Beta testers wanted for a Splatoon 2 Android application!

[Dat Reesez Cup]

Hello squids! Over the past few months, I've been working on an application for Android smartphones, and now I think it's ready for beta testing by the community. You will need to know or be familiar with installing apps from unknown sources, as you will have download the application file and install it manually.

This app is in beta, and likely contain bugs aplenty. But that's what you squiddos are here for right? After a sufficient amount of time in beta, and after I fix as many bugs as I can, I will release the application on the Google Play Store for free. You can report bugs to me by emailing me at datreesezcup@gmail.com.

Guide for installing apps from unknown sources:
Pre-Android 8.0 (Oreo): How to Install Apps from Unknown Sources in Android

Android 8.0 (Oreo): How to enable ‘Install from unknown sources’ option on Android Oreo

Now lets move onto the application shall we?

Splat2 Widgets
Current version: 0.9.5b
Requires Android 5.0 (Lolipop) or higher


This application contains 4 widgets that can be placed on your home screens in order to see current details about Splatoon 2. The widgets are as follows:

• Map Rotation
This widget shows the current maps and mode of a given battle type (Regular, Ranked or League). When placing the widget on your screen, you will be prompted to select which of these modes you wish to get data from. This widget has a minimum size of 2x2 grid spaces, and is re-sizable horizontally and vertically.


• Map Rotation (Minimal)
This widget has the same function as the Map Rotation widget stated above, however stage images are not displayed. This widget has a minimum size of 2x1 grid spaces, and is re-sizable horizontally and vertically.


• Salmon Run
This widget displays details about Salmon Run, including all available shifts, the weapons for the current and next shift, as well as displaying the current month's Reward Gear. This widget has a minimum size of 4x1 grid spaces, and is only re-sizable horizontally.


• Splatnet Gear
This widget displays the current gear available for purchase in Splatnet's shop. You can see everything from what the gear's main ability is, how many sub slots it has, to what it's brand's common ability is. This widget has a minimum size of 2x2 grid spaces.


Download Page:
https://datreesezcup.github.io


About:
This is my first publicly released project, and I would appreciate any feedback about it in any shape or form, positive or negative. I aspire to get a career in computer programming, and feedback will only help me become a better programmer.

Splat2 Widgets gets its data from splatoon2.ink. Big thanks to Matt Isenhower for allowing his data to be used for projects such as this

I can only give a massive thank you to those who decide to download my widgets.

Final Notes:
• The widgets are designed to automatically refresh their data roughly 20 seconds past the top of each hour. However, the OS may postpone these updates in an effort to save battery.

• Unless there are massive errors or crashes with this version of the app, or something important comes up, there will likely not be any updates while in beta, as I have no way of pushing updates to users. Once Splat2 Widgets make it to Google Play, they will be updated as needed.

• If at some point there is an update, most likely I will just bump this thread with the changelog, and download links to the updated versions of the apps.

• Remember you can send all bug reports, feedback, or feature suggestions to datreesezcup@gmail.com.

• Woomy

Here's a screenshot of the widgets in action:

 

[Drew Sebastino]

This is probably find here. Putting this under "Off Topic Discussion" probably would have given you more exposure though...

I can't try this now, but I will when I get the chance. Sounds really neat.

 

[Ansible]

More exposure, likely so, but it is original content nonetheless.

I'd probably also find a way to appropriately wheedle it into discussion threads where appropriate.

Meanwhile I'll remind myself to give it a try.

 

[Dat Reesez Cup]

Putting this under "Off Topic Discussion" probably would have given you more exposure though...

More exposure, likely so, but it is original content nonetheless.

Thanks for the suggestion(s). I've since messaged one of the admins requesting for this thread to be either deleted or moved to "Off-Topic Discussion".

 

[Flamenccio]

I don't know, but this seems like it kinda destroys the purpose of Splatnet.

Unless it has something different.

