selecting from saving: tapping an entry only selects it, and an "Add widget" button in the bottom-right commits the configuration. "All notes" is selected by default. When an existing widget is reconfigured the button reads "Edit widget" and the stored selection is restored. Sort options are a "favorites on top" toggle and a newest-first / oldest-first order. The widget is reconfigurable via long-press on Android 12+ and provides a live previewLayout for the widget picker. Reuses the existing NotesListWidgetData storage (no database migration) and the existing excerpt generation; sort options are kept in per-widget SharedPreferences. The two existing widgets are left unchanged. So reconfiguration can persist updated settings, the shared createOrUpdateNoteListWidgetData DAO now uses an upsert (REPLACE) conflict strategy instead of a plain insert that aborted on the existing primary key; this is transparent to the non-reconfigurable widgets, which never hit the conflict. A DAO test covers the upsert. Assisted-by: ClaudeCode:claude-opus-5 Signed-off-by: loloakira <6253351+loloakira@users.noreply.github.com> AI-assistant: Claude Code 2.1.226 (Claude Opus 5)

loloakira force-pushed the feature/widget-evolution branch from ce74696 to dede2b6 Compare June 6, 2026 13:49

loloakira marked this pull request as draft June 6, 2026 14:19

loloakira force-pushed the feature/widget-evolution branch 2 times, most recently from c640e96 to db9f75d Compare June 6, 2026 16:24

loloakira marked this pull request as ready for review June 6, 2026 16:24

github-actions Bot added the feedback-requested label Jun 19, 2026

jancborchardt reviewed Jul 6, 2026

View reviewed changes

loloakira force-pushed the feature/widget-evolution branch 2 times, most recently from 2e97f93 to 8855ba7 Compare July 26, 2026 23:01

AndyScherzinger requested review from alperozturk96 and tobiasKaminsky August 7, 2026 16:18

alperozturk96 force-pushed the feature/widget-evolution branch from 8855ba7 to 64dacb9 Compare August 10, 2026 07:12

alperozturk96 requested changes Aug 10, 2026

View reviewed changes

loloakira force-pushed the feature/widget-evolution branch from 64dacb9 to dcadc52 Compare August 10, 2026 16:10

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loloakira commented Jun 4, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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Description

What it does

Implementation notes

Tested

🖼️Screenshots

🏁 Checklist

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codacy-production Bot commented Jun 4, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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Not up to standards ⛔

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github-actions Bot commented Jun 19, 2026

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tobiasKaminsky commented Jul 3, 2026

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loloakira commented Jul 3, 2026

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tobiasKaminsky commented Jul 6, 2026

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loloakira commented Jun 4, 2026 •

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