Alpha testing Android apk

[Miika Turkia]

On Sat, Dec 26, 2015 at 11:46 PM, Dirk Hohndel <dirk at hohndel.org> wrote:
>
>> On Dec 26, 2015, at 12:09 PM, Miika Turkia <miika.turkia at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Hello all,
>>
>> some random notes from my first run with the Alpha version of
>> Subsurface-mobile from play store. I started by un-installing the side
>> loaded app before going for the play store. First impression is pretty
>> good, but naturally there are some issues that could be improved.
>
> Yes, a long list.
> Thanks for all the feedback.

I have been lacking on coding side, so I feel obliged to do something :D

>> - While typing in cloud credentials, the password is shown, no matter
>> whether it is selected to be show on not
>
> Really? Not for me. I just tried again, removed the app, reinstalled from
> the play store... nope, I see fat dots unless I select show password
> Which Android version? Is this possibly an OS setting?

6.0.1 on Nexus 7. The problem showed up on the first time when I was
typing in the cloud credentials. After saving and going back to the
credentials screen, I the show/hide worked fine. I re-tested this and
works still the same.

I also noticed, that there is something wrong when one fixes the
password after a typo. I was not able to log in at all after
correcting the credentials. Then I re-started Subsurface mobile. Now
the username field was empty and after re-typing that in, I was able
to log-in properly.

>> - Download of dive log started only on my second time saving the cloud
>> credentials. Since the download did not begin initially, I checked the
>> credentials were correct and saved again.
>
> Did you have a chance to look at the log when that happened?
> Either with adb logcat or in the left drawer under Developer->App log
>
> I try to be fairly verbose there so we can tell what's going on

No new data on the log upon first save of the credentials. When I save
the second time, the log seems to start growing normally. This might
be somehow tied to the password being visible when typing in the
credentials.

>> + Now download started and was finished in a few minutes, a couple of
>> hours shaved off from download time. Excellent! (Or was the git repo
>> still on my device from earlier sync?)
>
> How big is that repo? Is this still your 1.6G one or a newly created one
> without all the pictures?

I use the old log and have not done anything for the log. App info
showed 536 MB for the app data, so it is a lot less than what it used
to be.

I did a new test and deleted the app data before un-installing
Subsurface. Slowness seems to be back, but it might take some more
time to be sure... A few minutes, so not too bad with my connection
(bottle neck is WiFi).

>> - The brief black screen when starting up could use a splash screen instead
>
> Definitely. I played with this but ran out of time. There are SO MANY
> things that I'm playing with. So many ways to improve the Android app.
> It would be great if more people helped out making this better.

Agreed.

>> - The profile shows that I have info from multiple DCs, however one
>> cannot currently switch between the profiles. So maybe disable the
>> text showing multiple DCs (until we support them properly). The DC
>> text also overlaps the time scale at the bottom of the profile.
>
> The scaling of the profile I think is much better now, but still at times...
> awkward. Causing clipped text, etc. I continue to try to mess with it
> to get consistent results on devices with different screen resolutions.
> I know have five different Android devices that I experiment with which
> have a reasonably wide range of dpi values. Still not happy.
>
> Good catch on the multiple dive computer thing. Definitely something
> we should turn off for now.
>
>> - Margins on profile (when on landscape or portrait mode) are a bit
>> off, missing parts of the texts on the edges (see screenshot)
>
> See previous comment
>
>> - When switching to portrait mode, the screen is left split between
>> divelist and profile.
>
> Hmm, yeah, I just noticed that. You can fix this by horizontal scrolling,
> but I'm sure we can make this look better in the app.

Even though it is a bug, it was quite convenient :D I really like the
split screen when browsing through the dives. A lot faster than going
back and forth on the dive list. I'd think we would need a way to go
to previous and next dive profile (on the full screen profile/details
view). Was this already discussed at some point. Maybe swiping up and
down...

>> - The title bar should probably read Subsurface-mobile. When returning
>> to the app this is the text that is shown while selecting the app, but
>> when the app is actually running, the title bar reads Subsurface.
>
> Good catch. I'll figure out where that is displayed and change it.
>
>> - Disable verbose (for adb logcat) could use a check box instead of
>> changing the disable/enable text
>
> Umm, err, yes. I tried that. And for the life of me couldn't get it to
> work. I was going to ask Sebastian about that...

It has been done with the location service check-box, so it must be possible.

>> - A notification/alert if GPS is turned off should be shown when one
>> enables location service
>
> Yes, true. I'll add that to my todo list :-/

The number of GPS fixes seems to cache on the developer log. I
disabled the location service, and kept getting number of fixes 1. And
now that I re-installed the app the amount of fixes is back to 0 with
still the GPS turned off on the device.

>> - Enabling/disabling location service is a bit tricky occasionally.
>> Sometimes the sidebar is just closed on me, sometimes the checkbox
>> status is changed and sidebar is closed, and third option is that just
>> the checkbox is ticked/unticked.
>
> Hmm, I haven't experienced that. I'll need to play with that more,
> I guess.
>
>> - Tapping the Subsurface logo on the top bar could bring the side
>> menu, this seems to be quite common with some other apps (well, they
>> usually have the three vertical bars to mark the menu button).
>
> I think the little magic button in the bottom center is a feature that
> Sebastian introduced instead of that... we can debate what it is
> that we want to use in the app. I'm quite happy with the current
> design, frankly... we should settle on this fairly soon so we don't
> keep changing the user experience.

I am happy with anything, and I trust when people who understand
something about UI tell me how things should go :D

>> - I don't seem to be able to show the dives when I start
>> Subsurface-mobile without Internet connection - we need off-line mode
>> (as was mentioned in some e-mail IIRC).
>
> Also on my todo list. I know that this worked at some point. I'll
> get it working again.
>
>
>> Installation from play store was very easy and convenient having a
>> direct link to the app (search did not find subsurface-mobile). In
>> general, this seems to be sufficient to carry a log on a trip. It just
>> would be great to be able to test properly the GPS logging..need to
>> plan a dive trip, I suppose :D
>
> Me, too. Especially since I got a very very light new reg for Christmas.
> In manly PINK. But I digress.

Nice! When is the next Subsurface dive trip? :D

> So those who have installed the package from the play store
> should in theory get a update notification. Curious to see how
> well that works :-)

I had to manually update the app, but that part seemed to work. I
assume that if I was patient enough, I would also get the notification
at some point.

miika