iPhone Gas.app working very well...
Christopher Allen
www.gasapp.com -- it demonstrates a full screen dialer for the entry
of your local zip code, and then displays a short list of nearby
stations and their current prices, each with a link to google maps in
the form that will be coerced by the internal google maps app.
A couple of lessons from it:
* Very sweet and simple. Just two screens, one to enter the zip code,
one to display the data. Only 6 taps are required, one for each digit
of the zip, and one to take you to the next page.
* Emulating a full screen dialer for zip code is an effective and fast
way to get the user started. No keyboard is required to be "popped up"
to enter just simple numbers. (I'm also wondering if that isn't the
best way to do less secure passwords and such rather then full-text
passwords for the iPhone, which are becoming quite tedious.)
* The second page lists only nearest 6 stations, and there is no
scrolling, and no input is required of the user. The only clickable
areas are a bar at the top for returning to the dialer, and 6 map
images to go to google maps.
* A simple paypal link as he has at the top of the page may be a good
way to get a little revenue to pay for our development.
Some minor quibbles:
* I note that the author doesn't disable scaling in his viewport tag.
However, since there is no text entry he isn't running into the
post-text-entry scaling problem that many of us are encountering.
* The dialer is just a little off, with white space to bottom and
right. The second page has a similar problem but it is less visible.
* I'd probably have figured out how to put the paypal link on the
second page, as that is the page where the viewer gets the reward of
cheaper gas and might be tempted to pay.
* Like a number of us are encountering, landscape/horizontal
orientation doesn't work very well.
I'd like to encourage the author to join us in our
www.iPhoneWebDev.com community and tell us about his experience! Or
show up at the www.iPhoneDevCamp.com next Friday in SF.
-- Christopher Allen
Jeffrey903
I am the author of Gas.app. First, I would like to thank you for your
flattering comments. I put a lot of time into polishing Gas.app and
am glad that it is being appreciated. I have applied some of the
suggestions (no user resizing and move the donate button to the prices
page).
I also have been trying to get it to take up the entire screen
perfectly, but I can't get it to work. I have tried making the
viewport width smaller/larger, and it doesn't do anything. Does
anyone have any suggestions for getting that to work?
Also, if you try out the app on a computer, when you submit the zip
code, the keypad "scrolls up", revealing the gas prices. However,
when I try this on my iPhone, it seems that the browser is too slow to
keep up with that and just skips it. Does everyone experience this?
Is there a way to get this effect to work on the iPhone? Or should I
just remove it to reduce the overall download size? (I also just
optimized the CSS and JS by removing whitespace to help the download
speeds over EDGE, which actually isn't as bad as I thought it would
be).
-- Jeff
On Jul 1, 10:35 pm, "Christopher Allen"
<Christoph...@iPhoneWebDev.com> wrote:
> One of the better working iPhone webapps that I've seen so far iswww.gasapp.com-- it demonstrates a full screen dialer for the entry
> I'd like to encourage the author to join us in ourwww.iPhoneWebDev.comcommunity and tell us about his experience! Or
> show up at thewww.iPhoneDevCamp.comnext Friday in SF.
>
> -- Christopher Allen
David Cann
Yea, I'm having the same problems with very slow JavaScript
performance. I suspect that the phone just isn't fast enough to
handle animation in software rendering. The smooth motion in other
apps is probably some version of Core Animation and has special
hardware tie-ins. Flash also does all-software rendering and is
processor intensive, so it would make sense that it wasn't able to be
implemented.
-d
On Jul 1, 11:16 pm, Jeffrey903 <yankees...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I am the author of Gas.app. First, I would like to thank you for your
> flattering comments. I put a lot of time into polishing Gas.app and
> am glad that it is being appreciated. I have applied some of the
> suggestions (no user resizing and move the donate button to the prices
> page).
>
> I also have been trying to get it to take up the entire screen
> perfectly, but I can't get it to work. I have tried making the
> viewport width smaller/larger, and it doesn't do anything. Does
> anyone have any suggestions for getting that to work?
>
> Also, if you try out the app on a computer, when you submit the zip
> code, the keypad "scrolls up", revealing the gas prices. However,
> when I try this on my iPhone, it seems that the browser is too slow to
> keep up with that and just skips it. Does everyone experience this?
> Is there a way to get this effect to work on the iPhone? Or should I
> just remove it to reduce the overall download size? (I also just
> optimized the CSS and JS by removing whitespace to help the download
> speeds over EDGE, which actually isn't as bad as I thought it would
> be).
>
> -- Jeff
>
> On Jul 1, 10:35 pm, "Christopher Allen"
>
> <Christoph...@iPhoneWebDev.com> wrote:
> > One of the better working iPhone webapps that I've seen so far iswww.gasapp.com--it demonstrates a full screen dialer for the entry
> > I'd like to encourage the author to join us in ourwww.iPhoneWebDev.comcommunityand tell us about his experience! Or
> > show up at thewww.iPhoneDevCamp.comnextFriday in SF.
