Android App Notifications

Squishie89 · Post by **Squishie89** » Tue Jan 01, 2013 1:13 am

I keep receiving notifications from the app about a bad url and timeout. What do these mean?

rossbryant1956 · Post by **rossbryant1956** » Tue Jan 01, 2013 7:59 am

it needs to have the same address and port that the portal uses. (Your outside address)

fatman · Post by **fatman** » Tue Jan 01, 2013 9:17 am

Even when everything seems to be functioning that can happen. Not sure why. Something I just let slide and refresh to see what's going on. If you can't access through the Android app at all then you're configuration is not correct on the phone. Might want to check the public IP address on the app.

binder · Post by **binder** » Tue Jan 01, 2013 1:36 pm

Yeah, sometimes if mine refreshes too fast I get that problem. I've also noticed it happen if the controller is updating the portal at the same time. I don't have a good answer or solution. I'm using the methods and was that android uses to do web communications.

00Warpig00 · Post by **00Warpig00** » Thu Jan 03, 2013 9:32 pm

Wish it was possible to tell the android app to try to update every X minutes and if it fails instead of alarming immediately to try again in a minute or so and THEN if it fails the second/third time to alarm. I have my android app set to check the controller every 15 minutes because I sometimes look at the app but don't do a refresh, and just rely on my ~15 minute old data. I never make it through a day without the android app telling me there is no connection at least 5 times. Sometimes I get tired of hearing my phone chime over it. I have considered disabling the feature because it is too chatty when there isn't REALLY a problem, there was only a problem right that second it tried to communicate... lol

Nick

binder · Post by **binder** » Sat Jan 05, 2013 7:42 am

00Warpig00 wrote:Wish it was possible to tell the android app to try to update every X minutes and if it fails instead of alarming immediately to try again in a minute or so and THEN if it fails the second/third time to alarm. I have my android app set to check the controller every 15 minutes because I sometimes look at the app but don't do a refresh, and just rely on my ~15 minute old data. I never make it through a day without the android app telling me there is no connection at least 5 times. Sometimes I get tired of hearing my phone chime over it. I have considered disabling the feature because it is too chatty when there isn't REALLY a problem, there was only a problem right that second it tried to communicate... lol

Nick

Good feedback Nick. I'll look and see what I can do about this. I know I've not updated the app for a while and am planning on releasing an update soon (hopefully) to update the UI look (make use of the android 4.X theme and look n feel). I'm going to add this suggestion to the list of stuff and hopefully I should be able to get it taken care of.

I think I'll put in a setting in the Notifications that says something like:
Alarm Error Retry

Never, always show alarm
Retry 1 time before alarm
Retry 2 times before alarm
Retry 3 times before alarm

(or something along this line)
That way you can choose how many retries before it notifies you. Then I may even allow for you to change how fast the retry is....immediately, 15s, 30s, 45s, 60s. Not sure about this one....will have to experiment.

Again, thanks for the feedback.

binder · Post by **binder** » Sat Jan 05, 2013 10:36 am

Just to let you know, I have successfully implemented this functionality. I still have to make it user friendly....ie, add in a configuration option and improve the status text to let you know it's retrying to update (if you happen to be viewing the app and the error occurs). I also have to test it better with the background updating. Anyways, just letting you know that this functionality is "almost" ready.

00Warpig00 · Post by **00Warpig00** » Sat Jan 05, 2013 4:38 pm

Very Cool!

Cant wait! With a working (still testing) Ethernet connection and the android app not complaining every time there is a comms collision\blackout I will be all smiles. Then I can move on to other issues I still need to resolve. LOL I have had my controller for several months and it is still not 100% set up yet.

Nick

binder · Post by **binder** » Sat Jan 05, 2013 8:04 pm

00Warpig00 wrote:Very Cool!

Cant wait! With a working (still testing) Ethernet connection and the android app not complaining every time there is a comms collision\blackout I will be all smiles. Then I can move on to other issues I still need to resolve. LOL I have had my controller for several months and it is still not 100% set up yet.

Nick

I got ya beat.

When I bought my first reef angel back in 2010 (when they came out), it took me a year before I actually installed it on my tank and started using it. Of course I was using it to improve the libraries.

binder · Post by **binder** » Sun Jan 06, 2013 6:47 pm

I've got another question relating to this functionality. Currently, the ONLY time the error retry counter is cleared is once the app successfully communicates with the "device" (controller or portal). If the error count is exceeded and you are still unable to communicate with the device, you will always be notified with every error.
I could put in code to clear out the error retry counter once the notification occurs, but I'm not sure if this would be desirable or not. I'm leaning towards always notifying if the error counter is exceeded until you are able to re-establish communications.
Any thoughts or input on this issue?

lnevo · Post by **lnevo** » Sun Jan 06, 2013 6:56 pm

I would kill my phone if i kept getting notified. Why not just set a flag that we are offline and when communication is resumed, send a new notification? What happens when your out of signal area? I spend quite sometime out of range. I'm an iPhone user so anything you do won't affect me, but i figured all feedback is good feedback

binder · Post by **binder** » Sun Jan 06, 2013 8:20 pm

lnevo wrote:I would kill my phone if i kept getting notified. Why not just set a flag that we are offline and when communication is resumed, send a new notification? What happens when your out of signal area? I spend quite sometime out of range. I'm an iPhone user so anything you do won't affect me, but i figured all feedback is good feedback

yeah, that is a good point. i will have to look at things more closely and see what I can come up with.

00Warpig00 · Post by **00Warpig00** » Sun Jan 06, 2013 9:22 pm

I think an online/offline indicator would be great! Any way to change the color of the Icon on the android status bar (make it green\red) to show online/offline status?

Try at normal interval
IF successful update data and refresh "online" indicator
IF not successful try again at "retry interval" until "maxretries" is exceeded THEN chime alarm & refresh "Offline" indicator

THEN keep trying at normal interval and if connection comes back refresh back to "Online"

Nick

binder · Post by **binder** » Mon Jan 07, 2013 7:09 pm

I get what you are saying. This one will require some more work to make sure the "offline/online" status is handled properly. Plus an "ongoing" notification to indicate online/offline status would need to be looked into further.

I'm thinking I'm going to do a release this weekend (hopefully), just to get the new release out. This way you can get the error retry working for you and I can get the new icons and look for the app updated. Then continue to work on notifications and how to handle them properly because I want to add more (like with the portal) and I want to make sure that I update the notification bar properly.

00Warpig00 · Post by **00Warpig00** » Mon Jan 07, 2013 9:17 pm

Sounds great!

Still can't wait

binder · Post by **binder** » Tue Jan 08, 2013 8:01 am

00Warpig00 wrote:Sounds great!

Still can't wait

Just curious, what version of android are you running? 2.3.X (Gingerbread), 4.0.X (Ice cream sandwich) or 4.1/4.2.X (Jelly Bean)

00Warpig00 · Post by **00Warpig00** » Wed Jan 09, 2013 9:27 pm

I have Android 2.3.6 on my Motorola Atrix 4G

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