access to html files with android 4.4

[bongo]

so far, i used the cyanogen android 4.4 version which does not have any restrictions in accessing sd cards.
now, with a new phone, i have plain android 4.4, i.e. my locus main folder is in internal flash, while maps and the gsak db are on the external sd card.
so far, things seem to work.
but i also have lots of html files and pictures, which so far have been located under locus/data/geocaching on the external sd card. these have been shown as "spoiler" tab when opening a geocaching waypoint. now these are not shown anymore.
what do i have to do to get them shown again (i need to keep them on the external sd card as internel flash is too small)
thanx!

[Menion]

hello bongo, currently it's not possible to separate various Locus directories across your device.

If you need to keep your GC data on card, you may consider placing whole Locus on SD card. This may be done in Locus settings > misc > root directory. After that, you have to manually move content of existing dir to this SD card directory.

[c.s.g.]

Hello bongo,

I have overcome this problem by leaving only the small html files in the locus/data/geocaching folder on the internal sd card and corrected the links to the pictures inside these html files to the directory on the external sd card.

Maybe not the best solution if you have thousands of html files to correct.

c.s.g.

[bongo]

hi menion
so you mean i have to select /storage/extSdCard/Android/data/menion.android.locus.pro/files as main folder and then move my html files on the sd card to this folder?
thanx!
bongo

[Menion]

yes, exactly. But you have to move all Locus data from internal memory as well, to make it work. Just please keep in mind, that if you un-install for any reason Locus in your system, this directory will be completely deleted!!

[bongo]

hi menion

thanx for your reply!

so far, this works now, but i think about an "improvement":
as far as i understand, locus actually uses a main folder which has to be located in an area where locus is allowed to write to, i.e. it has to be either in the internal flash or in " /storage/extSdCard/Android/data/menion.android.locus.pro/files".
this is required for locus to save temporary data and settings.
by default, the mainfolder also contains the maps, but there's a separate link for maps, which can either point to the maps in the main folder or to any folder, e.g. a folder on the external flash which is read only.

what i think about is a model, separating files generated by locus from files that are generated externally, i.e. files that locus only needs to read, i.e. files where no write access is required.

for this, i actually see two ways for realization:

1) a path setting for the data folder, which may either point to the data folder within the locus main folder or to any other folder, e.g. a read only folder on the external flash

2) multiple data folders allowed (like this is done for maps). locus then has a list of all data folders to be checked

what do you think about such an improvement? wouldn't this be a good solution to meet the android 4.4 problem?

regards
bongo

[Menion]

Bongo, I understand your idea and agree this should be partial solution. On second side, I still think that separating a directories cause only a mess.

Also there is very low amount of a folders that should be read-only. Also a data/geocaching folder needs to be writable, because of storing downloaded images with GC Offlinizer tool.

There seems to be some news in Android 5 that seems to allow full write access to disk under some conditions, so we will see what Google created.

[bongo]

hi menion

but who will get android 5 and what ugly things will google add to this version...?

i agree with you that locating the data folder on a read only partition could result in problems with some other apps or addons. nevertheless, my suggestion is to have a solution in a way how locus does this with maps:

- standard data folder is under the locus structure, i.e. either in the internal flash or in the special folder on the external flash. all data, locus writes to the data folder, is written to this folder.

- there may be additional data folders defined within locus. these folders are always read only, no matter where they are located. they are just checked for data, the same way the standard data folder is checked, but locus never writes there.

wouldn't this be an approach that would cover all user requirements? this would avoid messing up data as there is only one location to write to.

thanx + have a nice day!
bongo