Beta testing

[Gareth Evans]

You can join (or leave) the beta testing group at:
https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.garethevans.church.opensongtablet

This will let you test upcoming features and bug fixes.
V4.1.1 is available here and has improved image scaling and support for multiple sub folder organisation of the Songs folder.

Gareth

[Alistair Baty]

OpenSong crashes when I try to start it on my Samsung Galaxy 5. Occurs since the last update. Tried clearing the cache, that did not help. Tried deleting the OpenSong data folder, when the app starts it gets to the welcome screen where you can select a folder for storing the data and sets out as a clean install. Tried a few locations but every time the app startup continues it crashes. Sent crash report.

[MalcolmMcConnor]

Thanks for the beta testing program.

Yesterday I made use of latest beta with our sing team. I admit - up to now I mostly use the pdf Part so I will give feedback on this for now:

a) 4.1.2 - did I miss what was changed? couldnt find a changelog

b) Songselect import works for pdfs. but even text based (leadsheets) pdfs wont get their text extracted! I tried also with tapping on the song title in perfomance mode. It will only detect the lower part of the pdf with CCLI Number and Copyright and so on... My pdfs are in German with the according Part Infos like "Vers 1", "Chorus" and so on... might that be the problem?

c) Flipping the pages on pdf works fast. A problem is the title bar popping in on every page for a second or so covering the uper line of text and chords on the page for one or two seconds. An option to switch that off (at least to have it only on the first page of each pdf) would be very helpsome...

d) If you have multiple pages on a pdf it can be tedious to go back to one of the first pages if you reached the end (flip back 10 pages...) Perhaps there could be a transparent page indicator somehow to select the page to jump to in the pdf...

e) Making notes in the pdf is much better with 5 px width - Thank you! There remain some hickups though  - If you accidentally hit the bin icon everything is deleted without confirmation... Working with a pen you can't rest the palm on screen for proper drawing / writing because that will also draw on the canvas. A button for "only draw with stylus" would be helpful...

f) If you rotate a pdf with notes the notes will be significantly off their position. It seems zooming is not consistent in the pdf and markup plane. somehow...

It really is fun to work with the app and not having to fiddle around with all that pages. I am very excited as to where the app is going... Thanks again for supporting ministry, Gareth.

Greetings from Stuttgart, Germany

[Gareth Evans]

Thanks for your feedback Malcolm!
I'll answer what I can....

a.  The change log should be on Google play store.  I've only included the production release on the website for now, but, your right, I should put it there too.  Changes are that the app now supports unlimited song sub directories.  This resulted in a big chafe to the coffee, so is the main reason for beta testing.  Also, highlighting positioing should now be better and pdf files now have different landscape and portrait notes available.  Some other bugs that causes crashes were fixed.

b. The extract from song select works fine for me with text based pdf files.  It does sound like your files are not full text based.  The way the code works is that proper text based pdf files actually have the chordpro text embedded in the website.  The app grabs this.  It then downloads the pdf to trigger usage stats.  If the site doesn't have chord pro data, it just downloads the pdf.  A manual extraction (clicking on the title bar) is unlikely to work here.  It sounds like the pdf has included text tags for copyright try the app can read, but the chords are an image.  Can you send me a song that I can test.  I know that 10,000 reasons by Matt Redman is a true text based pdf file (at least on the English site!) - can you test this one for me?

C.  I've stopped the title bar moving the page up and down, but haven't figured out a way to stop it momentarily appearing - it is currently designed to show on a screen touch action.  I'll see what I can do though.

D. There is a page selector button available (by default it is one of the 'extra' button groups alongside the sticky notes, highlighter and link buttons).  Although an on screen display may be a good idea.  I'll have a think about that.

E. Unfortunately I don't have a device with a stylus to test this, but I'll have a look to see if I can find a way to spot stylus use.  I'll also look at adding a prompt to confirm deleting the note, although I think I set it up so that the bin icon clears the canvas, but doesn't delete the original highlighter file until you click on the green save button, so click on the red cross to exit without saving changes.

F. This update should fix this, however, you'll need to clear existing notes and start again.

Gareth

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[Gareth Evans]

I'm going to update the beta just now with an attempt to improve the stylus support (although I can't test it) - feedback welcome!

[Alistair Baty]

4.1.2 is opening fine again

[Alistair Baty]

Hi Gareth,

Have a look at a proposed flow diagram for the SET saving process.

