android2cloud 2.0 beta

[Paddy Foran]

Hey everyone,

First off, my apologies. I know the next version of android2cloud has become vaporware in many people's minds, and I apologise for the delay in getting it to you. I also apologise for the lack of polish and functionality. This is still a little rough, but it gets the job done. Certain things (like the Chrome extension install) show where I want this to be going, and hopefully I'll get there in the next couple of weeks. But I'm pushing this release out, for reasons that will become clear on January 1st. Which brings me to my last apology: I apologise for such a short beta period. I'll be releasing this to the general public January 1st, at 12:01am EST. That's just under 72 hours from when I'm sending this message out. This timeline is inexcusable, but things have been set in motion that I can't halt, and thus I need to release what I have then. And probably spend the next two weeks patching and rewriting all of it. :)

Now that all the bad news is out of the way, let's move on to the good news:

• The Android app is the same one you know and love, with a few bugfixes and a (probably annoying) extra step: entering a Device name. This lets you target an installation of android2cloud when sharing links. If you neglect to enter a Device name, it assumes you want to send to "Chrome"
  
• The Android app now has a proper settings screen, complete with "Advanced Mode" for those who want multiple accounts and non-default servers
• The Android app now sports a (very beta) built-in PayPal donation screen. It's in sandbox mode right now, so feel free to create a sandbox account with paypal (see the documentation: https://www.x.com/docs/DOC-1379) and donate fake money to the app. I'm tracking it on an App Engine server, and will be doing some fun stuff with that.
• The Chrome extension has been rewritten, basically from scratch. It now uses App Engine's Channel API, so our servers can breathe a sigh of relief-- I hope. This also turns that annoying 15 second wait into a near-instantaneous thing, which is cool.
• The Chrome extension sports a brand new install wizard, which guides users through setting up the extension and links to the Android device, along with other places of note.
• The server has been rewritten from scratch, and uses the aforementioned Channel API to be fast as all hell. It also now sports a web interface you can use to send links between Chrome windows, using the same backend and interface. It even allows for comments, which the extensions support with HTML5 notifications.
• The server and the extension now will open all of the links you've sent since the last link Chrome opened for you, letting you queue up links.
• Chrome now has actual settings! You can change the host and a few other settings without needing to compile it yourself.
• I went through the bug reports on Google Code, and closed a lot of the reports in this version. From random tweaks ("Doesn't work on 3G") to huge overhauls ("Better Chrome install experience"), I tried to make this version fix a lot of the problems that existed.

All that said, I know there are some bugs that remain, that I'll be stamping out over the next couple of days:

• The page that lets you take credit for your donation returns an error right now. I'm aware of this, know the cause, and just need to write the solution in.
• The Chrome extension actually allows you to share your current page at the moment. That, along with the icon, will be removed before launch. It will be implemented in a later release.
• The Android application gives two empty Toast messages after sending links. That, too, will be fixed.
• The Chrome extension's settings page has no style applied to it, along with a bunch of deprecated/erroneous/unused settings. Those will be fixed.
• There are a lot of dead links on the install page. Those will either be fixed, removed, or have placeholder pages put up.

Long term goals:

• Make selecting which device to send to more intuitive, by providing a select box that is synchronised with the server to display possible devices.
• Allow sending links from Chrome
• Allow sending links to friends
• Moving authentication in Android from the app into the Android default browser
• A 2.2+ version of android2cloud, with the Accounts API and C2DM implemented
• Firefox
• A major refactoring of all the codebases. I'm ashamed of how nasty all of the code that went into this beta release is. It's impenetrable, has no rhyme or reason, and is just flat-out embarrassing. Getting them up to speed so other people can contribute is a priority, in my mind.

Speaking of my horrendous code, if you're interested in the source behind these releases, it's on our new Github page: http://github.com/android2cloud. You'll find the various projects/clients/servers/etc. there, and the code for them is usually in the "development" branch.

You'll also notice we now have a page on Tender, which is where help.android2cloud.org links. I'm increasing my support and organising the ways I can be reached a little with this release, and 1/1/11 will make the reasoning behind it obvious.

