Alpha testing Android apk

Dirk Hohndel dirk at hohndel.org
Sat Dec 26 22:08:16 PST 2015


> On Dec 26, 2015, at 9:57 PM, Miika Turkia <miika.turkia at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> 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

In that case, can I ask you to help coding, please? We REALLY REALLY
need more people to tackle the QML stuff. Right now I feel pretty alone
here. Sebastian is obviously doing amazing stuff, but he clearly doesn't 
have enough time... and other than that it seems to be just me working
on Subsurface-mobile. That's not sustainable.

Right now I'm knee deep into trying to make "add dive" work... and I'm
way over my head (which in summary indicates that my head is below
knee level - but I digress)

>>> - 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.

So I did a fresh install on a Nexus 7 with 4.2 and I don't have this effect.
I have a Nexus 6P with 6.0.1 - I'll try to reproduce it there.

> 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.

Hu? That's weird. I have done this a few times... do you have
adb logcat output when this happens?

>>> - 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.

Yeah, there's something fishy here - we log progress as we check the 
validity of the credentials. It sounds like we aren't running that code at all

>>> + 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.

OK - that's still HUGE. We really need to fix your git repo so you are
testing with a more realistic amount of data.

> 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 issue is pumping 500MB into the mobile app. That's crazy.

>>> - 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.

See above. Care to help? This one is easy. Prepare a splash screen and
add it to the manifest. The syntax is there, just commented out...

>>> - 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...

That doesn't work as that indicates scrolling...

>>> - 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.

It is - I just somehow can't replicate it and I fail to understand why

>>> - 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.

Yes, the fixes are stored in persistent storage. So if you disable the service
that doesn't delete the ones stored so far. We urgently need a way to look
at the fixes and delete the ones not wanted... also on the near infinite todo
list

>>> - 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

And even better, when they do so by sending me patches that implement
their vision. Really powerful in convincing me :-)

>>> 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

Trust me, it's on my mind...

>> 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.

I'm wondering about that. Google tells me that the alpha testers should
get update notifications - but so far that does not appear to be the case.

/D


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