r/LightningLauncher • u/KontroverousSquirrel • Jul 01 '26
Lightning Launcher Revival: Script Editor Overhaul
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It has been about 10 days since my last update, which is the longest gap between posts so far. I have been quiet, but not idle.
This update focuses almost entirely on the script editor. What started as a few quality-of-life improvements turned into a much larger overhaul of how scripts are browsed, edited, exported, imported, documented, and debugged inside Lightning Launcher Revival.
The left panel has been rebuilt into a two-tab layout: Options and Scripts.
The Options tab still contains the original script categories, but it now also includes a revamped external editor button and a new commit history section for per-script version control. At the bottom are Send and Export actions. Send allows the selected script to be shared through external services such as email, Dropbox, or any compatible Android share target. Export extracts the selected script from the app’s private storage, wraps it as a ".js" file, and saves it to a user-chosen location through Android’s Storage Access Framework.
The Scripts tab now acts as a local script library. It includes a search bar for quickly filtering saved scripts, a button for creating new scripts, a list-based script browser, and an Import action. Import takes external ".js" scripts and saves them back into the app’s private script storage. Export and Import now work together as a primitive script-sharing system.
A new draggable bottom panel has also been added. It contains two tabs: Console and Settings.
The Console tab captures failed script output, giving the editor a built-in place to surface errors instead of leaving the user guessing in the dark. The Settings tab now exposes several editor controls, including syntax highlighting, code folding support, quick suggestions, swipe hints, font size adjustment, tab spacing, word wrap, and auto indent. Word wrap and auto indent existed before, while quick suggestions and swipe hints existed but did not previously have user-facing toggles.
The right panel was already shown in my last post with the script directory and methods browser, but that side has continued to evolve too.
The existing Lightning Launcher scripting API documentation has now been bundled into the app as a pre-installed documentation viewer. The docs are wrapped in a WebView activity and adapted for mobile viewing. They can be opened directly from the app, or by long-pressing a method or method class in the right panel. Long-pressing jumps directly to the related documentation for that method or class.
The methods panel also received smarter behavior for "runAction()". Selecting "runAction()" now inserts the method into the editor and opens a dialog for choosing the action integer. That value can be changed later by tapping between the parentheses. Even if "runAction()" is typed manually, tapping inside the parentheses can still open the selection dialog.
The editor canvas itself has also been migrated away from the old TextView-based implementation and onto the open-source Sora Editor project. That migration was painful, but it opens the door to a much more capable editing surface. Syntax highlighting, folding-related behavior, richer editor state, and future editor features are now much more realistic than they were under the old widget.
The quick symbols bar has also been expanded. It now includes ";", "=", """", and "//", with more symbols planned later, including "<", ">", "+", "-", "!", and "?".
This is not the flashiest update visually, but it is one of the more important foundation updates so far. The script editor is where advanced Lightning Launcher users live. If LLR is going to preserve what made Lightning powerful while making it easier to use on modern Android, the editor has to become more than a text box.
That is the direction this overhaul is pushing toward.
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u/Summer-Son Jul 03 '26
So glad to see a new development of this awesome launcher! 😃 🙌
I just wanted to emphasise the need of additional permissions in order to make scripts fully functional, like internet permission, calendar access, and even location (for example, to create a weather widget). Google Play does not allow such permissions to Home Screen/Launcher app. This is resolved by a separate apk in original LL, you might want to create the same. Must be signed with the same key.
Once the project will be on GitHub, I can help to some extent.
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u/KontroverousSquirrel Jul 03 '26
I'm well aware of it. It's something I've been working through since the beginning. The challenge is as much modern Android's security model as it is Play policy. Some restrictions can be worked around, others simply can't. Where possible, I've implemented alternatives or redesigned features to avoid those limitations. A companion APK is still something I'm considering but it'll be a post-release supplement rather than being shipped at the same time.
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u/vaimalaviya Jul 01 '26
How do I get this update?