Bargain Deal Alerts - Android App

sherwoodp

Hi
I have just uploaded free Bargain Deal Alerts application on the android market. It can check for bargains across a lot of different sites including Boards.ie.

You can select the channels you are interested in and the application will check for new deals periodically and notify you if new adverts or deals are published.

I pre-defined the following channels for Boards: Bargain Alerts, Cycling adverts, Airsoft adverts and Boards deals as well. Other well know Irish sites like CityDeal and GrabOne are covered as well.

The easiest way to find on the market is to search for Sherwood

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.shdroid.balert

Please let me know what improvements can be made to make it more friendly and useful for you.




Regards

5500

Its worth your while popping a post in the andriod forum here -
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=1343

You might get abit more feedback on it there

jayteecork

Thanks installing it there.

Fnz

Could be a great app but is it possible to release a version that requires less permissions be granted?

Currently it asks for:

THIS APPLICATION HAS ACCESS TO THE FOLLOWING:

YOUR LOCATION
FINE (GPS) LOCATION
Access fine location sources such as the Global Positioning System on the device, where available. Malicious applications can use this to determine where you are, and may consume additional battery power.

NETWORK COMMUNICATION
FULL INTERNET ACCESS
Allows an application to create network sockets.

PHONE CALLS
READ PHONE STATE AND IDENTITY
Allows the application to access the phone features of the device. An application with this permission can determine the phone number and serial number of this phone, whether a call is active, the number that call is connected to and the like.

STORAGE
MODIFY/DELETE USB STORAGE CONTENTS MODIFY/DELETE SD CARD CONTENTS
Allows an application to write to the USB storage. Allows an application to write to the SD card.

NETWORK COMMUNICATION
VIEW NETWORK STATE
Allows an application to view the state of all networks.

SYSTEM TOOLS
AUTOMATICALLY START AT BOOT
Allows an application to have itself started as soon as the system has finished booting. This can make it take longer to start the device and allow the application to slow down the overall device by always running.

sherwoodp

Hi lads, Thank you for the feedback.

Regarding the permissions required. It was mine main concern as well. I will explain all permissions below.
FULL INTERNET ACCESS – is needed to collect new deals
AUTOMATICALLY START AT BOOT – in order to start up at boot ;-)
STORAGE – in order to keep images downloaded. The application minimizes all images in order to save space. The old images will be automatically deleted after 3 days.
PHONE_STATE is required to identify Roaming status, and the phone identity for the Advert provider.
I was thinking about the LOCATION permission. At the moment it is required in order to provide the right advert based on the location of the phone. And I am not sure myself, should I drop it (in that case adverts may not be related to Ireland) or keep it.

What would you say?


Regarding the APPLICATION itself
I will try to prepare the detailed setup guide over the weekend. Need to manage the kids now, but nights are all mine ;-).

In meantime please follow the instruction below.

After the application started - Click “Menu” button and select “Setup Alerts”- it will bring you to the list of pre-defined channels, but they are not activated yet. You will be forwarded to this screen automatically if you start the application first time or no channels have been activated yet

Select the country from the list or do search for the channel by name, for instance type in “Board” and click the search button. It will show the matching channels only. Click on the check box in order to activate the channel. If you click on the channel name –it will bring you to the channel configuration screen, but probably you don’t need to use it.
When all channels needed are selected, press the “Back” button or select “Alerts” from the menu. – The list of active channels will be shown, but no alerts have been collected yet. Select “Refresh” in the menu and new deals will be collected.

The application checks for new deals at the beginning of each hour, but you can change the check period via Preferences screen. The Flame icon will be shown if new deals are found.



Regards,
Sherwood

listermint

Needs less start at boot and more no start at boot.


Android users dislike apps starting on their own.

sherwoodp

Hi
Disable boot option - makes sense. If somebody needs to start it , he will do it manually.
What is about the location?

Regards,
Sherwood

Fnz

sherwoodp wrote: »

What would you say?

Thanks for the explanation. I'm seldom an early adopter of new applications. On top of that I'm less likely to install an app that also requires, both, 'full internet access' and the ability to modify/delete content from my device.

I'm cautious when it comes to things I don't fully understand. Unintended consequences and all that.

mudxfxa

Thanks a million Sherwood, I've been waiting for such an application for a while, sure more money will be spent for those bargain alerts

sherwoodp

Hi Lads,

Based on very useful feedback provided,
I have changed the application and uploaded the new version on the market.

It requires the following permissions only:
android.permission.INTERNET - to check for new alerts on the Internet
android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE - to check WI-FI status
android.permission.READ_PHONE_STATE - to check Roaming status

I hope the application will look less aggressive now ;-)


The android market website still shows the old cached information for the version 1.0, but i hope it will be updated soon.



Regards,
Sherwood

madmoe

Just downloaded it mate! Well done!

M

paikea

Hey Sherwood, downloaded and I am trying your app. So far it crashed the first time I ran it.

Now on a second try it is working. I have selected the websites I want to follow. I had to read your instructions on how to get the data updated. Meaning that this bit was not very intuitive. Maybe automate the first refresh after the websites are defined. Also, will it update the information automatically after that? (every 10 minutes, or every time I start it?)

I like the simplicity of the interface. Good going there!

I would prefer if the messages are all contracted when opening a channel. But hey that could be just me.

Good job!

sherwoodp

Hi
Thank you for the feedback.

I hope it did not really crash the first time (shame on me), but it took long time to start, as the application needed to create the database and populate it with the list of channels and countries. As the result - the phone could say that the application did not respond.

