Author Topic: NANY 2015 Release: WhenLast (Android app) (Read 130956 times)

mouser · « **Reply #50 on:** January 07, 2015, 04:13 PM »

New versions uploaded Jan 7, 2015 (will show up on play store soon).
What's New:

Added option in preferences to select theme (light or dark)
Added spacing between sections in All tab
Version history added to help file

Dark theme preview:
Screenshot - 1_7_2015 , 4_18_38 PM.png

CWuestefeld · « **Reply #51 on:** January 07, 2015, 04:26 PM »

i figured the play store might not help you update if you downloaded it elsewhere, but that's pretty crappy that they don't at least tell you there is an update available.
-mouser (January 06, 2015, 09:24 PM)

Check out Changelog Droid. I use this primarily to check on the changelogs of apps that have recently been updated. But it'll also point out any apps for which your installed version doesn't match the current play store version.

Deozaan · « **Reply #52 on:** January 07, 2015, 04:30 PM »

FYI "When Last" is the first result for me when I do a search for "WhenLast" on the Play store. (c:

But it's result #23 when searching for "When Last" on the Play Store.

I've found similar results with my own apps on Google Play. Doing a search for "Be Tiny World" shows tens of apps with "Tiny" in the title, but doesn't show my app titled "Be Tiny, World!" until #57. So I just tell people to search for "Deozaan" which shows only my apps. (c:

mouser · « **Reply #53 on:** January 07, 2015, 04:35 PM »

Check out Changelog Droid. I use this primarily to check on the changelogs of apps that have recently been updated. But it'll also point out any apps for which your installed version
-CWuestefeld (January 07, 2015, 04:26 PM)

Great find CWuestefeld

tomos · « **Reply #54 on:** January 08, 2015, 12:01 AM »

minor: in the dark theme preview above, satellite should have two L's

Deozaan · « **Reply #55 on:** January 08, 2015, 02:09 AM »

minor: in the dark theme preview above, satellite should have two L's
-tomos (January 08, 2015, 12:01 AM)

And while we're being picky, Battalion has two T's and only one L.

tomos · « **Reply #56 on:** January 08, 2015, 07:20 AM »

And while we're being picky [...]
-Deozaan (January 08, 2015, 02:09 AM)

we now qualify as what my mum used call fussy beggars :-)

cyberdiva · « **Reply #57 on:** January 08, 2015, 09:27 AM »

Mouser, I've now installed the most recent version of When Last, but it seems clear that Play Store will not inform me about updates. I'd be happy to be the last of the big-time spenders and buy a copy from Play Store, but I'd prefer not to lose the info I've already put in When Last. Is there a way of uninstalling my present copy but keeping my current settings and info? If not, I'll just start from scratch--it's not as if I've got months of data in it

. But before doing that, I thought I'd ask whether there's a way of avoiding doing that.

(Another advantage to buying it from Play Store is that I may eventually be able to post a glowing review. I say "eventually" because I've bought all my apps from my primary Gmail account but my Google+ membership is under a secondary Gmail account. Apparently I now have to be a Google+ member to post reviews, but I also have to be recognized as the owner of the app, and Play Store refuses to recognize my secondary Gmail account as the "owner's" account, even though I have both accounts on my Android tablet. Once I get that sorted out, I'll be happy to post a review.)

mouser · « **Reply #58 on:** January 08, 2015, 10:38 AM »

but I'd prefer not to lose the info I've already put in When Last.

I will try to get a data file import-export function working in the next week.

Until then, uninstalling will lose all of your data, so be careful not to.
(if you have root access, you can get your data file from the data/data/com.donationcoder.whenlast directory in a file called entrymanager.json, and back it up before uninstalling and then replace it.)

cyberdiva · « **Reply #59 on:** January 08, 2015, 01:11 PM »

Thanks, mouser, for your prompt and helpful reply. I don't have root, so I'll simply wait until you've got an import/export function working. I'm in no hurry. I very much appreciate your willingness to keep working on this.

Deozaan · « **Reply #60 on:** January 08, 2015, 04:01 PM »

Cyberdiva: You could just buy WhenLast on the Play Store in your browser, and then I think the Play Store would notify you of updates. But I could be wrong about that.

cyberdiva · « **Reply #61 on:** January 09, 2015, 04:21 PM »

Many thanks, Deozaan, for this suggestion. I think it worked! Play Store did take my money, and it hasn't refunded it, in spite of a notification appearing on my app saying that I already had When Last installed. With any luck, I'll now get notified and updated via Play Store, and mouser will be able to plan a vacation with the extra $.99. Win-win

mouser · « **Reply #62 on:** January 12, 2015, 12:41 AM »

Just a heads up: Import and Export functionality are now implemented, though not yet uploaded. I will try to upload new versions in next couple of days after a little more testing.