Thanks for all your hard work, guys, and I hope you enjoy this latest release. You can find the Android app here: http://goo.gl/MFtku and the extension here: http://goo.gl/2DFLp

Thanks,

Paddy Foran

android2cloud slacker

[Paddy Foran]

Ah, two notes I forgot:

First, I'm aware that the extension keeps popping open the install page every time you start the browser/restart the extension. I'll fix that in the morning, when I've rested a little.

Second, I'm going to be increasing the amount of data gathered by the Analytics software. I'll be including more device-specific features, to the extent that they're possible. Things like version of Android, device hardware, etc. Non-personally-identifying information, of course, and it won't be linked to your user account at any time.

Thanks,
Paddy Foran

[Vladimir Kelman]

"It also now sports a web interface you can use to send links between Chrome windows"

"Allow sending links to friends"

So, it'll be like I'm sitting at my computer at work (or my Nexus One) and can instantly send a screen to my wife sitting at his PC at home?

Sounds really cool.

[Paddy Foran]

That's the plan--- eventually. It won't be enabled in this release (I actually have the server hard-coded to send only to the person sending the link) but the infrastructure is all there for it. I just need to write the software that will handle designating "friends" who are allowed to send you links, and assembling friends in groups to select whether the link just opens, you're prompted, or the link is ignored. In other words, I just need to make sure it can't be abused before I can release it. :)

Thanks,
Paddy Foran

[Paddy Foran]

Hi everyone,

Just an update. The Chrome extension is now updated to work as it will at launch. I fixed the Settings page to use the template, I updated the links in the Settings and Setup pages, and the Setup page will only pop open if you have not completed it yet.

The extension is still available at http://goo.gl/2DFLp. I suggest if you downloaded the previous version, you update. If you haven't downloaded it yet, please do.

I'll be posting updates to the Android client as they become available. Thanks for your help and work, and please do reply here if you have a bug to report.

Thanks,

Paddy Foran

[Vladimir Kelman]

Thank you!
Personally, I already use your app daily.

Vladimir Kelman
http://goo.gl/hRgS
Sent from Google Nexus One

[Eric Mill]

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get it working, and I have some
usability feedback besides.

* When I install the app, it informs me I don't have an account set
up. When I click "Let's Go", it takes me to a settings screen where
the "Add New Account" button is greyed out, until I figure out that I
need to tap Advanced Mode. This isn't good, it should take me directly
to an Add Account screen or popup.

* When I click "Add New Account" (subtitle "Add a Google account") it
takes me to a screen where the field that I should enter my email into
is called "Account" and has the word "Default" prepopulated. Since
"Default" would never be a valid email address, and by it being there
it makes "Account" ambiguous (I had to read the instructions a couple
times) -- I would change the word "Account:" to "Account email:", and
change the text field to have no text pre-populated, but to have hint
text that says "Your Google account" (or something like that).

* Is the android:inputType on the Account text field set to
textEmailAddress? My keyboard (Swype) tries to capitalize the email,
and doesn't offer the @ sign prominently, as it does when an email
field is encountered.

* After entering my account email, the button is "Save" - I think it
should be something like "Connect" or "Connect your account", since it
takes the user to a sign in screen to do that.

* After signing in to my Google account and granting access, there's
no feedback - there should be at least a toast message saying
"_____@gmail.com has been connected to your account".

* My biggest suggestion by far is to let the user register "devices"
ahead of time with the app, and then select them from a "dropdown"
(Spinner), rather than a free text field on the main screen.

* Finally, after setting up my Google account (kproj...@gmail.com),
and trying to send "http://google.com" to the device "Home Chrome",
which is what I named Chrome on my home desktop, I got a toast message
saying something about "NotFound", making me think it got a 404
somewhere. I tried hitting "Send" again to reproduce the error
message, but future taps of the Send button did nothing.

* The "Device" field needs to remember the last used device name -
typing it in each time is way annoying.

* I also just got an ANR message upon opening the app, not sure what I
did to generate it.

Sorry for the litany of problems and critiques! Just trying to help an
awesome project. =)

-- Eric

[Mark Powell]

Regarding the android2cloud app setup procedures I am having the identical outcome/experience as Eric. Thanks Eric I appreciate you writing it all out you covered everything that I wanted to convey.

