Can someone please test my Twitter app?

[chmcke01]

I will be getting a SGS2 in just over a week (YAY!) but until then I do not have an Android phone. I am taking an intro class making apps for Android but I can only test my apps in an emulator.

I created a very basic app that allows you to log in to your Twitter account and then you will Tweet the current time and your current location. It works in the emulator but the locations is always "Location Not Available" or something along those lines. I guess you can't test GPS in an emulator.

Also, I provided buttons that SHOULD cause the app to Tweet your time and location after a set amount of time (I provided options for every 5 minutes, every 30 minutes, or every hour).

The assignment is due in a couple of days but I don't want to turn it in and have it not work, but I only know one person with an Android phone and he has gotten tired of me using his phone to test my apps.

If you don't mind please test my app and let me know if it works. Thanks in advance for anyone who does!

 

[djeaton]

Re: Can someone please test my app?

I tried it. Whenever I select that I want to tweet at a certain interval, I get an XML error message #306 - "Status is duplicate". The initial tweets do seem to be posted though. It is posting the time and my street location when I choose the interval option, but I think the error is keeping the next scheduled tweet from occurring.. When I re-launch the app, it prompts me to log in but then does it automatically for me. I don't see any way to change what account to log into. And if you can't change it, I'm not sure why it is prompting and not just taking me directly to the main screen.
Also, as a suggestion, I'd want a "tweet now" button added to the automatic intervals. Having the option to post either street address and/or GPS coordinates would also help those that are hikers or on long road trips.
In case you need it, I'm on a stock HTC Inspire 4G.

 

[chmcke01]

Re: Can someone please test my app?

I tried it. Whenever I select that I want to tweet at a certain interval, I get an XML error message #306 - "Status is duplicate". The initial tweets do seem to be posted though. It is posting the time and my street location when I choose the interval option, but I think the error is keeping the next scheduled tweet from occurring.. When I re-launch the app, it prompts me to log in but then does it automatically for me. I don't see any way to change what account to log into. And if you can't change it, I'm not sure why it is prompting and not just taking me directly to the main screen.
Also, as a suggestion, I'd want a "tweet now" button added to the automatic intervals. Having the option to post either street address and/or GPS coordinates would also help those that are hikers or on long road trips.
In case you need it, I'm on a stock HTC Inspire 4G.

Thanks! The status duplicate error is because you are pressing the button before the minute has changed (it is an issue with Twitter not allowing duplicate posts). I could resolve it by adding seconds as well, do you think that would make it better or worse? This is the whole reason I added time, because if you stay at the same location you will get the duplicate post error.

If you leave the app (but don't close it) will it continue to post your status every 5 minutes (if thats the one you selected)? I think you have to kill the app to log in as someone else. I contacted Twitter and they said you had to pull up their page and log in for the app to access your Twitter account, so I am not sure why it takes you there and then auto logs you in. I will try to look into it.

As for the Tweet now...GREAT IDEA. Its easy to do and really does add something to the app I think. I will check on the latitude and longitude but I think that might take a while and as long as this app is doing what it is supposed to do (Tweet your location after a chosen interval) I will probably get an A so whether or not I add that will depend on whether or not I have the time before it is due.

Thanks again for trying it! I will probably add the Tweet now and add the seconds to prevent the duplicate error later tonight and post the updated version if you wouldn't mind trying it again. I will definitely check out the latitude and longitude as well to see how difficult that would be to add. Thanks again for the feedback!

 

[djeaton]

Re: Can someone please test my app?

OK. After re-launching the app, I don't get the error any more when I choose a posting interval. It still isn't posting anything other than the initial post though.unless the phone is awake. I set it at 5 minutes and let it time out. Nothing posted for half an hour until I woke it back up.

 

[djeaton]

BTW, I think adding seconds would be the minimum to get a great grade. If the error was a nice message popup and not a lot of XML code, that might help as well. You may also want to think about adding an option to only post if the location has changed. That would be a great option so that the twitter feed doesn't get tons of messages that only give time updates. Thinking aloud here, you could add an "auto" option that posts every 5 minutes if the location is changing and every hour if it isn't. Storing the last location and comparing it to current location prior to the post should be pretty easy to do. Only posting hourly if I am not moving would add significant options to the app. Another nice option would be a text area for a tweet prefix so I could enter "DM @dad " or something like that and not broadcast my exact location to the whole world.

