Android Reef Angel Status

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binder
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Re: Android Reef Angel Status

Post by binder »

pandimus wrote:Excellent... Thanks for the hard work sir
you're welcome. i'm just happy it was a simple fix. :)
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Re: Android Reef Angel Status

Post by pandimus »

I guess its safe to say not many ai users controlling with ra and the app..
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Re: Android Reef Angel Status

Post by binder »

pandimus wrote:I guess its safe to say not many ai users controlling with ra and the app..
that's probably a safe assumption. or they may just have left it alone and do not update or change anything with it.
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Re: Android Reef Angel Status

Post by binder »

AlanM wrote: - Can there be a way to set custom variables when those are enabled by holding on the value just like you do with dimming and dc pump? You'd just need to call the url "http://dns:2000/cvar1,150" or whatever it is set to and watch for the OK to come back similar to the other overrides, I think.
Did you want a slider bar to choose a value between 0-255 or would you rather an edit box to type in the value?
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lnevo
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Re: Android Reef Angel Status

Post by lnevo »

I think for what Alan is doing he'd want the edit box. I like the slider bars in the Universal App, but it's hard to set a specific number with them.... just my $.02.
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Re: Android Reef Angel Status

Post by binder »

lnevo wrote:I think for what Alan is doing he'd want the edit box. I like the slider bars in the Universal App, but it's hard to set a specific number with them.... just my $.02.
yeah, I was thinking about that too. Sliders look nice but can be hard to set the exact number you want.
So, I went with this instead:
custom var popup.png
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Re: Android Reef Angel Status

Post by binder »

I finished up a few things and am getting closer to an official release.

For now, I have to drop support for devices below Android 4.0 (sdk 15). It has to do with the preferences and the new material toolbar. I might be able to bring back support to older versions in the future but we will just have to see.

Here's a highlight of the changes from Beta 2:
  • Added Custom variable value setting (this is for you Alan)
  • Fixed AI blue / royal blue display bug
  • Fixed the setup wizard bug of not storing the full away host when using RA's dynamic dns
  • Added in Custom mode for the DC Pump page
  • Switched over to using the Material Toolbar
Anyways, here's the link to download the third beta:
http://curtbinder.info/apps/ra-2.0.0.beta3-debug.apk

If all goes well with it and no major bugs are discovered, I plan on cleaning up some code and then officially releasing it.
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Sacohen
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Re: Android Reef Angel Status

Post by Sacohen »

The DC Pump custom mode works as it should.
I poked around some other places and didn't run in to issues. Thanks Binder.
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Re: Android Reef Angel Status

Post by binder »

Sacohen wrote:The DC Pump custom mode works as it should.
I poked around some other places and didn't run in to issues. Thanks Binder.
awesome.
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Re: Android Reef Angel Status

Post by AlanM »

That way of doing cvar numbers is perfect. Just like the other memory locations. It also would have been fine to just increase the list of memory locations in that dialog to include the locations that hold the cvar values. Thanks, Curt. It saves me from trying to push in numbers via url by typing it out in the url location and hoping I get the right internal ip address.
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lnevo
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Re: Android Reef Angel Status

Post by lnevo »

The worst part of doing it in the browser is sometimes the entry gets cached (in my mobile browser) and then loading the page later triggers it to make the api call which sometimes is not what I want. :(
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Re: Android Reef Angel Status

Post by binder »

one thing I personally noticed after installing the beta update from the play store is that the existing home screen shortcut stopped working. this happened because I changed the name of the main class and forgot to put an alias in the apps manifest file to tell it what happened and where to look.
so for those of you beta channel testers, this is just a heads up that you will have to create a new shortcut if you had it on your homescreen.


Sent from my iPad mini
pandimus
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Re: Android Reef Angel Status

Post by pandimus »

Hey curt, i noticed something.. Not sure if its the app or my phone.. I deleted the non beta app so not sure if it was affected there also..

Lets say im on the relay page.. Like when im testing my dosers. I set my phone down to play with the hose on my doser and the phone goes into landscape mode.. It changes back to the first page with the temp..

Ive noticed it does that on all pages.

Kinda inconvenient because i gotta scroll back to turn off doser
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Re: Android Reef Angel Status

Post by pandimus »

Just reinstalled the non beta app and it responds as expected
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Re: Android Reef Angel Status

Post by binder »

pandimus wrote:Just reinstalled the non beta app and it responds as expected
just to make sure I'm following you, it works properly now?
or is it not fixed?

