My micro-ISV Way

Summary of changes

Update 1.5 contains the following improvements:

• new: ChartFlow – navigable pie charts for reports (full version only)

• new: easy date switching for logs and reports

• new: manual reordering of activities

• new: text editing settings (capitalization, auto-correction) for activity names and notes

• new: easy data migration from Lite to full version

Below you can find more extensive description…

ChartFlow – navigable pie charts for reports (full version only)

Pie charts for reports can be displayed by tapping on the top-left button or by rotating iPhone/iPod to landscape position on Reports view. You can go back to reports table by changing device orientation to portrait mode. Charts represent times in the same way as you have them configured for reports table (against, interval, total time, parent).

So you can go back and forth just by rotating your iPhone/iPod. But I’ve added the chart button for the sake of discoverability. To avoid angry emails (”You promised pie charts! Well, where the frig are they?!!!”) and for users who don’t really have time to check what’s new in the latest update . The spot was free anyway, so why not use it.

But the chart itself is not all. You can go to chart for previous/next interval by swiping right and left. You can also switch between daily/weekly and monthly modes by swiping up and down. And when you go back to Reports table, it’s in sync with your last chart. Cool, isn’t it ?

For those who don’t have time to read silly blogs, there are instructions under the ‘i’ button.

Why pie charts? It wasn’t the most requested feature, but:

• One picture is worth thousands of words. Many people (including me) digest data much easier when served as pictures, not text.

• Many users exported data to spreadsheet just to make pie charts. Now they can use that time for something else

• It’s an eye-candy and everybody loves eye-candy . After all, we bought our iPhones/iPods because they are nice and shiny, didn’t we (”Nope! Actually I’ve bought mine to develop life-changing apps bla, bla, bla” – yeah, sure

• Pie charts are not rocket science really, but I had to learn some new iPhone development tricks to implement them. I also had to rewrite some reports-related code to make reports faster (you should generally notice that reports are calculated faster, export quicker and even scroll smoother now. Especially when you have data from many months). So there was a challenge and some new things to learn. Two most important ingredients of a fun project soup.

• Developing Eternity I wanted to use standard GUI frameworks as much as possible. It makes development faster and the app consistent with iPhone user expectations. But the standard controls delivered by Apple frameworks, as nice as they are, have their limitations. It became obvious to me when I developed auto-adjustment functionality. The wheels-based time controls with separate, independent months, days, hours, minutes and AM/PM settings just don’t work very well in that context. I need to learn some lower-level tricks to go beyond standard controls in such cases and pie charts project was a good one to start from.

• I don’t follow competition that much, but I hope it will differentiate my app a bit. When I first get requests for adding pie charts I was not convinced at all. “The report screen is crowded already. How do I present the data, the charts, the legend and all the controls.” (I’m not sure now, but I might have been influenced by a picture of another app I’ve had seen on App Store). But then I thought “Why not get rid of the legend, the controls and draw everything in landscape mode so there is more space for labels?”. Eureka (gee, it’s sad that I have to discover the obvious in such pains ).

Easy date switching for logs and reports

This is a no-brainer. Interval labels are tappable now. I made them more button-like looking to make it discoverable. You can pick any date and switch to today with one tap.

Manual reordering of activities

When you tap on Edit activities, the editable rows have standard reorder controls on the right side. You can also sort activities alphabetically with one tap.
In addition, activities editing/deleting/reordering can be cancelled now if you’ve done some mess. The ordering you set here is respected in reports too.

Text editing settings (capitalization, auto-correction) for activity names and notes

Go to Settings->Text editing to switch auto-correction and capitalization ON or OFF for activity names and notes.

Easy data migration from Lite to full version

Now you can upgrade from Lite to full version without loosing your data. In three easy steps:

1. Install full version on the same device
2. Open Lite version, go to Settings->Full version, tap on “Migrate data to full version”
3. Full version is opened and asks for confirmation. Confirm.

Enjoy !

Eternity update, micro-ISV

Summary of changes

Update 1.4 contains the following improvements:

1. new: inserting log entries without starting new timer
2. new: easier log entries deleting
3. new: auto-adjusting times for previous and next log entry
4. new: changing activity for past log entries
5. new: hierarchy paths for logs and reports
6. new: more Excel friendly dates in exported log files
7. new: data purge

Below you can find more extensive description…

Inserting log entries without starting new timer and easier log entries deleting

That was one of the most requested features. Now if you forget to start a timer you can always insert it later easily. On Logs view, the first row is always “Insert/Delete”.

After tapping on it, a new view is presented with options to delete existing entries and insert new ones.

You can insert new entries between any existing ones. If there is a time gap between existing entries, the new entry will automatically take the size of that gap. If there is no gap, the new entry will have zero duration, but you can change it easily with the new “auto-adjust time for previous and next log entry” feature (described below). You can also tap on any existing entry to edit it. I hope it’s pretty straightforward and you’ll find it useful.

Auto-adjusting times for previous and next log entry

That was a tough one. The problem I had here was that the date and time selection picker takes half the screen space all by itself. The rest of it I can use for presenting times for the previous, current and next log entries.
So here is the solution. When you select the “Start” time for the current entry, you will have a previous entry presented (first screen). If you select the “Stop” time, you will have the next log entry presented (second screen).
The “Adjust prev. and next” switch allows you to turn auto-adjusting on and off.