 

[chmcke01]

BTW, I think adding seconds would be the minimum to get a great grade. If the error was a nice message popup and not a lot of XML code, that might help as well. You may also want to think about adding an option to only post if the location has changed. That would be a great option so that the twitter feed doesn't get tons of messages that only give time updates. Thinking aloud here, you could add an "auto" option that posts every 5 minutes if the location is changing and every hour if it isn't. Storing the last location and comparing it to current location prior to the post should be pretty easy to do. Only posting hourly if I am not moving would add significant options to the app. Another nice option would be a text area for a tweet prefix so I could enter "DM @dad " or something like that and not broadcast my exact location to the whole world.

First of all, I made this app in App Inventor and unfortunately it does not currently support background actions (so, the app will only work while you have it pulled up).

I added seconds which appears to have completely resolved the duplicate post issue. I also added choices of whether to post your address or coordinates as well as the choice to send it as a direct message instead of a status update. The direct messages send, but in the emulator directly after sending I get a force close.

If you test the updated version could you try that out and see if you get force close as well?

 

[djeaton]

Installed great. When I tweet though, I get a time that is 7 hours off. I haven't been able to tweet a DM yet as I need to get that set up with one account following the other. Hitting the road for some Thanksgiving travel though and may not get to that this morning. One thing I would suggest is that instead of something that says "The current time is 1:44 A.M. (and 20 seconds)", you shorten that to say "At 1:44:20, my current location is..." This would leave a lot more room for long addresses. It's going to be a busy day, bit I will try to test some more later.

 

[chmcke01]

Installed great. When I tweet though, I get a time that is 7 hours off. I haven't been able to tweet a DM yet as I need to get that set up with one account following the other. Hitting the road for some Thanksgiving travel though and may not get to that this morning. One thing I would suggest is that instead of something that says "The current time is 1:44 A.M. (and 20 seconds)", you shorten that to say "At 1:44:20, my current location is..." This would leave a lot more room for long addresses. It's going to be a busy day, bit I will try to test some more later.

So the time was correct before but now it is 7 hours off?

 

[chmcke01]

Installed great. When I tweet though, I get a time that is 7 hours off. I haven't been able to tweet a DM yet as I need to get that set up with one account following the other. Hitting the road for some Thanksgiving travel though and may not get to that this morning. One thing I would suggest is that instead of something that says "The current time is 1:44 A.M. (and 20 seconds)", you shorten that to say "At 1:44:20, my current location is..." This would leave a lot more room for long addresses. It's going to be a busy day, bit I will try to test some more later.

Weird, in the emulator and in a friends Dell Streak the time is right.

 

[djeaton]

OK. Sorry about the delay. Just got back home to the computer. The date and time was fine yesterday, And now that I started the app back up, the time is right as well. But at 8:30am this morning, it was tweeting that it was 1:30am. Weird. But I also had no problems with it continuing to send once the phone timed out either. So that is working now as well.

I tried the DM option and put my other account with the @ in front of the name and got a force close. It did send the tweet though. I re-started the app and put in the twitter ID without the @, clicked the login button, and got another FC as soon as the tweet was sent. Re-launched and logged in and then sent the DM without the @ and got a FC again. Not sure why, but the DM option has an issue.

One more suggestion for you. Can you offer the option to send the address, the coordinates, or BOTH?

 

[chmcke01]

OK. Sorry about the delay. Just got back home to the computer. The date and time was fine yesterday, And now that I started the app back up, the time is right as well. But at 8:30am this morning, it was tweeting that it was 1:30am. Weird. But I also had no problems with it continuing to send once the phone timed out either. So that is working now as well.

I tried the DM option and put my other account with the @ in front of the name and got a force close. It did send the tweet though. I re-started the app and put in the twitter ID without the @, clicked the login button, and got another FC as soon as the tweet was sent. Re-launched and logged in and then sent the DM without the @ and got a FC again. Not sure why, but the DM option has an issue.

One more suggestion for you. Can you offer the option to send the address, the coordinates, or BOTH?

Thanks for the feedback. Perhaps it is an issue with times before noon? I will check tomorrow on the emulator and I would appreciate it if you could try it out too. I couldn't find a workaround for the DM issue so I removed that and added the option to send it as a text message instead. That way you can send it without even needing to log in to Twitter.

Attached is the newest version.

 

[djeaton]

No problem. I'll set it up to tweet hourly and just leave it on overnight. I'll let you know tomorrow how it does.