Mark Powell
Twitter @BodyMarks

[Paddy Foran]

I appreciate all the information! I'll try to address them below:

1. Absolutely right. I may not be able to include it in this release, but I'll do my best. If not, I'll do an update in a couple of days with it. At the very least, I'll put the device in Advanced Mode at the beginning, and then turn it off after the first account is added.

2. The account field is actually supposed to just hold a name you can recognise the application by. The application, actually, never knows what your email address is. The reason it asks for an arbitrary name (like "Default") instead of an email address is because it's feasible that you could have the same email address associated with two different hosts. So how could you tell the difference between them? I'll try to name it something like "Account Name" or something that makes this a little clearer.

3. Nope. See 2.

4. That sounds reasonable to me. I'll make the change.

5. Also reasonable. I'll include that in my changelist.

6. I agree 100%. That was, actually, the original plan, but I ran out of time to implement it. That, too, will have to be an update in the next few days.

7. No idea what happened there. I'm going to have to look at the server log and see what happened there. The Send button not working past the first send I have noticed, and am trying to find a fix.

8. Definitely doable, and I'll work on implementing that tonight.

9. Unfortunately, there's not a whole lot I can do about that. I'd need a little more information before I could debug an ANR, and would have to figure out how to reproduce it. I'll try to reproduce it, but I'd appreciate any information anyone has on this.

Don't worry about the litany of problems-- I'd rather have them now than Sunday. :) Thanks for working with this for me, and your helpful writeup.

Thanks,
Paddy Foran

[Paddy Foran]

I've looked into the 404, and I just want to confirm that everyone is using the android2cloud-dev.appspot.com host. I can't seem to find a 404 on /addlink (where the Android app sends links) on the development server, but there are some on the android2cloud.appspot.com server (which makes sense, as it doesn't have the new software yet). Can everyone who got a 404 just chime in and confirm the host they were using?

Also, in looking through the logs, I found a few error reports. So thanks for testing this out, guys- you've already shown me some holes in the server software.

Thanks,
Paddy Foran

[Eric Mill]

Oh - I was not using android2cloud-dev.appspot.com, I was using
android2cloud.appspot.com. My apologies if I missed some instructions
somewhere - I just used what the app defaulted to.

-- Eric

[Paddy Foran]

I'm sorry, I probably forgot to include it in the instructions when I released it. Sorry for the confusion. :) Let me know how using android2cloud-dev turns out for you. :)

Thanks,
Paddy Foran

[Mark Powell]

Hi Paddy, 

I am now using android2cloud-dev.appspot.com. When I put in a URL and the device I want it to go to and hit send  the phone app opens a toast message that doesn't doesn't quite open and has no visible  text. Subsequently hitting send does nothing. I will send a tweet with screenshot showing what the toast message looks like.

I notice that setup of the app directs you to settings where your options are Silent Sending and Advanced Mode (which is described as being for power users/multiple accounts). You have to select Advanced Mode in order to enter information under Accounts (accounts stays greyed out otherwise). Once Advanced Mode is selected the first entry under Accounts "Account" which when selected just says "Cancel" since nothing has been entered yet. So you go to "Add New Account" where you can now put in your email account and Host I just used default. For me it was confusing, for a new user I think would be confusing. Hope this helps.

Thanks,

Mark Powell

[Luis Abreu]

I'm having the same issues as Mark.

The Chrome 2 Phone app has a well done first run setup, there are probably a couple of ideas worth copying.

[Paddy Foran]

Hey Luis,

I fixed up the installation in the new release. You can find it in the market. Let me know what you think.

Thanks,
Paddy Foran

[Luis Abreu]

Hey Paddy,

I removed the apk I had downloaded from this thread and installed the one on the market. Setup went okay but it still refused to work, restarting chrome didn't fix it so I reinstalled the extension from the first post and all the pages that were on queue opened up right after the extension setup.

Everything's working great except the silent sending.

[Paddy Foran]

Luis,

You should stick with the released version of the extension-- it will update when I issue updates, whereas the one I linked to here won't.

Can you tell me what "Setup went ok but it still refused to work" means? Link sending worked but the Chrome install didn't? Did you reach step 5 of the setup procedure? If you did, could you tell me the values of your config and channel variables?

To get the values of the variable, open your chrome://extensions page, enable developer mode, click background under android2cloud, go to the console tab, and type in "channel" and "config", respectively.

