Create events and reactions with Cuttlefish (Ubuntu Software Center)

Ubuntu Software Center offers a wide range of applications, featuring different levels of complexity, functionalities and use cases, presenting the user basic apps (calculator utilities, converters, etc), "medium" apps and full-fledged powerful tools.

Cuttlefish is a powerful utility featuring its own "intelligence", definitely a creative exciting tool, solid aspects derived from relatively basic interactions between events.

Cuttlefish properly implements a high-quality approach of dealing with events, taking from the user commands, commands expressed in an impressive manner of combining computer actions.

Basically, Cuttlefish "freezes" events (such as opening a web-browser, closing a music player, etc) in its own environment, waiting for an "impulse", once the impulse is received, the user-specified command is executed.

Launching Cuttlefish, presents the user its appindicator and a window, where actions are to be configured.

Pressing New, summons a sub-panel, exposing the stimulus and the reaction.

The stimulus represents the action to be completed/executed (like for instance, closing Firefox) and the reaction represents the action that is executed after the stimulus is executed.

Mainly, setting the Stimulus as Application starts Application Firefox Web Browser and the Reaction as Change volume, means that when the user opens/launches Firefox the volume is changed to 50% (editable value).

The stimulus (the trigger) cam be selected from a vast amount of options, such as Application starts (contain all of the installed apps), Applications stops, Bluetooth activated, Bluetooth deactivated, Connect to WLAN, Screen is locked, Power Cable plugged in, USB device unplugged, etc, basically, covering numerous user desires, preferences and demands.

Choosing Application starts, automatically exposes a new entry, Application, from where a desired app is to be selected, meaning, Cuttlefish's presented options are expandable, in the sense of providing extra configuration "space" after they are selected (like for instance, selecting Date & Time, pushes into Cuttlefish's panel clickable areas related to hour, minutes, days).

Care-for-details and accurate actions are definitely aspects considered and implemented by Cuttlefish, selecting under Stimulus Hardware-->USB device plugged in, displays Monitored device containing default options, yet by simpley connecting a smartphone to the computer, the device is immediately recognized and added to the Monitored device.

The Reaction category contains numerous actions used as reactions, providing a large base of to-be-selected events, such as Start application, Mute volume, Change default printer, Change desktop background, Change pidgin status, Suspend, Reboot, etc.

How do we create a situation that, when a Nokia 5800 XM is connected to a computer USB port, Firefox is closed?

• first, add a new reflex by clicking the top-right New button
• under Basics, type a new name for Name, mytestevent
• switch Activated by stimulus ON
• click Stimulus's None
• from the newly summoned dialog, select Hardware-->USB device plugged in and OK
• under Monitored device, select Nokia Mobile Phone 5800 XpressMusic (PC Suite mode)
• then, move to Reaction
• click the bottom-left + button and navigate to Applications-->Stop an application-->OK
• under Application, select Firefox Web Browser
• finally, click the top-left Back button

The result: connecting the phone to a USB port, closes Firefox.

Cuttlefish supports multiple reactions per stimulus, meaning, setting a stimulus to close Firefox, supports as reactions opening Deluge & change sound volume & opening Filezilla, group of events represented as: when Firefox is closed, Deluge opens, the sound volume is changed to x% and Filezilla is opened.

Editing a reflex is as easily as navigating to Cuttlefish appindicator-->Open Configuration and clicking Edit, button exposed along with available previously-created reflexes.

In order to repeat an action (previously set reflex) without extra clicks and editing "effort", the intelligent tool exposes the created events in its appindicator's menu, clicking on a reflex, automatically executes the reaction without the trigger, meaning, clicking on the appindicator menu's testreflex, closes Firefox without Deluge being opened (testreflex contains as stimulus Application starts Deluge and as reaction Stop an application Firefox Web Browser).

Enabling Cuttlefish to run at startup (disabled by default) is to be achieved under Cuttlefish-->Edit-->Preferences-->Autostart switch ON

Cuttlefish 12.08 is available for free via Ubuntu Software Center.

Worth mentioning
Cuttlefish has been created as part of Ubuntu App Showdown.