 

[chmcke01]

No problem. I'll set it up to tweet hourly and just leave it on overnight. I'll let you know tomorrow how it does.

If you could also test the text message feature I would greatly appreciate it.

 

[djeaton]

I just sent myself a text and it worked fine. Now I not only know the time, but where I am!

 

[chmcke01]

I just sent myself a text and it worked fine. Now I not only know the time, but where I am!

Did you use the option to type in a number or did you use the option that pulls up the contact list?

 

[djeaton]

Did you use the option to type in a number or did you use the option that pulls up the contact list?

I tested both. Got both of them. Then I switched it back to tweet and left it for the night. Didn't get anything at all overnight. I *think* the issue may be that when I click my home button to go elsewhere, it still runs in the background. But when I click the "back" button, it stops even though I haven't used the menu option to exit the process.

So I kicked it back off this morning and the time is indeed wrong again. My time here in Atlanta is 9:33am EST. The tweets say "The current time is 1:33 A.M. (and 11 seconds) ". It was off for both the initial tweet upon launch, the "tweet now", as well as the tweets by timed intervals. I set my phone to 11:57am and re-launched your program to try to test it going past noon and the times on the tweets didn't change. They are still showing 1am, not the 9am that it actually is or the 11am that my clock says. Then it jumped to 1pm. See the attached graphic.

When I set my phone time back to the accurate 10am, the tweets jumped back to 1am. I set it to 10PM, and the tweets gave the 10PM time. So then I started playing,. LOL I set the clock back to 10:10am, the actual time, and started incremental it by an hour and re-tweeting. The tweets should have reflected 10am, 11am, 12pm, 1pm, and 2pm. Instead the 10am was right, then it went to 10am, 10pm, 1pm and 2pm. I reset the time back to 10:16am and the tweets said it was 2:16am. Which is weird because in my test sequence, it started out correctly when I reset the time. It's odd and I can't find a pattern. Don't know what to tell you.

 

[chmcke01]

I tested both. Got both of them. Then I switched it back to tweet and left it for the night. Didn't get anything at all overnight. I *think* the issue may be that when I click my home button to go elsewhere, it still runs in the background. But when I click the "back" button, it stops even though I haven't used the menu option to exit the process.

So I kicked it back off this morning and the time is indeed wrong again. My time here in Atlanta is 9:33am EST. The tweets say "The current time is 1:33 A.M. (and 11 seconds) ". It was off for both the initial tweet upon launch, the "tweet now", as well as the tweets by timed intervals. I set my phone to 11:57am and re-launched your program to try to test it going past noon and the times on the tweets didn't change. They are still showing 1am, not the 9am that it actually is or the 11am that my clock says. Then it jumped to 1pm. See the attached graphic.
Click to view quoted image

When I set my phone time back to the accurate 10am, the tweets jumped back to 1am. I set it to 10PM, and the tweets gave the 10PM time. So then I started playing,. LOL I set the clock back to 10:10am, the actual time, and started incremental it by an hour and re-tweeting. The tweets should have reflected 10am, 11am, 12pm, 1pm, and 2pm. Instead the 10am was right, then it went to 10am, 10pm, 1pm and 2pm. I reset the time back to 10:16am and the tweets said it was 2:16am. Which is weird because in my test sequence, it started out correctly when I reset the time. It's odd and I can't find a pattern. Don't know what to tell you.

I did find an error in the code and I was unable to replicate the issue after I fixed it so maybe you could try it on yours as well.

 

[djeaton]

OK. Give me a few minutes and I'll let you know how it turns out.

 

[chmcke01]

OK. Give me a few minutes and I'll let you know how it turns out.

Thanks! I can't tell you how much I appreciate all the help. It seems that it is pretty hard to find people willing to install and test apps on their phones. Thanks again!

 

[djeaton]

OK. I started with the correct hour of 10am, tweeted that, 11am, 12pm, 1pm, 2pm, and then back to the correct time. It worked much better, but there was still one issue. It went from 10am to 11am to 11PM to 1pm to 2pm then back to 10am. So the noon hour didn't work, but the rest did. So I set it for 11:57am with 5-minute intervals to see what would happen. Got the 11:57 one with the accurate time, but then it too went from 11:57am to 11:02pm. Looks like it is triggering the AM to PM right, but not incremental the 11 to a 12. This got me wondering what would happen when it went past midnight. So I set my phone to 11:58PM and waited. It worked fine. Went from 11pm to 12am.