Monday, 1 September 2014

FA support

Please post incident reports for FirkinApp (iOS and Web) as comments to this thread.

More details of the various versions of the app can be found on its overview page

43 comments:

  1. Known issues so far:
    1) after rating a beer in Tasting & Rating, if you then immediately click Tweet this Beer, the new rating isn't picked up. Working on a solution for this.
    2) Peculiar screen layout if you click from the beer list in landscape mode. The whole app is really intended to be used in portrait mode, apart from a large font beer name obtainable from the beer detail screen

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  2. In Tasting & Rating I'm not seeing a way to do anything when in Landscape mode - could it be made to swipe up & down?

    Having rated a beer as a four (for example) I can change my mind and make it a five but I can't change it to a three without completely resetting.

    OK to tweet info about the bands, but they can't be measured in half pints!
    Could the "Tweet this Beer" button automatically show "Tweet this Cider" or "Tweet this Band"?

    Even in portait mode when selecting a beer the graphics are distorted.

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  3. We do have one sponsor allocated - Chilli Nights are sponsoring Heracles. Unfortunately, they don't have a website

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  4. Ray & Janyne have gone on holiday, taking their iPads with them but not the computer to attach to. I have another potential tester...

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  5. Added Chilli Night (just one of them) to the data file. Working on the others

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  6. It appears in the singular in a lot of places but on their own menu it is plural. Image in the 2013_art folder.

    The beer list is starting with Commando Hoofing this morning

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  7. Were you thinking of adding a Facebook link?

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  8. The detail for Vic's Buskers shouldn't say FirkinJazz. FirkinBuskers, perhaps?

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  9. I have someone else willing to test but he has a pathological hatred of iTunes and is not prepared to attach his iPhone to it. Is there a way around this or should I just say thanks anyway?

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  10. Fixed Vic's Buskers description in yesterday's update to the data file, which I sorted by name within section rather than brewery/name

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  11. I checked Chilli Night on Google Streetview! The sign outside the restaurant, and a logo I pulled from their menu for the petersfieldcurry.org.uk directory, are both singular. They should make up their minds!

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  12. Sorry, I'm not aware of any way to test an app package without iTunes to install it - once the app is on the iTunes store, it's a different matter because the iPhone's onboard app can retrieve from there.

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  13. Just realised that you had re-sorted the beers alphabetically by name, which explain why I though some had gone missing. On the stillage they will be arranged alphabetically by brewery.

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  14. I've added a rudimentary FB posting interface to the latest version; it will take more time to put together something that can tag friends, locations, etc. I'll re-sort the data file to match the stillage.

    Landscape view - need to rethink what to do with this. I'll see whether I can design something workable.

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  15. For now, the design has been changed to restrict to portrait view. It was starting to get extremely complicated to offer views such as the beer detail in a variety of orientations and screen sizes.

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  16. I'm not seeing the FB option and I'm not restricted to portrait - do I need to update something?

    The twitter feed has got some of the brewers retweeting so there is value in it already. Beats Working have retweeted too so they are getting the message out to their followers.

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  17. BTW, I've no problem at all with it being portrait only :o)

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  18. Just spotted that the dates are not coming up correctly for the bands. The tweet about the Buskers said it was on Sunday (corrected before sending).

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  19. I've put images for Old Rosie & Country Perry in the art folder and updated the spreadsheet.

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  20. The last three years, I used Excel to generate the twitter messages and these were retweeted by brewers and bands - several thousand followers in 2012. It's so much easier having the app to do it. I haven't uploaded the version with FB yet, but it will include more sponsors links in the FB messages - could be an attractor for sponsorship marketing. Band dates - were wrong in the spreadsheet, now fixed. And sorted on column A (Seq), back in original order. Now we just need to fill out the sponsorship columns.

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  21. What do I need to do to get the latest version/data? I'm not seeing a change.

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  22. The design principle is that it should look for a new list when it starts from scratch or if it doesn't have one available.

    You should be able to force it to reload by doing a 'hard stop'. Click the home button to exit the app, double press the home button and the running tasks list will show at the bottom. Touch the app icon until a '-' shows up on it and then touch that. Then press the home button again. Restart the app. Let me know!

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  23. Yes, that sorted it, thank you.

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  24. A new version has now been prepared and validated. The package is available for registered testers to download, and a link will be sent to them shortly.