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Re: Android Reef Angel Status

Post by pandimus »

The beta is not fixed. I just reinstalled the current play store reef angel status. It works like its supposed to..
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Re: Android Reef Angel Status

Post by binder »

pandimus wrote:The beta is not fixed. I just reinstalled the current play store reef angel status. It works like its supposed to..
ok. I will look into this. Thanks for the feedback.
AlanM
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Re: Android Reef Angel Status

Post by AlanM »

Curt,

I tried out v 2.0.0 today and it looks and works great! It got the settings from the old Reef Angel Status app and let me set a custom variable just like I always wanted. 8) Thanks for the work on it!
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lnevo
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Re: Android Reef Angel Status

Post by lnevo »

Missing your apex at all Alan :)
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Re: Android Reef Angel Status

Post by binder »

AlanM wrote:Curt,

I tried out v 2.0.0 today and it looks and works great! It got the settings from the old Reef Angel Status app and let me set a custom variable just like I always wanted. 8) Thanks for the work on it!
awesome! glad it is working the way you want it.


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TanksNStuff
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Re: Android Reef Angel Status

Post by TanksNStuff »

Curt, I just installed and checked out version 2.0.0 - Beta 3 and here are a couple comments/feedback:

1. I love the new side panel look and feel for the menus. I think the latest 1.0 release method works well too, but the new style is more inline with all the newer Google apps and stuff so it feels updated.

2. I actually preferred the black background of the latest 1.0 release over the white in the beta. Is there any way we can have that option in the 2.0 version once it's released? I guess some people will prefer both styles, so having a preference option in settings would be ideal.

3. Is there any way you can reduce the fonts slightly or resize the "Relay" tabs so that all 8 ports fit on the page at once? As of right now, with both versions you need to scroll up to see the last 2 ports. It would be better if we could just see the whole thing on one page. And this is coming from someone with a Samsung Note Edge which has one of the largest screens for phones at this time.

4. I would say the same thing about the "Commands" tab but the buttons that you have to scroll up to see are some that you rarely use except for initial setup or occasional trouble shooting.

5. On the "Commands" tab, when my phone is in vertical orientation, The "Clear Overheat" button text has the last letter "t" carried to the third row. A change in font may correct this. In landscape orientation, this is not an issue since the text is all on one line. Not a big deal, but aesthetically it looks like it needs to be fixed.

6. I don't know if this is an issue with my controller or the app, but whenever I use the "Get Time" button on the Date and Time menu, it comes back with a Error 24: XMLReadException. The "set to match device" button works fine (I can verify it works by seeing the time on the controller change too). It just doesn't read my controllers time for some reason. This happens in both the beta 3 and for my Ver 1.0.

7. On the "Errors" menu, could you add an option to delete specific errors individually instead of only allowing us to delete the whole log entirely? I can see an instance where you might want to delete all but a few error messages to look into later.

8. Lastly, on the 2.0.0 - Beta 3 version, I noticed that after viewing a few menu pagess... hitting the back arrow on my phone doesn't close the app right away. Instead, it cycles back through the recent menus I opened. Not sure if this is intended or not, but it differs from the 1.0 version where the back arrow just closes the app no matter how many menus I opened. Not a big deal, just an observation.

I think your app is tremendous and I couldn't live without it Curt. I hope you don't take any of these comments as complaints and I really appreciate all the hard work you put into keeping this app updated and improved. I just felt obligated to provide feedback in hopes it can help you perfect it. ;)
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Sacohen
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Re: Android Reef Angel Status

Post by Sacohen »

TanksNStuff wrote:Curt, I just installed and checked out version 2.0.0 - Beta 3 and here are a couple comments/feedback:

2. I actually preferred the black background of the latest 1.0 release over the white in the beta. Is there any way we can have that option in the 2.0 version once it's released? I guess some people will prefer both styles, so having a preference option in settings would be ideal.
TanksNStuiff;

Binder will comment on your suggestions, but I know he has been working on a Themes option so that you can choose between whit or black. I mentioned it to him when I was testing the app, prior to release.
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Re: Android Reef Angel Status

Post by TanksNStuff »

Cool, good to know. Thanks Steve.
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Re: Android Reef Angel Status

Post by binder »