The best part about the importing+exporting is that it actually keeps track of modification timestamps of items now, and when you import it will smartly merge them. This means that you can safely export and import repeatedly between devices in order to do a poor man's synchronization, and it will always use the most recent data for each entry (and recreate missing newly added entries, etc.).

The data files are also plain json, so you can easily modify/create data manually and import it in.

cranioscopical · « **Reply #63 on:** January 12, 2015, 09:21 AM »

Label: Check for import/export
Date History: 01/12/2014

mouser · « **Reply #64 on:** January 12, 2015, 11:11 AM »

New version with import and export is uploaded to dc server (see url in first post).
I won't be uploading it to google play store for another couple of days until it gets some testing.

Please let me know how it works for you!

Again let me say that the importing function is an import+merge function, so you can export your data, modify it, and then re-import it, and it will merge in your changes, using the most recent version of any entry found between the current vs importing file.
The data file format is pure json; if you want to manually modify entries in a text editor, you should DELETE the lines with ts_mods and ts_modd from any entries that you hand modify, to convince the import process into thinking they have been modified.

mouser · « **Reply #65 on:** January 12, 2015, 12:10 PM »

Next planned feature is timed reminders, so the program can notify you when it's been too long since you did an activity, even when program is not running.

CWuestefeld · « **Reply #66 on:** January 12, 2015, 01:04 PM »

Next planned feature is timed reminders
-mouser (January 12, 2015, 12:10 PM)

I would have payed double - or more - your $0.99 for this!

It'll remind me

When I need to water the houseplants
When I need to check swimming pool chemistry
When I should rebalance the investments in my 401k
And probably a ton more I haven't thought of yet

mouser · « **Reply #67 on:** January 12, 2015, 05:02 PM »

Glad you like it

mouser · « **Reply #68 on:** January 13, 2015, 12:29 PM »

New version uploaded with a bugfix for items not showing as updated when you switch between the ALL and another tab.

mouser · « **Reply #69 on:** January 13, 2015, 12:34 PM »

Ps. A *HUGE* thank you to dc member ewemoa who has been helping me with Whenlast code and keeping me sane while i learn android stuff.

mouser · « **Reply #70 on:** January 14, 2015, 06:54 PM »

Questions about Reminders

So I have some questions about how reminders should behave, and was hoping to get some opinions.

Let's say you create an entry called "Change Smoke Detector Batteries", and set that to remind you in 180 days.

Now 180 days go by without you changing the smoke detector batteries.

So presumably the program will trigger a reminder notification on your phone/tablet, even if you aren't running the program, that will be shown to you the next time you access your phone/tablet.

I'm thinking that clicking on that reminder will bring up the WhenLast program on a page of reminders/overdue items.

Now my question is, what happens if you ignore the notification -- swipe it away.

What more do you expect from the program? Should that be a one-time-only notification that you never get again? Or should it automatically re-remind you again in another week or in another 180 days?

CWuestefeld · « **Reply #71 on:** January 14, 2015, 07:26 PM »

For me, the critical feature is that it will re-start the countdown only when I acknowledge that I've completed the task implied by the first alarm. So if I'm using the app to remind myself to refill my medication every 30 days, and I'm out of town for the week that it triggers, I want to do it as soon as I return - and because my insurance forces me to space orders by 30 days, I have to wait that long even though I was late on the refill. Similarly, if I want to water my plants every 4 days, and I'm 3 days late, I don't want to water today, and have it remind me again tomorrow.

To actually answer the question, though...

I always have a tendency to try to push too much in, and this may be an instance of that. But I think that for nagging, each reminder should have an nag frequency attribute. You could set this to one of these values:

One and Done - just remind me once, and then assume I'll take care of it
Weekly - remind me one week from the first reminder, and once a week thereafter. This would be for low-priority tasks like changing the filter in the HVAC
Daily - remind me once a day until I say I've done the task

And then, just to really over-complicate things, maybe I could open the app, and for a task that's triggered buy I haven't acknowledged yet, I could say "remind me again on Saturday" (without changing the fact that it's a 180-day cycle) so I can get to Home Depot to buy those filters.

cranioscopical · « **Reply #72 on:** January 15, 2015, 12:39 PM »

How about available options for daily, weekly, monthly reiterations if the reminder isn't handled by the user for whatever reason? If it's not practical for the user to act on a reminder, and those options aren't enough, wouldn't the best course be simply for the user to reset the reminder?

Deozaan · « **Reply #73 on:** January 15, 2015, 10:24 PM »

Notifications can be expandable and respond to input.

It would be nice if it had a button you could press to say "done" (i.e. update the "Last Done Date" to now and reset the reminder to remind again in X days/months) and have another button that was something like "sleep" which would remind you tomorrow or maybe bring up another selection window of a few pre-set times to remind you, such as 1 day, 3 days, 1 week, 1 month.

mouser · « **Reply #74 on:** January 17, 2015, 02:48 AM »

Preliminary basic support for reminders has now been implemented -- but new version not uploaded yet.
After a little more testing i will upload for more testing.