As described in detail in the last posts, we are working feverishly on the changeover of the software to version 3. Especially the internal update to the new version 3 of the programming language Dart turned out to be a very long and nasty process. There were a lot of code changes to be made. As expected, some mistakes were made and some things could no longer be translated directly as they were once thought or programmed.
As a result, a really large number of errors have crept in. Not only the changeover took much longer than we expected (when is that not the case? 😉 ), but also the fixes of the first errors yield this very late life signal from our side.
In the first tests, we found a lot of bugs ourselves. We believe that the most of the very ugly ones are gone. But before we can move on and restart adding the many great features that are piling up in our backlog and our heads, we want to be reasonably sure that the new version will work like the old one first.
To achieve this, we now ask you, dear users, for help! If you have time and desire to test the current status – and the hopefully more and more mature versions – you can do so now. The sooner all bugs are found, the sooner we can deliver new features! So: 1000 eyes see more than 10.
To avoid endangering your existing version and making the normal GC Wizard app unusable on your smartphone with a buggy update, we decided to temporarily release a kind of test app. This way you can continue to use the existing version 2.3 for the normal application while installing the test version in parallel. Once the test is done, the normal app will be updated as usual, don’t worry 🙂
Disclaimer: We know that since the last post, many iOS friends have also agreed to contribute. However, for the sake of simplicity, we have only made the Android version available for the moment. After all, it really is easier to populate the Google Playstore than also the Apple AppStore in parallel. When we can say that the stability is acceptable again from our point of view, we will also try to convince Apple to provide a separate test version, so that iPhone users can make the final touches, which may also be platform-specific.
How to do it?
There is an app in the Playstore called “GCW 3.0 Beta“. This can be reached via this link:
Simply open this link with your smartphone. You should then be able to install and use the app.
Please test as heavily as possible. Testing means: Enter things that actually can’t be entered. Click on every damn button, try every single option in even the strangest combinations. Try to break the app! I am sure you will succeed; bad for us, an achievement for you bug hunters!
We collect the bugs in the following Google Sheet:
If something seems strange, report it. If something looks different from the old version (which you can check in parallel for comparison), report it. Every seemingly small banality helps, it could be a small symptom of a bigger internal problem! Please describe the problem as detailed as possible. “Doesn’t work” is unfortunately not an error description programmers can work with.
- What exactly is not working?
- What have you done?
- What settings did you use?
- What exactly happened?
- What did you actually expect?
In “reported by” you can enter the name you want to use to find yourself in the app under Main Menu (Logo) > About > Testers, because everyone who has reported a confirmed bug has always been honored with an entry in the Testers’ Fame List.
We thank from the bottom of our hearts everyone who supports us in this difficult task! You are the best!
Hi,
Apple has an app called TestFlight that allows a select number of people test an app in a beta mode on Apple iPhones and iPads,
I would recommend maybe having a signup process so people can text it on the Apple level 😊😉
Hi James,
of course, we are using TestFlight for the iOS version. However, we are still mainly Android developers and so for our process it is much more sufficient to create Android test versions first. When we are sure that this version works, we are usually checking the iOS version afterwards. This is because, tbh, we are not very happy with the Apple world and so it is extremely higher effort to serve this environment. That’s why this actually comes second in line.
But, naturally, there will be an iOS Testflight version right before the full release.
Regarding the Cistercian numbers code. The symbol for the number 4000 is incorrect.
Hi, thank you so much for pointing this out! We fixed it in the next Beta release! 🙂