First off, thanks for the feedback. I'm going to run through each item and add comments/followup. You are correct; I want the feedback because I want to make it better. I do not take any of your comments/suggestions/feedback negatively. I take them as exactly as I want, constructive criticism to improve the app and also good feedback for the usability and functionality. I can think something needs to be like this or like that or should function this way, but when people actually start to use it, they may expect it to behave a different way. This is just good product development...getting feedback and actually using the feedback to make the app function like the users expect or want. I mean, if I didn't ask for feedback or listen to your feedback and just did things how I wanted, then what's the point in me even doing this?!? :)
1. I love the new side panel look and feel for the menus. I think the latest 1.0 release method works well too, but the new style is more inline with all the newer Google apps and stuff so it feels updated.
That's what I was going for. The 1.0 release just had an "old feel" to it and needed some updating to bring it inline with the current trends. In addition, I'm hoping that I allowed myself to simplify the code a bit and make it easier to follow. This, though, still has to be proven and decided. :)
2. I actually preferred the black background of the latest 1.0 release over the white in the beta. Is there any way we can have that option in the 2.0 version once it's released? I guess some people will prefer both styles, so having a preference option in settings would be ideal.
Like Steve said, this has been reported and will be an option. It may not be available for the 2.0 official release, but it may be like a 2.1 release. I have already started working on it. I have code in place that does work, but I just do not have all the widgets, screens and dialogs honoring the theme. Plus, since a lot of the resources have changed as android has evolved, I have to eliminate the old resources that are no longer in use and also make sure I am setting things properly. I had an issue with using the Material Toolbar and displaying / reloading the theme for the entire app. I had to get the preferences screen ironed out first before I can finish up with the themes. But rest assured, a Light (the default) and a Dark theme will be available soon.
3. Is there any way you can reduce the fonts slightly or resize the "Relay" tabs so that all 8 ports fit on the page at once? As of right now, with both versions you need to scroll up to see the last 2 ports. It would be better if we could just see the whole thing on one page. And this is coming from someone with a Samsung Note Edge which has one of the largest screens for phones at this time.
Oh sure, he who has the virtually the largest screen you can have on a phone would complain about the screen real estate. ;-)
Yeah, I can look and see what I can come up with. My thoughts behind the size I have chosen are this:
  • I don't want something too small that you cannot read it easily
  • I want to have enough space for a finger to tap on the toggle button without worrying about not hitting it properly
  • I wanted to have a distinction between the name the person chose for that relay/item/whatever and the default name
I may have something for you to test out and give me feedback on. I will look into the screen size and resolution of your phone and see what I can determine.
4. I would say the same thing about the "Commands" tab but the buttons that you have to scroll up to see are some that you rarely use except for initial setup or occasional trouble shooting.
I may be able to shrink them up some but I wanted to have decent sized buttons to tap on and I wanted it to be able to scale to fill the space. And yes, the least used buttons are towards the bottom. I do not think it would be possible to cram all the buttons into the single screen and still be usable.
5. On the "Commands" tab, when my phone is in vertical orientation, The "Clear Overheat" button text has the last letter "t" carried to the third row. A change in font may correct this. In landscape orientation, this is not an issue since the text is all on one line. Not a big deal, but aesthetically it looks like it needs to be fixed.
I was unaware of this issue. I will look into it.
6. I don't know if this is an issue with my controller or the app, but whenever I use the "Get Time" button on the Date and Time menu, it comes back with a Error 24: XMLReadException. The "set to match device" button works fine (I can verify it works by seeing the time on the controller change too). It just doesn't read my controllers time for some reason. This happens in both the beta 3 and for my Ver 1.0.
This exact same scenario happens to me as well. I wasn't sure if it was my setup or not. Sometimes my testing devices do not always behave as other "normal" devices. I have not tracked it down further though. I was attributing it to how I handle the XML responses. There may be something with how the controller sends out its responses and how I am reading them. I will be looking at it more and possibly switching up how I process the controller responses. Honestly, I have not been too worried about it because it is not a commonly used function (in my opinion). It is nice to check on at times but not something that is usually done daily which is the reason why I just haven't looked at it more closely.
7. On the "Errors" menu, could you add an option to delete specific errors individually instead of only allowing us to delete the whole log entirely? I can see an instance where you might want to delete all but a few error messages to look into later.
Sure thing. It is not something that I thought was needed. Your reasoning for doing it makes sense though. I can add in a long press on the error and it will prompt to delete the item. That would be the simplest route to doing the individual deletions. Then I would still have the "clear all" option.
8. Lastly, on the 2.0.0 - Beta 3 version, I noticed that after viewing a few menu pagess... hitting the back arrow on my phone doesn't close the app right away. Instead, it cycles back through the recent menus I opened. Not sure if this is intended or not, but it differs from the 1.0 version where the back arrow just closes the app no matter how many menus I opened. Not a big deal, just an observation.
Yes, this is exactly how it was intended. I have it currently set that you can swipe to the different controller status pages (Controller, Main Relay, Commands, Flags, etc) and it will not change the back button. But, if you use the navigation drawer and goto the Memory page or History page, then pressing the back button will take you back to the previous page that you were on. This will continue until you get back to the very first Status page and then you will exit the app on back press. If this is not something that is desirable, I can put in an option that will essentially ignore the back history and always exit the app when you press the back button.
I think your app is tremendous and I couldn't live without it Curt. I hope you don't take any of these comments as complaints and I really appreciate all the hard work you put into keeping this app updated and improved. I just felt obligated to provide feedback in hopes it can help you perfect it. ;)
Thanks for the feedback and compliments! It is nice to know that my app has been an improvement on your controller. As for the rest of your comments, see my first remark on this page. :)