This considers saving from the SET menu and the Pop-up Set list. It attempts to follow the typical logic we are familiar with in other computer programs. Prompting only when you are going to over write something.

It thus removes the over-write option and warning pop-up and revert to the current prompt screen (used for over writing and confirmation when saving from the list pop-up)

[MalcolmMcConnor .]

I like  proposed flow. The confirmation dialog should clearly state that a set with that name already exists.  Then the whole thing should speed up saving and make it more intuitive.

By the way - it happened some times to me that in a song that requires to go back and forth in the pages I accidentally hit the back button just once to often resulting in the app switching back to the previous song. Normally that is not such a trouble but occasionally this previous song has multiple pages and the app will then jump to the first one. That behaviour is normally very good but in the above case it requires me to flip all the pages forth to the next song until I am on track again. As in the meantime I have to play on with the piano it is quite hard for me to do that in parallel... is there a way to avoid this that I have not found yet (other than not to be as dumb to press the button to often in the first place I mean...😂) like perhaps press the forward/ back button longer to jump whole songs or the like? 

Greets,

Michael

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[Gareth Evans]

Seems logical!
I'll see what I can do.  Thanks for taking the time to do this and presenting it in such a clear way!

Gareth

On Wed, 8 Nov 2017, 21:59 'MalcolmMcConnor .' via OpenSongApp, <opens...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

I like  proposed flow. The confirmation dialog should clearly state that a set with that name already exists.  Then the whole thing should speed up saving and make it more intuitive.

By the way - it happened some times to me that in a song that requires to go back and forth in the pages I accidentally hit the back button just once to often resulting in the app switching back to the previous song. Normally that is not such a trouble but occasionally this previous song has multiple pages and the app will then jump to the first one. That behaviour is normally very good but in the above case it requires me to flip all the pages forth to the next song until I am on track again. As in the meantime I have to play on with the piano it is quite hard for me to do that in parallel... is there a way to avoid this that I have not found yet (other than not to be as dumb to press the button to often in the first place I mean...😂) like perhaps press the forward/ back button longer to jump whole songs or the like? 

Greets,

Michael

Am 08.11.2017 18:31 schrieb "Alistair Baty" <alista...@gmail.com>:

Hi Gareth,

Have a look at a proposed flow diagram for the SET saving process.

This considers saving from the SET menu and the Pop-up Set list. It attempts to follow the typical logic we are familiar with in other computer programs. Prompting only when you are going to over write something.

It thus removes the over-write option and warning pop-up and revert to the current prompt screen (used for over writing and confirmation when saving from the list pop-up)

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[Alistair Baty]

A few discoveries:

You cannot add a Sticky Note using the button, but if the is a note it will display

When you open the metronome, the keyboard pops up. I don't think this is required (maybe someone might use the keyboard did enter the tempo?)

Show capo chords button, does not toggle between capo and native. If the option to show both capo and native is active it would be useful to toggle between both and capo.

I am pretty excited about the ABC notation capabilities. The save checkmark does not work (you can exit using the X). Fixing that would make it usable, actually very helpful, even in the current format. Not sure where the notation is saved as I wondered about editing the text file in ES Explorer. At the moment the code window is only two lines. It would be better if it were a could few more. In the longer term it would be nice to have the notation pop up like a sticky note and when you double tap it opens the "current" edit window. But for now, as start, it would still add a lot of value as a reminder for lead or solo sections.

[Gareth Evans]

Thanks for your feedback Alistair,

The sticky note button works in two ways.  Tap it for on/off display, long press to bring up the edit/create window.

The keyboard should only appear if the app is expecting text input (e.g clicking on a text box).  The app defaults to the tempo wheel when first opening, which technically could be typed.  It doesn't show by default on my device, but I'll change the default input focus on to the save button to bypass the risk of it showing.

The capo is working as described with me.  Remember that capo chords only show if the capo fret has been set in the edit song window.

I'll look into the sticky note and capo stuff.  It interesting that the save abc feature isn't working for you.  I've had one other user reporting this issue (green save button not doing anything), but I've not been able to replicate this - he was beginning to think he was alone!  Frustratingly, he was the user who requested that feature!  This feature runs using a webview (abc notation uses JavaScript), but as a result I'm struggling to get the app to resize everything properly - I am trying to improve this. The issue with saving is down to something in the JavaScript not behaving on some devices as the android code for this is very simple and works on all 6 devices I can test with!  I'm planning on having a play around with this later today hopefully.