>
> > -- Christopher Allen
Steve Streza
your content's height is bigger than the display's height (for the
scroll bars). One possibility is to use Iframes to display content in
the smaller box, but I haven't gotten it to work yet. Has anyone else
tried using fixed-width Iframes?
Steve
Jeffrey903
code that goes with it. I also found some more javascript that I
could consolidate to reduce the file sizes.
If anybody has any more suggestions for me, please let me know.
> > > One of the better working iPhone webapps that I've seen so far iswww.gasapp.com--itdemonstrates a full screen dialer for the entry
> > > I'd like to encourage the author to join us in ourwww.iPhoneWebDev.comcommunityandtell us about his experience! Or
Christopher Allen
> I just removed the javascript effect for the scrolling, and all of the
> code that goes with it. I also found some more javascript that I
> could consolidate to reduce the file sizes.
>
> If anybody has any more suggestions for me, please let me know.
Just took a look at gas.app again today, and had few minor comments:
Main page:
* You should consider hiding the URL. The best script for this so far is:
<script>function
do_onload(){setTimeout(function(){window.scrollTo(0,1);},100);}
if(navigator.userAgent.indexOf("iPhone")!=-1)window.onload=do_onload;</script>
* In every iPhone internal app that presents the dialer, the backspace
button is on the right, not the left.
* Clicking on Gas.app should reveal some information about this app,
what is it, who wrote it, and another link to your paypal ;-)
Second page:
* If you hide the URL bar, you can get a 7th gas station in.
* Since there is no button to go back (because of putting the paypal
button in its place), to go back you end up hitting the back button on
the safari bar. However, since this is an ajax app, the back page
isn't the dialer ui, it is whatever the page is that you were at
before going to gas.app. This is a common ajax problem, just search in
google for "ajax back button fix" and you'll find quite a few possible
solutions. If you do find one that works on the iPhone, let us know!
* In each row of information, it feels like the text at the bottom
(i.e. the city state) is too close to the dividing line and not
centered vertically enough. Or put another way, the white space at top
seems bigger then the white space at the btoom.
* The text "reg" "plus" "prem" doesn't exactly line up with the $
amounts. Seems like they should be higher. May be related to my
previous observation.
* I'd love you to implement landscape orientation restyling, but that
is more just me being a perfectionist, and because I do laud your app
as one of the best exemplars of iPhone webapp UI out there.
-- Christopher Allen
DRichPro...@gmail.com
Other features that would be really great (but hard to implement)
* I didn't look to see where you are getting the prices, but if you
would allow them to click on the price, and then update them, that
would be great
* Also have the ability to update the list by adding a new gas station
* Maybe show the date when the price for each gas station was updated
* I don't really see any reason to limit the number of gas stations to
6-7, you could just make a list of a certain radius and scroll.
* too bad iPhone doesn't allow uploading of pictures, because you
could have people upload a picture of the gas station.
(maybe you could create a link, and have them e-mail you a picture
instead with the name in the subject)
* Also a favorites list of gas stations would be nice
* A "trip list" of gas stations, you enter a start and end address,
and then you display the cheapest gas stations on that route. Would
be helpful for those taking long trips so that if gas is real
expensive in one state, you would know to stop and get gas before
crossing the state line.
* A graph for each gas station, kinda like in the "stocks" app that
shows the price history
BUGS
* Don't allow less than 5 digits for the zip code
* Like CA said, really need a way to go back to the zip code part from
the list
* Also when you type in 5 digits and then try to type in a 6th, the
backspace lights up. Maybe need another way to inform the user that 5
digits have been entered.
* When you enter a zip, then delete it, the words "Zip Code" doesn't
come back.
* Also when you rotate to landscape, then rotate back, then everything
is screwed up.
That's all for now,
D. Rich
On Jul 4, 1:39 am, "Christopher Allen" <Christoph...@iPhoneWebDev.com>
wrote:
Jeffrey903
I just made a few minor improvements:
* About box with donation line
* Deleting all digits puts back "Zip Code"
* Will not submit with less than 5 digits for the zipcode (uses
javascript alert, but does anybody know of a way to make it so the
title of the alert is not "JavaScript", or is that just something I am
going to be forced to live with?)
I will look into fixing the back button (I have always known about
this, just didn't get around to trying to fix it. The easiest fix
might just be to make it a new page, especially now that I am no
longer using the javascript scroll effect).
I will also try to get the station prices and address to line up
better, but that is for another day.
On Jul 4, 2:16 am, "DRichProducti...@gmail.com"
D. Rich
You could then make the zip code page very lean, and then load the
search results page while it is getting the data.
Also when the address for a gas station is long, try (28215), then
everything gets screwed up.
D. Rich
sorahn
improvement would be a way to bookmark it with my zip code already in
place.
Like, bookmark the second page. So i'd have a bookmark for each of
the zipcodes around me, and i could just load one of those pages, and
be able to see what the gas price is with out loading the first page.
If that makes sense.
Also, i think what you're looking for in terms of it taking up the
whole page is here : http://www.joehewitt.com/files/liquid1.html
Other then that, Fantastic job.