suggestion for update

suggestion for update

Postby thoailong87 » Fri Oct 08, 2010 7:43 pm

Ernie,

Hi, first of all I would like to say that your app is hands-down one of the most useful apps I have for the iPad. I use it to study for Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy, and I have been recommending it to a lot of my fellow classmates (the share function is incredibly useful in this regard). I do, however, have some suggestions that would make this app even more unique and useful for others:

1) Could you add Dropbox support? I have to manually update my cards using a public URL from Dropbox, which works, but is inconvenient. If you added native Dropbox support, it would exponentially improve the backup and sharing capabilities of your app.

2) Could you add syncronization or uploading capabilities through WiFi or iTunes? This would make updating and creating cards much quicker!

Again, thanks for your app and it's worth every penny.

David
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Re: suggestion for update

Postby Ernie » Fri Oct 08, 2010 10:44 pm

Hi David,

I will start work on both of these in a few weeks... dropbox first. I don't have plans for wi-fi, but yes on iTunes.

As for native dropbox support, I was just thinking about this today... how do you share when the files are on your personal dropbox account. Maybe you can't without giving your personal login out. I will be working on full backups to dropbox, plus being able to see a list of decks available for download on dropbox, etc.

Ernie
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Re: suggestion for update

Postby Ram » Sat Oct 09, 2010 12:27 pm

Yeah, I use this app like NO other. Thanks for making this, such a great studying tool, especially for all the drugs I have to memorize in medschool. I was also wondering if since this uses excel, and now the iphone has "open with" feature. Would an easy way to import is to put your excel file in your dropbox or filesharing through itunes, and then "open with Flashcards Deluxe" where ever it may be (email, dropbox, airsharing, iFile, etc).

Thanks again for all your work!
Ram
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Re: suggestion for update

Postby Guest » Sat Oct 09, 2010 1:32 pm

Ernie,

That's great. Right now, I only share with other people using the Share Library, which is fine as updating that section is not a priority for me. Connecting through iTunes would definitely be a major plus, as well as Dropbox, because no other flashcard apps on the App Store provide these features. If you could get it to work, it would definitely increase the versatility of creating flashcards, not to mention pull your product even farther ahead of the competition.

I also agree wholeheartedly with Ram. If we could actually open flashcards just by importing directly from Excel spreadsheets, it would make creating flashcards a breeze. It would mean that I could theoretically make a batch of flashcards using an iPad Office suite anywhere (studying at school, coffee shop, bus, etc). As of now, I have to be at home to make flashcards on the PC (to export spreadsheets to txt format) due to the volume of flashcards needed to be made.

David
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Re: suggestion for update

Postby Ernie » Sat Oct 09, 2010 2:11 pm

Ram,

Opening directly from Excel will not be an option, as I cannot read Excel files directly. I would like to be able sync with Google Docs though, so if you had your spreadsheet there, it would probably work. My plan is to support both dropbox and google docs integration. If using dropbox, you'd have to use plain text files. Same for iTunes transfer... I'm guessing you'll have to upload flashcards as text files. I might consider supporting a text or zip file with a special extension (e.g. .fcd), which the app could open from email. Opening files directly by extension is beyond my current thinking.

Ernie
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Re: suggestion for update

Postby Ernie » Sat Oct 09, 2010 2:17 pm

David,

Yeah, I just don't think I will ever be able to read an excel file directly. I don't know if using google docs to either maintain or just upload excel files to for transfer would help.

Ernie
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Re: suggestion for update

Postby thoailong87 » Sat Oct 09, 2010 2:53 pm

Ernie,

Google Docs integration sounds interesting. I've never used it, but to my understanding, Google will soon release Google Docs editing support for the iPad. My question is this: would your potential Docs integration allow for the OFFLINE creation of flashcards using Google Docs, followed by the importing of those flashcards directly into your app? If there are only 2 things I would like to see changed, it would be the ability to quickly create a batch of flashcards without the need for WiFi (sorry if I didn't make this clear before), and Dropbox support for easy backups. As of now, I create all flashcards in Excel on the PC, export them as text files to Dropbox, then download them to your app. Ideally, I would like to be able to work with just an iPad and bluetooth keyboard, all without the need to connect to the internet unless for backup purposes. Do you have any thoughts concerning these features?