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[Gareth Evans]

Updated beta to try to implement the proposed save logic.

Also attempted to improve the notation edit window.  Display (other than edit window) will come later!

Gareth

[Alistair Baty]

Ok, so I didn't understand how the sticky notes worked. It works fine for me too. If there is no note, then nothing happens when you tap the sticky note button, but then is you hold the button it takers you to edit and add one.

Capo works fine for me, and I use it quite a lot. Let me describe the process to see if you can replicate the bug. I assigned the "show capo chords" button and the "show chords" button to two of the custom buttons. Select a song that has capo defined. If you click on the "show chords" button it rightists between showing chords or just showing the lyrics. However, clicking on the "show capo chords" button has no effect. I would expect it to toggle between native and capo chords. I have tried adjusting the chord settings from the menu add a starting point with no change. (Settling show capo chords, show both capo and native chords)

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[Alistair Baty]

The ABC window is much better for input.
I have tried in both my Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 and Galaxy S5 phone. Both to not enable saving.
If you can give me some direction perhaps I can provide some better information to help diagnose it.

[Alistair Baty]

Hi Gareth,

Meant to say the saving logic works well. Saving seems faster too.

For anyone trying it out, you need to save once to an entered file name (existing our new) so that it caches the set. Thereafter, it seems to work smoothly.

Alistair

[Gareth Evans]

Hi Alistair,

Regarding the sticky note, I'll adjust it to behave like the highlighter - if there is no note, it should bring up the edit/create.

With the music score, does the tick button now animate when you press it (shrinks then raises)?

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[MalcolmMcConnor]

The new saving logic works very fine. Definitly improvement here. Thank you!

I didnt just get right why there are separate Markup planes for portrait and landscape - why would one enter his notes two times? Perhaps I just didnt understand it right... 

As to features like Metronome, ABC Notation, Sticky notes, links and the like - they are stored in the OpenSong file itself? Is that the reason that they are not available for image based material? As the MarkUps are also saved in a png file it might be an option to have some feature available for image based material if there were some kind of descriptor Opensong file for each pdf if such a feature is selected. Some of the features might also come in handy with pdfs (e.g. metronome, links, ABC notation, sticky notes and so....).

[Alistair Baty]

Yes, the save tick does animate.

[Alistair Baty]

The screen projection is working fine for me on stage mode. As part your instructions the key was using the HDMI menu option. I will try a pedal this afternoon. It is the first time I am using it Gareth, and your implementation works really well for a one person being able to have both music in from of them and having lyrics for the screen. (I did either of the option to show or hide chords on the screen was an option in this mode? Would be useful for big band practices, especially when we are inviting other new or young musicians to join in) I will try linking two tablets so I can control chords for the band as an alternative.

[Gareth Evans]

Each device connected can choose how to display the songs (e.g. with/without chords/capo/etc).

On Sun, 19 Nov 2017, 14:24 Alistair Baty, <alista...@gmail.com> wrote:

The screen projection is working fine for me on stage mode. As part your instructions the key was using the HDMI menu option. I will try a pedal this afternoon. It is the first time I am using it Gareth, and your implementation works really well for a one person being able to have both music in from of them and having lyrics for the screen. (I did either of the option to show or hide chords on the screen was an option in this mode? Would be useful for big band practices, especially when we are inviting other new or young musicians to join in) I will try linking two tablets so I can control chords for the band as an alternative.

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[Alistair Baty]

Gareth, I was referring not to a device, but to an attached HDMI screen - unless I am not aware of where to change the setting to add chords on that display? That is where the lyrics are displayed (of the current frame selected) when in stage mode.

I really enjoyed using it tonight at a small group meeting. The projection of lyrics for the relevant section is really useful and functionally impressive. I did notice that while the scroll up/down worked fine to select the next section in the song, the next/previous pedal buttons also selected the next section rather than the next or previous song in the set. Fortunately, in the meeting tonight it scrolled over to the next song when you hit the bottom, so I had a work around. But normally, if the next/previous button was functional, this scroll over would not be active.

On Sunday, November 19, 2017 at 9:16:35 AM UTC-7, Gareth Evans wrote:

Each device connected can choose how to display the songs (e.g. with/without chords/capo/etc).

