CC alpha release V3.4.4f/V3.4.4g

[chaley]

CC alpha release 3.4.4g (replaces 3.4.4f) has been published and will be available to people in the alpha test program.

Changes since 3.4.4e (see this thread for details about 3.4.4e):

• User-defined entries in the book list. See the "Extra information on the book list" preference in the Book List section.
• Reorganized settings, moving longer option sets to subscreens
• Improved fling performance in the book list
• Show title/author in the book list while flinging or scrolling
• Show title text in the grid view while flinging or scrolling
• [3.4.4g]Show author text in grid view if sorted by author
• [BUG FIX]Fix resetting the book list to the top if grouping on a top-level category
• [BUG FIX]Several bug fixes for the scrollers
• [BUG FIX]Fix rating columns not showing values in the grouping drawer
• [BUG FIX][3.4.4g]Fix regression: taps on book list fail to open book details

When using this version, please be sure that the cover you see in the book list corresponds to the book. The changes to improve fling performance in the book list could have introduced some bugs.

The text you see for the brief time when flinging is the title sort and author sort. I added it to indicate which books are flying by. I chose the sort values because I had these fields available to be rapidly fetched. I could add the real title and authors to the main table, but that would require a significant database upgrade. And in any event, I find that the sort values serve the purpose well.

EDIT: Could the person running these alpha releases on an Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) device please let me know who you are?

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by chaley

• Improved fling performance in the book list

The fling for the book list works great. All covers match up for me. But if I tap on a book the Book details page does not pop-up. This does not happen in the cover grid.

Originally Posted by chaley

• Show title/author in the book list while flinging or scrolling

I like the fact that it capitalizes during the fling.

Originally Posted by chaley

• Show title text in the grid view while flinging or scrolling

When I am in the Author list it would be better for me to see author names.

Originally Posted by chaley

• [BUG FIX]Fix resetting the book list to the top if grouping on a top-level category

This works fine in the cover grid, but I can't test it in the book list since the book details page will not pop up.

Originally Posted by chaley

• [BUG FIX]Several bug fixes for the scrollers

I can't get my previous problem to occur again.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by DoctorOhh

The fling for the book list works great. All covers match up for me. But if I tap on a book the Book details page does not pop-up. This does not happen in the cover grid.

Oops.

Fixed in the release I will make in a few minutes.

I like the fact that it capitalizes during the fling.

So do I.

When I am in the Author list it would be better for me to see author names.

I think you are saying that when looking at the book grid sorted by author, you would prefer to see the author names. This is similar to what happens in the book list. I will make that change for the release.

[kaufman]

Originally Posted by chaley

[LIST][*]User-defined entries in the book list. See the "Extra information on the book list" preference in the Book List section.

This is very nice. I am still playing with it, but it seems complete and fast. In all cases I have gotten the correct results. One small request. for rating, could you show a line of stars (like in the book details page) instead of a number?

Originally Posted by chaley

[LIST][*]Reorganized settings, moving longer option sets to subscreens

I like this a lot, but I think you should go farther and but every section longer than one entry into a subscreen. The loss of time in having to go to a submenu is more than made up for (IMO) by the greater ease in finding the correct section.

Originally Posted by chaley

[LIST][*]Improved fling performance in the book list[*]Show title/author in the book list while flinging or scrolling[*]Show title text in the grid view while flinging or scrolling

I like this new functionality a lot, although as DoctorOh said, I can't get into book details from the book list.

Love the Title text in Grid view. That's a better way to do my suggestion which I hadn't thought of. One suggestion: Instead of showing the entire title text, perhaps just show the first few characters. Its less cluttered and it actually makes it easier to see where you are in the list because there is less on the display to distract you. You might even want to experiment with only showing the values in the first (or perhaps the last) column for the same reason.

Originally Posted by chaley

• [BUG FIX]Several bug fixes for the scrollers

I never get a scroller in the grouping drawer that I can grab. I also can't see any scroll bar (even when I have it always on) unless I set it to left side.

Originally Posted by chaley

When using this version, please be sure that the cover you see in the book list corresponds to the book. The changes to improve fling performance in the book list could have introduced some bugs.

