Nokia N80 END KEY(Series 60 3rd edition)

[aboyapalle]

When END KEY is pressed in Nokia N80, the application is closed rather than being suspended. Is this the intended behaviour of the device? Or is there any way to suspend app rather than terminating it?

Thanks in advance

[dcrocha]

Hi,

Please check out the Forum Nokia Technical Library. Issue number KIS000294 reads:

In earlier S60 devices pressing the Call termination key (red button, end key) moved the current application to the background without closing it. From S60 2nd Edition, Feature Pack 3 onwards, pressing the Call termination key while an application is running closes the application.

This is a changed feature and thus there is no solution to bypass the Call termination key behavior. Instead, end users should be instructed to use the Applications (menu) key when wanting to switch from the application to another without closing the first application. Pressing the Applications key once or twice switches to the application menu or the stand-by screen, respectively.

[]s
Daniel

[jwnichls]

There's really no solution at all? I just got an E70 and I'm constantly hitting the end key, which is right next to one of the space bars when the keyboard is opened...very very frustrating. Especially when I'm in the middle of a text message or an IM and I lose everything. Enough so that I would write a special app to deal with the problem specifically...

-Jeff

[laa-laa]

See http://discussion.forum.nokia.com/fo...ad.php?t=77930

Lauri

[petrib]

When in the middle of writing/replying to a text message, you should find at least it in the "Drafts" folder in the Messaging app (so you won't have to start all over).

The discussion Lauri points out, of course helps if you're writing your own app and you want to handle the end key differently than what the default behaviour is. It doesn't help for changing existing apps for which you have no control.

[kannibul]

Dear Nokia Developers !

Did you tried how comfortable this *new feature* is ?
For instance when you're typing message in IM client (Agile Messenger) having qwerty keyboard opened on e70 device you have a very high chance to push "red" button by accident. It's right near the space bar button. And when you push it, you lost everything: your current message, your connectivity. It's unacceptable for business phone. There must be an option for changing this behaviour. Basicly it looks rediculous that phone have a button which roughly kills application without any warnings and options. You should consider that it could be pressed by accident. Previously i had 6670 phone and it had proper behaviour for the red button.. I can't see any sense for programming this button to be so fatal on new devices.. What was the reason ?
I think it's not big deal for you to add option for the red-button-behaviour in new firmware, but i'm sure that lots of people would frankly appriciate this..

[Nokia Ron]

I can understand how frustrating this could be but this is a design feature of the UI (for consistency) and not a SDK option. I'll pass this on and hopefully it will get someone's attention.

Ron

[kannibul]

Thank you for reply !

I can understand that this feature could be designed to comply with UI concept. But i think that our top interest, particulary for E-series, is to have excellently desiged devices for business which are comportable and safe to use, since business information's safe and integrity - is very important. I was very happy using 6670 phone and i always felt safe and comfortable. I trusted this device. And now i want to trust my e70, and many other people do.

I hope that there is a chance that this feature will be fixed.
Thank you very much for your help and attention.

[dcrocha]

It seems (and I am guessing here) that the feature was added because many users coming from Series 40 phones were used to end the current application by hitting the red button, which obviously didn't work on s60 phones.

This way, suddenly users saw their phones run out of memory quickly, and didn't know why: it took them a long time to find out that there were 10 applications running in the background which they thought they had closed by pressing the red button.

I don't know whether this justifies a change, but as I said that's only a guess.

Daniel

[Nokia Ron]

I did include this issue in the questions to Lee Epting the VP of Forum Nokia.

She replied that she had notified the enterprise products team of this problem.

I think you'll find that this is not a Developers problem but a fault of the device or design that needs corrected.

Ron

[alikattan]

I couldn't agree more with kannibul. The E-Series supposed to be a Business class phone; another name for durable application running and features that guarantee smooth user experience.

The End Key (Red Key - Terminate call key) or shall I say the "KILL MIDlet key" is without any question a serious flaw in the E-Series functionality. The same key used to bring the MIDlet into the background, now it simply kills it.

I'm a senior mobile application developer and it took me a while to understand that this is a new "feature" (as Nokia claim) in the latest S60 3rd Ed.

My application uses socket connections and hitting the KILL MIDlet key by accident will create a whole set of problems with the connecting server and with the same client trying to re-connect again by re-running the same MIDlet.

What makes things even worst, is that my application wouldn't have enough time in destroyApp() to take care and close open connections, properly end running threads, and go to "death" mode. The JAM will kill the KVM if the application is not done within 5 seconds.!!!

NOKIA JAVA GUYS.. PLEASE.. FIX THIS ..
Someone quoted that this was done to help S40 users from "thinking" that the red key will "terminate" the application. Well, if this is true, then I'm sorry to say that this is the most stupid and ridiculous reason to cause MIDlets to terminate without any sort of warning!

A. Kattan
MLabs System Bhd.
Malaysia-Penang
kattan@mlabs.com

[petrib]

The red/hangup key closing/exiting the forground app is not new for S60 3rd Edition. It appeared in S60 2nd Edition Feature Pack 3 (and the N70 and N90).

If you think about it, it is actually logical from a normal consumer's point of view: A regular, uneducated user (which is about 99% of mobile phone users, or more) knows that to end a call (and not to put it on hold or something like that) he or she hits the red/hangup key. It is logical to assume that to close/exit/end an application the key would behave the same, and not differently. Otherwise the normal user will see unexpected behaviour that will surpise him/her.

Now, what phone designers should do, is not to put the red/hangup key close to the directional controller ("joystick") so that it is easy to accidentally press it.

[alikattan]

Well, your comment is rather a nitpicky one but I will go with the 99% figure (or more) as you say. However, you didn't address the main issue; what will a client application, having sockets open connected to a server with probably more than one thread running, do if the red-button is pressed?
Remember, the KVM will be destroyed within about 5 seconds making it impossible to finish the needed "housekeeping" upon MIDlet termination.

It took the industry years to finally adhere to some basic OS behaviors that will ultimately promote a stable application and user friendly platform to sustain system and application integrity in the event of an error. Now NOKIA, and you, saying that this is a "feature", a logical one, where 99% (or more) of users know that the red key will terminate the application. Yet, no one seems to care about how the integrity of the running application(s) is kept in such a case.

This could also bear extra cost that the 99% (or more) users have to pay. If you consider client-server applications then those users will have to pay more since the application termination by the red-key, accidentally or not, caused uncompleted transactions between the client and server(s).
So eventually, they will re-run the application again and they might face a re-connection problem with the server if the re-connection attempt is made shortly after the application was terminated.

This is not just an offline game were all the game parameters are stored in an RMS record and every one lived happily ever after. We are talking about the heart of today's interactive mobile client server applications like online stock exchange, online purchasing, online database driven applications, etc. All of which are written such that to take care of all kind of errors in order to recover. Ironically, NOKIA puts a key that just whacks up all the things I learned during my past 20 years of programming experience.

Sorry, I don't think this is "logical" at all.

Don't you think that including a small "Exit Application (Yes/No)" message might save the day once the red-key is pressed ?

[Nokia Ron]

I moved this thread to the Forum Lounge as it is more a discussion than any actual requirements. Please remember that this was passed on from Forum Nokia to Nokia product division.

Ron

[alikattan]

Thanks Ron, I honestly believe that Nokia got the best support ever..
I hope that this issue will be reconsidered by NOKIA..