Bug 143891

Summary:	KAlarm could have a post-alarm action that only triggers when the alarm is closed (not deferred)
Product:	[Applications] kalarm	Reporter:	John B <john+kde_org>
Component:	general	Assignee:	David Jarvie <djarvie>
Status:	CLOSED FIXED
Severity:	wishlist
Priority:	NOR
Version:	unspecified
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Ubuntu
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:

Description John B 2007-04-06 01:15:55 UTC

Version:           1.4.5 (using KDE KDE 3.5.5)
Installed from:    Ubuntu Packages
OS:                Linux

It would be nice if the "post-alarm action" could be configured to only run once the alarm has been closed/acknowledged.  In other words, deferring the alarm would not trigger the action.  Here's my specific use case, to illustrate the point.

Every day, before I leave work, I send a "time billed" report.  I'm supposed to leave at 18:00 every day, but we all know how that goes sometimes.  I have an alarm with a post-action to run a shell script that generates the report email and presents a Kmail window that I can choose to click Send in.

If I'm not ready to go at 18:00, I defer the alarm, for say 10 minutes at a time, until I am ready.  With my current setup, every time I defer the alarm, I get a KMail composer window that I then have to close.

I'm thinking that the current "post-alarm action" has specific use cases of its own, so I guess I'm suggesting that this be a new function in addition to the existing set, rather than changing the behaviour of the current action definition.

Comment 1 Charles Evans 2007-04-10 18:27:57 UTC

This is for me the most important feature that there could be.
Without it, many actions must have additional confirmation scripting!

Comment 2 David Jarvie 2007-04-11 11:55:29 UTC

I think that logically it makes sense to change the behaviour so that the post-alarm action is only executed once the alarm is finally closed, and not if it is deferred. I won't make it an option unless people ask for it.

Comment 3 John B 2007-04-11 20:24:59 UTC

This would solve my use case.  I actually agree with you that changing the default behaviour is "more correct", in principle.  I only suggested making it an additional feature so that things that might depend on the current behaviour wouldn't break...but I have to admit, I can't think of a situation where it would come up.  :)

Charles: For the benefit of myself and anyone else who happens to run across this bug, could you perhaps outline the workaround you're using at the moment?

Comment 4 David Jarvie 2007-04-17 01:44:59 UTC

This is now implemented. Pre-alarm actions will only be executed once when the main alarm is displayed, and not for reminders or deferrals. Post-alarm actions will only be executed once when the alarm is acknowledged or closed (after any deferrals) and not for reminders. The new behaviour will be in KDE 3.5.7.

Comment 5 John B 2007-04-17 16:51:53 UTC

Thanks!