    New features include:
    1) Facebook interface
    2) Link to ticket site
    3) Portrait only orientation
    4) Improvements to text scroll boxes on information pages
    5) Numerous cosmetic improvements and polishing

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  25. Facebook buttons appear inactive on 20130913 package when installed on my iPad, but not on the iPhone or the simulator. Investigating.

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  26. Reason for Facebook not appearing to work is that to use the Facebook app integration, you have to sign into Facebook in the iPad's settings app. When you do so, permission can be granted to other apps to use Facebook functionality.

    Unfortunately (in my view) it also downloads all your Facebook contacts and events into the iPad Contacts and Calendar apps - though this can be switched off after you've signed in, it may be too late. If you try to keep FB separate from things like your work calendar, this may be unattractive.

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  27. New version dated 220130918 now posted to Dropbox. And submitted to Apple for approval. Main changes: text pages are now rendered from the settings file into web views, so content can be varied without reprogramming, and HTML tags can be included.

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  28. New package 20130920 downloaded and double-clicked to install via iTunes for Windows. Had to drag the new package from iTunes Library/Apps to the iPad in the device list and then click Will Install in the Apps list, then Sync. This didn't complete, so clicked Install and Apply. Eventually got there.

    So far (iPad2 running iOS 6.1.3):
    1) App icon is grey instead of FF logo
    2) first time I used the star rating panel, the app crashed; reopened and continued, and it worked fine.

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  29. Version 20130927 is on Dropbox and testers should have a link to this. Please let us know how you get on.

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  30. New version installed - no artwork for Little Snug

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  31. The 20131004 version of the app has the capability to go online to find missing artwork even if it's not built into the original package, provided there is connectivity. Little Snug is the latest test case for this, but it was working with an interim version when Little Green showed up. It's there on my iPhone, so please let me know if it doesn't appear soon.

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  32. I've been playing with it on my iPad and it hasn't picked it up yet. I've force-closed the app a couple of times too.
    Also, the F&P are not the main sponsor this year, it's Cherrywood Lofts and Kitchens. I expect the firkin website said it was the F&P when you started.

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  33. Still not seeing it :o(
    Food has been sorted. It is being supplied by Nosh+. They don't appear to have a website, but are on Facebook here https://www.facebook.com/noshplus?fref=ts

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  34. GVH have approved providing free wifi. Whether or not it happens in time for FirkinFest remains to be seen.

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  35. New festival settings file uploaded. Please check the info pages. Are you running the 20131004 version which has a separate Settings tab at the bottom of the main screen?

    Good news about the wifi, though the latest version of the app should function well offline (if you can download it in the first place).

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  36. Testers: if you are ready to download a new version, please go for 20131008.ipa - has all the improvements (see top posting) and has been submitted to the App Store.

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  37. I'm having trouble with this one. I have a 'blank' icon that says FirkinApp, but when I tap it, it changes to 'installing' but doesn't do anything.

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  38. I'll test it in the morning - I remember that this was a little fiddly last time I installed (see note from 21 Sept).

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  39. To install the new version onto an iOS 7.0.2 device using iTunes on a painfully slow WIndows Vista PC, I had to

    1) click uninstall (remove?) on the old version in the iPhones and iPod touch Apps list for my device, then Apply (when Erase and Synch / Cancel showed on the device, I chose Cancel)
    2) click install and Apply (then Installing shows in the Apps list)
    3) and then click Synch - but then the app didn't install
    4) I unlocked the device, closed the active app and then there was a message saying 'Trust this computer?'
    5) clicking Sync again and this time kept the device open, could see 'Installing' under the icon which got to 75% complete and then went dark.
    6) Tapping the icon - the Installing message came again, then nothing more happened.

    Things to try:
    1) erase the old version on the device before installing new
    2) generate new package (this might work if we have a permissioning/code signing error)

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  40. New package generated today, 20131014.ipa, and it installed first time.

    The likely cause of the problem was that the previous package was signed for distribution (through the App Store) rather than for testing, so could not be installed on testers' devices. It would have been good to have some diagnostic message saying why the installation hung, but that's not supplied by iTunes.

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  41. That seems to work. When tweeting the Firkin from the Little Beer item, I'm seeing (null) where the twitter address would be if it existed. Wouldn't it be better if it didn't appear at all?

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  42. Agreed, I'll add it to the corrections list. Maybe Little Beer should get into social media though.

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  43. Further issue discovered on fresh installs - beer list permanent store doesn't load first time, so ratings aren't captured. If you click on the Sponsors tab, this loads the store and then ratings can be recorded.

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