Thank you for taking the time to talk with your customers. Its nice knowing authors are considering our input, even if not all requests can be fulfilled.

David
thoailong87
 

Re: suggestion for update

Postby Ernie » Sat Oct 09, 2010 4:18 pm

Planned new ways to importing in the future:
1) Dropbox - you would need to create a text file and copy to dropbox. You can do this already. The only difference in the future would that it would be private and easier. This would also support backups. Internet connection required.
2) Google docs - internet connection required
3) iTunes - as I see it now, this would require you creating a text file, then uploading the text file into iTunes while the device is attached. This seems to be the only new non-wifi option.

As for the traditional non-wifi option, you just enter the cards directly within the app.
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Re: suggestion for update

Postby radiator » Sun Oct 10, 2010 11:46 am

For what its worth, there are offline programs on the iPad that allow offline editing and integration with Google Docs (I believe). So to the extent that FCD works with Google Docs, then there is likely some way or other that it can be done offline on the iPad.

I have a bluetooth keyboard as well for the iPad and have in fact been using it more and more (and the laptop I'm leaving at home more and more....). being able to run sessions off the board would be a neat thing.

thoailong87 wrote:Ernie,

Google Docs integration sounds interesting. I've never used it, but to my understanding, Google will soon release Google Docs editing support for the iPad. My question is this: would your potential Docs integration allow for the OFFLINE creation of flashcards using Google Docs, followed by the importing of those flashcards directly into your app? If there are only 2 things I would like to see changed, it would be the ability to quickly create a batch of flashcards without the need for WiFi (sorry if I didn't make this clear before), and Dropbox support for easy backups. As of now, I create all flashcards in Excel on the PC, export them as text files to Dropbox, then download them to your app. Ideally, I would like to be able to work with just an iPad and bluetooth keyboard, all without the need to connect to the internet unless for backup purposes. Do you have any thoughts concerning these features?

Thank you for taking the time to talk with your customers. Its nice knowing authors are considering our input, even if not all requests can be fulfilled.

David
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Re: suggestion for update

Postby Guest » Sun Oct 10, 2010 4:56 pm

Radiator,

That would be really nice if we could do that. The reason why I don't use the native card creator in the app is because although it is fine for creating a few simple cards, it gets very cumbersome once you start trying to work with a lot of pictures (anyone who uses this app to study for anatomy would probably agree). Furthermore, if I wanted to change a lot of cards quickly, I could just use the spreadsheet instead of changing each card individually in the app. As of now, I always host my pictures in Dropbox and use the media-dir option in the app. I'm fine with this method, but being able to edit and sync offline with Google Docs would mean I would never have to carry my heavy laptop around ever again :P

David
Guest
 

Re: suggestion for update

Postby Ram » Wed Oct 20, 2010 5:12 pm

Wow! Any or all of those options would be great. Personally, at least one NON-online option would be great in those times of lack of internet or server maintenance. Thanks again for all the hard work!

Ram
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Re: suggestion for update

Postby Yuanci » Thu Oct 21, 2010 12:12 am

Guest wrote:Radiator,

That would be really nice if we could do that. The reason why I don't use the native card creator in the app is because although it is fine for creating a few simple cards, it gets very cumbersome once you start trying to work with a lot of pictures (anyone who uses this app to study for anatomy would probably agree). Furthermore, if I wanted to change a lot of cards quickly, I could just use the spreadsheet instead of changing each card individually in the app. As of now, I always host my pictures in Dropbox and use the media-dir option in the app. I'm fine with this method, but being able to edit and sync offline with Google Docs would mean I would never have to carry my heavy laptop around ever again :P

David


I hear you, except I'm on EKGs right now, anatomy was last year... It helps when you define a custom number format on excel and can just enter the number (if you just number your pictures) so you don't have to type out the whole <pic ##.jpg>
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