 

[Dat Reesez Cup]

I don't know, but this seems like it kinda destroys the purpose of Splatnet.

Unless it has something different.

In a way, it basically the same thing as Splatnet does, but presents it in an easier-to-access format. Instead of having to open up the Nintendo Switch Online App, and going to the Splatoon section, you can just look on your home screen(s) to see the data you want.

Please see that I've edited my original post and added a screenshot, so you can get a better idea of what this widget does.

 

[Flamenccio]

In a way, it basically the same thing as Splatnet does, but presents it in an easier-to-access format. Instead of having to open up the Nintendo Switch Online App, and going to the Splatoon section, you can just look on your home screen(s) to see the data you want.

Please see that I've edited my original post and added a screenshot, so you can get a better idea of what this widget does.

Ah, ok I see.
Looks nice though

 

[Drew Sebastino]

I finally got it downloaded an installed on Android 5.5.1; it looks exactly like your screenshots and behaves as I would expect, except that neither Map Rotation nor Map Rotation Minimal work. Although they appear on my widgets list, whenever I try and place them, it just tells me "Application not installed." I thought that maybe there was an issue when I downloaded it, but after uninstalling it and re downloading and installing it again, it still gave me the same issue for whatever reason.

The widgets look and behave nice. The only thing I would do is change the font to the ugly (imo) standard Splatoon 2 font in order to look more "professional", if that is reasonable to do. Nitpicking again, the Map Rotation widget could use a more faithful shade of green.

You said you were interested in computer science. Might I ask, what was this programmed in?

 

[Dat Reesez Cup]

I finally got it downloaded an installed on Android 5.5.1; it looks exactly like your screenshots and behaves as I would expect, except that neither Map Rotation nor Map Rotation Minimal work. Although they appear on my widgets list, whenever I try and place them, it just tells me "Application not installed." I thought that maybe there was an issue when I downloaded it, but after uninstalling it and re downloading and installing it again, it still gave me the same issue for whatever reason.

The widgets look and behave nice. The only thing I would do is change the font to the ugly (imo) standard Splatoon 2 font in order to look more "professional", if that is reasonable to do. Nitpicking again, the Map Rotation widget could use a more faithful shade of green.

You said you were interested in computer science. Might I ask, what was this programmed in?

Oh no, that sucks. :( Unfortunately, everything seems to work on my end, and I've never encountered that problem in my testing. I'll look into it. What device do you have?

As for the design, I've so far been unsuccessful in incorporating fonts into the widgets, and I tried replicating the Splatoon colors for the widgets.

The widgets are programmed in Java

EDIT: Regarding the Map Rotation Widgets color, when placed they change their color to the color of the selected game type (Regular, Ranked, League). I colored them grey in the preview so users wouldn't think they the widget only showed one mode. If I had made the preview widget green, I worried that users would think the widget only showed Regular Battle. (Did I explain that well enough?)

 

[Dewnose]

This sounds like a great app I would totally use... if I had an Android device. Is there any way you can port this to Apple?

 

[Dat Reesez Cup]

This sounds like a great app I would totally use... if I had an Android device. Is there any way you can port this to Apple?

Unfortunately no, for several reasons:

1. I don't have a Mac to develop with
2. I don't have any Apple devices to test with
3. I don't know anything about how IOS is written, or how to work with it
4. I don't know Objective-C (the language IOS apps are written in).

Sorry to disappoint

 

[Drew Sebastino]

What device do you have?

Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime. (SAMSUNG-SM-G530AZ)

 

[Dewnose]

Unfortunately no, for several reasons:

1. I don't have a Mac to develop with
2. I don't have any Apple devices to test with
3. I don't know anything about how IOS is written, or how to work with it
4. I don't know Objective-C (the language IOS apps are written in).

Sorry to disappoint

Not a problem, just wondering. Good luck fixing those bugs! :)

 

[shani]

Nice!

