Android beta

From StatusNet

StatusNet Mobile...

Developers can download the StatusNet Mobile client source and test the code locally or on an Android device via USB.

Contents 1 What you'll need 2 How to join 3 Questions 4 Release notes 5 Installation 6 Uninstall 7 Device notes 7.1 Nexus One, Android 2.2 7.2 HTC Dream (G1), Android 1.6 7.3 Tablets

[edit] What you'll need

• an Android phone running Android 1.6 or later
  • Phones running Android 1.5 will not. Some of those phones may be able to upgrade to a newer version of Android through a third-party firmware update.
  • Some phones have disabled the 'Unknown sources' checkbox in Application Settings; this may prevent installation of beta packages, which are not distributed through the Market.

[edit] How to join

• Join the group !snmobile to receive news and updates, such as when we push out a new beta or approach the general public release
• When new beta code is available, download links will be sent out via the above public group.

[edit] Questions

• Can I install the beta without registering here?
  • Yes, unless your phone has disabled installation of non-Market apps.
• Does it support high-density screens such as the Droid and Nexus One?
  • Yes, however some UI artwork will be a bit blurry right now. Avatars should be fetched at proper resolution for these phones.
• Does it support low-density screens (smaller than 320x480)?
  • Low-resolution screens have not yet been tested; if you have such a phone please let us know!
• Does it support background fetching of messages?
  • Not yet, but we plan to soon.
• Does it support network-to-app push notifications in Android 2.2?
  • Not yet, but we plan to eventually.
• The app is huge, over 5 megabytes!
  • The package is currently bloated a bit with runtime libraries, which may make it harder to fit on devices with little spare room for application storage. We'll try and cut it down if possible.
• Does it support installation to SD card on Android 2.2?
  • No, but if we can figure out how we'll enable it.

[edit] Release notes

Jump to installation

As of 15 September, StatusNet Mobile is available in the Android Market. Old beta release notes still here for reference. :)

Beta 7 -- 14 September 2010

• Direct message inbox, compose dialog for direct message replies
• Stability fixes for Android

Beta 6 -- 13 September 2010

• 'Share' button added to notice controls to send a manual-style repeat of the message to another app for reposting/saving:
  • #2679 Android: shares to any app accepting plain text
    • known to work: ColorNote, Email, Gmail, Mustard, Seesmic, Twitter, WordPress
    • known buggy: Facebook (if no link in contents, shows an error message), Microblog (launches app but no compose window)
    • also appearing but not fully tested: Bluetooth, Evernote
  • #2780 iPhone: hardcoded list of supported destinations, no way yet to verify they exist
    • known to work: copy to clipboard, Mail, Twitter
    • uncertain: Seesmic (launches app but crashes for me)
• Basic in-app browser for viewing links on iPhone; can relaunch in Safari, copy URL, or post a link from there.
  • Allows users on iPhoneOS 3 devices to view links without losing timeline state.
• #2689: cleanup on account switcher text size on Android
• #2696: cleanup on dialog state during send
• Corrections to iPhone app bundle layout & icon sizes
• Some fudging around of event listeners for Android heisenbugs (still needs a final fix)

Beta 5 -- 10 September 2010

• Cleaned up icons and background images
• New-notice button now has an icon on Android
• Account selector now looks like a control to encourage touching it!
• Visual feedback when touching tab bar buttons
• Cleanup of error reporting code; should be a bit more consistent and less verbose.
• Cleaned up cancel button behavior on account list
• Fixed stray 'No notices on this timeline yet' message when offline
• Fix for subscribe/unsubscribe on profile timeline for users with id > 9
• Fix for notices displaying on wrong timelines when switching quickly
• Disabled 'Cancel' button in new-notice dialog during sending; it was clickable but misleading on iPhone (it doesn't stop the network activity)
• Removed non-working subscriptions link on own profile timeline header
• New account save is now triggered when hitting keyboard 'Done' button.