I just spent the last 5 minutes flinging and grabbing in the grid, and in each case the cover matched the book when I went into the details to verify.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by kaufman

This is very nice. I am still playing with it, but it seems complete and fast. In all cases I have gotten the correct results. One small request. for rating, could you show a line of stars (like in the book details page) instead of a number?

Nope. For performance reasons the containers are text views and cannot be a graphics view. I could put out asterisks I suppose.

I like this a lot, but I think you should go farther and but every section longer than one entry into a subscreen. The loss of time in having to go to a submenu is more than made up for (IMO) by the greater ease in finding the correct section.

I chose 4. The problem I see is that if the descriptions are not spot on then people will have to tap to see if what they are looking for is in the subscreen. I have that problem and I should know where things are.

I like this new functionality a lot, although as DoctorOh said, I can't get into book details from the book list.

Fixed in 3.4.4g.

Love the Title text in Grid view. That's a better way to do my suggestion which I hadn't thought of. One suggestion: Instead of showing the entire title text, perhaps just show the first few characters. Its less cluttered and it actually makes it easier to see where you are in the list because there is less on the display to distract you. You might even want to experiment with only showing the values in the first (or perhaps the last) column for the same reason.

I am not in favor of showing fewer. If I pick 10, then someone will insist on all or 15 or 8. As for showing only in the last column, I could do that. I am not sure it would help anything because it is so easy to fix my eye on a particular cell position to watch the info go by, and all that is needed to see stable and correct information is to let the list stop moving.

I never get a scroller in the grouping drawer that I can grab. I also can't see any scroll bar (even when I have it always on) unless I set it to left side.

Interesting. For me, they are visible and can be grabbed on both sides. I wonder if there is an android version difference in play?

Does the scroller move when you fling? If so, can you grab it just after it moves?

[kaufman]

Originally Posted by chaley

Nope. For performance reasons the containers are text views and cannot be a graphics view. I could put out asterisks I suppose.

Asterisks work for me.

Originally Posted by chaley

I am not in favor of showing fewer. If I pick 10, then someone will insist on all or 15 or 8. As for showing only in the last column, I could do that. I am not sure it would help anything because it is so easy to fix my eye on a particular cell position to watch the info go by, and all that is needed to see stable and correct information is to let the list stop moving.

I was actually thinking something like three of four characters, but I can understand not wanting to make an option for such a small thing.

In any case, I am getting used to it as I play with it more. The only thing I would say is that if doing less letters or one column would help with performance, than it might be worth it. If not, don't worry about it.

Originally Posted by chaley

Interesting. For me, they are visible and can be grabbed on both sides. I wonder if there is an android version difference in play?

Could be. I can actually see a tiny piece of it on the right of the grouping bar. Its just on the outer edge.

Originally Posted by chaley

Does the scroller move when you fling? If so, can you grab it just after it moves?

(This is when it is on the left). It does move, but it is always the thin ungrabable version.

[kaufman]

One other thing. DO you suppose you could add an option to the "Extra information in book list" to insert a blank line between the top line of extra information and the lines above it.

By the way, I added "comments" as a field just to see what happened. It worked perfectly for both display and scrolling. I then removed "comments" as a field.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by kaufman

Asterisks work for me.

I found a unicode star character that seems to work: ★

In any case, I am getting used to it as I play with it more. The only thing I would say is that if doing less letters or one column would help with performance, than it might be worth it. If not, don't worry about it.

It is probably 6 of one and a half dozen of the other. In one case there are more characters to render and in the other case the string must be trimmed.

Could be. I can actually see a tiny piece of it on the right of the grouping bar. Its just on the outer edge.

(This is when it is on the left). It does move, but it is always the thin ungrabable version.

I am stumped. I can't fix something I can't break. I hope that we might get some clues from other people.

Questions: 1) What happens if you rotate your device? 2) Is the grouping drawer always open in either portrait or landscape? If different, do both have the problem?

What version of Android does your device run? I think it is KitKat, which is what I have on one of my test devices.