[Alistair Baty]

Tried ABC in update 417
It seems the edit Window is bigger?
The save button (tick) is animating, but still does not respond by saving and exiting the ABC screen.
The only way to close the ABC screen is the red X, meaning you loose any edits.

Where does the ABC notation get saved? Is there a way I can edit it elsewhere to add notation to see if it opens.

Perhaps you can send me a file with some score in it. I will see if I can view the score, close and open it again, make edits to the notation and maybe then I can save it. I was wondering if it is a separate file that it was a write permissions error?

[Gareth Evans]

Hi Alistair,

I can't remember the logic for the buttons, but I felt that next should pick the next section when in that mode before moving to the next song (when the last section had been shown).

Yes, you can display chords in stage mode.  When the display is connected, open the display menu and click on connected display to see the options.  Presenter mode had more options available than the other two modes for now.

Gareth

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[sve...@gmail.com]

I'm with Alistair on the stage mode topic. While I don't use a pedal, some sort of scrolling function (rather than displaying the entire lyric sheet on the external display, whether hdmi or chromecast) would be pure gold when playing with new musicians.

Ideally, I'd like to see an option in Stage mode to allow the external display to scroll along with the tablet (based on the song duration).

Svein

[Gareth Evans]

Hi Svein,

The entire lyric sheet only displays on the Chromecast when in performance mode.  So the autoscroll option for the secondary display should be when performance mode is running.  Stage mode only does the currently selected section of the song on the secondary display.

Gareth

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[alistair.baty]

Hello Gareth,

I suppose that could work on stage mode.

However, if you have gone back up to a verse or bridge to end a song, you then want to jump to the next song without having to scroll all the way down through all the sections to trigger the "last-section-to-next-song" step. So there must be the option to go to the next song. 

To be consistent in logic with the rest of the app modes, scroll up/down should stay within the same song and next/previous should move between songs.

(Obviously if only using a two button pedal, scroll down at the end of a song could trigger the next song. However, this should not occur with a four button pedal, unless set to do so in the options)

Alistair

-------- Original message --------
From: Gareth Evans <garethev...@gmail.com>
Date: 11/20/17 1:01 AM (GMT-07:00)
To: Alistair Baty <alista...@gmail.com>
Cc: OpenSongApp <opens...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [OpenSongApp] Beta testing

Hi Alistair,

I can't remember the logic for the buttons, but I felt that next should pick the next section when in that mode before moving to the next song (when the last section had been shown).

Yes, you can display chords in stage mode.  When the display is connected, open the display menu and click on connected display to see the options.  Presenter mode had more options available than the other two modes for now.

Gareth

On Mon, 20 Nov 2017, 05:03 Alistair Baty,  wrote:

Tried ABC in update 417
It seems the edit Window is bigger?
The save button (tick) is animating, but still does not respond by saving and exiting the ABC screen.
The only way to close the ABC screen is the red X, meaning you loose any edits.

Where does the ABC notation get saved? Is there a way I can edit it elsewhere to add notation to see if it opens.

Perhaps you can send me a file with some score in it. I will see if I can view the score, close and open it again, make edits to the notation and maybe then I can save it. I was wondering if it is a separate file that it was a write permissions error?

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[sve...@gmail.com]

@Gareth: yes, performance mode would be the logical place for the autoscroll option for external displays.

However, as @Alistair points out, controlling the scrolling on connected devices would be useful too. I haven't done much in that mode yet (except once, when my tablet suddenly couldn't read from the location my songs were stored. Beaming music from my phone was a really good function to have that time!)

Svein

[Gareth Evans]

There is a difference between connected devices and display.  The app on the device connected to a secondary display (via Chromecast/hdmi) does the hard work of producing and controlling the display on the tablet and the second screen.  Scrolling would be possible.  A simple option is just to mirror your screen to the secondary display.

However, connected devices work differently.  Since each device can have a different orientation, resolution, autoscale settings, app mode, etc. controlling scrolling this from a master device isn't going to work.  I could look at getting the master to start the autoscroll, then the connected device would work out what it needs to do with the display and song it currently has loaded.  Currently stage mode on both devices synchronise sections if 'receive host songs' is selected (won't work otherwise as users can specify any order and number of sections in their own version of a song).

