(New) App Feedback
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Would you recommend I don't go to iOS 14.2 (beta) while using the beta of this app?
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@chocolatkey That's good news. Thank you. :3
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Tapping to advance a page in the vertical reader shouldn't actually scroll down by 100% of the height of the page, but rather something like 80%. It's very difficult to find the line you were reading before the scroll -- or rather, it's no longer in view unless you read to the edge of the screen before tapping.
Edit: If you scroll with a drag gesture, let go, and try to stop the inertial scrolling by tapping the middle of the screen, it brings up the interface. I don't think it should.
(iOS 13.latest, iPhone XS Max now)
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@Nosgoroth I specifically made it scroll down not 100%, more like 95%, and at least on my device I am able to see the last line of the previous "page". Are you not able to?
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@Ztshp I honestly don't know. I don't have an iOS device, but I would encourage you to try with the beta so you can report a bug if it doesn't work ;)
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Great job on the app so far! It feels quicker to me (e.g. logging in) and I like the additional information available in the Account tab.
On to the feedback:
- Standard iOS scroll-to-top gesture (tapping on status bar) does not work in the various list/table/collection views (e.g. releases, series, library).
- Standard iOS back gesture (pan from left edge of screen) doesn't work.
- Reader (debatable usefulness since it'd probably conflict with horizontal paging, though in vertical scroll mode it may be useful. If it's too easy to trigger accidentally maybe only enable when the reader UI is visible).
- Series - series appear to be displayed in a modal screen rather than more standard navigation controller usage. Exiting requires reaching for the back button at the top of the device or using reachability on devices that support it.
- Volumes in the library also open modally like series.
Personal preference feedback: I wish the iOS app used more standard iOS app design rather than material design (or whatever it's currently using to seem similar to the Google apps). This is purely based on expecting apps on a platform to behave a certain way.
- LN reader direction does not persist, always defaults to paged mode.
- No progress indicators when viewing the releases or series lists.
- No ability to resume reading from previous location in LN reader.
- Tab state does not persist when switching tabs. e.g. Switching to releases always starts at the top, switching to series resets any previous search results or scrolling, account tab always resets back to Profile view.
iOS 14.0.1, iPhone X and iPad Pro 10.5"
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@cjh Thanks for all the feedback! When I have more time, I'll be looking into having the app on iOS have more of a native theme, right now I stuck with the material (Android) theme on both OSes due to lack of time, since we are using a cross-platform toolkit (Flutter) to develop the app. When everything else is done, I'll focus on style. I will however look into getting the scroll-to-top and back gesture to work, it seems like at least the back gesture is doable.
To be clear, the appearance that series/volumes are being shown in a modal is purely decorational, just an expanding route transition. I might change it to a slide since that would work better with the back gesture.LN reader direction does not persist, always defaults to paged mode- known missing feature, will be fixed in next versionNo progress indicators when viewing the releases or series lists- releases page will have progress once I figure out how the design of it. Might just be BG, no percentage. Not sure what you mean by progress on series list, some kind of sum-total of progress?No ability to resume reading from previous location in LN reader- the LN reader should be automatically jumping you to last position. If it's not, that's a bug.Tab state does not persist when switching tabs. e.g. Switching to releases always starts at the top, switching to series resets any previous search results or scrolling, account tab always resets back to Profile view.- I might experiment with having it persist in the future, but that's more a question of memory/CPU management and would be a problem on less powerful devices
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@chocolatkey said in (New) Beta App Feedback:
When I have more time, I'll be looking into having the app on iOS have more of a native theme, right now I stuck with the material (Android) theme on both OSes due to lack of time, since we are using a cross-platform toolkit (Flutter) to develop the app. When everything else is done, I'll focus on style. I will however look into getting the scroll-to-top and back gesture to work, it seems like at least the back gesture is doable.
Understood. I assumed that was the case, just figured I should leave feedback rather than not saying anything.
No progress indicators when viewing the releases or series lists- releases page will have progress once I figure out how the design of it. Might just be BG, no percentage. Not sure what you mean by progress on series list, some kind of sum-total of progress?
I was referring to the little blue progress bar displayed at the bottom of the volume art for each item in the latest and series list in the existing iOS app. It helps indicate whether a part/chapter is new, in progress, or has already been read. The exact percentage progress of each part probably isn't required or all that useful.
No ability to resume reading from previous location in LN reader- the LN reader should be automatically jumping you to last position. If it's not, that's a bug.
Sorry, looks like a mistake on my part when I was checking this. I must not have waited for the scrolling to completely stop or something when I thought I observed this.
