Chains.cc

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So you want to exercise, but don't feel like doing it? You have two options: Get motivated (v): increase your desire to take action.  Use willpo

The 1.0.2 update taught me to test all updates thoroughly from now on. I failed to test the update with iOS 5 after I had changed a minor thing with the orientation change code. This caused the interface to be broken on iOS 5. When you rotated your phone the view changed but the landscape views were shown as portrait, only half-way visible on the screen.

Ok, a bit of technical mumbo jumbo. TL;DR: I'm making progress on the iPhone app's offline mode.

Several people have been asking for an offline mode and I realize that it is an important feature. Both for current users and enabling people to start using chains without creating an account. At first I thought adding the offline mode would be a complicated affair, but after thinking about it I realized that there was a relatively painless way to do it.

The server communicates with the app by sending JSON data. The app then parses the JSON and based on the data does things like redrawing the chain elements after marking them. Currently, a lot of the app logic is done on the server's end, like processing skipped days and other calculations like days since last and current chain length.

I have an APIConnection singleton object that handles the network connections and parsing JSON data.

I am now making a LocalConnection singleton which does the same thing, but with local data and I'm rewriting the required server methods to work on the iPhone. The important point being, that the interface side doesn't have to know the difference. I will implement the same methods locally and the app will think it is talking to a server.

There's still things I have to work out to make this work, but now it's starting to look like I will be able to do this pretty soon. The biggest problem will be syncing. It would be pretty simple to do a separate offline version, but I want you to be able to start using chains offline without creating an account and then later create an account. 

Preview of a new feature in the coming Chains.cc iPhone app 1.0.2 update.

You now get a summary of yesterday's chains when the day has changed since you last used the app. This has been a requested feature.

I am also experimenting with some user interface sounds, but I want to keep them subtle. There will also be preferences to toggle sounds, icon badges and the aforementioned yesterday summary off.

The iPhone app was accepted into the iTunes App Store a bit under two weeks ago and yesterday the first minor update was released. There are still some bugs and minor issues with the app, but I will try to address them as soon as I can.

Future plans for the app:

- If the day has changed since you last opened the app, it will present a summary of unmarked chains from yesterday so you can quickly mark them if you forgot as shown below.

- Queued network activity, so that you can use the app offline and sync the changes to the server later. 

- Better "achievement badges" for full weeks and such. Currently it only has one generic achievement star that appears every day after five in a row.