Previously on Desk Clock Plus...

It's been a month and a half since the last post.  Work and life in general has had me running like crazy with little time (or motivation) to work on the clock program let alone update the blog.  Since the last post on July 2, here's what's changed:

• A number of smallish bug fixes that came up from any number of reporting methods (see: How to get a bug fixed.)
• A quick hot fix because one of things I tried didn't work... 
• Two new features:
• Orientation Lock
• Static background color
• Caught a potential NULL value
• Fixed a display bug for 100+ degree days

That brings us up to today's minor update which is just adding 1 minute to the screen saver time out.  I promised this to a user back in December, but I forgot about it.  Sorry!

I have been working on Desk Clock Plus when I can since the last post, but I haven't gotten anywhere really.  The game plan is to break the application up from one big project into a number of smaller libraries and one execution project.  This will then allow me to swap parts of the application out on a version by version basis. The real push for this is the Alarm code which is still based off the 2.2.  I had to maintain that version of code as it pretty much worked for all the different versions of Android.  Google made a major improvement for 2.3 which I'm not using.  The goal is to build a legacy version of the alarm and then other versions for 3.x versions and for 4.x versions.  Libraries are key to keeping all that code manageable by re-using all the common code among 3 different versions.  The problem is the code is so interlaced that can't quite get the code split up correct to avoid circular references (ie two libraries that reference each other, which leads to the chicken vs the egg problem). 

Earlier this week, I came to the conclusion that the on-the-fly design method really wasn't working (there's a big surprise) and I'm going to have to sit down with some design tools and figure out how I can break up the application that works for now and should work for future enchantments.

It's been rough...

Since March 13, I've had make a number of releases, sadly only one was a new feature, so just to make a quick refresher of what's been fixed:

• 1.0.0.20 -- Brought a fix for the application not launching when it was not in a dock (the details were in the last post)
• 1.0.0.21 -- This was the release of the tablet mode feature (details also in the last post).
• 1.0.0.22 -- A number of code "fixes"
• I spent some time with the theme down loader.  This is a good example of me not knowing what I was doing when I wrote it (not that I completely know what I'm doing now).  
• I moved some code out into threads to avoid Application Not Responding reports 
• I made some changes to how the dialogs were handled
• I also localized some strings (I am working on getting everything localized)
• I also got a report of an infinite spinning dialog when loading the album list which lead me to redo how I did the dialogs for the preference window (making things uniform with the theme down loader)
• I also fixed the dialogs with slide show (another source of crash logs)
• 1.0.0.23 -- My changes to the preferences caused a problem with the color picker which resulted in quick release.
• 1.0.0.24 -- Fixed a problem with the themes loading incorrectly.  Which was pretty much there since the release of the tablet mode release.  The problem (for non scrolling dock users) would cause an icon to be loaded into the dock background instead of it's proper place.  The problem was just some really hard to read code and not being able to flush out all the situations where to use the tablet mode dock background vs the regular dock background.  There were some misorginized parentheses as well.

That should bring us to where we are now... What looks to be a pretty stable release that I can start to build on again.  The stabilization of the code shows in the stats that Google provides me.  Since the release of version 1.0.0.24 I've gained about 100 users in 5 days, and previous to that the amount of active installs stayed pretty level and looking back to the releases that had issues, there were points that I lost users.

I am hopefully going to start on something new here soon and that and that will include two other minor fixes.  One of which is upgrading the PayPal SDK.  It's very frustrating to get error logs and they are related to some random issue with the PayPal code that I don't have control over.

Latest Update*

There are two new features and one bug fix with the current update:

The fix ended up being a minor one,  I was getting the state of the ringer when the device was added to the dock, but not restoring it when the device was removed from the docked.  So, if the phone was silent when it entered the dock, I would set the ringer state to 'normal'.  Not a catastrophe, but an annoyance.

The first new feature is for all users.  The last update I put in the first feature request from Martina for a one minute background update.  Her next request was for an alternate text color as some of her images are of snow and the white text for those images were being lost.  I did a little research and came up with a way to get the average pixel color and if it's whiter than the threshold level then it will use the alternate color (black by default).    You can set a custom alternate color and this is only in effect when the backgrounds are rotating.

