Latest Contributions by GarrettSmith1

Hi Erwin Thank you so much for the note. I think that my largest frustration is that AppStudio is touted as an easy solution to app development and I would say that it has a much steeper learning curve than advertised. Even for the templates, it still requires a fair amount of coding and code dissection. Even after watching all the videos from the workshop and working through some of the examples included in AppStudio it is rather difficult to know what is actually going on.  Moving forward I would suggest adding more comments into the template files so that people know what the code means and what it is doing. For example, when I do data analysis in R, particularly for a published article, I include comments in every line so that people can replicate it rather easily. There is no context for much of the code and I think that adding these comment lines would not be something that is difficult to include. I do think that there is promise for AppStudio, though I would probably not advertise it as an easy option for app development. ... View more

Hello Thank you so much. I am going to start watching them now. I watched a video from 2019 where you had the Angeles Crest 100 as an example. I am also an ultra runner and feel like the development of this app will be like running a 100-mile race. If nothing else, running long distances teaches one to try and keep moving forward. ... View more

Hello Erwin Thank you. I am going to start development with Quick Report this weekend. I like your suggestions and I think that they only functionality from Map Viewer will be the pop up attributes, particularly since there will be photos attached to the points that people can use for identification. Will people be able to see the map at all times when using Quick Reports and also be able to navigate to those points? Or is this something that Map Viewer will need to be used for? I should note that navigation does not mean step-by-step directions, rather it would place the point on a trail that is available on the basemap. People could use the location of their cell phone once they get closer. That is is the only way that I can think about doing directions to a feature, unless there is another solution.  I am sure that I will have more questions, but thank you for everything thus far. ... View more

Hi Erwin Thank you so much for all the correspondence. Would you suggest starting with one of the two templates, Map Viewer or Quick Report, and then building off of that? I would assume that more is already built into the Quick Report template. Though, I was wondering if it is possible to use the Map Viewer template and then to have a button or something of the sort that would allow the user to capture a photo (feature) while they are using the Map Viewer template based app in the field. When the camera is used, there would be an affiliated form that users can fill in. I think that a button or something of the sort would be a more elegant way to integrate Quick Report into Map Viewer, but I am not sure if that is possible? From what I understand, the Map Viewer template would also have to have a feature layer where these photos could be linked to in order for this to possibly work? Does that make sense? Thanks again ... View more

Hi Thanks for the suggestion.  I am trying to deploy this app, for free, to the general public or members of our community. It looks like AppStudio player is more tailored to organizations working with smaller groups? I want users to have both key functions in one location and not to have to switch between the two apps depending on if they are collecting data or using the map to navigate in the field. Does that make sense?  Maybe I will have to do some code combining to accomplish my task. ... View more

Hello Erwin Thanks for the response. I am thinking about combining two templates, Quick Report and Map Viewer. As I understand it, I will have to do some coding in QT in order to combine them.  A little background on the project might help out. We are interested in documenting locations of historical Arborglyphs (carvings on trees) in our region. In the late 1800s and early 1900s Basque and Irish sheepherders would carve initials, pictures, and other insignia into trees. As these trees reach the end of their lifespans, mostly 90-100 years, these artifacts are in danger of being lost. We envision the app that we develop as a way to both document these carvings through photographs and geolocations. We hope that users will have the ability to both take geotagged photographs of the carvings and also be able to navigate to locations where these geotagged photographs were taken. As part of the project, we also want to have a dedicated website where people can view a map that will also include the locations and pictures of the carvings. As for the initial questions I will be a bit more detailed below. 1. I do not want to do this automatically. Rather, I just want the ability to delete inappropriate photographs, if they are taken. I imagine that photos are saved as attributes of a feature so I could just delete that feature. 2. With Quick Report, people can record observations in the field. I then want people to be able to navigate to those observations as well. I was not sure how immediate observations would be recorded into map viewer? So if I was out in the field and recorded an observation, how long would it take before it was uploaded to the map viewer side of the app? 3. Thanks for the Dashboard recommendation that will definitely work for the website. 4. Thanks for the idea, it might be above my pay grade, so if it gets too complicated I will probably just get the Developer license. Thank you again for the responses. I think that I will be starting the project in the next couple of weeks and will definitely be active on this forum since there are a lot of questions that I will have. G ... View more