Regarding the auto updates:
If you click the “menu” button on the main (channel) screen and select the “Preferences” option, you will get to the simple config screen. The following options are selected by default:

Auto-update enabled, sound notification enabled and time period for auto-update set to 60 minutes.
You can also choose auto-update via wi-fi only.
Auto-update will not happen (by default) while you abroad. But you still can do it manually or change the option.
You can change 60 minutes down to 5 minutes or up to 24 hours. All changes
take immediate effect.

If you restart the phone (or in the unlikely event of the application crash ;-)
)– you need to start the application once in order to activate auto-update.

The application counts time from 6 am. So If you set 15 minutes, it will check every quarter of an hour. If you set 6 hours, it will check at 6, 12, 18 and 24
The flame icon and the sound will be fired if the application finds new alerts in auto-mode.

I will see what I can do about the first automatic update – good suggestion.

I promised to prepare the user guide explaining the application in details, but had no chance to do it over weekend. Still have to do it
Regarding the messages:

Only the first message in the list shows the description expanded, the rest of the descriptions are hidden. If you click on the title of the alert, the description will be shown.
If you click on the title again, the description will be hidden. But if you click on the description it will open the browser and bring you to the original message on the web.

Regards,

sherwoodp

Hi lads
What is your opinion on the following question?

The application keeps data for the last three days: today and for the previous two days.
Should it be less or more?
Personally I would go for today and yesterday only, but I am not sure if it is good enough or not.

Black_Knight

sherwoodp wrote: »

Hi lads
What is your opinion on the following question?

The application keeps data for the last three days: today and for the previous two days.
Should it be less or more?
Personally I would go for today and yesterday only, but I am not sure if it is good enough or not.

Couldnt you keep data for 3 days, but allow users to define how many days old bargains they want to see. ie. Save 3 days, but allow users to parse that down to 1, 2 or 3 days.

Also, any chance of getting more deals on it, such as the ones featured on this site: http://dealpage.ie/

Nice app though, astetics need work, but overall its functionality aint bad.

mp3ireland2

Handy little app! If you get time would you be able to add add dealpage.ie and hukd.ie to the alerts?

I was trying to add them manually but didn't know what to put in the "data url" box...

Good work!

Basq

sherwoodp,

While the app looks great and we appreciate you posting about it.. this thread has become more of a Feedback thread for the app now.

Gonna move it to the Android forum methinks.

sherwoodp

Hi
Managed to add the following sites

Hukd.ie
Deals Ireland
Gruupy Gadget
Gruupy Megadeal
Bed Deals
Crazy Deals
Doli Deals


Just in case - Ireland City Deal is under the separate "Country" - Ireland City Deal, just below Ireland

Enjoy ;-)

Just go to "Setup alerts" screen, click menu and click refresh.
The sites above should appear under Ireland.

Unfortunately it is not so straight forward for the rest.
Got limited functionality on the phone ;-)

Regards,
Sherwood

paikea

3 days for the deals sound good enough for me.

About the hiding and displaying I like how it works but I would give it a different background to title and description and make the flashing/highlighting (that happens when touching either of them) work only on the area tapped. At the moment both the title and comments flash when selecting either.

Oh and I forgot to mention before, the euro sign is getting corrupted. Is it because of differences in character encoding between the source of the data and your app?

albob

Great little app. Can you enable move to SD?
Thanks

sherwoodp

Hi


I have read all comments, but have no time to reply now.
Will do at the evening.

All comments are taken into account.
Thank you it is really very helpful.


regards,
Sherwood

sherwoodp

Hi
Just uploaded a new version with the following changes.

• Euro, Dollar, Pound signs are fixed (for new alerts only)
• Auto-update for the channels have been activated for the first time
• New channels are added for Ireland
• False alarm notifications resolved
• Performance and memory utilization improvements

... to be continued

Regards,
Sherwood

albob

Sorry to bump this but wondering if move to SD could be turned on? Like the app but am severely limited in space so will have to uninstall if it can't be moved. (Not an ultimatum....just an unfortunate practicality for me until I root).

sherwoodp

Hi
Planning to release a new version tonight. Need to perform the proper testing after made some changes.

With the following changes:
Move to SD card enabled
Proper auto checks (right now checks are not performed always)
Support for atom feed, so more sites will be supported

Something else.
Then will start working on better presentation and settings


Regards,
Sherwood

jimmycrackcorm

Great little app. Would be nice to have a widget also.

sherwoodp

Hi lads,
Thank you for feedback

Trying to resolve the basic issues right now, and then to introduce extra functionality.

The presentation and the initial setup are the weakest points at the moment.
Thinking of splitting the application on two logical parts:

- Alerts - for the sites like boards.ie, hukd, ebay etc

and

- Daily deals - for the sites like CityDeal, Groupon

As the usage of these sites are completely different,

But still have not figured out the best way to present the information




Regards,
Sherwood

sherwoodp

Hi lads

Just uploaded the new version of the application with the following changes:

Move to SD card enabled
Support for atom feed
Auto-check improved
Can specify the number of days alerts are shown for

New sites added:
Koupon Karen
Dealspwn
Ebay Deals USA
Play Pennies
Rate My Area Dublin

It is already available for update.

If you like the application, please rate it and share it (there are buttons in the menu).
If something should be improved, please let me know.
Any suggestions are welcome.
I will really appreciate it.


Regards,
Sherwood

jonnny68

Good work mate just downloading it to my GS2 now will report back.;)