The second new feature is for the scrolling dock to launch an app when un-docked.  When my Moto Droid gets retired from every day use (which will hopefully be soon), its next job is going to be a WiFi remote control for my Media PC which is running XBMC.  The idea is that the phone will run Desk Clock Plus and keep charged in the dock.  When it's time to kick back and relax with some TV, grab the phone from the dock and have it jump straight into the Official XBMC Remote.  I'm sure there's other uses, but that's what I have in mind for me.

Next up... tablet dock mode...

*  I try to be cleaver with the most post titles, but my brain is on fried from work and I couldn't come up with anything.  Possibilities included:

• Steven King's Dark Tower as this is version number 19.
• Along that line make a reference to this guy.  HWTL!
• Or a reference to leap year.

I'm waiting to hear back...

The last update fixes two issues, the first I realized there was a problem yesterday and I mentioned it on the g+ page.  There were a handful of Application Not Responding reports coming in and after a quick look yesterday, I realized that I committed a programming foul.  Typically, anything that's going to take a long time or anytime you're going out of the device to get something (picture, info, etc) you want to put it in a thread.  This way the thread can do it's thing and the main part application can continue doing it's thing.  I had done this in the past in a number of places (getting the image and weather just to name two).  However, I didn't think about doing this for all the new Yahoo! PlaceFinder web service calls that I mentioned in my Round up.  Depending on the device, the connection or traffic Yahoo! is receiving the reply from the web service might take too long and the OS displays that lovely "Something took too long" do you want to Force Close, Wait or Report dialog.  Most of the time, hitting wait will be good enough.  This is one of those things as a programmer that burns me as I know better, but since I don't deal with it often (or not at all for my 9-5 job) I just didn't think about it.

The other thing in this update should hopefully resolve the any future problems that Stu experienced.  Those problems frustrated him enough to leave this review.  Long story short, I found Stu's email from the purchase order and dropped him a line.  It seems (and I'm waiting for confirmation from Stu) that after the purchase of the dock extension is made 1) there's a lag between the purchase and the acknowledgement of the purchase 2) After the acknowledgement is received I'm not forcing a reload of the dock or any of the other stuff that needs to happen.  The simple fix for him should have been a Reboot or a Force Close of the app.

I believe that in the time between the purchase and the review, the app wasn't restarted and therefore the extension was never fully 'activated'.  The code change was relatively simple and hopefully other people who purchase the extension (and future extensions) will not have the same problems that Stu experienced.  My apologies to Stu and any other users who experienced the same kinds of issues.

'Hide and Seek' or 'I'm not touching you'

I just pushed out version 1.0.0.8 to the market this afternoon.  The big new feature is for Scrolling Dock users, you can now swipe up or down on the dock area to show or hide the dock giving you a little more clear space to enjoy your background.  There are also settings for the dock to "auto-hide" after a time period which also includes immediately (well, 15 second delay).

Also as per a suggestion from a user, there is now an option to dim the dark clock immediately as well.  Once again it's really a 15 second initial delay...  I figured you needed a short delay just to show the transition from non-dimmed to dimmed.  The other thing that is new for the dark clock is that the proximity sensor is now being monitored.  Typically the proximity sensors is located by the speaker at the top of the phone.  If the clock is dimmed and you wave your hand close by the sensor, the screen will un-dim for 15 seconds.  I figured that would be good for someone who wakes up in the middle of the night and wants to check the time.  This way the screen is only lit up for a short time instead of the five minutes (or more) for when the screen is touched.

I also linked the proximity sensor the the hidden dock as well.  If the dock is hidden and you trip the proximity sensor it will open the dock for 15 seconds.  This feature is a little more of a novelty, but the code was all there for the dark clock to do it and this program is a learning tool for me, so why not put it in?

The next thing up is the much requested "static" location for the weather... now that I know how to handle this for international locations.

Two Quick Updates

So version 1.0.0.5 was pushed to the market yesterday and 1.0.0.6 a little while ago.  Not too much new with these, mostly minor bug fixes based upon emails and the force close reports that Google gives me.  Here's the details of what's fixed:

