iPhone App Comments

Andy Adams

Support Engineer
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Apr 23, 2008
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I had an interesting issue today with the app regarding sync. It was initiated by my mistake, but this is something that surely can't be overlooked as people DO make mistakes. Maybe it's too complicated to try to "fix" and we'll just have to be cautious of it, but i wanted to mention it anyway.

I had entered 2 flights in the app and they had been synced automatically to the server but i had not retrieved them to my PC yet. I started up LBP on my PC this morning and it synced them nicely. however, i then noticed that i had entered the wrong aircraft type for both of those flights. all other flight info was correct. i went back to the app to make the change of the aircraft type and all other flight info remained the same. i re-synced and lbp imported duplicate flights (this time with a different aircraft type).

so now i have 4 flights instead of 2. i know that the issue here is that i had already synced those flights to the pc and then "edited them" to include a different aircraft type. i made another test entry by changing the route slightly and re-syncing and it also imports a duplicate flight for that.

again, my mistake because i didn't realize the mistake until after sync to the PC, however i think there should be some kind of way for the app and the PC edition to be able to determine if there was simply a change to a flight entry, or a whole new entry made.
 
Hello Andy,

What you're experiencing is "by design" - let me explain.

When you add information on your iPhone and then sync it to the My Sync portal, you can edit the information on your iPhone and sync again, the My Sync portal will update the records it will NOT duplicate them. However, as you have done, you synced your PC and therefore the data was removed from the My Sync portal so anything coming from the device will be ADDED to the My Sync portal again and synced to the PC as new data.

If you have already completed the sync "loop" i.e. iPhone --> My Sync --> PC then you should make the edits on the PC and not your iPhone. You CAN make the edits on the iPhone if you wish to keep them for reference but I suggest checking "Synchronized" on the bottom of the flight log editor to mark your edit as already synced and the edit will remain on the iPhone and not be sent to the cloud again.

You can easily delete the duplicated flights in Logbook Pro by selecting the row header (left of the Date) and press DELETE or click the red X.

Hope this explains the scenario and others can learn from your post here as well. Thank you for using the public forum for your question.
 
Here's another thought. Rather than the spinning wheels, could there be a keypad entry (at least option for it) on the Out, On, Off, In times like there is for the duration, night, instrument, etc. areas. I like the entry style on the keypad, especially since you don't have to enter the decimal. the spinning wheels actually takes longer to scroll to the time you need to enter if it's on the other side of the wheel (30 minutes away). additionally, would that allow me to enter the times in 24 hour format?
 
Hello Andy,

The date/time selectors have an advantage over manual date/time input, the data is validated by the device so you are assured you'll have a valid date and time, i.e. not Feb 29th at 2999 hours. I actually like the user-interface Apple created for date/time input, they are pretty fast once you get accustomed to it. Logbook Pro actually takes your prior time, i.e. OUT if you're logging Takeoff, and should put it close, i.e. it adds 15 minutes to OUT to set the starting point for your TO time. So you shouldn't have to go too far unless you have a very long flight. Of course you can tap the blue > to auto-enter the NOW date/time which again should put you very close to what you need. As the app evolves, as it already has come a long way in two months, I can see adding the capability to define the defaults for these automatic offsets, i.e. define the number of minutes to increment TO from OUT, etc. A lot of great stuff still to come, it's only just begun.

I'm hoping someday I can find a way to put the time picker into 24 HR mode but from what I have found so far it can only be done if the device uses 24 HR mode which is discussed in this KB article.

In summary, yes, I could design a manual input system but I believe the validation provided by the iPhone pickers is more important and accurate. I feel a manual input for date/time is a poor design decision hence why it is avoided.
 
I do not use the OFF time so i was unaware of the 15 minute interval, but after some reading other threads around the forum, i think the long scrolling issue i mentioned will be a non-issue once the schedule importer feature you have mentioned becomes available since the times will be close to what the accurate time needs to be.

i'm still caught up on the 24 hour entry format. maybe i'm the only one. The time pickers wouldn't bother me if it allowed 24 hour input. i know about the KB article and the issues mentioned within it, but in my opinion, a 24 hour entry is an important part of an aviation app and i shouldn't have to change my whole phone to 24 hour time to accomplish that. i know you're not aware of a way this is possible and are looking into it, and if there isn't a way, that's unfortunate, but surely there is a way to accomplish this.

EDIT: wait....will the newly added GMT option automatically convert that GMT to local time when imported to PC? that's even better if so. i'm guessing for the time being it will not be in a 24 hour format but it's one less step of mental conversion for me.
 
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i just realized that it automatically converts to 24 hour time on the flight entry screen immediately after closing the time picker...i can live with that for the time being until another solution is figured out...if there is one.
 
any plans in the works to add an option to hide custom columns and the expense columns? this is primarily a consideration to reduce clutter on the screen that requires you to scroll down past it in order to reach the "pending flight" and "synced" options, as i have quite a few custom columns.

an alternative option that would still allow quick access to these columns could be to have these columns "collapsed" to a single "button" below the remarks "button". perhaps labeled "show custom columns" or "hide custom columns" depending on if it was shown or hidden at the time. i say that because i rarely use custom columns so on a daily basis it is clutter, but i do use them on occasion for GA flying. i don't know if this is something you can do in iPhone code, but to make the entry process more seamless, when tapping this button, have the custom columns expand down on the page to essentially have the page look exactly as it does now (with the addition of the show/hide button) rather than slide left to open a new page with the columns on it which then requires a tap to open on every single flight that requires a custom column entry as well as a tap on "back" to get back on the main flight entry screen.
 
Yes, there is a case already in the tracker to allow custom columns to be hidden and also incorporate them into the auto-recall. It is possible to create a UI where "groups" are collapsed, I've seen it in other apps, I'll consider it if the interest is high enough for this functionality. I don't know that many users user custom columns much less "a lot" of them so I don't know that it's really warranted.
 
fair enough if not a lot of people use them...however, good to know a collapsible interface is possible that could be useful for future features when the app becomes more complex. i do like the auto recall idea though. i didn't think of that.
 
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