[kaufman]

Originally Posted by chaley

I am stumped. I can't fix something I can't break. I hope that we might get some clues from other people.

Questions: 1) What happens if you rotate your device? 2) Is the grouping drawer always open in either portrait or landscape? If different, do both have the problem?

What version of Android does your device run? I think it is KitKat, which is what I have on one of my test devices.

Ok, first thing is I am now getting the same results with left hand mode on or off.

1) (I had to turn on rotate, but ) it does the same thing after I rotate, but each time I rotate, it show the grabable bar for a second before hiding it.

2) No

Android 4.4.2

It almost looks like it is drawing it under the grouping drawer with a tiny piece sticking out to the right.

If I turn on always show, then it works as expected in the grouping drawer and the book list.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by kaufman

One other thing. DO you suppose you could add an option to the "Extra information in book list" to insert a blank line between the top line of extra information and the lines above it.

Instead of another option, I added "empty line" to the list of fields that can be displayed. That way you can put one (but only one) in any of the containers.

[kaufman]

Originally Posted by chaley

Instead of another option, I added "empty line" to the list of fields that can be displayed. That way you can put one (but only one) in any of the containers.

Perfect. I was thinking about doing the same thing by adding an empty column, but your way is better because it doesn't require me to do a DB change and a full metadata transfer.

[Purple Lady]

The fling performance in the book list is much improved, and I like the new settings menu.

When I went into the Grouping Drawer settings, I looked at Make groups for custom columns but didn't change anything. I hit OK instead of cancel and even though I didn't change anything it still updated the database. I exited CC and went to the settings again and it didn't update when I hit OK the second time. I backed CC up right after updating to 4.4.4g so I restored it to see if maybe I did tap something without realizing it, but it did update the db even without me making changes.

Has there always been empty space at the top and bottom of the settings menu? I only noticed because I was having trouble scrolling up and down in the menu. If I first touch the empty area and continue swiping the menu doesn't move. My Nexus 5 doesn't have the same blank area. Here's a screenshot from my Nexus 7 with cutoff text at the top and bottom so you can see the empty spaces:

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

The fling performance in the book list is much improved, and I like the new settings menu.

Good

When I went into the Grouping Drawer settings, I looked at Make groups for custom columns but didn't change anything. I hit OK instead of cancel and even though I didn't change anything it still updated the database. I exited CC and went to the settings again and it didn't update when I hit OK the second time. I backed CC up right after updating to 4.4.4g so I restored it to see if maybe I did tap something without realizing it, but it did update the db even without me making changes.

My guess is that my test for equality before and after is sensitive to something like order in the list of items. I will look at this. If all else fails I can do it using set arithmetic.

Has there always been empty space at the top and bottom of the settings menu? I only noticed because I was having trouble scrolling up and down in the menu. If I first touch the empty area and continue swiping the menu doesn't move. My Nexus 5 doesn't have the same blank area. Here's a screenshot from my Nexus 7 with cutoff text at the top and bottom so you can see the empty spaces:

Probably hasn't always been there. I see it on my 2012 Nexus 7, but I do not see it on my Galaxy Nexus. I haven't yet tried it on my Kindle Fire HD. I will take a look at what happens using 3.4.4 stock to see if it is something I did recently.

I suspect that if it is a recent addition then something is being affected by the stuff I had to do to avoid a catastrophe on Gingerbread. I am beginning to think that I should simply cut support for it. Only 2.5% of our customers use a version of Android less than 4.0, and keeping CC working for that 2.5% is a royal pain.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by chaley

I suspect that if it is a recent addition then something is being affected by the stuff I had to do to avoid a catastrophe on Gingerbread. I am beginning to think that I should simply cut support for it. Only 2.5% of our customers use a version of Android less than 4.0, and keeping CC working for that 2.5% is a royal pain.

I just checked my Nexus 7 2012 and it has the white space as well. It's on CC 3.3.5 so it's been there a while.

[Purple Lady]

CC just crashed on me. I was reading a comics feed and then deleted it and it crashed. I read and deleted a second and it crashed again. I sent a debug log.