Announcing my Android DPChallenge widget!

05/08/2011 12:30:37 PM · #1

I have seen the requests on the forums for the past few months, so now I am delighted to announce my DP Challenge monitoring widget for Android phones! (for v2.1 and above--earlier versions don't have the widget functionality I use).

I spent the last few weeks working very hard on this (and pestering

vawendy,

tanguera,

idealodds,

Yo_Spiff,

kenskid and

fotomann_forever for feedback about it--thanks to them for being such good beta testers! And thanks to

Bear_Music for proof the documentation!), and I hope people here find it useful, easy to use and that it feeds your addictions :-)

Here are some screenshots:

You can install the app to your phone by searching for DPChallenge on the market, or by clicking here.

If ye feel that the quality of the application is sufficient to donate a few bucks towards the time and effort I have put on this please select the donation option in the preferences screen.
If not use it anyway--that's why it's there! :)

Hope ye like it!

Message edited by author 2011-05-11 15:54:22.

Nikon AF-S DX Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G

05/08/2011 12:30:47 PM · #2

Documentation...

SUMMARY:
The DP Challenge application is a home screen widget that takes up 4x2 icon cells. To add the widget to the homescreen either 1. long click on an empty portion of the homescreen; a window will pop up. Select "Widgets". A second window will pop up from there; select "DP Challenge Monitoring Widget" and you're done, Or 2. You can press the settings button when on the homescreen and add the widget by that means (see your phone's documentation for more detailed information).

To use the widget you must first enter the preferences window of the widget. Do this by clicking on the gear button

on the widget. Enter your username and password in the appropriate fields and you are set up to use the widget.

MODES OF OPERATION:
The widget has two modes of operation, which can be selected by pressing either of the "auto-refresh toggle" buttons.(

)

Auto-refresh off: In this mode the widget does nothing unless directed to by you; the auto-refresh state toggle button is set to green

(green meaning pressing it will turn auto-refresh on). If you wish to refresh your scores while in this state you must press the manual update button

; this will will update your scores (if changes are available) and display the results in the result table area. If changes in the score of your entry are detected and notifications are enabled (see reference below) you will be notified of changes.

Auto-refresh on: In this mode the widget will refresh the scores automatically at a frequency defined by the parameter "update interval" in the preferences. When auto refreshing is on, the auto-refresh button is red like so

(red meaning pressing it will turn auto-refresh off). Pressing the manual update button

while in this state will refresh the scores, and notify you if appropriate, but will not change the next refresh interval, and detected changes in score will be displayed on the results table area.

REFERENCE:
Below details every feature of the widget.

Widget screenshots:

Five buttons are available on the widget:

The DP Challenge ribbon:
When you click on this the default web browser on your android phone will be brought to DP Challenge's homepage

The envelope:
When you click on this the default web browser on your android phone will be brought to DP Challenge's private message inbox

The blue arrows:
Clicking on this button will refresh your scores on DP Challenge, parse the scores/views/votes etc and display them on the table.

The gear button:
This button will open up various settings and options that are available for the widget (to be discussed later).

The green/red intertwined arrows:
Pressing this button will either start or stop an automated refresh service. The refresh period is defined by the "refresh interval" settings option.
When the button is green it means that the refresh service can be turned on.
When it's red it means the refresh service can be turned off.

The table area:
Here is where your scores are shown (by default the number of views, number of votes, number of comments, number of favourites, and your average score are shown, but these can be removed, if desired, in the preference window). Clicking on the score column will bring you to the image page where you can view your comments.

Each time the scores are refreshed the widget determines whether the values of the table have gone up or down. If they have gone up a green arrow points up

, and if they have gone down, the arrow points down

.

NOTIFICATIONS:
These settings can be found in the preferences window (they are probably of more interest than a lot of the other preferences so are documented first).

PM notification preferences:
Notify for PMs:
Ticking this option will push a notification in the pull-down notification bar on the top of the android screen. Clicking the notification will bring you to the messages page in the same fashion as clicking the messaging icon on the widget does.

Vibrate notification:
Ticking this option will cause the phone to vibrate when the application detects unread private messages.

Pop-up notification:
Ticking this option will cause a small passive pop-up window to appear informing you of an unread PM in your message inbox.

Keep message icon on:
If this option is ticked it will keep the message icon on the widget visible at all times. If it is not ticked the message icon on the widget will be hidden when there are no unread PMs.

Score notification preferences:
Notify for score change:
Same as "Notify for PMs" but for changes of your scores.

Vibration notification;
Same as "Vibration notification" for PMs, but for changes of your scores.

Pop-up notification:
Same as "Pop-up notification" for PMs, but for changes in score.

Notify for:
When a change is detected in the fields you have ticked, you will be notified by the means selected of the change.

PREFERENCES:

Username:
Type in your DP Challenge username here

Password:
Type in your DP Challenge password here

Refresh Interval:
Set the refresh interval here. Default value is 15 minutes. The shorter the value, the more the widget uses the phone's services, and the more battery is used. I use 15 minutes and don't notice any battery issues.
You can press the blue refresh button when the refresh service is running without causing any problems.

Text colour:
The colour of the text used for the table display.

Text size:
The size of the text used for the table display.

Embolden text:
Use bold text for the table.

Show competition fields:
Choose which of the score fields to show on the widget--from views, votes, average score, number of comments and number of favourites (all shown by default).