Alistair's comment about the pedal is sensible though.  I'll look into that.

Gareth

[MalcolmMcConnor]

I realized for some time now that from time to time when I modify a set and press "save to a file" the modified state would not be saved. Upon reopening the set view it will be like before the modification. If I press the green confirm button first and then reopen the set saving it will work as expected. That was so already before the new save logic that Gareth implemented recently. Is that only me or some kind of bug others are experiencing too? It does not feel like intended...

Greetings,

[MalcolmMcConnor]

I am using the app pretty regularily now. Its great not to have the pile of paper on the piano. Thanks for that!

I would like to make some proposals/ feature requests:

It happens quite often that I press the Forward button on the pedal once to much and then skip over to the next song. Upon pressing back button the app will fling me to the first page of my previous pdf with the need to scroll all the way forward to the page I just missed. It is quite hard to keep on playing the piano and singing while searching the right page again. There should be an option that upon pressing the back button the app takes the user really to the previous page in all cases - that means that if you are on the first page of an pdf and press back it will give you the last page of the previous song/pdf in the set. Seems somehow more logical to me.

As to selecting a specific page in a pdf/song what about something like this? As most of the time a pdf/song will contain something from 1 (no page indicator needed) to perhaps 3 to 8 pages it would not clutter the screen to much but give to possibility to directly select a certain page by tapping on the indicator. If there are more pages the app might just offer one indicator that brings up the page selector already now found in the menu...

I rarely need the Info Bar at the top but it blocks the view on the song quite often. You already mentioned that it is difficult to remove - might making it smaller oder more transparent be an option? - the best would be to let the user select if to show it or not /just show it on the first page of a song.

[MalcolmMcConnor]

A thing that just popped up - when viewing a pdf and not having it in the current set the forward/ back on screen buttons only show up for a short time and then disappear. Navigation is then only possible via gestures/ pedal - not via on screen buttons. As soon as the song is in the set the buttons are there. Intended?

[Gareth Evans]

The forward and back buttons are only supposed to show for set navigation.  Song left and right should move between items/pages though.

Gareth

On Sun, 3 Dec 2017, 18:12 'MalcolmMcConnor' via OpenSongApp, <opens...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

A thing that just popped up - when viewing a pdf and not having it in the current set the forward/ back on screen buttons only show up for a short time and then disappear.  Navigation is then only possible via gestures/ pedal - not via on screen buttons.  As soon as the song is in the set the buttons are there.  Intended?

[Alistair Baty]

Hello Gareth,

I assume some changes have been made. The up/down pedal buttons work fine and do not trigger moving to the next song when it gets to the bottom of a song. This is a helpful aspect as it jumping to the next song was most unhelpful.

The next page pedal button only works at the bottom of a song. It would be helpful if you could move to the next (or previous) song from everywhere. Then, for example, when you complete a chorus (in the middle of a song) and then want to go to the next song it can jump to the next easily without having to page all the way to the bottom first (and quickly before it refreshes on the mirrored screen).

Regards,
Alistair

you are

Regards,
Alistair

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[Alistair Baty]

Hi Gareth,

(firstly my apologies: reading this old post made a while ago shows it was terribly corrupted by  auto-correction).

The "show chords" assigned button still works well, switching the chords on and off.

However, the "show capo chords" assigned button has no effect. It should toggle between native and capo chords. Possibly a third option, if show "both native and capo chords" is selected it could toggle through native, capo and both.

Regards,
Alistair

[Alistair Baty]

Sets:

I wondered if it could be possible to change the "title" on the pop-up set list from "SET LIST" to the current Set Name. This would help when you have a set created during a practice, or sometimes we may be using different sets during practice (for the next Sunday or another event etc). Then when you open OpenSongApp on a Sunday you can open the list a confirm which set is loaded. (Currently I would hit save and then could see by the overwrite prompt which set was loaded)

New Set bug:
I had a case where there may have been a caching bug with a new/blank set.

• I clicked create a new set and it cleared the current set.
• I add a single song to the new set
• Open the pop-up list and confirm the one song
  
• Save the set
• Add a second song to the set
• Open the pop-up list and it only shows the second song in the list. The first song is gone.
• Load the saved set again
• The pop-up list shows only the first song added
• Now, adding songs will reflect in the pop-up list and everything behaves as expected.
  

