fishing conditions app

[Gary]

Howdy 

@Roger Belk asked about an app to give info about fishing holes... locations here

  https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/theairepository

I suggested we follow up here.

[Gary]

oops

make that here https://groups.google.com/d/topic/app-inventor-info-center/OgokYQeJXZ0/discussion

  https://groups.google.com/d/msg/app-inventor-info-center/OgokYQeJXZ0/FuECoTEsX1UJ

The intent is to get info from here http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/fishboat/fish/action/reptform1.php?water=Fresh&browse=Go

and show it on our phones.

There are a lot of ways to do it. I suggest we start by building an app that gets the info from a twdb. The app can have a ListPicker with the lakes and each lake can be the tag to a twdb tag/value with the value the conditions for that lake.

It's pretty easy to load the data into twdb using the web interface. However that would not be fun. While we are getting the app working, some of us can work on getting the data into twdb other than just entering it with the web interface. Shival Wolf's examples come to mind.

At some point we can look at getting the data with an activity starter that gets web info from an sdk app that uses the webkit.

or we can...

:-)

What do you think?

[Gary]

ps: this project is a lot like a google map app I did a while ago. V2!!!

[Big Daddy App]

Im in what do you need from me? This started out as a simple ideal, looks like you are planing to take it over the top.

there are about 52 lake in texas on that site that has a fishing report that gets up dated weekly. Point me in the right direction.

[Gary]

Woo Hoo

I'll say more in a few hours.

What are the best lakes?

Gary

[Big Daddy App]

Lake Fork, Sam RAyburn, Lake Falcon, O.H, Ive, Lake O'Pines is just a few. I'm working on the Tiny web db for the site. I have a lot to learn here. the Apps I built so far have been small fries compared to the ones Yall have been building. Thanks again for your help.

[Anthony Barnes]

SO how exactly do you guys want to do this?

Myself, I would just put buttons on the screen to call the url for the different lakes or put them in a list of lakes and a list of url's and have the index match up to call the url when you select the specific lake from the list picker. Thoughts?

On Mon, Dec 27, 2010 at 8:09 PM, Big Daddy App <roger...@gmail.com> wrote:

Lake Fork, Sam RAyburn, Lake Falcon, O.H, Ive, Lake O'Pines is just a few. I'm working on the Tiny web db for the site. I have a lot to learn here. the Apps I built so far have been small fries compared to the ones Yall have been building. Thanks again for your help.

--
Tony Barnes
barne...@gmail.com
tAIR1_2.apk
tAIR Discussion Group
http://www.TheAIRepository.info

[Gary]

Thanks for joining Tony ;-)

I'm going to do a simple concept app. Then we will flesh out the direction we want to go.

There are several aspects to the project, one is how the app will look. Another aspect is how the info is managed. As you may or may not know, my FFXIII EXP calculator has a bunch of ways to get the info to the app. I want to pick one and build the app. Then we go fishing and decide if it is good enough or if we want to go for V2.

OK?

[Gary]

http://code.google.com/p/the-ai-repository/downloads/detail?name=FishingHoleV0_1.zip

[Gary]

My prototype.

We (not me) can make the ui pretty (pretty? fishy!)

and start thinking of how we want to get the data on current conditions to the app.

and what else we want. The table of conditions has pointers to the lakes

  http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/fishboat/fish/recreational/lakes/sam_rayburn/

and other info.

I want to have the location so we can pass it to the map on the phone and then get driving directions.

and and and

Bug: Sam Rayburn should show "8.57’ low" and instead it shows the dreaded diamond with a ? because it does not have a ’ (degree) character.

[Gary]

kick my prototype around. if we want to go with it, we need a list of the lakes and a way to update conditions.

a quick and easy way to get the data to the app is twdb

get the most recent data from the web site

put it into twdb

and the app has the latest info.

The put it into twdb can be done lots of ways. I suggest we look at Shival Wolf's twdb that accesses a spreadsheet. Then someone (say Big Daddy) decides it's time to update the info. He copies the data from the TPWD and replaces the old data in his Google spreadsheet with the new data. 

