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International Automotive Technicians Network
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

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