I wondered if there is a bug with the caching of the set list before a new set is saved. It may be resolved if there is a "load" instruction after the first save of a new set, so that the cache is refreshed.

[Gareth Evans]

Hi Alistair

I'm really sorry - I must have missed this email!

Anyway, I've fixed the bug thanks to your description of how to reproduce it - it was a cache issue (not rebuilding the saved set list before saving).  I've also added the set name to the title and a note to say it isn't saved if it is different from the saved versions.

These fixes will be live in V4.2.8

Thanks again and sorry for the huge delay!

Gareth

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[Alistair Baty]

Hi Gareth,

The latest update is not displaying or scaling text properly. Everything is overlapping.

I will try play with a few settings

On Monday, October 30, 2017 at 4:19:46 PM UTC-6, Gareth Evans wrote:

You can join (or leave) the beta testing group at:
https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.garethevans.church.opensongtablet

This will let you test upcoming features and bug fixes.
V4.1.1 is available here and has improved image scaling and support for multiple sub folder organisation of the Songs folder.

Gareth

[Alistair Baty]

OK, so I have no logical reason why I did, but I saw a setting under "DISPLAY, CHANGE FONT" that said TRIM LINESPACING. I switched it off and things look normal now.

There was a slider below that toggle that was default at 50%. If I set that to 100%, the lines are completely on top of each other. At zero no overlap. At 10% it is quite effective at compressing lines.

Gareth if you want to set it on by default, change the default trim to about 10%

[Gareth Evans]

Hi Alistair,

It should have been set to 10% by default, but I forgot to change that in one of the lines of code. I had exactly the same issue!

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[Alistair Baty]

Has something changed with the indexing? Now it seems to redo the indexing anytime you start the app and anytime you edit or make a change to a song. It also takes quote a while - sure I have over 1000 songs, but it never took so long before.

[Alistair Baty]

I am not sure if OSA indexed in the background before, but I never noticed it. Now I am unable to start using the app until the indexing is complete. In a rush this is impractical.It also seems to index it whenever you start and then re-indexes (everything) when you edit or update a song. It takes mine well over a minute to index. This can be crippling, so I need to remember not to change anything that requires a save event. (sometimes I would tweak the CAPO if there are a number of guitarists, but I dare not at the moment)

Also, if I switch to another app and then back, OpenSongApp looses the songs. I can open the quick set list and see all the set song names there, but the songs are gone. The song menu or list on the left is completely empty. The currently open song is blank. I closed the app and restarted it. After, waiting for the index to finish it is all there again and I can use it. I did not need to reset the database location or anything like that. Maybe I could have refreshed the song list or index - I did not try in the moment as the meeting was about to start.

Let me know if you need any other info to trouble shoot or replicate it.

[Gareth Evans]

Unfortunately there is nothing I can do about the speed of indexing.  This is due to the new storage access framework android developers are forced to use for security reasons (the original file method is still there for kitkat users and is much quicker).  It depends on the device, but it takes about 1.5-2 times as long on the new method.  You will notice the same with modern file manger apps when trying to delete multiple items at once.  In the past, you wild just delete the items or folder.  Now you have to iterate through every item the folder contains to get it's name, then delete that item.  Finally you get to delete the parent folder.  However, this seemingly stupid and ridiculously slow method is to prevent apps getting full access to actual file locations and doing what they want.  In theory you could get apps to browse any part of your storage and email them to the developer without too much effort.  E.g. on most devices file://storage/emulated/0/documents/ would point to your documents.  An app could simply run code to zip the contents of that folder and upload the contents to the developer.  Previously you would be asked on install or first run to allow the app to access external storage and you have to trust the developer.  Now android stops that happening (easily) and only allows an app to write/delete files it owns (or has been given permissions for).  Now the file locations are hidden as a encrypted content uri (e.g. content://primary/A16-E8/document/OpenSongApp) that doesn't give away the user's file structure and an app can only access files that are inside the folder chosen (the new change storage folder picker you see on first running the beta).

In the earlier versions of the app, it would index the songs in the background (so you could start the app and probably weren't aware of the time), but the search wasn't available until it finished.  Also the song menu wasn't drawn until that folder was indexed.  Changing folders meant reindexing that folder every time you opened it (you would have seen 'wait' at the top of the song menu). Changing folders is now much quicker, but at the expense of the start up time.  I am looking to get this running in the background again, but I'm having to learn sql database logic!  Currently, the app rebuild the index if a song is edited, created, deleted or renamed, the indexing is done again as it is no longer valid.  With the sql database, I can just edit that entry.

