Author: joshuahxh

We’re thrilled to announce the release of version 8.5.0 on watchfacebuilder.com! 🚀 Here’s what’s new and improved:

1. Introducing WFB API Key: We’re rolling out something special for our premium account users – the WFB API key! With this key, you’ll gain access to a premium services (more detail to come).
2. Garmin SDK Data Fields: Added the missing Garmin SDK data fields recently released.
3. Complication Value Retrieval: Now, you can fetch values directly from complications, ensuring your data is updated more frequently than retrieving it from sensor history table on your device.
4. Bug Fixes: eg. resizing un-resizable objects and more.
5. App Authentication: For our premium account users, you can add “app auth” data field on your design. Anyone can try your watch faces, and after the trial period, a message will show on the watch. Then users can contact you, and you can review their request on the back end of WFB site to approve or deny their access.

• Added: Programmable variable
• Updated: BMF glyph trim

The “programmable variable” is a data field object you can add into your design. The value of this programmable variable can be altered based on various triggering events, such as “press”, watch’s power mode switching, or an expression which should return true or false.

Once the trigger event happens, the variable will increase one (for number), or toggle true or false (for boolean), or return the next element from array (for array of numbers or strings).

Once set, this variable retains its value until another trigger event occurs. Then you can use the variable in the expression from other objects.

BMF has a minor changes on setting the yoffset values.

• Added: Ctrl + Z for undo, Ctrl + Y for redo

The following keyboard shortcuts are supported:

• Shift + Arrow keys (move selected object one pixel at a time)
• Arrow keys (move selected object 5 pixels at a time)
• Delete key (delete selected object)
• Ctrl + C (copy selected object into clipboard)
• Ctrl + V (paste the object from clipboard into your design)
• Ctrl + Z (undo)
• Ctrl + Y (redo)

• Added: Complication selector on app property

You can set the complication by app property. First add a complication select to the app properties,

Then you can set the complication of each object under “custom complications”

Then user will have options to select which complication they want to see when they press and hold the object’s area.

• Added: confirmation dialog of deleting account
• Fixed: inconsistant image size of group icon field
• Added: color select for app property
• Fixed: non-number type of select value for app property
• Updated: UI changes for app property window

• Updated: order of layers
• Added: 5-design limit is enforced for non-premium member

Layers are sorted like other’s graph editing software, the background layer are at the bottom and the new layer is added at the top.

• Added: show over-quota message for non-premium member
• Added: toggle the visibility of the timeline sidebar
• Added: clear timeline
• Fixed: not able to save after there are more than 10 saves

• Added: app property

You can create whole bunch of properties for your design, and use them in any expression. Check out this demo: demo of app property – Watchface Builder for Garmin – Watchface

This is the original design, with title, shows second, and date color is white.

This is after the setting changes (title change to “Demo”, hide second, and date color to green).

Right now this feature is only useful for designs published to the connect IQ app store. I’m still working on to solve an issue so sideloaded prg can change properties too.

Thanks,

• Added: sliding text (horizontal text)
• Added: scrolling text (vertical scrolling text)

Now you can slide a long text for each datafield object.

set how many characters you want to display, and the speed of sliding (how many seconds you want to the content to change). Apparently if the speed is less than 1 minute, the slide will only work during the high power mode (because during the low power mode, the screen only got updates every minute).

You can also add a scrolling text field from datafield window (click datafield menu, search scroll). Set the data field value to the following format: [speed, exp1, exp2, …]

The first element from this array is the seconds (how faster you want to scroll the text between each elements in this array). The rest of elements is the expression you want to show.

This is the demo.

Enjoy them.

• Added: Stack

In object stacks, multiple objects can be stacked on top of each other, so you can put all of your favorites together and then swap them by a trigger (press, power mode switch, every 5 seconds, or any expression you can think of).

First, you add a stack on your design, adjust its size and position, select the trigger event. Then add all objects you want to swap when trigger event happens, make sure the object is inside the stack boundary.

Please take a look at this demo of stack usage.

In this demo, the top line will show either current heart rate or heart rate chart (rotating every 5 seconds). The middle line will show current time, and you can change the color by pressing it. The bottom line will show either total calories or active calories (switching every time when watch enters high power mode)

Watches with touch screen could take advantage of this feature, and offer customization right on the watchface itself.