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iCheckin Release Notes

2.2.1 Build 221 2024-08-22

Maintenance update to support current systems, and minor GUI improvements. Update dependencies, remove redundant code.

Android-only

Android version fixes a bug introduced in implementing "null safety", removing an un-used class, fixing a database error, updating some dependencies. Both the null-safety bug and the database issue have the ability to render the app unusable (fix by reinstall, but loses your course history), so definitely worth installing this update. We believe the database is solid now.

2.2.0 Build 220 2024-07-13

This is a revision with almost no functional change but with a lot of churn internally, both for Dart "null safety" and to update to new libraries so as to target Android API level 34. This release was only deployed for Android users.

2.1.1/2.1.7 2021-05-27 "Look at me now!"

Due to a numbering "discrepency" this is called 2.1.1 on Android and 2.1.7 on iOS. It’s the same release. Numbering will be rationalized in the next update.

This is a minor point release with these changes:

  • Settings now adds the all-important Dark Mode in settings. Dark Mode requires an App Restart. On Android, just click the square "Recent Items" button at the bottom of your screen, and flick the app off the top. Then tap the iCheckIn icon and the app will appear in dark mode.

  • Settings now checks that you are entering all nine digits of your instructor code (omit the letters for the ops unit here).

  • The list page layout is improved, and there’s a stress-busting image in the app bar, which collapses if your list is more than a page and you scroll up (this effect is best viewed in slo-mo).

  • Also in the list page, there are cameo pictures for most of the cities we have Ed Centres at, and a House icon for Home Studio. If your Location field doesn’t match a known city, there’s a Monty Python Parrot icon, because, well, why not? If you don’t like the parrot, send me a (square) JPEG or PNG image that you have rights to (e.g., you took it yourself) and that represents the city where Learning Tree is running more than one course.

2.1 "Change is a comin'" Coming…​ Here…​ May 2021.

Version 2 of iCheckIn is a complete rewrite, with a much better UI. This is built for both major platforms, plugging a long gap in maintenance of the iOS version. Differences from the previous editions:

  • Overall modernization: moves UI forward about ten years.

  • Main screen add button is a now-standard "floating button" in the lower right.

  • Color highlighting in the list! Green for current or future courses, grey for past courses, red if you have a malformed entry in the database (free coffee in the student lounge to anyone who reports what they were doing just before the red appeared :-)).

  • The long-press menu is gone; each row in the list has an Edit button, a Copy Button, and a Delete button (in red!). Latter two were long-press menu options before. There is a ONE-LEVEL Undo (in the 'snackbar' area for 5 seconds, after that, in the hamburger menu) if you delete an item by mistake.

  • The Edit Course button ("pencil icon") goes to an Edit screen, now the only way to make changes in an existing course’s name, date, location, etc..

  • New Course screen has a Checkbox for Home Studio instead of typing that into Location.

  • New Course screen has space for the Seq#, but it’s optional. Space for Customer if it’s an "onsite". Export to Calendar checkbox is at the bottom.

  • New Course/Edit Course screen - you must press the Save button at the bottom (may be hidden under keyboard! scroll up, or hit Back Button to remove the keyboard). As of Build 211, App will remind you if you forget!

  • On the Settings screen, by contrast, everything is saved immediately as you type.

  • Single-tap a list item to get to the tabs page to send Arrival, Setup and Attendees register, and view Contacts.

  • Panic Button is replaced by a Panic Email entry under the Contact tab.

  • This version uses the new Learning Tree logo from 2020, so you can see at a glance that you have the new version.

  • Canadian Instructors note that the OpsUnit drop-down has two North American choices, NA_US and NA_CA (I know that Learning Tree’s abbreviation for Canada is CN rather than the official ISO standard CA, but I’m reserving CN for a future Chinese expansion). Please pick the one where the course is homed (last two chars of seq# if known). This only matters for the contact information, e.g., for Travel, there is a different travel agency for Canadian instructors.

  • You might think we could default the ops unit from the sequence number, but you often don’t have the seq# at the time you enter the course into the app. And, some instructors have expressed a dislike of having to put the seq# at all (that’s two reasons why it’s optional here). Heck, in a fully-automated scenario, you wouldn’t have to manually re-enter the course into the app at all once it’s already assigned to you in one or another of Learning Tree’s course databases, but I digress…​

  • Build 216 fixes an Android-only app crash when adding a new course after migrating from 1.x.

Retired Features

  • The experimental "Import/Export" feature has been retired since it was troublesome and had very little use. Please let us know if you depended on it (or even used it).

  • We no longer try to geo-locate the course site, since it often guessed wrong (unless you live right near the ed center) and since we’re 99% Home Studio anyway.

Compatability

To ensure quality, Version 2 has been tested on both emulators and on several real devices:

  • a Pixel 2 with Android 11

  • a Nexus 6 with LineageOS Android 9

  • a TeraCube 2E with Android 10

  • an iPhone SE with iOS 14.4.1

  • an iPad with iOS 9.3.5

Android-only: Migration from Android v1.x to V2 2.x:

  • You should probably write down your instructor code before migrating, in case the conversion of your preferences fails. Apologies if yours failed AND you didn’t even see this before Android updated the app for you.

  • When you first use 2.0 after having used 1.x on the same device, the on-device database that stores the current and past courses will be converted to the new format, and can NOT be converted back. This is necessary so that, when the beta is done, everybody can move to the new App without an uninstall-lose-all-your-data/reinstall cycle. Most people don’t care about this history so I hope that’s not a big deal.