The black screen / empty app has occurred a few times on my Galaxy S9 running Android 9, but hasn't happened on older devices.  There is no crash report on this and I'm struggling to identify and fix it.  It seems Android is killing it in the background and not restarting it properly.  I think I've figure out a way to solve it, but it means adjusting code for all of the user preferences (about 200 of them)!  Been flat out on that for the last 3 days of my school holiday!

I've been working on this update since about September as various functions in the app have gradually stopped working due to security updates and have on many occasions felt like giving up in frustration and removing the app from the play store.  However, in still going (just)!

Excuse the rant -  I'll see what I can do!

Gareth

On Mon, 11 Feb 2019, 05:43 Alistair Baty, <alista...@gmail.com> wrote:

The indexing speed is really slow.
I am not sure if it indexed in the background before, but now being unable to start using the app as soon as you are start it is embarrassingly unhelpful.
It seems to index it when you start or when you edit or update a song. It takes over a minute to index.

Also, if I flip to another app and back, OpenSongApp forgets the songs. I can open the set list, but the songs are gone. The song menu is completely empty. And the currently open song is black. I needed you closer the app and restart it. After, waiting for the index to finish it is all call again and I can use it.

Let me know if you need any other info to trouble shoot or replicate it.

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[Alistair Baty]

Hi Gareth,
Seems like you have covered an unbelievable amount of learning the new os system. Much appreciated.

A few suggestions:
To reduce the interruption of having to wait for indexing:
- Is it possible to remove the indexing option on startup (or add a prompt)
- There is already the option to update the index in the menus
- perhaps a flag to switch on if the index has been run that day
- not indexing after an edit of a song (any changes are unlikely to impact a search)
- not indexing (or at least prompt if desired) after adding a song

Sounds like the song list and search index are integrated. Can this be separated? There is an option in the menu to update the song list and another to update the index. This would keep the list update quick e.g. after adding a song so that at least that is in the list. Perhaps that song list "indexing" should be run at startup. And leave the song content index to run periodically or on demand (for example after adding a song the user is promoted if they want to update the search index)

[Alistair Baty]

Gareth, A quick request. (I understand that saying quick does not always mean that)
Can you disable the automatic indexing on the beta version and upload it?

Alternatively, can you tell me where the previous APK is available. I forfeit to back mine up before I upgraded and could not find it in github. There is no option I can find to roll back.

At least then it will be functional without delay. Also, I can get past the black screen, if it ever happens, by closing and restarting knowing that it will not need to re index. Black screen only happened sometimes so I'm not too concerned about it.

[Gareth Evans]

Hi Alistair,

To go back to the previous version you can remove yourself from the beta program (link is on the Google play page for my app).  Then uninstall the app.  Then after a few minutes (sometimes just needs a page refresh), you can download it immediately again as the non beta (check the 'What's new' text to see which version you're downloading).

You can add or remove yourself from the beta program as often as you like.

Unfortunately the menus have to be linked to the index, otherwise it's the same task being done twice.  That's why the menus have the author and key as well as the title - they both rely on the app reading every file in the background.

What I have been working on is using a basic menu (filenames only) until the full indexing has taken place in the background after the app has launched and is usable.  I'm just figuring out the complexities of querying sqlite databases though!

I've got the basic indexing working, but I've switched off lots of other stuff in the background until I can test it.  I won't these this to beta until I get them working.

Best wishes,

Gareth

[Alistair Baty]

Hi Gareth,

Regarding that Black Screen, I can do the following:
1.) It is apparent that the song is still on the screen; I can get the song to show by toggling/switching the color theme.
2.) Swype to the next song does not work. The song menu is blank: However, I can get to the next song by using the Set list (both by pop-up and main menu)
3.) Refreshing the song list or rebuilding the index makes no difference.
4.) I changed the font size and switched off the check boxes in the gestures options. That seemed to reset and return the app to normal operation. I turned on the check boxes again, reduced the menu width.

I cannot seem to get it to go black again ... Not yet. Will let you know if it happens again.

Not sure if that helps you.

[Alistair Baty]

Gareth, I expect it may be the infamous read/write issue, but though to mention it.

