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

[Joshua Tee]

Wesley, Glad you are liking it ! I've revamped ( with possible minor adjustments left todo ) the model UI with latest release below. Please let me know if any concerns. thx, Josh

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The latest version 3.5251 has been uploaded to the URL below as "wX.apk". The next oldest version has been renamed to include the version number:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B9OogdTO1kXqYzktaHZzdGdQSEk&usp=sharing

Android 4.2 or later is required.

Changes:
- Models, SPC Mesoanalysis, SPC Compmap - In these activities image zoom is no longer constrained to the original size of the image and will take up the entire screen instead.
- Models: To remove the image zoom restriction all navigation UI elements were moved to the top/bottom toolbars ( Moving to the support library recently allows the use of Android 5.0 feature "toolbar" -- basically a more generic and flexible action bar ). A few bugs were fixed in the process including one which now allows the amount of zoom and centered location to persist across model, paramenter, and time change. Looking for comments on this change as I know the models activity has been a popular part of the program. The original models activity can be accessed with a long press on the lightning strike activity icon ( MISC tab ) and then selecting "Models".
- The blue gradient background was replaced with a solid dark blue background which looks better with activities that will have a bottom toolbar.
- Fix in SPC compmap and SPC storm reports for upper left icon not opening nav drawer ( thanks to Pat for reporting this bug )

Please let me know if you have any issues or suggestions on this new functionality.

thanks,
Josh

 

[Joshua Tee]

The latest version 3.5281 has been uploaded to the URL below as "wX.apk". The next oldest version has been renamed to include the version number:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B9OogdTO1kXqYzktaHZzdGdQSEk&usp=sharing

Android 4.2 or later is required.

Changes:
- With Android 5.0, Google deprecated the various navigation modes of the action bar and also the split action bar ( on phones showed a top and bottom toolbar ). wX has been overhauled to use the new "toolbar" and in many activities there is ( once again ) a top and bottom toolbar. Additionally unlike prior version of Android the top/bottom toolbar is also used on Tablets. Please let me know if you would rather have just one toolbar at the top and I will consider making this a configurable item. As an FYI, if you long press over an icon it will display the same text that would show as if in the overflow menu.
- In the default WXOGL radar provider ( OpenGL based ) if you pan or pinch-zoom the toolbars will automatically hide. You can single tap or double-tap to get them back.
- Black theme is now supported again. White theme is being worked on next.

Please let me know if you have any issues or suggestions on this new functionality.

thanks,
Josh

 

[plreardon]

The latest version 3.5281 has been uploaded to the URL below as "wX.apk". The next oldest version has been renamed to include the version number:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B9OogdTO1kXqYzktaHZzdGdQSEk&usp=sharing

Android 4.2 or later is required.

Changes:
- With Android 5.0, Google deprecated the various navigation modes of the action bar and also the split action bar ( on phones showed a top and bottom toolbar ). wX has been overhauled to use the new "toolbar" and in many activities there is ( once again ) a top and bottom toolbar. Additionally unlike prior version of Android the top/bottom toolbar is also used on Tablets. Please let me know if you would rather have just one toolbar at the top and I will consider making this a configurable item. As an FYI, if you long press over an icon it will display the same text that would show as if in the overflow menu.
- In the default WXOGL radar provider ( OpenGL based ) if you pan or pinch-zoom the toolbars will automatically hide. You can single tap or double-tap to get them back.
- Black theme is now supported again. White theme is being worked on next.

Please let me know if you have any issues or suggestions on this new functionality.

thanks,
Josh

Hi Josh,

The update opens fine to my local wx page, but when I navigate to the other pages (SPC, Misc, etc.) and try to open something on it the program stops. I get the message "WX has Stopped"

 

[Joshua Tee]

Pat,
Thanks for the bug report. Do the activities accessed through the icons in the bottom toolbar ( radar, visible, etc ) work? If you tap current conditions to access the SPC Sounding activity does it open fine? Trying to narrow it down, concerned as it runs fine on my two devices and the emulator.

thanks,
Josh

 

[Joshua Tee]

Pat,
Also, were you by chance using a theme other then blue ( the default ) or black before this release?

thanks,
Josh

 

[Joshua Tee]

Pat,
Regardless of if the problem is related to themes I did reproduce a similar bug if a theme other then blue/black was used previously. This new version will at least allow one to access settings and change to blue or black.

