iOS Mobile App Beta - Release Notes - 1.0.0 Build 1436
Posted to Open Discussion Forum on 10/31/2015
26 Replies
These are the release notes for first beta release of iATN's
mobile app for iOS (iPhone/iPad).
We are excited to announce that we are now beginning the
beta test for our iOS mobile app. We have quite a few
members signed up already, but if you haven't yet, you can
do so here. For those on Android devices,
that platform is our next focus after we get the iOS version
out of beta.
We'll be releasing the first beta build to testers via
Apple's TestFlight app momentarily. Please look for an email
from us and from Apple soon.
Providing Feedback
If you're experiencing a problem in the beta, the preferred
way of reaching us is to tap on the profile tab, which is
the third tab in the app, the one with [your name on
it], and select the "App Feedback" option. This will start
a new email to us with a debug log attached to it. Please
provide detail on what you were doing, what went wrong, etc.
The more detail you can provide, the better. Thank you!
You can also [attach screenshots] you may have taken by
long-pressing on the body of the email message, then tap the
right arrow on the popup, and then tap Insert Photo or
Video, and you can select screenshots and other media to
attach to the email to us, a big help! (To take a
screenshot, hold the Home button and the Power button on the
device at the same time.)
If you have any problems scanning VIN barcodes, please take
a photo of the barcode and send it to us (if you can let us
know what vehicle it's from, and where on the car it is,
that would be great).
If the app crashes, please restart the app. We have things
in place that will automatically send us a detailed log of
the crash so we can work on fixing issues like that.
TestFlight
TestFlight is the platform used to distribute beta releases
on iOS. Beta testers should get an email from Apple soon
that will lead you to download the TestFlight app if you
haven't yet. When using that app, we recommend enabling push
and email notifications, so that you will be notified
whenever we release a new beta build. You can tell when
you've got a beta version of the iATN app installed, because
it will have an orange dot next to the app icon name.
Release Notes
The iATN app supports iOS 8 and 9, though we HIGHLY
recommend updating to the latest iOS 9 release, as you will
have the best experience using the app if you do so.
In this first version of the app, the following should be
working:
• Reading discussions in a [continuous stream],
on the Community tab. Forum messages and TechHelp are
presented in a unified way. Over time it will not matter as
much where something is posted on iATN, only what "category"
it's in, and whether it's related to fixing a vehicle or
not. This is the first step in that direction. (Future
releases will give you more control over what kinds of
things you're reading, allowing you to tailor your stream as
desired.)
• Posting new messages and replying to existing
discussions, including the ability to attach vehicle data
(vehicle tag, DTCs, symptoms). Rather than picking a forum
to post in, you post by choosing from a category. The goal
here is for us to steer people's posts to the best
category/forum based on what they're posting about.
• Subscribing to receive mobile "push" notifications
when any discussion you're interested in receives replies.
Just tap the Notify button in the mobile app when reading an
interesting discussion. (We're currently sending
notifications at most once per hour for each discussion that
has received any replies during the previous hour.)
• Searching the Knowledge Base. Premium members only,
as with the desktop version of iATN. However, in the near
future, basic members will have the option to purchase a
"Mobile Pass" directly in the app, providing short term
access to search within the mobile app. (Most likely in 3,
7, and 30-day passes.) Our traditional Premium Memberships
will still provide the best value: less expensive for
monthly access, and will work across desktop and mobile. But
for those that just want temporary search access on mobile,
there will soon be a way to do that.
• VIN barcode scanning. There are a few ways to access
this functionality. The first is to tap on the Search tab,
then tap the barcode button in the top/right corner, or the
"Scan VIN Barcode" button in the middle of the page (if you
don't already have a search going).
There are a couple of shortcuts for VIN scanning available
also. On the "Today View" that you can access in iOS by
pulling from the top of the device down the screen, an iATN
widget is available to install. Tap on the "Scan VIN" button
there, and you'll be taken right into that functionality in
the app. For those with iPhone 6s or 6s Plus, the newest
models which support 3D Touch, you can also [press firmly
on our app icon] to quickly access VIN barcode scanning.
Both 1D and 2D barcodes should work. We've found that
barcodes on the door jams typically provide the most
reliable barcode scanning.
• Sharing/Printing. You should be able to share or
print any message using the "action" button at the top/right
of the message view. And for replies to forum messages, you
can tap on the reply and you'll see Reply/Share buttons that
are specific to that reply, allowing you to reply to that
reply, or share it.
• Logging In. For those using iCloud Keychain or have
saved iATN login credentials in mobile Safari, you should
find it very easy to login to the mobile app, as it will
automatically prompt you to login with your account..
• Joining iATN. Though you are all already members of
iATN, it's important that new members can join via the
mobile app. You might even have some colleagues that aren't
on iATN yet that may want to try out this functionality. If
you're already sign into the app, tap on the profile tab
(the one with your name on it), and select Sign Out. You'll
see the option to "Create Account" near the bottom/left of
the login form. It should be relatively easy to fill out the
form and quickly start using the app. (Note that new
accounts are read-only until our staff processes them by
hand and approves/rejects them.)
Known Issues
Rest assured we have much, much, much more planned for the
mobile app. If you find that there's something you can do on
iATN now that you can't do in the app, it's already on our
list of features. (Things like: rating messages up/down,
saving things to My iATN, accessing saved items from My
iATN, filtering the Community view in different ways,
attaching photos and videos to the messages you're posting,
messaging other members and our staff, etc.) So those are
all things that are definitely on our radar.
Here are a list of some other issues you may encounter in
the app that we know about and are working on for future
beta releases:
• File viewing is barebones right now. Improving this
is a high priority. Image viewing works ok right now, and
viewing videos within messages works, but viewing file
details, saving images to your device, sharing files, etc...
all need work.
• Issues related to pull-down-to-refresh. Sometimes
the activity "spinner" at the top of the view gets stuck
when you pull down, sometimes the topmost message gets
tucked under the navigation menu up top.
• iPad display issues on the Search tab. Sometimes the
filtering bar will disappear (it should always be accessible
using the Filter button at top/left on the search tab).
• Display issues when leaving VIN barcode
scanning mode. Sometimes the search result view will be
shrunk down and you'll see black on the edges. Until this
issue is fixed, double-tap the search result view to make it
expand to 100% width.
• Some issues related to dictation using Siri. E.g. if
you dictate a long subject line (over 70 characters), it
will erase it, instead of letting you edit it down to the
right size.
Thank You!
We appreciate your time in helping us beta test the mobile
app so we can make it great!
Regards,
Thomas Winzig
Administrator
iATN
Brea, California, USA