Thanks,
Paddy Foran

[Luis Abreu]

Hey,

Heh, sorry for the confusion.

"You should stick with the released version of the extension-- it will update when I issue updates, whereas the one I linked to here won't."

Done, for both extension and client.

"Can you tell me what "Setup went ok but it still refused to work" means? Link sending worked but the Chrome install didn't? Did you reach step 5 of the setup procedure? If you did, could you tell me the values of your config and channel variables?"

That's what I meant, and I completed the setup each time I reinstall the extension. I've since moved to the official releases and the only issue I have now is the silent sending option that isn't working.

[Vladimir Kelman]

Paddy,

In Android Market there are two Android2Cloud applications, one free and one paid. Are they functionally equivalent so that only one should be installed?

(android2cloud doesn't work to me anymore; I have an app from Android Market and Chrome Extension too)

--
Vladimir Kelman
http://www.google.com/profiles/vkelman

[James]

As far as I'm aware, yes - the two are functionally equivalent, one
just gives an option to donate to Paddy.

Paddy is releasing an update for the Chrome extension soon to address
some issues from the newest release. See http://blog.android2cloud.org
for more detail

On Jan 4, 2:47 pm, Vladimir Kelman <vkel...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Paddy,
> In Android Market there are two Android2Cloud applications, one free and one
> paid. Are they functionally equivalent so that only one should be installed?
>
> (android2cloud doesn't work to me anymore; I have an app from Android Market
> and Chrome Extension too)
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sun, Jan 2, 2011 at 3:42 PM, Paddy Foran <foran.pa...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Luis,
>
> > You should stick with the released version of the extension-- it will
> > update when I issue updates, whereas the one I linked to here won't.
>
> > Can you tell me what "Setup went ok but it still refused to work" means?
> > Link sending worked but the Chrome install didn't? Did you reach step 5 of
> > the setup procedure? If you did, could you tell me the values of your config
> > and channel variables?
>
> > To get the values of the variable, open your chrome://extensions page,
> > enable developer mode, click background under android2cloud, go to the
> > console tab, and type in "channel" and "config", respectively.
>
> > Thanks,
> > Paddy Foran
>

> > On Sun, Jan 2, 2011 at 3:38 PM, Luis Abreu <lmjab...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >> Hey Paddy,
>
> >> I removed the apk I had downloaded from this thread and installed the one
> >> on the market. Setup went okay but it still refused to work, restarting
> >> chrome didn't fix it so I reinstalled the extension from the first post and
> >> all the pages that were on queue opened up right after the extension setup.
>
> >> Everything's working great except the silent sending.
>
> --

> Vladimir Kelmanhttp://www.google.com/profiles/vkelman- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Jason Janisch]

Just to let you know Paddy, I have installed the market version an updated by client on chrome. The only issue I am seeing now is that it has me hit the send button every time I send a URL to the cloud. I have chosen silent sending in the preferences and it still makes me hit the send button.

Other than that the 2.0 version seems to be the working okay for me. Thank you so much for your amazing app and keep up the good work!

[Paddy Foran]

Vladimir: See James' response. Thanks for the help, James. :)

Jason: Thanks for the kind words. Sorry you're having issues with Silent Send. :( I'm trying to get that fixed, and one last Chrome bug, and I'll be updating everything so it (hopefully) works as advertised.

Thanks,
Paddy Foran

[- Fяqηк - Z]

After the Silent Send fix, I'm having an annoying problem in Chrome.  Now, every time I open Chrome, it will act like I just installed the extension.  Two extra tabs will now open: the first is an introduction page to android2cloud, and the second is that last link I sent from my phone.  Is this a bug or something wrong on my end?

---

From: foran...@gmail.com
Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2011 22:55:31 -0500
Subject: Re: android2cloud 2.0 beta
To: android2c...@googlegroups.com

[Paddy Foran]

Bug, sorry about that. I'll be issuing a fix tonight.

Sorry. I realise this has been a bumpy week.

Thanks,
Paddy Foran

2011/1/6 - Fяqηк - Z <frank...@live.ca>

[- Fяqηк - Z]

No problem.  You've been doing a great job man, and I'm sure I speak for a lot of people when I say I appreciate the work you've put in.

Regards,

Frank

---

From: foran...@gmail.com
Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2011 19:44:55 -0500