Commons app update: version 2.6

Our Individual Engagement Grant has been renewed! 🙂 Thank you so much to everyone who supported our application – reading all of the wonderful comments has been extremely meaningful and encouraging for us.

We have been hard at work getting version 2.6 of the app out; there was a bit of a rocky start with the first few beta iterations, but we finally have v2.6.5 in production! \o/ Improvements in the current version include:

New UI

  • A brand new login screen
  • New design for the list of nearby places that need pictures
  • New navigation drawer design with username displayed
  • The upload screen has been remodeled to include tooltips for title and description fields, as well as an explicit copyright declaration and a link to Commons policies
  • Improved media details view with links to the selected license, categories and image coordinates

Category search

  • Fixed common issue with category search getting stuck forever
  • If a category has an exact name entered, it will be shown first
  • Added filter for irrelevant categories

Nearby Places that need pictures

  • Fixed issues with GPS that was causing “No nearby places found” errors
  • Improved handling of the refresh button

Tech-related

  • Added product flavors for the beta-cluster Wikimedia servers – this allows developers to test most of the features in our app without having to upload test pictures to the actual Commons server
  • Added RxJava library, migrated to Java 8
  • Switched to using vector icons for map markers
  • Added several unit tests
  • Converted PNGs to WebPs to reduce APK size

Privacy

  • Modified About page to include WMF disclaimer
  • Modified Privacy Policy link to point to our individual privacy policy
  • Switched to using Wikimedia maps server instead of Mapbox for privacy reasons
  • Removed obsolete EventLogging schemas from app  for privacy reasons

Misc improvements

  • Fixed crash when using the camera
  • Reduced memory leaks and battery usage
  • Multiple fixes for various other crashes/bugs
  • Various improvements to navigation flow and backstack
  • Added option for users to send app logs to developers to help us troubleshoot any problems they are experiencing (has to be manually activated by user)

Facebook page

We have created a new Facebook page that we will be posting updates on!

Stats for 2017

The end of 2017 is nigh and the stats are in! Roughly 24,000 new images were uploaded via our app this year, and only a fraction of them required deletion. 🙂

 

 

Coming up next….

We are also currently in the process of implementing a few major new features that we anticipate will be included in our next release:

  • A new and improved Nearby Places UI with hybrid list/map and bottom sheets for individual places
  • Direct uploads from Nearby Places with relevant title, description and categories suggested
  • Two-factor authentication login

Happy holidays, and stay tuned! 🙂

Commons app update: version 2.6

3 thoughts on “Commons app update: version 2.6

  1. kaartic says:

    The update looks nice and the UI looks great. I only have a slight confusion. You say “Even logging was remove” in the Privacy section and also say “Added option for users to send logs to developers” in Misc Improvements section. They seem contradictory from an end-users perspective. Could it be clarified a littleby distinguishing “Event-logging” from “logs” more celarly?

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      1. You’re welcome. One other thing I noticed while using the version of the app in playstore. I still see the ‘mapbox’ logo in the Nearby screen but you say “Switched to using Wikimedia maps server instead of Mapbox for privacy reasons”. Am I missing something?

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