Android App - FRC Spyder

[Dave Scheck]

I'll let Mike respond about future versions, but for now what I've been doing is to favorite the events that I'm interested in (long press on the event in the All Events tab), then while on the Favorites tab do an update. It will only update events that are in the Favorites list (same goes for the Current tab).

I've talked with Mike about things that he has planned for FRCSpyder and can't wait to see them implemented.

[kramarczyk]

This app has been loads of fun today. It makes jumping through webcasts way more efficient. Thanks Mike!

[Mike Soukup]

Originally Posted by corpralchee

Can you make an update option when we are viewing teams? For example if I go to the Global team list, select a team and then select an event unless I've updated on that event's page I can't see most recent results.

Also is there any way to have the app update every time I open it?

This being the first weekend of events and the first chance for everyone, including me, to use the app with real data, deficiencies will certainly be found. I've grown frustrated a few times when I'm on a screen without updated data and want a refresh. I'll add menus to more places that allow the user to update event results.

I'm planning out ways to make updating better and less intrusive, but don't have it ironed out yet. Maybe by next weekend, we'll see. I don't want the app to automatically update when it opens because in the current implementation, it spins in the foreground and takes a while to finish.

For now, use Dave's suggestion and add a couple of events to your favorites and update those as needed.

[Andrew Bates]

Ok, either way it is a very useful app. In some cases today while at BAE GSR I was able to get a score before the score was shown in the arena.

[ay2b]

This works great on my G1. There is some data which is missing/wrong, however. Specifically, when teams get disqualified, there is no indication of this. If a team is DQed, but their alliance wins, it currently shows up as a win. I suspect the rankings are wrong as well, because of this. (San Diego has had several DQs.)

[Dave Flowerday]

Originally Posted by ay2b

This works great on my G1. There is some data which is missing/wrong, however. Specifically, when teams get disqualified, there is no indication of this. If a team is DQed, but their alliance wins, it currently shows up as a win. I suspect the rankings are wrong as well, because of this. (San Diego has had several DQs.)

We can only provide data that's available from FIRST. There is no information available about DQs so therefore we can't use that in our application. However, the rankings that FRC Spyder shows are pulled directly from the FIRST rankings pages, so DQs should be accounted for.

The Win/Loss/Tie information is extra data that is calculated by our server based on the final scores, so as you point out this won't be correct in the case of DQs. I still think it's better than not having it at all though. It's too bad that FIRST chose not to provide W/L/T info in their rankings - even if it doesn't count towards the rankings I think it is still useful/interesting information.

[MadeAtMidnight]

This is excellent! Thank you! Can't wait to use it tomorrow.

[Tito H.]

The FRC Spyder app had been my best friend at comps this year!

As a coach, I used to be so attached to the match list…”No body touches it but me!” This year I don’t think I even looked at the match list thanks to this app. Well OK, I looked at it to make sure the list was right...

No more standing in front of the crowded monitors in the pits looking for your team number. Only to realize it has passed by about three times cause you keep blinking due to dry eyes and the need to try to refocus them on the tiny blurry number. Is that a 6 or an 8…

Thanks Mike! FRC Spyder is Totally Awesome!

[Mike Soukup]

I just posted v1.0.3 to the market which adds automatic background updates for your favorite events. You can set it to pull down match results & rankings in durations ranging from 15 minutes to 2 hours. As part of this change, I also moved all updates into the background so you can continue to navigate the app while the updates are running.

Originally Posted by Tito H.

As a coach, I used to be so attached to the match list…”No body touches it but me!” This year I don’t think I even looked at the match list thanks to this app. Well OK, I looked at it to make sure the list was right...

The same is true for our coach. He used to own the match list and wouldn't give it up. When we made copies this year & tried to give him one, he refused it and used his Droid instead.

[Andrew Bates]

One quick question about this most recent update. If I tell it to update every 15min will it attempt to update every 15min for only the thurday-saturday of the event or will it be attempting to update every 15min for the duration the app is installed?

[Mike Soukup]

Originally Posted by corpralchee

One quick question about this most recent update. If I tell it to update every 15min will it attempt to update every 15min for only the thurday-saturday of the event or will it be attempting to update every 15min for the duration the app is installed?

I went for a hybrid approach between the ideal (only updating from Thursday - Saturday for an event that is running) and the lazy (update all favorites all the time). The app will actually get an alarm to wake up at the frequency that you choose, but it will only update favorites that appear in the "Current" tab. So if you have 10 favorite events & only 2 of them are happening this weekend, it will pull data for those 2 events. If none of your favorites are happening now, it won't pull down any updates from the server. So if you leave automatic updates enabled after the season is over, the most that will happen at the set period is a few DB reads.

My plan for the next version will make this less of an issue.

[Krisple]

This is a great app; it's really simple and easy to use. It took me a while to figure out how to refresh listings, but its easy enough now that I know how to. I would love if it had an automatic refresh setting, which isn't a necessity, but more just a convenience. I also think it would be great if it linked to team TBA pages.

Keep up the good work

EDIT:wow, I just saw the automatic update setting, that is great!

[Andrew Bates]

Originally Posted by Mike Soukup

I went for a hybrid approach between the ideal (only updating from Thursday - Saturday for an event that is running) and the lazy (update all favorites all the time). The app will actually get an alarm to wake up at the frequency that you choose, but it will only update favorites that appear in the "Current" tab. So if you have 10 favorite events & only 2 of them are happening this weekend, it will pull data for those 2 events. If none of your favorites are happening now, it won't pull down any updates from the server. So if you leave automatic updates enabled after the season is over, the most that will happen at the set period is a few DB reads.

My plan for the next version will make this less of an issue.

Awesome, sounds like a good solution.

[Ty Tremblay]

Is it just me, or are the times a little screwy for the match schedules? The Michigan State Championship has matches running past midnight, and then starting at 6pm.

[Dave Scheck]

Hah, yeah. They're like that on the FIRST website though, and that's where the info is pulled from. My guess is that the FMS couldn't handle the 3 day event