Show change arrows:
Not all of the score change arrows are useful--the views and votes elements will never go downwards. This preference will allow you to choose which rows of the table display the change arrows (all shown by default).

Maintain score arrows:
Your resulting values will not always change when you refresh your scores. When this option is ticked the score-change arrows that pertained to the last change in score will persist until another change is detected. If this option is not selected if no change in score is detected all the score-change arrows will be removed from the results table, as no change has occurred.

Show short names:
When entered in several challenges simultaneously it may be useful to use shorter names for challenges. Ticking this option will restrict the challenge names displayed on the widget to 6 characters.

Show short scores:
Same as the "show short names" option, but for the data making up the table instead.

Message edited by author 2011-05-08 12:37:04.

bmartuch

Nikon D7200

05/08/2011 12:36:12 PM · #3

I will definitely check this out.

bmartuch

Nikon D7200

Nikon AF-S DX Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G

05/08/2011 12:39:09 PM · #4

I'm not finding it in the market.

05/08/2011 12:40:20 PM · #5

Searching for:
dpchallenge
brings it up for me.

You can also install it from the Internet. Go here https://market.android.com/details?id=com.NiallOTuama.dpChallenge&feature=search_result and click install. It should come up on your phone like that.

fotomann_forever

05/08/2011 12:40:25 PM · #6

The app really does work great. Nice to not have to go to DPC just to check my score when one the go.

kenskid

Nikon D700

Nikon AF-S DX Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G

05/08/2011 01:02:43 PM · #7

It is working nicely for me ! Thanks

bmartuch

Nikon D7200

05/08/2011 01:06:44 PM · #8

Originally posted by NiallOTuama:

I found it. It's "dp challenge" not "dpchallenge"

05/08/2011 01:29:04 PM · #9

Originally posted by bmartuch:

Originally posted by NiallOTuama:
Searching for:
dpchallenge
brings it up for me.

You can also install it from the Internet. Go here https://market.android.com/details?id=com.NiallOTuama.dpChallenge&feature=search_result and click install. It should come up on your phone like that.

I found it. It's "dp challenge" not "dpchallenge"

oh. Excellent. Sorry about the slight confusion. Let us know what you think. My favourite part is the pm notification.

kenskid

Nikon D700

Nikon AF Nikkor 85mm f/1.8D

05/08/2011 01:30:52 PM · #10

I hope no one on the SC insults your Spelling errors....!!! :)

Originally posted by NiallOTuama:

Originally posted by bmartuch:

Originally posted by NiallOTuama:
Searching for:
dpchallenge
brings it up for me.

You can also install it from the Internet. Go here https://market.android.com/details?id=com.NiallOTuama.dpChallenge&feature=search_result and click install. It should come up on your phone like that.

I found it. It's "dp challenge" not "dpchallenge"

oh. Excellent. Sorry about the slight confusion. Let us know what you think. My favourite part is the pm notification.

SEG

Nikon D7100

05/08/2011 01:40:12 PM · #11

Nice work. Looks like some time has gone into this.

jbsmithana

Nikon D300

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 12-24mm f/4.0G IF-ED

05/08/2011 04:12:42 PM · #12

Looks good and thanks for the work. I'll give it a try on my next entry and decide if I want to use it, if so I'll buy the paid version to help support the cause.

obscurity

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX85

Olympus 30mm M.Zuiko Digital ED F3.5 Macro

05/08/2011 04:16:07 PM · #13

I'm downloading it right now

Comes out to $2.90 for me but looks worth it.

Message edited by author 2011-05-08 16:18:39.

Abra

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

05/08/2011 04:49:00 PM · #14

Just downloaded it and it's gone through it's first update and seem to work perfectly. What can I say but thanks

NiallOTuama, this is great! Now if only I had scores worth looking at :-)

MattO

Nikon D4

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II

05/08/2011 04:59:03 PM · #15

I downloaded it up and it won't open up. It says it installed but open is greyed out and it's not on my list. Android 2.2 on an HTC Evo

Matt

tryals15

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II

Carl Zeiss Planar T 50mm f/1.7

05/08/2011 05:00:42 PM · #16

Originally posted by MattO:

I downloaded it up and it won't open up. It says it installed but open is greyed out and it's not on my list. Android 2.2 on an HTC Evo

Matt

Same.

alanfreed

Nikon D6

Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM

05/08/2011 05:10:33 PM · #17

Not to be the wet blanket type, but I gotta ask the question... was this done with permission from Langdon/Drew (DPC owners)? I haven't seen any mention that it was done with permission, and that makes me a little concerned about possible TOS violations, particularly since you're asking for donations for it (and it has the potential to increase loads on the database, etc.).

Don't get me wrong, I think this is an awesome thing, and I've often hoped for such a thing for my Droid... but I'm hoping you went through the right channels to do it.

Cory

Canon EOS-1D Mark IV

05/08/2011 05:19:45 PM · #18

Originally posted by alanfreed:

IIRC, he's still waiting to hear back from the big L on the first application he created... No reason to submit a ticket on the second one until he's heard back about the first right? Then again, maybe I'm wrong, and Langdon did reply - I just don't recall reading about it.

Adz

Nikon D80

Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II

05/08/2011 05:23:06 PM · #19

I really admire you making this, great job! Shame I don't have a android :(

alanfreed

Nikon D6