SS.org mobile phone app

[renzoip]

Wow, this is looking great. Can't wait to download it and start using it! \m/

 

[PetrucciVai]

god that thing looks awesome.


^^that was me testing the new posting method


Just a heads up/update for you guys, things have inevitably slowed down a bit now that I'm in school again I'm still making progress though, don't worry I haven't forgotten about this! But taking 16 hours of classes and working part time keeps me pretty busy so I only have a few hours a week to work on this project. I'm close to finishing the app in its most basic form though, and then I can release it for testing and you guys to use and what not. In the initial release, You'll only be able to view posts and log in and reply to stuff. That seems pretty bare bones (because it totally is) but unfortunately a lot of the time so far was spent setting up the back-end to do everything I want so that implementing new features (like a user profile page, basic & advance searching, uploading pics, etc) will be less of a hassle down the road. Even though I would LOVE to work on this full time and knock it out in like 4-6 weeks, unfortunately this is the best I can do so bear with me from here on out. I'll be emailing out the initial release version (it won't be in the marketplace for quite some time, I have a previous post detailing that I believe) so be on the look out for emails from me and PM me if you haven't already and want to get a beta copy. Can't wait to get this thing up and running for real.

ALSO! This is important!

For anyone interested in the iPhone version (cause I'm sure a ton of people reading this will be) I'm going to make a separate thread later on for that. I have an extremely basic prototype for iOS right now and its nowhere near complete, so just keep your eyes open for an iPhone-specific thread later on. From here on out this thread will be for current bugs/updates to the Android version.

If that makes you mad, well sorry... I'm just one dude doing this on my own as a side-project so I can only do so much be patient and good things will come.

 

[PetrucciVai]

get pumped guys, this thing is just about feature complete and I'm just ironing out some last few bugs! should be good to go very soon!

 

[PetrucciVai]

get pumped guys, this thing is just about feature complete and I'm just ironing out some last few bugs! should be good to go very soon!

Having some trouble with the server-side stuff unfortunately.... (aka everything broke and the company is fixing things ) I was hoping to release this week but the app won't work at all if the server is down... Hopefully I can get SOMETHING to work soon. shouldn't be long!

 

[matt397]

So any good news yet ?! I can't wait to test it out, middle of the month I'm getting the S4 if it comes out as scheduled so I'll have a brand new android phone to test it out on

 

[PetrucciVai]

So any good news yet ?! I can't wait to test it out, middle of the month I'm getting the S4 if it comes out as scheduled so I'll have a brand new android phone to test it out on

Man, I wish I could've made more progress by now but handling this project during school just doesn't leave me with much time to work on this at the end of the day (working 10 hrs/week doesn't help either...) I only get like maybe 2 hours a week to finish features on this initial app release.

However there is good news!! The following week is my school's spring break and because I got shafted and have jury duty next tuesday I had to bail on a week long beach trip, so I have a ton of time coming up to knock out everything and get the app released. All the features are there (at least the initial ones I planned) I just have shitty annoying bugs to fix. I plan on hammering it out next week and getting it released

I can't promise anything obviously, but I will DEFINITELY make a crap ton of progress over the next 10 days or so. I'm also gonna make a separate thread for the iPhone version and hopefully get that started. I'll link to it in this thread as well.

And again i'll remind everyone reading this, if you want to test the app before its initial app store release (which won't be for some time): please email me at mitchare@gmail.com and let me know so I can keep track of everyone testing.


Thanks for waiting dudes, I know it seems like I am dragging this out longer than ever... but I'm working hard to get this done! If I could work on it 8 hours a day I totally would!! Bear with me


EDIT: I can't edit my original post (thought that was a thing but apparently not lol) so here is the link to the thread about the iPhone version. Any information in this thread is ANDROID-specific ONLY

 

[PetrucciVai]

However there is good news!!

Good news indeed! I've made a ton of progress this week. I've got some updated screenshots for your viewing pleasure just to show off that actual progress IS being made . Here are a few pics:

The images are pretty random, I just went through and tried to find screenshots that show off random things that are working now so you can get a feel for how the app looks viewing various threads with different kinds of content.

There are no drastic changes, however I have quotes, browser links, bold/italic/etc formatting AND smilies working now. The smilies aren't animated however.... apparently GIF's don't work properly right out of the box I'm gonna have to go the custom animation route and I'll be fixing that later but for now its fine. Quotes are currently just turquoise'd on the background because I didn't have time to mock-up any fancy drawings for the background, I'll get to that later as well. I kinda like the turquoise though, originally it was a cop out cause I needed a way to show that it was a quote but I think it fits nicely with the theme of the app.

There is some sort of html encoding issue with certain special characters though. Quotations show up as '& quot ;' instead of actually formatting a quote mark, and I'll get to that after the initial release as well. All of these random bugs don't really affect functionality so I didn't worry about spending more time fixing them, I'd rather just get the app out ASAP.

The only thing I have to finish is getting an image viewer working so you can actually look at pictures instead of that white placeholder image you see right now, and that shouldn't take long at all. Then its release time and hopefully there are no major issues causing the app to be unusable or anything. I've been using it here and there and I have to say, it seems pretty smooth and fluid so far. Real, real happy with the app right now so I just wanted to update you guys since I haven't posted screenshots in a while. Enjoy

OH! and embedded youtube videos are broken too so if you get an "error loading frowny face" screen then its probably because the server is down (<1% of the time) or because there is a youtube video embedded in the thread. I'll fix it soon!