Thanks again for your feedback. It's comments like this from you, steve, and all the others (sorry guys for not specifically mentioning your names but you know who you are) that helps me continue to improve the app and it keeps me going with working on it knowing that it is useful for people. So please keep the comments and feedback coming. :geek:
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Re: Android Reef Angel Status

Post by binder »

TanksNStuff wrote: 3. Is there any way you can reduce the fonts slightly or resize the "Relay" tabs so that all 8 ports fit on the page at once? As of right now, with both versions you need to scroll up to see the last 2 ports. It would be better if we could just see the whole thing on one page. And this is coming from someone with a Samsung Note Edge which has one of the largest screens for phones at this time.

5. On the "Commands" tab, when my phone is in vertical orientation, The "Clear Overheat" button text has the last letter "t" carried to the third row. A change in font may correct this. In landscape orientation, this is not an issue since the text is all on one line. Not a big deal, but aesthetically it looks like it needs to be fixed.
I just looked at both of my phones that I use for testing (Moto X 1st Gen and Samsung Galaxy Nexus) and I do not notice these problems. On both of my phones, I can only see ports 1 through 7 with port 8 being off the screen. On the Commands tab, the "Clear Overheat" text displays nicely on 2 lines and the "t" is not wrapped to the 3rd line.
I'm actually a little surprised my devices are like this when your device is not given the size of your phone. It could also have something to do with the screen resolution.
Nonetheless, I just wanted to share this with you. I'm still looking into it more though.
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Sacohen
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Re: Android Reef Angel Status

Post by Sacohen »

All looks fine on my Galaxy S5. I tried taking a screen shot, but couldn't get it.
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Re: Android Reef Angel Status

Post by binder »

cool. I've got an idea for something that I can try out. it may take some time to figure it out but I have ideas. :-)

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Sacohen
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Re: Android Reef Angel Status

Post by Sacohen »

Ideas are good. :)
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Re: Android Reef Angel Status

Post by binder »

pandimus wrote:Hey curt, i noticed something.. Not sure if its the app or my phone.. I deleted the non beta app so not sure if it was affected there also..

Lets say im on the relay page.. Like when im testing my dosers. I set my phone down to play with the hose on my doser and the phone goes into landscape mode.. It changes back to the first page with the temp..

Ive noticed it does that on all pages.

Kinda inconvenient because i gotta scroll back to turn off doser
I tracked down this issue and fixed it. Will be in the next iteration of releases.

Turns out I was always resetting the value to be on the Controller page. I had 1 too many sanity checks to ensure the variable was set before using and that was causing the problem.
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Re: Android Reef Angel Status

Post by binder »

TanksNStuff wrote: 3. Is there any way you can reduce the fonts slightly or resize the "Relay" tabs so that all 8 ports fit on the page at once? As of right now, with both versions you need to scroll up to see the last 2 ports. It would be better if we could just see the whole thing on one page. And this is coming from someone with a Samsung Note Edge which has one of the largest screens for phones at this time.
I have looked at this and think I have it resolved. I have a Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone which has a screen resolution of 720x1280. All 8 relays fit on the screen. I removed extra padding between the rows to make it all fit. It does not look too cramped to me. So it should work for you.
all 8 relays on screen
all 8 relays on screen
device-2015-05-10-171155.png (40.46 KiB) Viewed 7947 times
5. On the "Commands" tab, when my phone is in vertical orientation, The "Clear Overheat" button text has the last letter "t" carried to the third row. A change in font may correct this. In landscape orientation, this is not an issue since the text is all on one line. Not a big deal, but aesthetically it looks like it needs to be fixed.
I figured out what was going on here. Since your phone is so big, it uses a style that is more for tablets. This was/is something that I have not looked into too much. BUT since you are letting me know it's being used more and giving me feedback on it, I must test it out further (which is good). Rest assured, the aesthetics will be improved for you large screen folks. ;-)
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