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.
