#software delelopment

One of my absolute *favorite* things in programming is making things talk to each other. It can be an utterly maddening task but when it goes right it feels like magic. 

Behold, watch-app and phone-app now sync the status between each other! 

The Prototype and Real Life

Earlier today I broke the watch app while I was playing around with data storage. My prototype basically just crashed every time I tried to start it. 

I shrugged this off at first until I wanted to remind myself to grab laundry out of the dryer, and I was ACTUALLY SAD it didn’t work. I can’t say I remember to use RightMeow all that often, but it’s useful enough that it made me sad when I didn’t have access to it and I’m utterly delighted by that.

Tommorow: 

Today was a day filled with lethargy and family obligations, so I basically did the bare-minimum amount of coding possible: adding the ability to change the Right Meow status straight from the phone app. Ahh progress ;D

Tomorrow I’ll get this part all synced up with the watch app and watch extension.

Apptober: Day 4

Today was a short day. I added a Clear Status button to the app so it's easy to clear the current status. It’s kinda big and ugly but that’s ok for right now. Ahh, the peace of a clear conscience status bar.

I also ended up keeping "No Task Right Meow" as the empty state. After a while I got used to it and now it's kinda soothing. We'll see if it stays that way...

Interlude - The Prototype and Real Life 

On a side-note, RightMeow did help me remember that the reason I kept wandering into the kitchen last night was to make tea. Sure, I had to forget, wash the dishes, wander away, and then get frustrated before I remembered I made an app to help fix this problem, but second time was the charm. 

Other than being a hilarious project to work on during Apptober, RightMeow might actually help with tasks like cleaning or packing where I know I tend to get sidetracked as I move throughout the house and from task to task. I usually write the list of tasks I’m going to do on a whiteboard to help me keep on track, but it’s not like I can carry a whiteboard around all the time so I think having the current task right there on my wrist will probably be pretty useful. We’ll see :D

Tomorrow: SIRI INTEGRATION

The best time to research an unfamiliar API is probably not after you've had a beer and while your mom is visiting and playing Zelda Breath of the Wild in the background... but sometimes that's the best time you get, so SiriKit BEGIN.

For all INtents and Purposes

SiriKit is an interesting can of worms; it's definitely a lot more confined than I'd hoped. You can really only configure interactions with Siri as long as your app's functionality falls under certain predefined actions (the API calls these "intents"). These intents include functionality like “booking rides”, “taking notes”, “searching for photos”, and a few others. If your app doesn't fall explicitly in these domains of interactions? Whelp, either you gotta make one of those domains awkwardly work for you, or you gotta wait for Apple to expand their domains (HAHAHAHA).

Since I'm not immortal or even patient, I'm hoping the former option will work well enough and I'll be able to use the AddingNotes or AddingTasks intents for RightMeow (after all, Rightmeow is kinda like a task list with only one task).

TOMORROW

The last day or two I’ve been working on making the syncing of the status between phone and watch work better. Before, the status only transferred reliably when the app was open on both the phone and the watch at the same time - but no more! Background transfers to the rescue!

As you can see in the crappy gif below, setting the status on the watch immediately sends a message to the phone in the background, so when we open the RightMeow app on the phone the status is already synced: 

This also works in reverse - setting the status on the phone will send updates to the watch app even if it’s not currently open. If you have the RightMeow complication installed the status gets sent at a higher priority so that the watch will know to refresh the watch face in a reasonable amount of time:

There is a limited number of times per day that Apple allows data to be transferred from the phone to update the watch complication, but so far I haven’t managed to hit the cap (I think it’s like 50?). We’ll see how well it holds up :D

I’m really liking this feature because setting the watch status from my phone has been super useful in situations where dictating my current task to my watch would be awkward (basically anytime where I’m around people and wouldn’t want to explain why I need my watch to remember what I’m currently doing or about to do). 

Tomorrow:

Apptober: Days 24/25

Woot, I think I’m happy enough with where the RightMeow app is at that I can call it mostly complete! It’s still a little rough around the edges, but it does what I want it do: namely, allowing me to put a reminder on my watch face of the thing I’m supposed to be doing but got distracted from (because damnit ADHD). I particularly like using it for projects that make me fetch things from across the house (like cleaning or packing), but it’s nice to be able to put anything there, too. Sometimes I just like my watch to tell me that I’m awesome or to remind me to appreciate my surroundings.

A Recap on the Fun Things I learned/implemented doing RightMeow:

learned how to build a native WatchKit app that allows users to input a task they don't want to forget right on their watch via dictation (or scribbles!)

built a complication to put the task on the watch face (this is my fav feature by far)

Implemented the Siri Intents extension to give (VERY limited) support for Siri set the status (most disappointing feature TBH - Siri understands me inconsistently at best and not at all at worst)

Used AppGroups to share data between the phone app and its Siri extension (super easy to implement if you’re using NSUserDefaults to store data)

Used WatchConnectivity to sync the status between watch and phone apps (this was especially fun to do)

Things I might still get around to:

The phone app could use a face-lift

Any work at all on the icon or art assets

Maybe I'll list it in the App Store, just in time to be a month late honoring ADHD awareness month 😂

Up Next:

While I've still got some things left to do with RightMeow, most of them are kinda boring and I've been thinking about devoting the remaining days of Apptober to something new and shiny.

I've been thinking I might build a basic AO3 reader app or something since I've had to take a lot of trips lately and it makes me fantasize about reading Dishonored fanfics in style (and also damnit Safari do you have to try to refresh tabs I've already loaded when you KNOW I don't have wifi access?!?!). 

Working on the first draft of adding cancel/done buttons for setting the status on the iphone app. I kinda like this version because the buttons float up above the keyboard when you go to set the status, and the text field centers itself in the middle of the screen all nice-like:

Things get a little more cramped in landscape mode though:

I could make the done/cancel buttons a little smaller, but I’m thinking I might just add the buttons to the inputAccessoryView of the keyboard (the little area that normally recommends words for you to select). I dunno how I feel about this option though - I like having the default accessory view with word recommendations because I hate typing out full words, and it’s still hilarious when iOS picks really stupid suggestions. 

Apptober: Day 15

The Renaissance Fair was excellent this weekend! Dapper hats were bought, delightful beverages were consumed, and dubious puns were made in accents I’m pretty sure no Renaissance-era native on any continent would ever recognize.

As you can tell from the above screenshot of my watch-face the RightMeow prototype is doing a pretty good job at helping me remember what I was just doing. I have several things left to fix, but I think I’m pretty close to wrapping up development on this particular app. Don’t worry though, I’ve still got some ideas left about how to use the rest of Apptober!