And then goes checks his rods and hugs his wife and heads out.

as does everyone else using the data :-)

we can make things more automatic, but why for the first version.

[Gary]

or we can look at this

  http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/fishboat/fish/conservation/mobile/freport.xhtml

come up with a way to scrape the screen (Pete's Extender?, or...) and we are pretty much where we were with twdb.

Hmmm

or we could...

so many ways to scale this fish, we need one that works for us

[Anthony Barnes]

Or, the page gets updated automatically and the uri stays the same so just pull the whole page in using you guessed it my favorite block the activity starter!

Best block of all time!!!!!

[Gene]

Just posted a prototype to the code site. A good starting point.

http://code.google.com/p/the-ai-repository/downloads/list


Gene
App Inventor Info Center
http://www.taiic.com

[Gary]

nice. we can combine it with the other app once we get things going

[Anthony Barnes]

ok, my version of garys version is out there.

On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 8:17 AM, Gary <gary.fr...@jsoft.com> wrote:

nice. we can combine it with the other app once we get things going

[Gary]

how is it different?

[Anthony Barnes]

Mine goes to the web page for the current conditions rather than scraping it into a text box. This gives you a cleaner layout and you can double tap to resize it to the screen.

On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 8:40 AM, Gary <gary.fr...@jsoft.com> wrote:

how is it different?

[Gary]

yours is better for a first step

get's the job done

and if we combine it with Gene's

we have an app that displays info for the lakes

and can get us there with the map

I like it

hmmm

[Gary]

Howdy

In the Coffee Shop forum On Tuesday, December 28, 2010 6:21:46 PM UTC-6, Big App Daddy wrote:

v2 that pull up the tpwd site in a browser to show the fishing report, I got that one that stright forward but not quit what I was looking for. I want to look inside and pull the info for each lake and asign it to the tinywebdb to be updated auto. and accessed in my app.

I said it before https://groups.google.com/d/msg/theairepository/WeRkZq6e5Wg/AMhktPzY0gcJ

and I'll say it again.

or I will say it in a different way.

FishingHoleV0_2.zip gets an app up and going. It has the latest data.

FishingSpots_v0_10.zip shows how to get a map. More in a sec

FishingHoleV0_1.zip is a prototype. It gives us something to work with the UI. It has our favorite list of lists.

One of my goals was to have a simple to understand app that we can build from. It has two variables lakes and conditions. V0_2 replaces conditions with sites. FishingSpots could use the same two variables to hold the ActivityStarter's DataUri.

The pattern is tag, value, with lakes the tag. If we build a list of values that was a list, we would have what we need to put up the web page, the map and the conditions info.

And a tag, value is what twdb loves to hold.

Build the app.

and we can also focus on getting the data. A way to get live data is good. Would we ever want to get the latest info and store it on our phone? How about those fishing holes in south west Texas? They may not have great coverage.

Should I say something about spreadsheets and xml and mashups now or save that for another time?

Gary

And I never met girls that could sing so sweet like the angels that live in Houston

http://ia700108.us.archive.org/8/items/littlefeat1991-09-26/lf1991-09-26d1t12_vbr.mp3

2:27 in

ahhh

[Gary]

On Wednesday, December 29, 2010 4:29:31 AM UTC-6, Gary wrote:

...

FishingSpots_v0_10.zip shows how to get a map. More in a sec

Adding this to our app makes sense to me. Someone starts the app, looks up conditions at a new lake and then starts the map, gets directions and is rolling.

The fishing spots example looks for the name, I would like to know how to look up a specific location. Then we can set several spots for the lake and even add info about a spot like where to park, what to bring etc.

Anyone interested in doing more research on parameters to pass to the map?

can we use a MyMap to get more nifty things?

:-)

[Anthony Barnes]

it would be hard to add a mymap or directions because the starting point is not always known.

However, you might be able to add-in near hear gps to get the driving directions since it starts at your current location.

[Gary]

interesting...

[Anthony Barnes]

Also, I am not encouraging the use of ai extender because it adds a dependency to the app.

