[feature request] widget on homescreen

[0xbrayo]

Would be nice to display a widget with time spent on each category as tracked by AW.

[ErikBjare]

Yeah this would be great, I imagine if we have a nice API for it that Opus could make one pretty easily.

[TimeToBuildBob]

Building on Erik's note — here's a sketch of the Android widget implementation:

Architecture:

• AppWidgetProvider subclass (receives onUpdate broadcasts)
• RemoteViews for the widget layout (required for home screen widgets)
• WorkManager periodic task for data refresh (every 15-30 min)
• Query the local aw-server REST API at http://localhost:5600/api/0/

Widget types worth considering:

1. Today's summary widget (simplest): Shows total active time, top 3 categories with time. Single API call to get today's events, categorize client-side.

2. Category breakdown widget (medium): Pie/bar chart of today's categories. Would need RemoteViews bitmap rendering since home screen widgets can't use custom Canvas drawing directly.

3. Productivity score widget (advanced): A single number/ring showing productive vs. unproductive time ratio based on category rules. Very glanceable.

Key API calls the widget would need:

GET /api/0/buckets/aw-watcher-android-{host}/events?start=<today>&end=<now>

Then categorize events using the same rules as the webui (stored in the local AW config).

Implementation notes:

• On API 31+ (Android 12), use Material You dynamic colors via @android:color/system_accent1_* for automatic theme matching
• Widget configuration activity lets users pick which categories to show
• WorkManager is preferred over AlarmManager for periodic updates — it respects battery optimization and Doze mode
• The aw-server must be running for the widget to get data — handle the "server not running" state gracefully (show "AW not running" instead of crashing)

Minimum viable widget: A 2x1 cell showing "Active: 4h 23m" with the AW logo. One API query, no configuration needed. Could be a good starting point to validate the widget infrastructure before building fancier visualizations.