My Android experience

[Sander]

Hey all. I figured I would make this a separate thread rather than post all over other threads.

I have an iPad 4 and have been using SLM on it for a little over a year. I recently got a Galaxy Note 4, a relatively large Android phone that I'd like to use as back up or editing device.

I initially had some crashes but the latest update seems to have stabilized things.

So far I'm noticing a few things;
1. I don't get a "split screen" option like on my iPad. This may be because the Note 4 identifies itself as a phone, however, with a 5.7" QHD screen having the option would be nice.
2. When using the default dark theme, PDFs are also inverted. I haven't found an option to copy the look I get on iPad, dark theme but regular PDFs.
3. I don't seem to able to edit annotation. This may again be because of "phone mode" (I never used SLM on other phones so I can't say for sure) but since the Note has a stylus I was actually looking forward to doing this on it.
4. I copied all my PDFs from my iPad using iTunes and put them in a folder on my Android.  In the Android you're a little more free with file management, and SLM allows you to specify a documents folder for each database. So I pointed my main database to said folder. The entire database synced quickly from my iPad but unfortunately it didn't auto-link the songs. I hope this will be added or fixed in the future as it would save a lot of work.

Speaking generally, performance is pretty smooth, definitely no worse than my iPad 4.

[arlo]

1. I don't get a "split screen" option like on my iPad. This may be because the Note 4 identifies itself as a phone, however, with a 5.7" QHD screen having the option would be nice.

That's right, the Android OS tells apps whether a device is in one of four size classes, and my app only shows the split screen on the larger two classes. The exact sizes aren't documented, but I could override that logic if needed. The iPhone 6+ will have the same issue. I was waiting to see if I got user feedback on whether those devices should use the tablet or the phone interface. I could possibly make this a user preference so it could work either way.

2. When using the default dark theme, PDFs are also inverted. I haven't found an option to copy the look I get on iPad, dark theme but regular PDFs.

LOL ... inverting the document colors to match the app colors has been one of the most popular requests, so I was happy that I could offer this in the Android version. I didn't expect anyone to prefer the iOS behavior. I'll put this on my wish list.

3. I don't seem to able to edit annotation. This may again be because of "phone mode" (I never used SLM on other phones so I can't say for sure) but since the Note has a stylus I was actually looking forward to doing this on it.

This feature isn't included yet. The current feature set is shown here:

http://www.arlomedia.com/apps/setlistmaker/main/features.html
 

4. I copied all my PDFs from my iPad using iTunes and put them in a folder on my Android.  In the Android you're a little more free with file management, and SLM allows you to specify a documents folder for each database. So I pointed my main database to said folder. The entire database synced quickly from my iPad but unfortunately it didn't auto-link the songs. I hope this will be added or fixed in the future as it would save a lot of work.

There is no feature to automatically link documents to songs, and since the file system is different on the two platforms, you would need to re-link your documents to your songs in the Android version. The app will then save the link locations for iOS and the link locations for Android and sync the appropriate links to other devices that you sync with.

Speaking generally, performance is pretty smooth, definitely no worse than my iPad 4.

Great.

[Sander]

Hi Arlo,

Thanks for your in-depth reply.

As to point 1., I understand, and not having a split isn't a great lack for now. But a default behaviour that can later be changed by the user would be great.

2. I can't really comment on how others feel and this may be because it's still a much smaller screen than my iPad, but I'm not really comfortable reading inverted sheet music. Yet I prefer the dark theme otherwise because it's easier on the eyes and uses less battery on these screens.
You can easily get this look on iPad btw by setting SLM to "light theme" and then inverting colors in the accessibility preferences of the iPad. The only thing is red labels turn green too and aoforth. Not a problem if you always edit inverted.

3. That's a shame but I understand. I'll await it eagerly

4. I'm a little disappointed here. It's been ages since I programmed anything but it seems you could include file names or hashes and find the appropriate documents as long as they're in the specified folder? I'll take your word for it but it sure would be handy!