Tony Barnes
TheAIrepository.info
Http://groups.google.com/group/theairepository

[Gary]

Interesting

Activity Starter is pretty nifty. You used it in your version of the prototype. I do not see how you can use Activity Starter without depending on something being there.

Using twdb depends on having the service there.

Using an app like the extender lets you look at options.

You at some point in time have to choose what the app depends on, and concerns about using extender at this stage of the game is

  uhhh an interesting choice.

[Roger Belk]

Thanks to Gary and all of yall. I have something to point me in the right direction. I spent all of last night reading and “learning” to set up TASK for the twdb and tonight I’m going to look at Pete’s extender. Again to all that helped.

[Gary]

:-)

On Wednesday, December 29, 2010 10:00:43 AM UTC-6, Big Daddy App wrote:

Thanks to Gary and all of yall. I have something to point me in the right direction. I spent all of last night reading and “learning” to set up TASK for the twdb and tonight I’m going to look at Pete’s extender. Again to all that helped.

Is the url to TASK visible?

I do agree with Tony that Pete's Extender is a choice I would make after looking at other choices.

Let us know what you find.

Gary

[Anthony Barnes]

I was saying I would try to NOT use the extender to keep from having to require that everyone install that application before they install this one.

[Gary]

interesting

[Gary]

https://groups.google.com/d/topic/programming-with-app-inventor/QCHoU_MbIZ8/discussion

Yet another twdb example from the guru of twdb

Look all of them over! (I need to do the same)

[Gary]

Here is a bit of python from here http://diveintopython.org/html_processing/extracting_data.html (great book)

import urllib                                       

sock = urllib.urlopen("http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/fishboat/fish/action/reptform1.php?water=Fresh&browse=Go")

#sock = urllib.urlopen("http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/fishboat/fish/conservation/mobile/action/reptform1.php?water=Fresh&browse=Go")

htmlSource = sock.read()                            

sock.close()                                        

print htmlSource

it reads the web page and prints it. Parse htmlSource into json formatted for twdb and we have our live feed.

soon :-)

Gary

[Anthony Barnes]

Good Job Gary,

Keep up the good work!

[Gary]

:-)

It has been pointed out to me that not everyone speaks python

there are two calls to read the page, the # in front of the sock is a comment.

The second url points to the mobile version of the web site, may be a bit easier to parse

  may

[Gary]

and while I am thinking of things that are obvious

  to someone with 30++ years middleware

the above bit of python gets us most of the way there

we add it to a AE server

parse the html into a python structure that looks like what we want to send back

jsonize it

and we are done

:-)

easy

:-S

[Gary]

and I was thinking more about what is obvious to me...

This is what the mobile url returns

<p>

  CONROE    :&nbsp;

Water fairly clear; 1.78&rsquo; low. Black bass are good on chartreuse spinnerbaits and crankbaits in 15 &ndash; 25 feet. Striped bass are fair on minnows. Crappie are good on minnows and blue tube jigs. Catfish are fair on stinkbait and shrimp. </p>

The conditions for the lakes are in html paragraphs. We get all the paragraphs, get the stuff to the :&nbsp; and that is the lake, the rest is the condition. 

Pretty easy to put into twdb, the lake is the tag and the condition is the value.

and this is what the full url returns

<tr>

    <td>

            <a href="/fishboat/fish/recreational/lakes/conroe/">CONROE</a>

          </td>

    <td> Water fairly clear; 1.78&rsquo; low. Black bass are good on chartreuse spinnerbaits and crankbaits in 15 &ndash; 25 feet. Striped bass are fair on minnows. Crappie are good on minnows and blue tube jigs. Catfish are fair on stinkbait and shrimp.</td>

  </tr>

about the same, table rows with the first table data element holding an anchor tag. The second table data element is the value. The text of the anchor is the lake, the tag. And!!! we get the url to info about the lake in the href attribute.

It is sorta easier to parse. A bit more logic but we do not have to dig the lake name out.

We test our python in a standalone script, no need to put it into AE yet. We put the data into a python dictionary or some similar structure. Convert to json and see if it looks like the twdb stuff we already have in the prototype.

We can even have a name/value with a name something like 'theLakes' and the value a list of all the lakes ready for the AI listpicker.