 

[MFB]

Is this available on the Play Store yet? I looked for it but nothing came up for it.

 

[PetrucciVai]

unfortunately not yet. I'm holding off on submitting to the play store before its a more feature-complete to avoid any negative reviews from random crashes that I haven't found/fixed yet or from people too dumb to know what "beta" means (I can't even search this app sucks, 1star needs more features, etc) Those reviews kill the overall rating and I cant really do anything about it.

if you want to get a copy of the beta version in the future send me a PM or an email

 

[JPMike]

In any case, are you willing to make one for iPhones too?

 

[flint757]

I believe he is, there is another thread about it.

 

[PetrucciVai]

In any case, are you willing to make one for iPhones too?

Yep, I'll be making a similar app for iOS in the future. Check the progress in this thread here

 

[PetrucciVai]

Still getting raped by school guys sorry I haven't had any updates yet....


Big things coming soon though! very very very soon

 

[PetrucciVai]

Hey guys, just a quick update (and a small request I ask of you all):

As I'm wrapping things up before the initial beta release, I ask all of you (if you haven't done so already) to go ahead and join Google Plus. I believe at this point everyone who has a google/gmail/youtube account already has a Google+ account as well, but I could be wrong so please be sure you are able to go to http://plus.google.com and sign in to your account.

A new beta testing program was recently announced at Google I/O a few weeks ago that allows me to go ahead and submit the app to the Play Store and only distribute it to select members of a beta-testing group. I can easily just add all of your email addresses within the Play Store, but it will be much easier for me to communicate to every one who is using the beta versions of this app, as well as let new beta testers join, if we are all using Google+. I will make a G+ Community page solely for the distribution of the app and if you don't join G+ and/or don't join the community page, you won't be able to download the app from the Play Store. You will also be able to post reviews and give me direct feedback on the Play Store, as well as posting any questions about upcoming features/bug fixes/etc within that community page. So please make sure you're on G+ and I'll be posting a link to the community page very soon!



TL;DR - If you want to make my life easier, make sure you have a Google+ account, I'll post more details in the coming weeks.

 

[Sofos]

G+ left a REALLY bad taste in my mouth when I tried using it (more than a few times). It's interface is so bad, I just stopped even trying. It's like it takes the worst of Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and shoves em all into one website.

 

[PetrucciVai]

G+ left a REALLY bad taste in my mouth when I tried using it (more than a few times). It's interface is so bad, I just stopped even trying. It's like it takes the worst of Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and shoves em all into one website.

I agree, I was never a fan and didn't really use it much, but they've updated the entire interface and UX since Google I/O (they claim that they added 41 new features) and I think it looks pretty slick nowadays. Especially the communities pages.

Either way, you wouldn't have to use it more than once every now and then (if you don't want to report any bugs/discuss any feature requests or anything like that). The important thing is that you would go and click the "Join community" button initally so that your google account shows up on my beta tester list and you give yourself access to the app within the Play Store. Otherwise, you'll search for SS.org and won't find anything in the store and think I'm a bit fat phony, which isn't cool

 

[MetalBuddah]

edit: WRONG THREAD

 

[PetrucciVai]

quick update dudes (so you don't think I'm leaving you out to dry here):

I have been actively working on getting this thing done and it is taking FOREVER. I've had issues after issues after issues come up the past few weeks and I feel like I make one step forward and three steps back. I've had to switch to a new server (aka a better one with more features), re-implement the image fetching with a new library so that both embedded pictures work as well as the ones in the "Attached Thumbnails" box thing work, that one took a while to figure out, I've switched over to the new "official" side navigation drawer pattern since its release at Google I/O this month, and just a ton of other crap that keeps slowing me down.

There were also a few minor site changes in the backend/layout of things that caused a lot of my custom server stuff to break so random threads wouldn't load and I've been ironing out those issues for the past week or so. Of course I only have so much time to fix stuff when I get home from work, and I code all day long so sometimes I'm just too beat to do anything on this project, but I am making awewsome progress and wanna get this out for you guys to use AND so I can quit fixing all this stupid crap and start implementing new features that I haven't even started on yet (user CP, search, new threads, adding UI animations/gestures, etc).

I have a ton of ideas and an always-increasing google task list of things to fix and ideas for new stuff so I'm not stopping any time soon, I'm getting dangerously close to releasing this thing. Just thought I would update because I'm sure some people think I'm slowing down with the lack of posts/info.

Also, this is random, but if you have any questions about the app or anything (and please refrain from any "ZOMG WHEN IS IT GONNA BE RELEASED" questions ) send me an email or hit me up on twitter @erawhctim, I check those the most.





SOON.

 

[aWoodenShip]

Words can't describe how excited I am to finally see this happening.

 

[PetrucciVai]

Made a ton of progress on the app, trying to get it released (hopefully) this week. Currently waiting on the support team at StackMob (the company hosting the backend servers that power the app) but I have one small thing to fix before its good to go, so I went ahead and created a Google+ community page. Check it out here and go ahead and join it! https://plus.google.com/communities/104636300891840587722

There is an "announcements" section on the community page and I will post there (as well as on this thread) when the app is up and running on the Play Store.



REMEMBER! You must be a member of the community (signed into Google+ with the same account you use on your phone) to get access to the app.
If you don't join the group then no matter how hard you search for it, you will never get access to the app via the Play Store, which is super lame. Cause this app rules. So go join, and I'll let you know real soon when its up and running