Friday, May 8, 2015

Fixed!

So, I found the problem with the in app purchasing not verifying (the payload)... and it turns out that:
string1 == string2
would return false (even though they were the same string) but,
string1.equals(string2) == true
would work as expected.  Now, this is something very small and trivial and something that I potentially should have realized a lot faster.  The problem is that (for right now) I don't do java development and that's just how things work in java.  My 9-5 job is slowly (and I do mean SLOWLY) starting to move into the world of web development using angular and java script and at that point comparing two string values using .equals will become trivial, but for now the .NET developer that I am expects the == to work the same way.

As usual, when I end one of these posts, I'll mention what the future holds for Desk Clock Plus.  As usual, I'll say that I'm not sure.  It is one of those things that I want to get back to and do a proper re-write.  However, over the past two years or so, I've started working more with a non-profit museum that I've belonged to for most of my life.  I'll be starting on a fairly large project that will need to be completed by October(ish).  While that seems like a long time, remember that I'll be working on it less than an hour a day.  After that, who knows...

But the one thing I do want to do is thank everyone who has downloaded Desk Clock Plus and a big thank you to the people who threw a dollar at me for the extension.  I never though that it would ever have been downloaded over 50,000 times and still have 9-10,000 installs.

Bob

Thursday, May 7, 2015

In-App Update

So, last week's update for the in-app purchase only half worked.  It works so much that the purchase goes though, but then on the other side something is happening and the success message isn't coming through to the app.  I'm very sorry that it's taking me so long to figure things out.  My limited time has been even more limited this week.  To add to the frustration, I'm having issues testing the purchase process because as the app developer, I can't go through the purchase process.  Even that little thing would help me out tremendously.  However, I came across this little nugget:
One suggestion for a test device (Step 1) , for those of you that have a Nexus 7, is to set up your tablet with multiple users. I did that and made one of the users be my test user.
Adding a second account is a brilliant idea (and available on my Moto X), so that will be tomorrows plan of attack.  Hopefully, I'll have some better luck with that.

Friday, May 1, 2015

273 Days

So... last post here was (as you guessed) 273 days ago and yes, with this post comes an update to Desk Clock Plus.  However, it's pretty minor and probably doesn't affect most people other than me.  Back in January, Google deprecated version 2 of the in app purchasing API.  I was warned and I did nothing.  January came and went and in app purchase for the dock extension stopped working.  I've meant to go back and fix it, but my time has been rather limited as I've been working on other side projects during my lunch (ie the time that 95% of DCP was written).  I finished one project and before I start on something new, I decided to sit down and bang this out...

So, I've made the changes and tested as much as I can... it seems that the APK (ie program) needs to be uploaded and published for the In App Purchase stuff to work.  I've followed the coding example and I think it's good.  I've also checked the code for re-activating the extension if the data is reset.  However, I couldn't test that in a positive scenario (since I can't purchase my own extension), but I've seen the code check with the play store and see that it's not purchased.  I also can't go though the purchase process even in a debug mode.

So, I'm looking for two people to help me test.

  1. Someone who wants to purchase the extension (I have a couple people who have emailed me)
  2. Someone who has already purchased and is willing to clear the data for the app.  When you go back to the purchase screen, the app will check to see if you own the extension and if you do, it will activate it (after doing this you may need to clear the app from the recent apps so it restarts).
What does the future hold?  I don't know... I have a number of projects that I'm going to be working on during my lunch hour so I don't know when I'll get back to Desk Clock Plus.  I do want to get back to it, as I do miss doing the Android development and things have changed a lot since I stopped working on it.  We'll see what happens..