If I export songs for someone else I can select text, OST, .onsong  and it all works fine.

For some reason I cannot add the PDF screenshot. When it creates the email it gives a error message to say it could not attach the PDF.

[Gareth Evans]

Thanks for letting me know!  

I'm on holiday now, so hoping to get time to get this update sorted!

Gareth

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[Alistair Baty]

Hi Gareth,

I know you and Ian are working on a new mayor version. One thing I have noticed with the current layout and two requests I would appreciate some consideration. All relate to SETS

1. When adding songs to a Set using the Check box in the song list (left Swype), I will often hit the scroll bar and instead of checking the box, the view will jump down further down in the list. This can be frustrating but I'm not sure what a solution is yet.
2. Is it possible to remember (or set) the sort order when displaying the sets when you are in the process of loading or saving one. I save Sets with the date upfront (YYYMMDD Leader), so inverting the order puts the new items at the top.
   
3. This is maybe a stretch... We have a ton of leaders with various skill levels or vocal ranges. As a result we will sing a song in all sorts of keys. I use the Sticky Note to keep track of who sings in what key, what I sing it in, and the original key. Is there anyway we can add the Song's key in the set? At this stage, just an entry would be great, but later being able to automatically transpose would be fantastic. (I think Onsong keeps songs in the original key, then saves the numerical increment to the played key, together with the associated Capo if any.)

Just some thoughts. As always really appreciate all to guys do.

Blessings,

Alistair

[Gareth Evans]

Hi Alistair,

Interestingly enough I'm now working on the sets part of the new app.  Progress is slow, but getting there.

1. I've updated the checkbox and changed spacing/padding and removed a hidden bit of the checkbox (where text normally goes after the checkbox) that was overlapping close to the scroll bar.  Hopefully this improves this bug.

2.  Potentially.  I'll need to see what permissions I can get on the file metadata.  Last edit dates are sort of available, but only, I think, if they were written by the app.  I'm not sure if I can work around Dropbox syncs, etc.  I'll look.  Likely this will only work on Lollipop+.

3.  Actually, probably not too far a stretch!  I've tweaked the set so a key can be saved with it (the desktop app should ignore it) and when it loads up it shows the key in the set.  If the key in the set doesn't match your key, the app will create a variation of your song and transpose it.  This leaves your version intact and doesn't mess with the set.  This will only work if the key has been specified in the song on the set creation device and the song on the set loaded device.  I've almost got it working!

I've attached a sneak peak of the song and sets menu in the version I'm working on

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/opensongapp/6823fe76-bca9-4e7a-8d1c-464bee3f50a0n%40googlegroups.com.

[Alistair Baty]

Hello Gareth,

That sounds great.

Is it necessary to save a variation, or can it simply transpose it in the fly? Does meaning a variation copy the highlight/hand notes with the variation as well? (I really need to become more familiar with VARIATIONS. If you open a song, does the App tell you if there are variations available?)

Another thing i noticed with the current app  sets is as follows: (differentiating between the SET list and the full SONG list). Sometimes i am building a set and in the process swipe through the SONG list considering songs. If i reach a song already in the SET list, swiping now jumps to the next song in the SET list, rather than continue with the next song in the SONG list.

Thanks again

Alistair

______________________

   

[Gareth Evans]

Hi Alistair,

Variations are currently only created when you add a song to a set then change it to a variation (using the set menu).  It saves a copy of the song in the Variations folder and changes the reference in the set to point to this instead of your original song.  This allows you to edit it as much as you like.  When you save the set, the variation is written into the set as a custom slide (so it also works with the desktop app).  When another OpenSongApp user loads this set, the slide is extracted and saved to their Variations folder and used in the set.  The variation isn't persistent on the device though.  When you lost another set, it disappears.  You get it back when you load in the set with the variation again.

The notes could be part of the variation, but I can't remember if I added them!  The reference to the highlighter noted is lost though as changing a file would make the highlighter positions obsolete anyway.  You can create notes and highlighter notes on the variation file once you have it, although the notes would be lost on set load.  Highlighter notes, should still remain though as they are saved in the highlighter folder.

The behaviour of song/set list was intentional.  If you view a song that is in your set, swiping moves through the set.  Sometimes I want to pick another song on the fly, so I do that from the song menu and this kicks me out of set mode, so I can swipe through songs in the menu until I load a song that is in the set again.