chris.bailey

Open sourcing the ToDo List Widget

chris.bailey — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 17:35:42 +0000

I have recently taken the step to open source my ToDo List Widget app which is something I'd been thinking about doing for a while now. My interest in furthering development has lessoned now that the app has obtained a reasonable number of features. Several users have also expressed an interest in modifying the code themselves. Finally as I'm in the android game partly due to the underlying Open Source philosophy, I thought rather then hold the code back, I should jump on the open source train and give others the opportunity to play around with it.

I investigated several different licensing options. I want people to be able to modify and extend the code as they wish, as long as I get proper attribution. I also don't want people making money off my hard work; the app is free to Android users and I'd like the software to stay that way. In the end I've gone with the most widely used GPL (version 3) license. As an added incentive the Android source code is released under the Apache 2.0 license which is itself compatible with GPL v3.0.

The code and all resource files can be found on my GitHub account.

https://github.com/chrispbailey/ToDo-List-Widget

Feel free to fork the code if you wish and push back any changes you make.

Happy coding!

Installing Ubuntu on a Macbook Air from a USB stick

chris.bailey — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 12:34:28 +0000

I've been trying to install Ubuntu 10.04.1 (Lucid Lynx) on my first generation Macbook Air (MacBookAir1,1). Without a superdrive I needed to install the OS from a USB stick. It turned out to be a reasonably difficult thing to do so I though I'd document my steps here. The nice thing with this method is that it lets you run Ubuntu on your laptop first without having to install it and potentially damaging anything (try-before-you-buy).

Top Open Source Software

chris.bailey — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 11:32:48 +0000

At work we occasionally get together and do a show-n-tell of some of the websites & software we use everyday. I thought it would be a good idea to spread the word on this site as well. Here is a list of the tools that I use almost everyday and, more importantly, they are all completely free and open source!

Behind every great Android app...

chris.bailey — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 16:23:40 +0000

... is an even better website (and behind all of my apps is Drupal)!

As a long time programmer I have dabbled in quite a few web frameworks over the years (and written more then enough sites from scratch). In the last couple of years I've become quite an advocate of the Drupal CMS. When it came to developing my Android apps I needed a website to support them. Users need a place to go to find out more then can be said in the 325 characters allowed on the Android market. In addition to letting me provide more descriptions, images, videos etc, I also wanted to better manage my apps. I needed a vehicle to help me keep track of app version numbers and change logs. I wanted something that would allow users to contact me, let me host a simple blog and help me publicise my work.

I chose Drupal for it's flexibility. Not only does it allow me to do all the above, but I can also integrate my apps with the website in the following ways:

Crash reports from my apps are posted automatically to my website (and from there emailed to me) allowing me to quickly and easily fix bugs - although finally Android 2.2 has go round to offering the same support automatically via the developer console
Having a separate changelog page for each release of an app lets the app query the website and find out if there is a newer version available (again a feature that has been superseded by the latest versions of android).
When an app is updated, the next time it runs, it pulls the changelog from the website and shows it to the user - this means I only need to record the changes for a given app in a single place.

There are many more possibilities to having a flexible website to back your application. For instance I could quite easily enable a feature-request/user voting forum along the same lines as UserVoice, or maybe even surface content from within Drupal directly into the App itself.

I think most developers find that the Android market just isn't enough. To remain engaged with, and fully inform your user community requires the services of more then just the market. For me at least, Drupal + Android is the perfect combination.

App download stats

chris.bailey — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 14:05:16 +0000

I was watching with eagerness a week ago while on holiday in Malta as the total number of downloads for the ToDo List Widget passed the 50,000 mark!

For those interested, here is a chart showing the first 60,000 downloads.

YouTube videos

chris.bailey — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 09:20:05 +0000

Here are a couple of videos I made demonstrating my app.

App makes it into the showcase

chris.bailey — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 09:52:56 +0000

Just 10 days after it's initial release, my ToDo List Widget app has already appeared on the android.com/market showcase (under Free Apps -> Productivity). This is great news and will hopefully lead to a rise in download numbers.

(It's interesting to note that the app description gets mangled a bit. New lines are lost and arrow angle brackets (>) appear as unicode values - android still has a way to go)

It's also nice to report that user comments for apps now appear on the developer side of the market - I can now read comments without having to get out my real phone and hunt for my apps :)

New ToDo widget app released

chris.bailey — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 08:12:56 +0000

Frustrated by the lack of a really simple note-taking todo list widget for android devices, I've written my own and released it on the market.

Using the KISS approach, I've deliberatly kept the app lean. There are no unnecessary features (such as calendar integration, import/export, alarms etc). It's just designed to do one job and do it well. Although it's mostly icon based, I've also added French, German, Italian and Spanish translations where needed.

If your after a simple way to keep track of todo items from your home screen, give it a go.

Review on YouTube

chris.bailey — Thu, 20 May 2010 13:48:34 +0000

Hemorrdroidsnet has posted a nice review of the free version of the WhatGas Petrol Prices app.

Pro version released

chris.bailey — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 08:42:23 +0000

The Pro version of the WhatGas Petrol Prices app has now hit the market.

This new version, priced at just £0.59, is completely ad free and contains a bunch of new features. If your a fan of the original app and want a bit more configuration at your fingertips, then check it out.