I've uploaded 3.5282 to to normal spot.

Please let me know either way,
Josh

 

[plreardon]

Josh,

Yes, I was using the green theme in the previous version. Trying the icons from my home local page while writing this on my laptop and getting the following:

a. The icons on the top tool bar don't function. I'll press but nothing happens.
b. The menu icon does provide the usual listing of options. As above, when I press any of the menu options nothing options.
c. When I press any of the bottom toolbar icons the entire program stops and I return to my phone icon page and the message "Unfortunately, wX has stopped."
d. I can easily get back into wX after I close out the message.
e. I can navigate to the SPC, MISC and Images pages. The top toolbar on these pages work just like they do on the local page.....press but nothing happens. Same with the menu options.
f. When I tap any of the boxes on the SPC, Misc or Images pages I get the "Unfortunately, wX has stopped" message and the program closes.
g. Everything on my local homepage (Colorado Springs - KCOS) appears up to date. I can tap the forecast and get the fully worded forecast. I can zoom on the radar. However, when I tap on the current conditions to get to the Denver skew-t I get the "Unfortunately wX has stopped" message and the program closes.

I have a Sprint Galaxy S5 that upgraded last weekend to Lollipop and don't seem to have any problems with the transition. My phone's not rooted.....I like to keep my phone options pretty simple and straightforward.

Hope that helps!

Pat

 

[plreardon]

Josh,

We must've been messaging at the same time. I did download 3.5282 and did a quick check through the pages. The only issue I saw was with the SPC Mesoanalysis Map.....the menu function for observations, surface, upper air selections did not come up and would boot me back to the main SPC page. The area selections for the Mesoanalysis Map did function as intended plus the Surface and 500mb functions at the bottom functioned as well.

Everything else worked good, including the SPC Comp Map on the Misc page.

Hope I'm helping you.....Keep up the excellent work!

Pat

 

[Joshua Tee]

Pat,
I did just upload 3.5283 which re-enables support for the "green" theme. It will look a little different - let me know what you think. I can revert to the gradient instead of solid color and then the background, toolbars, and status bar can all be set to a specific shade of green ( or anything else ).

Thanks for checking things out and finding the issue with SPC Meso - by chance can you switch to the default blue theme and see if the issue is still there? There are at least 5 different activities that have a "nav drawer" like this but this is the only one with sub-menus so I'm glad you mentioned SPC Compmap is working as that at least narrows it down. Regardless it's not clear what would be causing this just yet after a quick glance at the code.

thanks,
Josh

 

[plreardon]

Josh,

Downloaded 3.5283. It opened green, switched to blue, but the SPC Mesoanalysis page menu still kicked me back to the SPC page. Tried a different region but still acted the same.

The SPC Comp Map worked good.

Quick checks elsewhere seemed good too.

Pat

 

[Joshua Tee]

Pat,
I just uploaded a fix for this. Thanks ! Josh

---
The latest version 3.5284 has been uploaded to the URL below as "wX.apk". The next oldest version has been renamed to include the version number:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B9OogdTO1kXqYzktaHZzdGdQSEk&usp=sharing

Android 4.2 or later is required.

Changes:

- Bugfix for nav drawer icon in SPC Meso, USwarn, and SPC storm reports. ( thanks to Pat for pointing this out )
- Initial Support added back in for "green" theme. Some elements such as spinners ( drop-down ) and nav drawer pull outs are still gray or blue for now.

Please let me know if you have any issues or suggestions on this new functionality.

thanks,
Josh

 

[Joshua Tee]

I've uploaded version 3.5294 to https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B9OogdTO1kXqYzktaHZzdGdQSEk&usp=sharing to fix the following bug:

- for SPC Convective outlook Day 2 and Day 3 the URLs for the images change with DST. The method to determine if DST is in effect was not working properly.

Other minor enhancements are included which I'll detail later today or tomorrow but mostly impact non-US locations and more refinement and support for black/green/gray themes.