• Slide Show - There looks to have been a slight timing error with the loading of the images and the slide show starting that would cause to hang and the "Loading.  Please wait..." dialog.  Some code rearrangement, additional checks and more messages should give a better user interface experience and fix the problem.
• Purchase Service FC - This might account for some of the "random force closes".  Looking at the logs, the purchase service apparently doesn't always receive an intent when it's started.  It then causes a Force Close.  I find this odd as this is Google code that I'm sure other people are using and I don't know why the bug is in the example.  I simply and checking and catching the parsing of the intent.  Hopefully I stop getting error logs about this.
• Screen Saver - The timer wasn't being set when the application was loaded.  It was only started if you left the main screen (opened the preferences for example) and came back.
• Weather Display - I fixed a minor display bug that was happening on some devices.
• Location - I've got a couple users who are have location issues.  I previously tried to fix it with some additional permissions, but that still doesn't seem to be fixing it.  So there's a new option in the Weather settings screen for "Location Error Messages".  This will display toast messages when it tries and fails to get your location based on what ever service.  Hopefully this will help me figure out how to fix the problem(s).  I may also be having problems with the "Use IP address" feature and I need to email someone about that.

I think that takes care of all the things that are broken from the major changes that happened going to the version 1.0 release.  So hopefully this will mean less updates and will allow me to work on additional new development instead of the "fire fighting" fixing issues.

Fixin' Bugs

I've kept a close eye on the Android Application Error logs to figure out where the problems are and fix everything as quickly as possible.  As I eluded to on Monday when I first released version 1.0 there was a lot of code churn and as I stated on the Market page:

There were a large number of changes for this release.  If you have problems please help me by emailing me so I can help you!

I've been working with a number of users to identify the bugs and Johannes in Austria I was able to identify a pretty nasty force close bug and get an update to the market later that day.  He was also helpful in tracking down another issue with updating the number of docks from the preference screen.  I was also happy to get comments (cause that means that someone is actually reading this) from two users in Monday's release post (and my reply is in there as well).  There's those two ways of contacting me and I'm probably going to break down and setup a Twitter account and start using Google+ when things settle down.   Leaving a comment like... Oh I don't know... something like "Update sux Update is full of bugs" (Ahem Lacy*) that doesn't do any good and makes me go all ranty.   Bob S thank you for driving home the idea that if leave me a comment things get fixed!

Here's the list of thing that I have fixed in version 1.0.0.2

• Force Close on start / orientation change - This was actually fixed late Monday in version 1.0.0.1 and it must have done the trick as all the force close reports that have come in and are still coming in are from version 1.0  This was basically a Layout redraw issue, it was trying to set the dock buttons, but due to a layout reload the button was there.
• Force Close when changing dock count - This one was caused by me doing VB for work and then Java at lunch...slight differences in the languages and how they work.
• 24 Hour AM/PM - Regardless of the setting the AM/PM was always being set to visible.
• Plugged-in Indicator - Same as above the indicator was always on
• Heartbeat transition - This got lost in the GUI redesign and now fades in and out like before.
• Disable Heartbeat - Ummm... yea didn't put the code in to do this... I found it when I was looking at the transition.  
•  Weather Issues - I've had a couple emails about the weather not working.  From what it sounds like it's having a problem getting the location to find the weather.  I looked at the code and it's exactly the same as the previous version.  However, there were some differences with the permissions which might have been the problem.  If that's the problem I must be trapping the lack of permissions correctly, but not finding the location (which sounds right).  I'm hoping that this fixes things, but I haven't had any problems with the weather loading... Did this get fixed?

Known issues that are still out there (from what Google tells me):

• Null Pointer in the get Picasa images - not sure if this is the featured or your images.
• Null Pointer in the billing service - this is google code for the extension purchase (which pisses me off).  If you get a force close when purchasing the extension, put your name in the log and email me.  

I'm sure there's more, but I don't have the time to list them now.  

*If it's this Lacy then it might be ok...

Turn off that light!

It's funny how feature requests come in pairs.  I had two users email me with in three days of each other both asking about the night clock and dimming the time and turning off the back lighting on the buttons.  So, now the Dark Clock (as I've called it) will dim when the time moves the first time.  If you touch the screen when the time is dimmed then it will return to the normal brightness.  Touching again will exit the dark clock mode.  Hopefully that's what they are looking for...

I realized after pushing the update that I probably should have created options for the amount that it dims and how long it waits until it dims.  Not very hard to do, but it will have to wait until next time.

Also, I'm pretty much done with primary development on the next big enhancement... Dock configuration and adding more buttons.  However, that's going to cost you a dollar...