As someone who works in QA and loves Splatoon (and homescreen widgets ^^), I'll definitely give this a try and let you when if I find anything!
----
Edit:

Dat Reesez Cup
The widgets tell me that there was a problem getting data (despite the fact that I am online) but when I refresh them the app just crashes. :(

Moto Z2 play, Android 7.1.1

 

[Dat Reesez Cup]

The widgets tell me that there was a problem getting data (despite the fact that I am online) but when I refresh them the app just crashes. :(

Gah, it's just one problem after another!

In all my testing, they never presented me any problems, and I figured they were ready for widespread testing. But evidently, I was wrong. Sorry everyone. Tomorrow I'll look into the widgets again, and try to figure out what the problem might be.

 

[shani]

Dat Reesez Cup Don't let yourself get discouraged by this! It's totally normal in software development, you can't find all the bugs by yourself with your internal testing.

That said, this evening after work I took another look at the widgets (ranked map rotation and Splatnet shop) I have on my homescreen since yesterday.
And the map rotation widget was constantly showing refresh symbols in each grid (it didn't do that yesterday, so it was a step forward).

So I refreshed both widgets (with the button at the top right corner) and shortly afterwards the Splatnet shop widget was showing all six clothes items.
The map rotation widget took longer to fetch the data, but cell by cell the data came in and now it's showing all the rotations!
Maybe the problem was just the initial data fetching.

Next, I was wondering if the widgets would update themselves every two hours.
So now I took another look and the shop widget has updated, but I had to refresh the map rotation widget manually. But hey, it's still pretty great!

Might need a few tweaks/fixes here and there, but it's definitely useable. Thanks so far!

 

[Dat Reesez Cup]

Dat Reesez Cup Don't let yourself get discouraged by this! It's totally normal in software development, you can't find all the bugs by yourself with your internal testing.

That said, this evening after work I took another look at the widgets (ranked map rotation and Splatnet shop) I have on my homescreen since yesterday.
And the map rotation widget was constantly showing refresh symbols in each grid (it didn't do that yesterday, so it was a step forward).

So I refreshed both widgets (with the button at the top right corner) and shortly after the Splatnet shop widget was showing all six clothes items. The map rotation widget took longer to fetch the data, but cell by cell the data came in and now it's showing all the rotations!
Maybe the problem was just the initial data fetching.

Next, I was wondering if the widgets would update themselves every two hours. So now I took another look and the shop widget has updated, but I had to refresh the map rotation widget manually. But hey, it's still pretty great!

Might need a few tweaks/fixes here and there, but it's definitely useable. Thanks so far!

Thanks you for the encouragement! I really appreciate it as a novice programmer.

The Map widgets take the longest because the thumbnails for the stages have to be downloaded from splatoon2.ink, where they are stored at basically full-size (They are resized to be much smaller once saved however).

I'm glad that the widgets are working for you now :D

 

[Ansible]

Dat Reesez Cup Don't let yourself get discouraged by this! It's totally normal in software development, you can't find all the bugs by yourself with your internal testing.

Exactly~!

You wanted lab rats assistance, well you have our help "and my axe"! =p

 

[Dat Reesez Cup]

A new version of Splat2 Widgets is available, (hopefully) fixing the issues brought to my attention so far.
Changelog for Splat2 Widgets version 0.9.2b:

Spoiler

Fixes:

• Fixed an issue where trying to open the widget settings would cause a crash
• Fixed an issue where trying to refresh the Splatnet Shop before any images downloaded would result in a crash
• Fixed an issue where placing map widgets sometimes resulted in them disappearing or causing a crash

Features (sort of):

• Begin implementation of multi-language support

Thank you all for your support!

You can download the new version from the website:
https://datreesezcup.github.io
Or use this direct download link (should start downloading the file as soon as it's clicked)
Direct Download

 

[Drew Sebastino]

It works just fine now. :)

On thing I thought I might bring to your attention though, is that you can shrink the Map Rotation Minimum widget until it visually breaks.