Regarding the New Import Functionality

Posted on August 3, 2011 by twillis

The ability to import into the database has been one of the most consistently requested features over RCLogbook’s lifetime. It has also been one of the more tricky ones to get right. While it amounts to a line in the change log, there was a huge amount of new code needed to do this (both real functional code as well as unit tests to try to exercise it). Time wise, this single feature has taken up the bulk of the development effort since 3.0.2 was released last year.

Interestingly, 3.5.0 is not the first time RCLogbook has had an import function. There have been several earlier attempts that were pulled out of releases for various reasons. What made the feature stick this time around was a conscious effort on my part to limit the scope and usage models for the function.

Continue reading →

Posted in RCLogbook Musings | Comments Off

Submitted

Posted on July 30, 2011 by twillis

The new release is being looked over by Apple’s App Store elves. Should be available shortly.

Posted in Administriva | Comments Off

Here’s is the Official 3.5.0 Change List

Posted on July 30, 2011 by twillis

Submission is coming soon. In the meantime, here is the official 3.5.0 change list straight from the user’s guide.

  • Added database import functionality for batch mode and basic edits
  • Added ability to edit the date and time of a event in the event details
  • Added ability to edit the date and time of a cycle in the cycle details
  • Added battery performance plots
  • Added ability to create new battery using an existing battery as a template
  • Added LiFe battery chemistry to the known battery chemistries
  • Added network activity monitor eye candy during remote database accesses
  • Database export file updated and changed to tab-delimited format
  • Use swipe gesture on “Total Records” row in Database tab to reset database
  • Increased the maximum parallel or series cells in a battery to 50 cells
  • Automatically remove checkpoints for old versions of the database on launch
  • Improved handling of inbound database accesses during an in-progress upload
  • Flush defaults to persistent store on entry into background
  • User interface tweaks, adjustments, and minor bug fixes
  • Fixed bug in HTML served to access database that was preventing links from working correctly under some browser and OS combinations
  • Fixed bug in fuel units caused by app default not matching settings default
  • Updated remote links to new clevertangerine.com organization

Not much longer now…

Posted in Administriva, Release Previews | Comments Off

That is a Wrap

Posted on July 29, 2011 by twillis

Beta is done. Day or two from submission now!

Posted in Administriva | Comments Off

Even Closer…

Posted on July 27, 2011 by twillis

The fourth beta build was released to testers last night. So far, the changes in each beta have been very small to address some long-standing minor bugs or fix a minor issue or two with new 3.5.0 code. There is one issue currently open that I am trying to bottom out on around the database access page (there are conflicting reports of it not showing up properly in Safari on Lion). Once I am able to get some closure on that issue, we should be a final build away from submission to the App Store elves.

Posted in Administriva | Comments Off

Closing In…

Posted on July 24, 2011 by twillis

Second beta release went out today. Two minor bugs fixed. Plan is to wrap this cycle up mid-week, then see where we are at. If all goes well, should have 3.5.0 into the App Store for approval by the coming weekend. Wh00t!

Posted in Administriva | Comments Off

Beta Progress and Lion

Posted on July 20, 2011 by twillis

The beta continues. So far, things have been pretty quiet, which is either really good or really bad. Hopefully, if it is the good to really good end, we can get the release into the submission flow next week which would put it in your hands before August gets too far along.

From that point, we will start on the next release. A few of the features are pretty well understood and should go in quickly. At this point, no decision has been made on whether we should try to do a few features quickly or take time and do some of the bigger ideas that have been kicking around.

In other news, Lion dropped today. While the tangerines are very tempted, one never does a major upgrade of tools or OS right on top of a release unless one wants to roll the dice for chaos. So, it looks like we will be staying on Snow Leopard until 3.5.0 hits the store. If you have not yet read it, Siracusa’s review on Ars is, as always, over flowing with great insights.

Posted in Administriva | Comments Off

New DbAccess Capabilities

Posted on July 17, 2011 by twillis

One of the other big changes in 3.5.0 is the addition of support for importing into the database. With this, you can take use a text file to do bulk additions or edits to the database. As a result, the page RCLogbook serves up for external database access has gotten a bit more involved.

The New Hotness Served up by RCLogbook

Import is done using a setup similar to the “replace the database” functionality from 3.0.x. You select a file and hit a button. In addition, links to external documentation as well as a template for the import file have been added here for convenience.

Continue reading →

Posted in Release Previews | Comments Off

Code for 3.5.0 is Frozen

Posted on July 14, 2011 by twillis

This evening, the final changes went in for 3.5 and the code froze. The build will be going out to the testers shortly. From here on out, we’re just fixing bugs. Hopefully, the beta will go smoothly and we’ll be ready to release in a few weeks.

wh00t!

Posted in Administriva, Release Previews | Comments Off

Healthy Batteries

Posted on July 10, 2011 by twillis

One thing that we have been looking at trying to do for a while is use the data that RCLogbook has collected on everything to try to provide some indication of battery health and how that changes over time. In 3.5, we have added the ability to plot the battery charge amount versus discharge duration for the cycles that we have collected. This gives you something like this:

Plots, plots, plots.

This is showing synthetic data from one of the “fill the database with records” code (though there is some attempt in that code to make the results look somewhat realistic).

With this, you can start to ask questions like “How long can I fly for?”.

Though the difficulty in reading too much into this comes from a number of factors. First off, RCLogbook does not have a complete picture of what you are doing. That is, it cannot tell the difference between a cycle that was involved in an all-out 3D flight and a cycle that was leisurely touch-and-goes (foreshadowing for 4.0, maybe?). Also, while the linear fit shown is easy to compute and may even be reasonable across a narrow range, batteries are not generally linear things.

Posted in Release Previews | Comments Off