[arlo]

Yet I prefer the dark theme otherwise because it's easier on the eyes and uses less battery on these screens.

I don't know this for a fact, but I suspect that battery usage is affected by the brightness level of your screen, not the number of black vs. white pixels you are displaying. In other words, I don't think the color theme or inverted documents affects the battery life, but I'm pretty sure you can extend your battery life by turning down your screen brightness.

4. I'm a little disappointed here. It's been ages since I programmed anything but it seems you could include file names or hashes and find the appropriate documents as long as they're in the specified folder? I'll take your word for it but it sure would be handy!

To automatically attach documents in general, I would have to assume that the document has the same name as the song, which is usually not the case, and that each song only has one document attached, which is sometimes not the case. To automatically attach documents when moving from one platform to another, I would have to assume that the desired documents are in the same folder and that the user has configured that as the default folder, and then I would need to add some kind of button to begin the auto-linking process, because you wouldn't want it to run whenever the app runs. In short, this feature would be messy and imperfect. Since this is really only an issue the first time you set up the app, I think it's better to let users connect their documents manually and organize everything the way they want. I don't know how other apps handle this, but linking the document to the song as Set List Maker does seems easier than renaming the song and/or the document to make them match so that an automatic link can work.

[Sander]

AMOLED screens turn off individual pixels when black. This gives them great contrast and can significantly improve battery life depending on the color scheme used. Apple doesn't use this technology but may Android devices do, especially from Samsung.
Obviously screen brightness also helps.

As for the documents, why would the document have to have the same name as the song? Why not have the same name as the document in the other database? I agree that a button would help but I think you're making it sound more complicated than it is. As far as I'm aware (I've never tried) this already works between iOS devices - as long as both SLM apps contain the same documents they will auto-link when syncing databases (right?). That means copying all the documents from one iPad to another. I don't see exactly why this would be different if you do the same thing between an Android and iOS device. I don't expect to be the only one to move between devices and it must happen between bandmembers as well.

I do however understand that your priorities lie elsewhere.

[Sander]

A different question - In your opinion, is the database sync-ing solid enough on both Android and iOS to stick with auto-sync on both devices? I'm a little panicky about enabling it and running the risk of messing stuff up as I've put a lot of time into SLM. Is there any secure way to back up my current stuff? I guess it's included in the iPad backups through iTunes?

[arlo]

In my experience, using auto-sync on all your devices is better than manually syncing some or all of your devices -- is that the question?

And yes, if you back up your device to iTunes or iCloud, all your data is backed up there. I recommend doing both because it's always nice to have more than one backup. Also, Set List Maker's database sync has the advantage of being incremental and letting you undo individual changes in your history, while the iTunes/iCloud backup has the advantage of letting you restore all your databases and settings in one shot if you need to replace your device.

[Sander]

I guess what my question really boils down to is if the Android sync stable enough to be sync-ing back to my iPad or would it be prudent to leave it on read-only mode for a few months as the Android version of SLM matures.

[arlo]

The syncing code is almost the same between the two platforms, so I'm pretty confident about that. If there were a problem, it should be "undo-able." But I haven't seen any problems with this so far.

[Sander]

Thanks. I will backup my iPad with iTunes and turn on auto sync on both then. The real fun for me will start when Android annotations are added.

Speaking of which, since apparently the documents don't sync across platforms, will the annotations??

[arlo]

The Android version doesn't support annotations yet:

http://www.arlomedia.com/apps/setlistmaker/main/features.html

[Sander]

I realize that, I was talking about when they are added. Do you plan to include them in the cross-platform syncing process even though document links are not? It would be a pretty big deal for me.

[arlo]

Yes, I plan to sync the annotations across platforms, but I can't be totally sure until I start working on that.

[Sander]

Makes sense. Glad to hear you're planning on it though!

[Sander]

Ran into another bump. I'm trying to send a friend a setlist from my Android phone. I can't find the "share" button anywhere, it's not where it is on my iPad. Is this feature not yet available in Android or is this a phone limitation?