Rainfrog Inc.

Tag: Work in Progress

  • Version 3.0 Is on its Way.

    Version 3.0 Is on its Way.

    Greetings everyone, and Happy New Year!

    I hope you were able to enjoy your holidays as I did – spending lots of time with family and friends. I love this time of year, and the way in which it draws everyone together. I hope you had a wonderful season of festivities, and drank (as I did) more than your fair share of coffee!

    1/15/12 – This post was originally a request for a number of sample user databases to test with. A million thanks to everyone who reached out and sent me databases! I keep a running archive of all of my personal and development databases, but it gave me a great peace of mind to have other folks’ real-world data to test with. All of my testing went well, and the update was submitted to Apple yesterday afternoon.

    So, what’s coming?

    Here’s a fairly complete, even if curt, laundry list of the new features and improvements:

    New Features:

    • Label Printing and/or PDF generation for Roasts, Blends, Cuppings and Beans
    • Data exchange (import and export) for Roasters, Profiles, Programs, Curves, Databases and Label Definition Files
    • Dropbox and Email Support for data exchange
    • All internal weight and volume calculations use the extremely precise decimal number format instead of float numbers
    • Database stores all weight and volumes as precise decimal numbers instead of the sometimes rounded float numbers
    • Behmor Curves
    • Custom roaster settings
    • Enhanced Profile and Program snapshots
    • Profile and Program snapshots navigation screens
    • Reusability of Profile and Program snapshots
    • Blend Snapshots
    • Blend by weight
    • Increased max curve temps from 999 to 10,000
    • Price per unit for beans
    • First and Second crack end times
    • iOS 5 compatibility and bug fixes
    • Customizable label definitions
    • More detailed reporting of curve deltas in the full screen graph
    • Facebook bug fix

    Roasting console interface enhancements

    • Dedicated curve button
    • Dock-able graph selector for a larger graph view
    • Graph rescale buttons
    • Kg option in weight choosers
    • Wiper alarm marker in roasting graph
    • More intuitive measurement input in inventory and item choosers
    • Swipe to select curves

    I am very excited about this update, and anxious to get it into your hands. Once it’s live, I want to shift gears and create a little forum section on the site where I can post downloadable files for beginners, and where users can share and exchange their own data. There are a number of great coffee forums on the web. I don’t want to recreate the wheel – just give everyone a place to exchange and discuss their Roastmaster profile and program data.

    Also, I’ll be starting work on some tutorial videos. Admittedly, using some of the more advanced features of Roastmaster carry with them a learning curve. I’d like to create a series of videos to explain these features, as well a couple geared towards getting started for new users.

    Cheers,
    Danny Hall

  • The Big Roast

    The Big Roast

    Tonight’s roast is Java Kopi Sunda from the fine folks at Sweet Maria’s. It’s fairly exciting because it’s a new bean for me. I’m anxious to pull a couple of shots tomorrow! But, the excitement doesn’t end there… tonight’s roast is a bit more special – it’s my first roast with the dev version of Roastmaster on the iPad! Now – I know a lot of you are waiting very patiently – it’s not completed yet, but I’m hopeful that a large chunk of the hard work to out of the way.

    I have to say, I doubt I’ll ever go back to the iPhone for roasting. If you’re used to Roastmaster on the iPhone or iPod Touch, the best way to describe using it on the iPad is liberating. Liberating and liquid. Navigating the app is incredibly fluid. The extra screen real estate affords a less cluttered interface – and the ability to hone in on the details you are looking for much more easily than the iPhone version. And, pairing it with a bluetooth keyboard… well – it’s heaven for me!