One rule in auto-adjusting is “you can push, you can’t pull”.

Example. When your current entry ends at 3:16 and the next next one starts at 3:20, you can set current end for 3:25 and the start for the next will be auto-adjusted to 3:25. But when you change your mind and set current end back to 3:16 the next start will stay at 3:25. But you can tap on next entry row to adjust its start time and push current end stop time. Why you can’t pull? That’s to avoid constant switching between auto-adjust on and off when you happen to make a mistake.

When you turn auto-adjust off you’re free to set times however you want. Overlaps will be indicated by orange colors and time start/stop inversion (stop precedes start) will be indicated by red color. Trying to save them can result in a warning or error message. The error is when one entry completely overlaps other or when the times are inverted. The warning appears when the current entry starts before the previous ends or ends after the next starts.

Changing activity for past log entries

In log entry editing view you can now tap on the activity to change it.

Here you can go through your activities hierarchy to select a new one for the edited log entry.

Hierarchy paths for logs and reports

You have seen them on the screen shots above already. They will also be in a few other places and in the exported logs file, in a separate column (so you can easily hide it).

More Excel friendly dates in exported log files

Previuosly, dates in exported logs had format like “Wednesday 13 May ‘09″. This turned out to be hard to digest for Excel and other spreadsheets. Looks like I thought too much like a human and too less like a machine this time around . Now the dates have only numeric representation formatted depending on your iPhone/iPod local date format.

Data purge

There is a new “Logs” row to tap on the Settings view.

For now, the only option here is to purge logs. You can pick any date to purge all logs older that that. By default it’s set to “tomorrow” which purges all your logs. After tapping on purge you will be asked for confirmation.

When the purge is running you can still cancel it (if you tap quick enough that is ).

One more thing. The Lite version will be ad-supported beginning V1.4.

That’s all for now. Let me know if you have any comments or requests.

Enjoy

Eternity update

How do you like the title of this post? What’s your reaction to the “carrot and stick” remark? I’m sure you don’t like the stick. But do you really like the carrot? Isn’t your reaction like “Carrot and stick? Hey! I’m not a donkey! Take your carrot and stick it…”. OK, OK, please calm down .

Is advertising time tracking as a carrot and a stick a mistake by me (I develop and sell time tracking software after all )? Well, whether we like it or not, most of the time we are driven by our fears and desires (and we sleep for the rest of it ). And tracking how you spend your time can help you face some of the former and chase the latter.

I’ve been tracking my time 24/7 for about 7 months now. I started when the prototype of my app, Eternity, was usable enough to become my “dog food”. Here are a few time-tracking related findings by me as the user of this app.

Is ignorance a bliss?

Keeping a time log gives you a simple knowledge. How you spend your days, weeks, months, years… doing this, this and that. Is that information useful (more than the last year’s snow)? I think it is. Past time is an investment in your game of life. Do you see any profits today? Does watching TV for three hours a day benefits you in any way? How much time do you spend in your day job? How it compares to your “dream job” projects? Does your income reflects that? Does satisfaction from what you do reflects that? How other people benefit from your time investments? Are you OK with that?

Time log helps you answer such questions. But you should be aware, that this knowledge will push you out of your comfort zone. This is the stick, the truth that your days here are numbered and you robably spend some of them in some ways you’re not really comfortable with. You won’t get them back by running a log of course. Sorry, I can’t help you here

Thanks for the stick, can I have my carrot now?

Are you sure you deserve it? For many goals you assign some time to reach them. One hour a day, ten hours a week and so on. When you don’t have a log you’re always unsure if you’ve spent enough time “working”. This leads to the constant feeling of guilt, discomfort.

On the contrary, having a record of your activities gives you a proof. It makes a big difference, even if you’re the only person demanding such validation of your efforts. “I’ve earned it. It’s in my record. See? Can I have my carrot now? Thank you.”. And it’s yummy When you’re not sure if you deserve it, it leaves a bitter aftertaste. You tend to work more and more. You don’t know when to stop. The result is burnout and your outcome is poisoned by it.

And the best part is…

That you don’t even need to wait for weeks and months to gain benefits from logging your time. The plain fact of having a log forces you to make more conscious choices right from the start. Is watching this movie worth my time? Is reading this book, playing this game, meeting these people, a time well spent? Will I consider it as such tomorrow? “Holy crap! I’m reading this blog by some bird-brain again! I should start a timer for it. Wait! Maybe I should really choose something better to do?”;). It’s a constant reminder to re-focus your activities. Say: “Life is short and I can’t afford to waste another minute”

Where is my mind?

You can ask: “Do I really need to play games with my mind? Is that normal?” It feels strange sometimes, maybe even a bit schizophrenic, but the consolation is in knowing that you would bang yourself with a stick anyway, consciously or not. So I just think the conscious option is better. At least you will know where the bruises come from . Does it sound convincing? That’s not the point. I don’t want you to convince you, but to make you wonder if or how it works. Make your conscious choice and follow it.