BenchMap v2.5!

[foxtrot_xray]

Hey all -

Since I can't seem to find the original post, starting a new one.

 

The Android app still works. Barely.

Since I released the last version, NGS servers' response time to pull up a single datasheet has slowly been creeping up - from 2 seconds to the current ~10 seconds. (It seems to take between 8 and 15 seconds, depending on something internal.) Unfortunately, here's the thing - when I released that, the Android OS used a fixed 'webview', which my app took advantage of to display the datasheet. This webview had a fixed timeout  of... TEN SECONDS.

 

With help from another user, I got in touch with the NGS to let them know. Unfortunately, their response was that "security measures have slowed processing time'. This is "support speak" for, "Our data is too large for those servers to handle in the same amount of time they used to.

 

In order for me to increase the timeout, it meant recompiling the *entire application* against a newer version of the Android OS. Which means having to implement all new code, security measures, and API changes to Maps, the Play Store, and .. well. Let's just say that to add one like (timeout = 120secons), resulted in about fifteen other files getting code changes, rewrittern, modified. I'm STILL running into an issue dealing with the filesystem, since that was **completely** changed in the last two years.

 

However - I am very close to releasing it. I need to check it on other phones, however!

 

TLDR: If you can side-load apps on your phone, and wanna run the version of the application to see if it crashes (it likely will at the beginning, because NO phones are the same!), drop me a message here, or at coyttl-at-gmail.com and let me know. Should have a beta ready by the end of the week.

 

(More unrelated info: I have a skeleton of v3 in progress. Essentially, completely rewritten, with different map provider, since GMaps started charging. It's been on hold since this NGS thing came up. On the positive side, I have been talking to the NGS folks about introducing a **useful** API, which means - a year from now, it's entirely possible I won't NEED to release v3, because there will be 8 otrher benchmarking apps out there. Hee.)

 

--Mike