"wX" Android opensource/free weather app - new beta release 3.4

[Joshua Tee]

I really liked the app..but it seemed slow and the layout was a little confusing..just some ideas for future updates

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Jared,
Glad you like it, thanks for the feedback. Can you let me know with a little more detail which parts seemed slow or confusing?

thanks,
josh

 

[Jared Martin]

The part that is slow is when launching the forecast models and the the layout that says where the forecast models are and other currents models

I'm also glad you took it as positive feedback..it was hard to find wording that didn't sound negative but gave feedback

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[Jared Martin]

Did that help?

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[Joshua Tee]

The part that is slow is when launching the forecast models and the the layout that says where the forecast models are and other currents models

I'm also glad you took it as positive feedback..it was hard to find wording that didn't sound negative but gave feedback

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Jared,
Few more questions for you:
- There are 4 different model activities, which one(s) is giving slowness:
SPC Tab ( top left ) - SPC SREF
MISC Tab ( top lef ) - COD
MISC Tab ( top center ) - NCEP
MISC Tab ( top right ) - HRRR Viewer
- How long does it take in seconds from when you tap the tile icon till the initial image loads?
- What type of network are you on when this happens?
- What Android OS version? ( I see this is Galaxy S5? )

thanks,
Josh

 

[Jared Martin]

Yes I am on a Galaxy S5..I'm mostly on WiFi but oi ccasionally on 4G. I would say it takes up to 10-20 seconds but sometimes quicker and sometimes longer.

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[Joshua Tee]

Yes I am on a Galaxy S5..I'm mostly on WiFi but oi ccasionally on 4G. I would say it takes up to 10-20 seconds but sometimes quicker and sometimes longer.

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Jared,
But which icons , all, some? Specifically which of the 4 I listed earlier? Unfortunately this might be related ( just based on the timings you give and the variance ) to the issue I observed and documented on page 5 of this thread ( post on 5/15/2015 ):
https://stormtrack.org/community/th...weather-app-new-beta-release-3-4.27745/page-5

However, need more data first to know if this is it. If you click the cloud icon on bottom toolbar how long for the image to load? ( this data doesn't come from the NWS and can be used as a benchmark ) Also, on the SPC tab if you click on the top center icon how long for it to load all 8 images?

thanks,
Josh

 

[Jared Martin]

When I click the cloud icon that comes up in a matter of 2 seconds. On the SPC tab it takes about 5-10 seconds to load. And all the ones listed above took about 10-15 seconds to load on WiFi. Also the confusing part is knowing which model is being run on the SPC, it may say something at the bottom but I can't read that

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[Joshua Tee]

When I click the cloud icon that comes up in a matter of 2 seconds. On the SPC tab it takes about 5-10 seconds to load. And all the ones listed above took about 10-15 seconds to load on WiFi. Also the confusing part is knowing which model is being run on the SPC, it may say something at the bottom but I can't read that

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Jared,
Can you load this image via a browser and compare the times? 2 seconds is quite high, even on a mobile network for me it's under a second. To be fair you'll need to click the cloud icon and then use the map to select another site as the initial load of the activity will take some time.
http://climate.cod.edu/data/satellite/1km/Michigan/current/Michigan.vis.gif

Regarding SPC upper left icon this is for SPC SREF and there is only one model to choose from. Can you send me a screenshot though? With an S5 I would expect resolution that would allow you to see the lower left submenu which allows you to select older runs.

thanks,
Josh

 

[Jared Martin]

I could load that image very quickly. Below is the screen shot I'm taking about.




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[Joshua Tee]

I could load that image very quickly. Below is the screen shot I'm taking about.


View attachment 10593

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Jared,
If you click on the dropdown it should expand and show the full content. By default it's "latest" and usually that's what you would want anyway unless the current run is incomplete and you want data later then what's generated even if that data is almost outdated, etc. Here's the web interface in case you want to compare:
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/exper/sref/
( NOTE: I've noticed around 7-9pm EST daily they don't seem to generate images properly so you might see issues right now ... )

Regarding performance, when you have time can you reboot your phone and just use wX with no other apps launched? I just want to remove any resource issue as a cause. Also, are there any parts of the app that do perform as you expect?

 

[Jared Martin]

Yes..I rebooted my phone and launched it by itself and that seemed to help. I'm am very impressed for such an app that is free..is a bummer there are only 100 or so downloads... I hope you get more soon

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[Joshua Tee]

Jared,
Glad that it's performing better and you are liking it. The lack of downloads is most likely because I just posted there few weeks back and I've done nothing to really promote ( since monetization is not a goal for me ) or draw attention to it other then this thread on storm track .!

thanks,
Josh

 

[Jared Martin]

Will good luck with further development in the program

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[Joshua Tee]

3.7152 released:
- Two new cards for the "homescreen": "7DAY2" and "CC2" which are meant to optionally replace the existing 7day and current condition cards. These new cards use NWS Icons and may become the default for new users in the future after more testing is done and pending no negative feedback.
- Hourly activity now has 2 graphs displayed at the top.
- WFO text viewer - add "Near Shore Marine Forecast" availbe from some WFOs
- WPC text viewer - add additional "Storm summary" products
- Add degree symbol in current conditions and 7day text
- Bugfix - current conditions status was not being properly extracted
- Bugfix - WPC text activity had some graphics that were causing the app to crash
- Bugfix - SPC Meso was crashing after screen rotation

NOTE: If you make a config change and the app fails to launch you can access settings by adding the main wX widget and then tapping the rain drop icon to show hourly data. A submenu from within hourly has been added for backdoor access to settings.

 

[Joshua Tee]

3.7180:
7day and current conditions cards ( 7DAY2 and CC2 ) are now the default for new users. 7DAY2 has been improved in the following ways since release last week:
- each half-day now has it's own card
- 100s of icons are now embedded within the apk so there is no network fetch beyond the normal 7DAY card. Dual icons are created dynamically using the local resources and might look slightly different then the NWS's dynamic version
- In addition to temperature wind direction and speed are now extracted from the main text and shown at top with larger font and whiter color.
- Easiest way to migrate to this if homescreen has not been modified is to to to settings->homescreen and choose "reset to default"
- Hazards card now lists one hazard per card. Benefit of this is you can expand one at a time instead of having to expand them all at once and then scroll down. Additionally when you tap to unexpand it will take you to the top of screen.
- Text to speech "rate" setting added.
- WPC Text activity now has a Great Lakes submenu with off shore forecasts
- Refresh interval in settings can be set to 0 to disable automatic refresh.
- Hourly now has sustained wind added as last column.
- US Warnings activity now has an entry in the submenu for the NWS watch/warning map.