You can try to make a double-button thing. i.e. one when one button is pressed or not, the other has 2 functionalities.

I tried it once and it was a pain, maybe you'll get luckyer.

You can always try to prototype the backlight button to give it new functionality, but I believe that is a very dark area :).

I use the below ProntoScript throughout my configuration file per adding that "Press & Hold" functionality to a given button. A normal button press will invoke one function. An extended button press will invoke another. Have never experienced any issues. Works great!

var counter = 0;
onHold = function()
{ counter++;
if (counter==1) { doAnother(); }
}
onHoldInterval = 1000; onRelease = function()
{ if (counter==0) {doOneThing(); }
}

Some examples per my use of "Press & Hold" shown below.

Activity (Button) / Normal Press / Extended Press

Activity Page ("Page Up" hard button and "Power On" soft button):
All components powered on except DVD/BD Changers. / All components powered on.

Activity Page (Selecting an activity on-screen or via "OK" hard button):
Appropriate macro is run based on global variables used to track power states. / Full macro is run irrespective of global variables.

All pages while under a given activity. ("Power" hard button and "Home" soft button in upper right corner):
Jump to "Activities" page. / Forces full macro to run for the given activity.

All pages of config. (Invisible button in upper right corner of system area):
Jump to "Lighting" activity. / Jump to "System Status" page.

Blu-ray Changer:
"Menu" hard/soft button - PopUp Menu / Menu
"Channel Up" hard button - Skip Forward / Next Disc
"Channel Down" hard button - Skip Back / Previous Disc
"Power On" soft button - Display Power On / Blu-ray Changer Power On
"Power Off" soft button - Display Power Off / Blu-ray Changer Power Off

DVD Changers:
"Menu" hard/soft button - Menu / Top Menu
"Power On" soft button - Display Power On / DVD Changer Power On
"Power Off" soft button - Display Power Off / DVD Changer Power Off

HD DVR:
"Guide" hard/soft button - Guide / List (DVR Playlist)
"Channel Up" hard button - Skip Forward (30 seconds) / Channel Up
"Channel Down" hard button - Skip Back (5 seconds) / Channel Down
"Power On" soft button - Display Power On / HD DVR Power On
"Power Off" soft button - Display Power Off / HD DVR Power Off

XM Radio:
"Power On" soft button - Display Power On / XM Radio Power On
"Power Off" soft button - Display Power Off / XM Radio Power Off

Well you actually don't use a counter you could do it with just:

var held = false;
onHold = function()
{ held=true;
}
onHoldInterval = 1000; onRelease = function()
{
if (held) {doOneThing(); }
else doAnother();
held=false;
}

But using a counter allows one to determine just how long button has been held and act accordingly.....

Exactly. :-)

URC's editors for years now have had WYSIWYG support for the "Press & Hold" functionality. It was great to finally be able to accomplish the same with a Pronto via the Pro line and ProntoScript!

But that is just one way to calculate duration. A counter is not as accurate as the real millisecond value:

// in the button script or in onPress function of button, do:
this.pressTime = new Date().valueOf();

// in the button script, assign onHold and onRelease functions.
this.onHold = function()
{
var now = new Date().valueOf();
var holdTime = now - this.pressTime();
// holdTime resolution is in milliseconds.
};

this.onRelease = function()
{
var now = new Date().valueOf();
var finalTime = now - this.pressTime();
// finalTime resolution is in milliseconds.

// clean up member field in the widget
delete this.pressTime;
};

But that didn't solve my problem with using the Light Button LOL :)

The backlight button has never been a programmable hard button on any Pronto remote that I'm aware of. That being said, Lyndel did provide the suggestion that perhaps the backlight button could be addressed via ProntoScript. Give it a shot if you have not already done so. Who knows. It will either work or it won't. If not, at least alternative solutions have been offered that you may not have thought of.

True, but the proposition was for a 2 state button, and you can set the duration with the onHoldInterval, so why overcode when it's not necessary ;)

Ok ... folks ... did anyone actually try to do ... anything with the backlight button? Seriously?




P.S.: Sorry for the foul language, but I think here is apropriate (And I couldn't resist it, given the "Selfownage" we inflicted upon ourselves in this thread, ok Lyndel excluded, because he said to try this ;) ).

P.P.S.: Works on pages only (not on the activity level), but I'm quite sure it could be modified in a way you don't need the code on each page.

Thanks for the update was trying to do it as a global activity.. didn't try page .. sorry..

The original poster is the one that wants to use the backlight button so seriously, perhaps you should ask the original poster if they've attempted to address the backlight button via ProntoScript as Lyndel suggested.


Not sure what you mean here. Selfownage? I simply offered an alternative solution to using the backlight button in the event it could not be addressed via ProntoScript. Either way, one only stands to benefit from my contribution to this thread. Some may not have thought to use a button for more than one thing. Not only did I provide the ProntoScript I'm using to do this, but I also offered many examples of how useful the "Press & Hold" functionality can be per my own configuration file.


Very cool. One more hard button is certainly not a bad thing. I'll have to check this out myself when I get home tonight. Good stuff.

With Selfownage I meant that without actually trying to do anything with the backlight button, we automatically implied than it can't be used and provided some alternatives. Of course I didn't mean that the alternatives aren't good and especially that those who contributed to the topic with the alternatives should not have done it. Sometimes we just take some things for granted, without being certain of if, and instead of inspecting the thing in question we tend to provide alternative solutions which are, in the end, avoidable.

I would not count on that capability being left exposed for forever. ;-)

Very well stated. Awesome news again that the backlight button is addressable via ProntoScript as Lyndel suggested it might be.

It is a hole that has not been plugged. ;-)