Thanks,
Josh

 

[Joshua Tee]

The latest version 3.5313 has been uploaded to the URL below as "wX.apk". The next oldest version has been renamed to include the version number:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B9OogdTO1kXqYzktaHZzdGdQSEk&usp=sharing

Android 4.2 or later is required.

Changes:
- Bugfix for SPC Conective Outlook Day2 / Day 3 graphics related to DST code not working as intended.
- Bugfix for Models, when zoomed in bottom of image was truncated by bottom toolbar
- Radar activities for CA/AU/NZ were converted to 2 toolbars
- Canada Text products converted to 2 toolbars
- Support for gray/green theme added and improved.
- Initial support for text to speach, Playlist, and sharing in Canada text products. ( FOCN45 - Significant Weather Discussion (PASPC), FXCN01 ,and Weather Summaries )
- Twitter state activity now uses a dedicated activity that inlcudes a spinner (drop-down ) in top toolbar to navigate between US states or CA Prov. The old method of long pres
sing on the state twitter icon is now considered deprecated but is still available for now ( similar to NWS Radar mosaics activity )
- Models: new models added "GEFS" and "CFSv2". For CFSv2 only the current run and any earlier runs from that day are availble for the time being given that the URL structure is
differnent then all other models at COD. ( more then the past 24hrs of runs are being suppoted )
- Models: certain labels were enhanced for example MUCAPE was changed to "MUCAPE / 500MB Bulk Shear"
- New UI option related to bottom toolbar. In settings you can toggle having icons evenly spaced or instead grouped to the right. Depending on your device size and how you use
it one might be a better option. To *not* have them evenly space is the default in Android 5.0
- Severe Dashboard was moved out of the overflow menu and onto the bottom toolbar since we now have more room and control on placement.
- PlayList was added as an option to the overflow menu on the main screen to prevent going through settings to get there.
- Many image/radar activities had the 6 frame animation item moved out of the overlow menu and to a "play" icon on the toolbar.
- Numerous translations added in support of Canada text products which have a whole new set of commonly used abbrevations ( such as "ENUF" and "MDLS" )

Please let me know if you have any issues or suggestions on this new functionality.

thanks,
Josh

 

[Joshua Tee]

The latest version 3.5331 has been uploaded to the URL below as "wX.apk". The next oldest version has been renamed to include the version number:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B9OogdTO1kXqYzktaHZzdGdQSEk&usp=sharing

Android 4.2 or later is required.

Changes:

- Default radar provider WXOGL now shows radar timestamp under product ID in upper left corner.
- Main screen top sliding toolbar now uses a change in text color instead of the white line under the toolbar to show current selection. The height of the top toolbar now matches the height of the bottom on.
- Many activities now include the capability ( when it makes sense ) to hide both toolbars by tapping on the main text or main image.
- Setting "Fullscreen mode" now hides toolbars in activities that support this. Tapping on the main text or image will show the toolbars again. NOTE: The models activity supports hide/show of toolbars but does not yet support fullscreen mode when entering the activity.
- In models, overflow and arrow icons were moved to bottom toolbar and sector spinner was moved to top toolbar to more closely match other activities. ( I expect UI changes like this and the one below to be less frequent for the rest of the development cycle before 3.6 release )
- Green theme's colors have been updated for a better experience.
- The main screen's overflow menu now includes "soundings" as tapping current conditions was somewhat of a hidden feature ( access still remains via this method ).
- Canadian locations hourly activity and severe weather alert are now functioning again after the CA EC website overhaul last fall. Support for Canada ( and AU/NZ ) remains in beta and this is not likely to change anytime soon. However, the Canadian radar activity and text product activity are considered stable.

Please let me know if you have any issues or suggestions on this new functionality.

thanks,
Josh

 

[Caleb Grunzke]

Thanks for all of your hard work Josh!

I noticed a problem with the previous version. When you are looking at Satellite imagery and want to overlay the mesoanalysis, the products don't overlay correctly or at all. Only temperature somewhat works as the just numbers (no contours) appear on the image.

Also, when you are looking at model soundings, I don't think there is a way to get back to the model home page from the sounding without having to press "Back" on your phone. This can get tiring especially when you have been plotting many model soundings which leads you to having to press "Back" many times until you return to the model home page.