Re: Official Baka-Tsuki Android App: BakaReader Available no
Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2011 9:44 am
Here is my response to fallingcirno post. I am not quoting his post as it makes mine look far to long.
I am going to look into adding the ability to download whole novels and volumes after I have released the next version of the app. I will also look into adding something to mark downloaded chapters.
I will look for a way to let the user only display chapters that have been downloaded, so all chapters that have not been downloaded for a novel are hidden from view. Downloads tend not to take much time so I don't think the downloads page would be very useful. When I add a download whole novel/volume option I plan to display a loading window then says "Downloading chapter 1 of 12" and keeps updating.
I will probably add an option to make chapters as read when... and give the options, downloaded, opened, started scrolling, scrolled to bottom, never.
When I mark chapters as being download I will add a small symbol, or "DL" in the place you recommend (anyone have a better idea?). I don't plan on marking a chapter as reading for now, I am not sure how much use it would be. I can tell what chapter I am on as it is the last chapter in a novel marked as read, if I have finished that chapter but not started the next then I can see it has been scrolled to the bottom and just click menu->next. If I start adding lots of different colors to the screen all meaning different things it might get confusing for people.
The idea with a home screen is that it helps new users easily tell whats going one when they start using the app. However I do like the idea of removing it, what do other people think? good idea? bad idea? don't care? I don't want to make a change like this based on only one persons opinion.
I agree that that the menu button could be better used, I plan to add one more option to the chapters page menu in the next version. I think its better to slowly add new options to the menu than fill it up early and need to removing things later to stop it getting to full when adding more.
If I had the app automatically add novels to the watch list it would have to be an option. The more novels you have in your watch list, the more power the phone uses when checking for updates. It is so easy to add a novel to your watch list there is not much point in doing it automatically.
An expandable volume list view will be coming in the next version. This has been a lot harder to do than I was expecting and is the reason this update is taking so much time. I have most of it working at the moment, just need to tidy up the code and test it.
I did originally plan for the app to have the ability to read whole novels. However I have found that phones have trouble downloading and displaying such large amounts of text so I had to remove it. I might look at adding the ability to read whole novels for tablets as they should have more memory and CPU power, but it will not be any time soon.
Ordering novels be different stats would be a lot of work and I don't think it would give much benefit to the users.
I plan to add a downloaded filter to the chapters list, a reading filter to the novels list might be useful but I am not looking to add it anytime soon.
When you say Teasers do you mean the "Story Synopsis" from the wiki? This is something I have been thinking about adding but I haven't had time to look how difficult it would be.
When you say default language do you mean novel language? Doing this would be very difficult to do and something I will work on if I ran out of other idea or get a large number of requests. Or do you mean the language of the app (buttons, menus and other stuff)? I only know English so I can't translate it myself, but if someone wants to translate it then I can send them the files they would need. Android makes translating applications very easy and people doing it don't need to know how to program.
I am glad you like the app, thanks for all the ideas.
I am going to look into adding the ability to download whole novels and volumes after I have released the next version of the app. I will also look into adding something to mark downloaded chapters.
I will look for a way to let the user only display chapters that have been downloaded, so all chapters that have not been downloaded for a novel are hidden from view. Downloads tend not to take much time so I don't think the downloads page would be very useful. When I add a download whole novel/volume option I plan to display a loading window then says "Downloading chapter 1 of 12" and keeps updating.
I will probably add an option to make chapters as read when... and give the options, downloaded, opened, started scrolling, scrolled to bottom, never.
When I mark chapters as being download I will add a small symbol, or "DL" in the place you recommend (anyone have a better idea?). I don't plan on marking a chapter as reading for now, I am not sure how much use it would be. I can tell what chapter I am on as it is the last chapter in a novel marked as read, if I have finished that chapter but not started the next then I can see it has been scrolled to the bottom and just click menu->next. If I start adding lots of different colors to the screen all meaning different things it might get confusing for people.
The idea with a home screen is that it helps new users easily tell whats going one when they start using the app. However I do like the idea of removing it, what do other people think? good idea? bad idea? don't care? I don't want to make a change like this based on only one persons opinion.
I agree that that the menu button could be better used, I plan to add one more option to the chapters page menu in the next version. I think its better to slowly add new options to the menu than fill it up early and need to removing things later to stop it getting to full when adding more.
If I had the app automatically add novels to the watch list it would have to be an option. The more novels you have in your watch list, the more power the phone uses when checking for updates. It is so easy to add a novel to your watch list there is not much point in doing it automatically.
An expandable volume list view will be coming in the next version. This has been a lot harder to do than I was expecting and is the reason this update is taking so much time. I have most of it working at the moment, just need to tidy up the code and test it.
I did originally plan for the app to have the ability to read whole novels. However I have found that phones have trouble downloading and displaying such large amounts of text so I had to remove it. I might look at adding the ability to read whole novels for tablets as they should have more memory and CPU power, but it will not be any time soon.
Ordering novels be different stats would be a lot of work and I don't think it would give much benefit to the users.
I plan to add a downloaded filter to the chapters list, a reading filter to the novels list might be useful but I am not looking to add it anytime soon.
When you say Teasers do you mean the "Story Synopsis" from the wiki? This is something I have been thinking about adding but I haven't had time to look how difficult it would be.
When you say default language do you mean novel language? Doing this would be very difficult to do and something I will work on if I ran out of other idea or get a large number of requests. Or do you mean the language of the app (buttons, menus and other stuff)? I only know English so I can't translate it myself, but if someone wants to translate it then I can send them the files they would need. Android makes translating applications very easy and people doing it don't need to know how to program.
I am glad you like the app, thanks for all the ideas.