Scolling widget... sort of

The paid version of the Launch Bar was just updated. The new feature is that the widget "scrolls". Well, fake scrolls... I run the Launcher Pro home replacement app and it supports scrolling widgets however, it looks like the scroll can only be vertical. The launch bar is of course horizontal and as far as I know you can't make a horizontal scrolling widget. The reasoning is pretty simple, the left / right swipe motion is reserved by the system to change home screens. So my original idea of using the gallery and a nice smooth horizontally scrolling widget went out the window. Although, this was probably for the best as the design change allowed me to add more than 7 icons and not require a special home replacement (although I highly recommend Launcher Pro).

So, here's how it works. There is now a 'Mode' button that will give you 4 choices:

• Classic - This is the Launch Bar that we've come to know and love. Seven customizable buttons
• Arrows - When this is selected, you see two gray arrows that will allow you to scroll one icon left or right in the list. It's a continuous loop, so when you get to your last icon, the list will start over. I cut the number of icons down to 6 when the phone is in portrait mode. This was for sizing / usability reasons. You can also double tap the arrow to jump seven icons at a time.*
• Scroll Bar - When selected, you will see an orange bar below your icons. You can touch that bar at any point to jump to that part of the list. Sadly, you can't slide your finger over the bar to scroll (you can't have a true slide bar as the left / right slide is reserved for the changing of screens).
• Mixed - When the phone is in portrait mode it will use the Scroll Bar mode. When the phone is landscape it will use Arrow mode. This came about just because of how widgets are sized differently in portrait vs landscape. It gives you the best of both worlds in my opinion.

I'm sure that there will be other minor changes here and there as oddities are noticed, but I think that's the majority of the major enhancements for now. Although, if a reasonable enhancement request comes in I'll be more than happy to put it in.

Finally....

It's been a while since I was able to update both of the applications (a month or more for Pro and 3+ weeks for basic). I was busy trying to re-organize the code so that it would be easier to update both applications. In some cases I would have to make the same change in four places for some of the common code... bad bad programmer! I consolidated a bunch of stuff and probably need to consolidate some more with the new direct dial feature. Plus the birth of my second child put a damper on things... ;-)

New for the custom button on the basic version and all of the buttons on the pro, when you long press the item in the configuration screen you will be prompted for a "Button Type", either Application or Direct Dial. The application will operate as normal. The direct dial will list all of the phone numbers in your contacts and the picture associated to that number. Long pressing one of the phone numbers will set that button, allowing you to call your favorite person(s) with just one touch.

Next up, scrollable widget!

Update

Been a while since I've published anything... I've been busy cleaning and consolidating code for both the basic and pro versions. This should hopefully make both of them easier to manage. Coming from a .NET world, the Eclipse IDE has a bit of oddities that takes a bit of getting used to. Plus switching from VB to Java and back to VB is alot like going from English to German and back.

I only updated the basic version and this was really intended for people who have upgraded to 2.2 already. The long press on the first button (Phone by default) will give you the choice of the Phone or a picture gallery application. The long press on the fourth button (Browser by default) will give you your choice of browser(s), Google Talk, AIM, Twitter or Facebook. If you don't any of these applications installed then you obviously can't choose them...

Hello World!

I've decided to put a blog together to keep a log of changes / enhancements for my Launch Bar widgets that I've been working on for the past month or so. Hopefully, I'll also be able to get some information and feed back people who have downloaded the free version or bought the pro version.

Here's what's happened so far:

• v1.0 -- Initially released June 13 / 14
• v1.1 -- Increased the size of the buttons. For some reason the icon size was different on two different Motorola Droids
• v1.2 -- Added Icon size slider to the configuration window
• v1.3 -- Cleaned up the GUI and other misc cosmetic enhancements
• v1.4 -- Re-sized the Icons when the phone is in landscape mode. Small note about this, there could be a 5 to 10 second lag this is due to how I'm checking the orientation of the phone. I'm sure there is a better way to do this I just haven't looked into it yet.
• v1.5 -- Internal change of how how I'm was doing things. I realized after someone posted a comment in German that the free app didn't work. I believe this was due to how I was looking up the applications.
  

Just some quick stats according to Google:

• Launch Bar: 536 downloads
• Launch Bar Pro: 66 downloads

It's a bit over whelming to me that so many people have downloaded my apps with out any kind of publicity (although I'm pretty sure it showed up as a "just in" application after the 1.4 update).

For everyone that's downloaded and tried out my application, Thank You!

What's next? Probably going to look into adding a direct dial contact(s) to selection lists.