However if we do toooo much the AI code gets toooo simple and we will have to do something else to keep us entertained (like go fishing?)

we are not done with AE, but we are getting close.

easy 

:-S

[Gene Kupfer]

This looks like a lot of good info.
http://www.boddie.org.uk/python/HTML.html

--

Gene
App Inventor Info Center
http://www.taiic.com

[Gene Kupfer]

I made a new version. I also uploaded it to the downloads on the code site.

This version is dynamic. You can now get a report of a lake and from the same list, map the lake. Enjoy.

http://code.google.com/p/the-ai-repository/downloads/detail?name=LetsGoFishing_v0_30.zip&can=2&q=#makechanges

[Gene]

Correct link is below:
http://code.google.com/p/the-ai-repository/downloads/detail?name=LetsGoFishing_v0_30.zip

[Gary]

Good stuff Gene.

Someplace, I can not find where...

Big Daddy App points out that while going to the web site like Tony originally demoed and you followed up is nifty,

it does not do what he wants.

I had envisioned putting locations into the info about lakes. I did think it was more useful to have specific locations rather than just counting on Google Map finding the lake based on it's name.

If we can take your updated code and use it with Rogers (and we can...) we are good.

[Roger Belk]

I have already started putting Gene's map into the app. We start with a home page where locations sen finds your location and you type in the name of the lake you want. If spelled right it stores the lake. If not it list a few choices to choose from. From there you have page choices like map, weather at the lake location, conditions, fishing report, etc. All by just your lake choice. I've thought to use the accel. Sensor to toggle back to the home screen arrangement. Yall can tell me if i have gone to far, and i will quit listening to the voices that tell me to do all of these things. LOL

Big Daddy App

[Gary]

Uhhh Listening to vioces in your head can be a warning

  or a blessing.

I think the voices are doing well so far.

and

>If spelled right...

what? we use listpickers so they are always spelled right.

team? what else?

[Roger Belk]

I was looking at that, so we could save space for other things. If the user in-puts the lake that saves data space and programing. Maybe? Just thinking out loud. I'll the voice back to sleep. Sorry

Big Daddy App

[Gary]

Say more?

If the user in-puts the lake that saves data space and programing.

saving data space is low on my list of things (in the first version)
saving the user work is usually higher
making the program so it is always right is almost always higher

saving programing is usually a step to doom :-) we suffer for our art
I do like doing things the easiest way that gives me good code
I end up with bugs when I try to save programming

so, given I am probably way off

typing in the name of the lake is good. let's the user do that if they want to do that
a list with the valid lakes lets us check that we have data before we start doing all the cool things the app does
a listpicker has a list of valid lakes and may be easier for the user to use because the user, who has fish on his brains, can see what choices there are.

I would not put a text box in. It is toooo hard because the user has to know the name of the lake, we should probably add code to correct spelling and spacing, is it Lake Conroe or Conroe Lake; is it O.H. Ivie or OH Ivie or... OH Ivie.... To much work.

we can add a module that gets new locations
and once we have everything, add the location and it's info to the database.

and we can make the listpicker dynamic, put the areas you are interested into the listpicker when we start up.
If someone picks Gulf Coast, load the listpicker with the locations in the Gulf Coast region


or I did not understand
:-)

[Gary]

and while we are on the topic of maps ;-)

I did a small test fishing map http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=210335438630827114379.00049953afd6176d7c72e&t=h&z=12

It's just a test, I put three locations in and edited the popup to get started showing what I think we should add.

and I looked at the map on my phone. One of the things I tested was directions. I could get directions to a marina from my house (actually from a sushi bar that was the last location the phone remembered...) without any trouble.

So we can use My Maps to get directions.

I'm going to say more in another topic, this one is getting full

[Roger Belk]

YEP, you are right i didnt think about it that way. That makes a lot more sense than trying to correct everyone elses mistakes. See that was a good answer. Short and to the point.LOL
Thanks

Big Daddy App

[Gary]

short and to the point
but I am rolling
and about to put yet another comment in about maps

[Anthony Barnes]

nice map.