    Take a look at the screenshots. I will undoubtedly make a few tweaks – a couple of things are bugging me at the moment, but I’m comfortable enough with them at the moment to share them. The first thing you’ll probably notice is the landscape orientation. This is long overdue, and for the iPad – in my opinion, it’s a necessity. Another difference I was able to work into the iPad version is static headers. Headers are nice – they’re a functional and efficient way to present important information for browsing through records, but on the iPhone it was imperative to get them out of the way via scrolling when it came time to enter data. Not so on the iPad! I played around with a couple of designs – one with scrolling headers like the iPhone, and the version that won hands down – static headers. I’m sure you’ll agree – it’s a great way to have a succinct summary to reference – even when entering data on static screens like beans, blends and cuppings. And for roasts, to be able to have the roasting console front and center while you browse the roast data, well… again, I’m in heaven.

    Thanks to all who’ve offered to beta-test. This is new territory for me – I’ve never dealt with public beta-testing for iOS. All of the initial Roastmaster testing was done with devices I had direct access to. I’ll be in touch soon to get the process started. I’ll also post if I end up needing more beta-testers in case anyone is interested. I doubt it at this point – many people have already been in touch, but things can always change.

    ‘Til then, know that I’ll be working very hard to get the universal version finished up as quickly as possible.

    Cheers,
    Danny

  • Expanded Curves

    Expanded Curves

    Figured a take a minute and let everyone know what I’m working on at the moment. I’m wrapping up work on expanding the concept of curves to include temperature data collection.

    Turns out there are a lot more people using thermocouples than I thought. For them, the concept of roasting curves is a little lacking. Curves were designed to provide a way to record the settings you adjust throughout a roast – i.e. roaster controls. I had always planned on implementing temperature reading curves in addition to control curves, it was just a little further down on the list (along with a full screen graph – more on that in a moment). I’ve received a lot of email feedback on the subject, and happy to report that temperature curves are now my main focus.

    So… thanks to everyone for the email feedback – and suggestions. The next update is close to being done. Unfortunately, Apple is closing the iTunes Connect portal that developers submit to on Thursday, and it won’t reopen until the 28th. I should be able to submit the update after that. Then we’ll just have to wait through the usual approval process – probably a week.

    So, what’s new? Temperature reading curves, mainly. They can operate in either Celsius or Farehnheit, and are the same entities as the existing control curves. They can be assigned to profiles, programs or a roast. They only two main differences beyond the existing control curves are: they are exempted from past roast matching (since they are readings and not controls) and they graph as a standard line graph (connect-the-dot style as opposed to stair-stepped style). If you’ve been entering your temperature readings in curves as you roast – all you’ll have to do is tap a toggle switch on each of these curves to convert them to the new temperature reading style.

    If you’re left wondering how you’ll fit all those readings on the minimal screen real estate of the graph, don’t worry. Help is on the way. This is going to have to be accomplished over the course of a couple of updates. The upcoming update will introduce a preference setting for the default graph time. This is an interim solution for those anxious to start collecting temp data. You can set the graph to display any interval from 1 to 30 – and should go a long way to eliminate node-congestion on the graph for shorter roast times.

    After this update, I want to turn my attention to creating a full screen graph. A zoomable and pan-able graph that will take over the screen whenever the device is rotated to the horizontal orientation. I think this will be a fast and intuitive way to clear the screen of the details of a roast and let you concentrate on the data. This has been in the plans for Roastmaster since the beginning – it’s exciting for me to finally be to the point of making it happen.

    Here are a few screenshots from the upcoming update.

    As always – let me know your thoughts on Roastmaster.

    Danny

  • Database backups

    Database backups

    Probably the second-most requested feature is the ability to export a Roastmaster database for either safekeeping or to use for other purposes. Taking a small break from roasting curves, I finished the coding for this feature tonight.

    In addition to its own internal backups, and the backups that are created when syncing with iTunes, Roastmaster now supports file sharing via iTunes. You can copy your Databases or Backup Databases directories from you iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad to your computer via iTunes. Inside these copied folders, you’ll find the sqlite database files. Should you need to reimport them later, just copy them back to the shared folder and Roastmaster will import them at the next launch.

    This feature will be available in the next update.

    Cheers!