Beta 4 -- 7 September 2010

• Shared code reconciled with StatusNet Desktop
• Avatar caching fixes
• some prep work for iPad version (incomplete)
• Font size fixes in account list on iPhone (still needed on Android)
• Fix for horizontal scrolling in timeline caused by long links
• Tab icons now display in overflow tab list
• Animation fixes on add-account dialog on iPhone
• Prettier drop-down animation for account list on iPhone (needs Titanium platform fixes on Android)
• Relative timestamps now update when switching back to app on iPhone (not yet triggered on Android)
• Drop some debug statements from inner loops, speeds up parsing on Android
• Unsubscribe on user timeline fixed on mobile
• Minor style cleanups in timeline
• FIle attachments a bit less crashy on iPhone
• Fix for regression in loading spinner on iPhone
• Fix for button enable/disable state, error reporting in send dialog

Beta 3 -- 30 August 2010

• Avatars for accounts list are cached on Android (delayed on iPhone due to upstream regression)
• Fix for raw JSON formatting sometimes displaying in timeline while loading on Android
• Resolved known crashes and hangs in account setup
• Remote user links now open profile page in browser instead of showing an empty timeline or the wrong user
• Avatars in timelines now locally cached on iPhone
• Dialog-open animation, title fixed for new notice dialog on iPhone
• New account dialog status label no longer wraps funny on Android
• New-message dialog has a more native appearance on Android

Beta 2 -- 27 August 2010

Fixes since beta 1:

• Account setup dialog is much more robust about accepting server host/URLs -- this was the top issue that beta testers had!
• Photo attachments now work on Android
• Bottom tab buttons are easier to trigger by touch
• Top navbars look & feel more native on iPhone (Android improvements to come in next update)
• Android back button from timeline view now closes app instead of showing a blank screen
• Bottom tab icons are sharper on iPhone 2G/3G
• White background flash during initial timeline load fixed
• full list of fixed bugs

Some other improvements didn't squeeze in just yet, but will come in the next update:

• direct messaging inbox/outbox
• continued work on timeline display performance
• better robustness for network errors
• better robustness when switching timelines quickly
• more UI improvements on Android
• initial layout tweaks for iPad and Android tablets (iPad still shows in iPhone compatibility mode)

Beta 1 -- 23 August 2010

This is an early-access release to get more eyes on the system while we finalize the user interface design and work out a few more kinks in mobile platform support. There are a number of known problems including:

• Add accounts dialog is incomplete and very picky! Use bare hostname like 'identi.ca' or complete URL to the API root for server setting.
• Platform integration (notifications, inter-app communication) has not yet landed
• Some application state is not preserved across exit/restart
• Performance is still not fully up to par
• Some control buttons on user timelines do not work
• Automatic / background updates are not yet landed
• Large-format screens (netbooks, tablets) are not natively supported yet; the app will run but may appear oddly stretched, etc.
• The visual theme is incomplete; some controls don't yet appear fully native on one or both platforms, and graphics haven't been optimized for various screen resolutions
• List of open bugs: [1]

[edit] Installation

See Android installation for post-beta install directions.

[edit] Uninstall

Like any other app, you can remove the StatusNet app through Settings -> Applications -> Manage Applications.

[edit] Device notes

[edit] Nexus One, Android 2.2

This is our primary test device and should be reasonably well supported.

Currently there are known problems with text wrapping which crop up at times, but most of these have been worked out as of the beta.

[edit] HTC Dream (G1), Android 1.6

If fully updated to Android 1.6, StatusNet Mobile will run on the Dream / G1. It will run slower than newer devices, though; we have not fully optimized our cross-platform code for speed yet.

[edit] Tablets

Tablets and netbooks running Android generally have a larger screen size than regular phones; the current interface should run on them but may appear odd (large stretched dialogs, incomplete background images, etc). An optimized large-screen interface will come in a future version.