Tab state does not persist when switching tabs. e.g. Switching to releases always starts at the top, switching to series resets any previous search results or scrolling, account tab always resets back to Profile view.- I might experiment with having it persist in the future, but that's more a question of memory/CPU management and would be a problem on less powerful devices
Sounds good. I commented on it because that's the default behavior of
UITabBarControlleron iOS (tab navigation stacks are typically kept in memory). -
@cjh in case anyone else is confused about progress not saving, the behavior is supposed to be
- save 2s after you stop scrolling/paging
- save immediately on last page (to be added to novel reader, exists on manga reader)
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@chocolatkey just out of curiosity, what would be 'too long' and you link the apk?
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@Khaos Google Play says at the moment "Due to adjusted work schedules at this time, you may experience longer than usual review times for your app.", so I'm willing to cut them some slack. I don't really want to encourage APK installs from the get-go, but if Google takes, let's say over a week (so by next Tuesday) I'll be more inclined to encourage APK installation. No promises though
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@chocolatkey Just barely. On my device, before scrolling the last line of the page is cut off by the rounded borders of the screen (adjustable horizontal margins might be a thing to add in the future, btw) and a few pixels are off the screen, and after scrolling it's barely visible -- and also below the notch, but that's a known issue. I'd bump that 95% a bit lower.
I don't know why, but I find it uncomfortable. Maybe it's that when I'm scrolling vertically I usually scroll in smaller increments (which I know I can do), and the fast full-page scroll animation throws me off. Could you experiment with maybe something like a 60% scroll?
About the other issue, it seems to me that you're doing something like performing the touch actions (scroll, show/hide the interface) on touchend if there has been no movement, but you disregard the time between touchstart and touchend and if there was scrolling happening on touchstart. It makes for a weird experience on iPad, because my thumb is always on the lower part of the screen, and I accidentally trigger the scroll-down-a-page action a lot.
In volume and series pages, the share button does nothing. Also it's the Android share icon and not the iOS one.
A way to filter series by following would be nice.
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I am looking forward to the Android version.
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@chocolatkey said in (New) Beta App Feedback:
No progress indicators when viewing the releases or series lists- releases page will have progress once I figure out how the design of it. Might just be BG, no percentage. Not sure what you mean by progress on series list, some kind of sum-total of progress?
I personally love the design from the unofficial JNC reader by @Crimson-Wise available from https://crimson-jnc-reader.appspot.com/home with more details at https://forums.j-novel.club/topic/3353/yet-another-pwa-jnc-client/
Screenshot of the unofficial app below. Not shown in the screenshot, but it does also indicate that parts are no longer available by adding a clock icon and using grey rather than black text. Personally I'd go for a padlock icon for the official app. Aside from that, it is almost the perfect interface design to follow series and go to the right part.
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Until the font size and italic problem is fixed, the app is unusable in iOS 14. As of right now, it's only good for manga reading on both my phone and ipad. Also the original app is superior in my eyes since text-to-speech functionality is almost perfect, whereas it's almost unusable in the new app.
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Android public beta has been approved, although it's still not available in the Play Store for some reason.. hopefully in a few hours. https://bit.ly/3daVObW works for joining
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For reference, I'm using an iPad and iPhone, in horizontal mode.
When selecting a part, it goes into the novel with the menus (top and bottom bars) up, and on the first tap they disappear. So I have to tap twice to move off the first page. I would think entering a part would initially start with the menus off, or in their last known state?
Also, on any image page, tapping doesn't work once the animation finishes. The menu doesn't come up if you tap the middle-top, and changing pages by tapping doesn't work, you have to drag.
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Styled text (italic, bold) scaling too large has been fixed, and will be in the next build.
@flarecde having to tap twice is a bug, I'm testing on the ipad simulator and I see it. Not being able to change page when when tapping on an image is a known bug, and is in the "known issues" list as "Can't toggle interface/change page when pressing on image in novel reader". I would suggest using the vertical reading mode for now, the horizontal novel reader is definitely going to be improved but the vertical reader is a lot more functional right now.
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Android beta is finally fully available! https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=club.j_novel.butterfly
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I really like being able to read the prepubs of things I've purchased! It is very convenient for the lazy me who doesn't always want to pull up my laptop to read something.
General feedback for the Releases layout, it currently doesn't feel very aesthetically pleasing to me. The Series format (larger pictures, multiple columns) is nicer, although I think for both pages the really long-titled series make it look a bit wonky - series like Wataru and Instant Death Cheat stand out (more so on the Releases page where the text has to literally shrink to accommodate them, but the Series page having text covering half the image also feels out of place). Series nicknames could be used there instead, as the full title is always on the covers anyways.
Then again, I don't mind the way the Library is formatted, so something more like that might look nice on the Releases page as well - slightly larger pictures; gray background to distinguish different series; and instead of "date published + date purchased," it could show "volume and part + how many days ago it was released."
