Add Ruler state "off"

[michaelkrnac]

The Ruler is a nice feature which i like to always have has button on the map.

When i add the ruler to the view i can switch threw the diffrent ruler modes.
One mode should be "Ruler off"

Pressing the Ruler button should switch through the follwong states:

• Ruler off (No crosshair no measuring)
• Ruler measure distance from current position
• Ruler black circles
• Ruler White circles

[vshcherb]

There are 3 states now:

1. Ruler off
2. Ruler black
3. Ruler white
   2 and 3: measure distance works from current position with touches

[michaelkrnac]

The 3 states you described are fine.

The Problem for me is that stage 1. is not working on my phone.
Stage 1 shows the crosshair and measures if i click somewhere.

[natolh]

Same problem here. When the ruler widget is active, measuring distance is always possible no matter the widget status (1, 2 or 3).
And it is possible to measure from current position to the touched position as well as between two simultaneously touched positions (if you press long enough).

[PaulStets]

This is the expected behavior of the ruler widget. The "ruler off" mode hides the circles but does not disable the touch ruler. @michaelkrnac Could you please explain the purpose of completely disabling the ruler without disabling it in the Configure screen menu?
Perhaps you want a way to quickly disable/enable the widget? In that case, it will be possible soon, after we develop the Quick Action feature.

[vshcherb]

You can disable the widget itself and it hides functionality.

[natolh]

Well, I'm aware the widget can be disable. But to me widget activation/deactivation is more like plugin activation/deactivation : something you do once if you need the function. Problem is I can't have the ruler widget always on because the ruler measurement is painful for manipulating the map. But switching the widget on/off is long. Maybe the Quick Action feature will solve the problem, although I'm not entirely seduce by it.

[vshcherb]

Strangely enough this version is consistent with Android version and we didn't have any suggestions for more than a year. It might be that 2 touch functionality just disrupts more usability on IPhone version rather than Android and we need to address that feature first.

[natolh]

Or maybe like @PaulStets said it's because Android users have the Quick Action feature...

[michaelkrnac]

I totaly agree with the comments written by @natolh above.

I use widget activation/deactivation more like a plugin activation/deactivation.

For Example:

• i activate the plugin "GPX Tracking"
• now i get the GPX button on the screen but GPX tracking is turned off
• to turn it on (start recording) i press the GPX Button
• then press again to stop recording
• The GPX plugin is enabled and only one click away but it is not always recording

I assume the same behavoir for the ruler:

• i activate the Plugin "Ruler" because i want it quick accessable
• now i get the Ruler Button on the screen
• i scroll the map to find a place nearby (i want to scroll without a ruler always popping up)
• now i want to know the distance so i turn on the ruler and measure
• then i turn off the ruler to scroll around.
• the ruler plugin is enabled and only one click away but it is not always measuring

I never heard of Quick Actions before so i watched this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doV3XLTrwpU

Like @PaulStets and @natolh stated above i also assume that Andorid users use the Quick Action as workaround.

[PaulStets]

@natolh @michaelkrnac Thank you for the clarification. @vshcherb Seems like a reasonable request. I think we should implement it.

[natolh]

While we are talking about the ruler, I would like to talk about two other points.

1. The name "radius ruler". Does this name match a particular concept / object in real life or is it a concept of your own ? At least in French we do not have or we haven't thing something that match and thus the current translation sucks. Maybe "ruler" will be just as good and easier to localize ?
2. When the ruler is in the third state the center marker is still shown.

[vshcherb]

1. I think name is "ruler" in a form of "circle". Probably "radius ruler" have more sense in some languages than others
2. Exactly because it handles tap to draw a line on tap, so I think we somehow can add the setting to the widget and we anyway will do it because we are going to add compass values to the ruler anyway.

[natolh]

@vshcherb

1. From my point of view naming it "radius ruler" instead of "ruler" does not bring anything more. I mean, whatever it's type it still is a ruler. In addition there is no other ruler types in OsmAnd (or more exactly there is, we can tap to measure distance but this feature is included in the radius ruler widget), so why we should bother being so precise ? On the contrary this naming brings drawbacks for translation...
2. In this case there is still a bug because one tap distance are measured from the current location not from this marker placed at the center of the screen.