  • We will also try to migrate the user preferences, but if that fails you may have to re-enter your name, phone number and instructor code (sorry, but that’s why I suggested you write down your instructor code).

Despite the changes, the UI is much more modern, and I hope you like it! Comments and suggestions always welcome!

Release Notes for Previous iOS versions

1.2 Add support for UK IR contacts, etc.

Release Notes for Previous Android versions

1.16 2020-08-27 "Summertime Blues"

iCheckin 1.16 is a very minor release which simply changes the filtering on the Course Number field to allow letters (which are converted to upper case if needed) along with digits. This allows entry of course numbers like 567P or G729, which we have to support since often very-different courses get the same number but a different letter. The side effect of this change is that, on most devices, depending on the keyboard, you may need to shift to numeric to enter numeric digits.

It also shrinks the "Home Studio" label down to "Home" to allow more room for the location for onsite/EdCenter events.

1.15 2020-07-04 "Born on the 4th of July"

iCheckIn 1.15 is a point release that adds support for Home Studio course runs - the checkbox clears and disables the location text box - and makes a few tweaks and modernizations to the User Interface, to the Add To Calendar feature, and a few more.

This version of the code has been migrated to "AndroidX", an upgraded compatability library for older devices (this app should work on anything back to Android 5.x). There are a few known glitches, like the history list page having a larger-than-expected toolbar, but these are nowhere near show-stoppers. Hopefully this will be good enough to tide people over until the 2.0 release. But please let me know if you find any new glitches!

1.14 2017-11-15 "A Better Pie"

Start giving alphabet-based names to releases.

  • For those that like to keep their Course Runs history when moving to a new phone, and if Google’s Data Saving feature doesn’t work, there is a History Export/Import feature. It is a bit rough around the edges - in fact it crashes on my old Daily Driver phone (Nexus 6) but works on every other device I tried it on. It also requires use of either command-line adb or the File Transfer wizard in one of the Android Developer IDEs. Here’s how to use it:

    • In the App on the old phone, choose Export All from the menu.

    • The filename is always /sdcard/Download/iCheckIn.json;

    • Use adb pull to get it off your old phone:
      adb pull /sdcard/Download/iCheckIn.json

    • Use adb push to put it onto your new phone, in the same location:
      adb push iCheckin.json /sdcard/Download/

    • Then start the App and choose Import from the menu.

      Note there is no protection against duplicate imports; the alternative would have caused exceptions if you did an import after adding even one course manually before learning about the Import feature…​ If you do wind up with duplicates, you can long-press on them to get a menu with a Delete option. If you give this a try, please tell me what phone, what operating system and version, how many entries in your history on the phone and in the download, and whether it worked, or crashed the app, or whatever. Thanks!

  • As you have probably already seen, the app offers to display the release notes the first time you get to the History screen on a higher-numbered release (this is remembered, so it should only pop up once per major update; if it becomes obnoxious, please let me know).

  • Added the Sequence Number back into the entry/arrival screen, but it’s optional. Some instructors like to pre-enter all the information on this screen in advance (both for convenience and to use the Add To Calendar feature); this way you’ll have the seq# when you arrive.

  • Change Instructor Code Number field default format to numeric for easier entry.

  • And, as usual, a few bug fixes.

1.11 to 1.13

  • "Copy To Calendar" includes the location.

  • Change Course Number field default format to numeric; courses beginning with a letter are in the minority.

  • Misc other fixes.

1.10 2015-05-17

  • New Menu item to allow you to copy an event from iCheckIn to your Android calendar.

  • Makes the date field non-editable (only settable from the date picker) which should prevent a crash caused by pausing the app in the middle of entering the text.

1.09 2015-05-14

Better email address for North American ZD reports. Dialog if you try to send without entering your instructor number.

1.08 2015-02-38

Add scrolling to the Arrival screen for smaller devices like the BlackBerry Q10 (but it helps even on larger devices like Nexus 6 where the on-screen keyboard takes up more than half the screen!).

1.07 2015-02-03

(Same as 1.05)

1.06 2015-02-03

(Same as 1.05)

1.05 2015-02-03

Finalize support for UK Ops Unit - create a course with "+" or select an existing one, set the Ops Unit drop-down to UK (if geolocation didn’t already do so — try tapping the compass button between location and Ops Unit), and then the phone numbers and emails will be sent to the UK staff. All other regions still use US phone numbers. Minor tweaks here & there.

1.04 2015-02-02

Support for UK Ops Unit - set the Ops Unit drop-down to UK and the phone numbers and emails will be sent to the UK staff. Minor tweaks here & there.

1.03 (2014-10-23)

Changes this release:

  • Prepare for Google Play Store: Optimize, sign, etc.

  • prepare for Google Play Store: Require IR activation code for showing emails, phone numbers.

  • Saves images across application restarts. Deletes images when uninstalled. Doesn’t include images when copying a Course Run.

  • Get version string for "About" direct from AndroidManifest

1.02

Allows you to long-press in the history view either to delete or to duplicate a course event.

1.01 (2014-10-17)

First public release. Changes this release:

  • This release features a crude auto-updater that will notify you when a new version becomes available.

  • Corrects saving of the images you’ve scanned in the database.

  • Apparently fixes rotation bugs noted on some Samsung devices (if not please email me or use the Feedback form - thanks!)

  • Many small UI improvements.