[Gene Kupfer]

Roger, have I got the solution for you. I think we are all hearing the same voices. Take a look at my latest project (http://www.taiic.com/ftp/GMAAS_1_0.zip). Please don't share this with anyone, it's still early alpha stages. However, I implemented some functionality yesterday that I think would be perfect for the fishing app. When you open the app, click the Google Maps button and scroll to the last form. The heading will say, "Enter From and Destination and click "Get Directions".

Now, take what Gary said, a pre-defined list. We know what it is, so lets provide it to the user and tie it to this functionality that you will see. Now they can get a report and pass the same variable to this form and get all kinds of driving directions. :)

Let me know what you think. There are still many other parameters that I'm playing around with that I will be adding. I'm also looking into making custom static maps as well as using "My Maps".

[Gene Kupfer]

...More on "My Maps"...Think, favorite fishing spots ;)

[Roger Belk]

WOW! Ok, I quit! I will never ever reach the level of programing skill yall have reached. That was just a giant step in MAPS  for AI. I was wondering dose it also get your location so you dont have to enter the FROM address? Now this is just the voices talking again, but lets say I catch a fish, I don't want to stop and write info about where Im at ( get GPS and Store) and at the same time the weather part of the app Im working on can get the weather info like BAR PSI, Temp etc...If they could do this we could make a fishing log so they could track fishing trends. 

This project will branch off to other app, Maybe alot of APPs.

[Anthony Barnes]

Roger,
That is why we are so excited about helping out with it. It can be a great project.

[Gene Kupfer]

That's actually on my list of to do's. To use the location sensor to allow to set current location. It's interesting that you mention making notes. I have an application idea I've been wanting to work on for at least a year and this could give me an excuse to do it. Basically, it's a geo tagging travel app. You setup your waypoints and when you reach them the phone asks if you want to take pictures. You can later attach pictures and add notes. So basically a mobile travel blog. Nothing that hasn't been done before, but I wanted to do my own version. That functionality could fit in very nicely with this.

I'll see what the voices come up with and I'll send you a beta as soon as I figure out how to do that. :)

[Roger Belk]

If you have time look up Navionics maps. Bass fisherman use them in our gps dept finder and we set way points so we can locate graphical things underwater that we want to come back to. They give great detail of underwater maps

Big Daddy App

>>>>> <http://goog_465898796>tAIR1_2.apk<http://code.google.com/p/the-ai-repository/downloads/detail?name=tAIR.apk>
>>>>> <http://goog_465898804>tAIR Discussion Group<http://groups.google.com/group/theairepository>
>>>>> http://www.TheAIRepository.info

>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Gene
>>>> App Inventor Info Center
>>>> http://www.taiic.com
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>>

>> --
>> Tony Barnes
>> barne...@gmail.com
>> <http://goog_465898796>tAIR1_2.apk<http://code.google.com/p/the-ai-repository/downloads/detail?name=tAIR.apk>
>> <http://goog_465898804>tAIR Discussion Group<http://groups.google.com/group/theairepository>
>> http://www.TheAIRepository.info

[Gary]

It looks like we are rolling.

I have not seen Gene's app or done more than skim. It's still Monday till I can get back to things

but I will make some comments as I go over things

!!!!!!!!

Gary (there are more bass fishing ads on the road in the Dallas area than Houston, but not a lot more)

[damageinc]

Cool application! I like it!

[Roger Belk]

Where did you see the App and can you down load it. I think I might have made a mistake and let it out before we had finished it. Thanks for the comment! I'm glade someone likes it! the tAIR team has put a lot of work into it. Again thanks, and please let me know where you found it.

On Mon, Jan 17, 2011 at 2:00 PM, damageinc <xdama...@gmail.com> wrote:

Cool application! I like it!

[Gary]

There are several early versions on tAIR's download page

  http://code.google.com/p/the-ai-repository/downloads/list

damageinc

  are you talking about one of the early versions or the idea?

[Michael Hopkins]

Not the early version.I am having trouble now finding my original post.

[Gary]

Look under the table for your original post. I sometimes drop things there...

Email me a screen shot and I can tell you which.

Gary