Beta Feedback (with pics)

First of all, hats off to you guys for all of your hard work on Indigo ...

Now, for my particular application, there are a few significant changes that would have to be implemented for I can use the new Indigo iPhone app. So that you guys can better understand how Indigo is being used by true HA installers, here is a quick overview of my system ...

In my home, Indigo is being used to control lighting, HVAC, a multi-zone audio system, my home theater system (with the help of iRed), home power usage monitoring (with the help of TED), and my home's security cameras (with the help of SecuritySpy). All features are accessible on-site from any computer or iPhone by entering the ip of my home server that embeds Indigo control pages into web pages I created. The features are also accessible off-site through implemented port-mapping.

Here is a pic of how my home GUI looks when called up via safari ... the individual rooms in the icon of my home are clickable to control lighting.


Similarly, my home GUI looks as follows when called up on my iPhone ...


ISSUE #1 with new beta:

There needs to be a way to automatically resize control pages in the new beta to fit perfectly on the iphone. I do not want to have to create one set of control pages for access via a browser and then another set for access via an iphone. The way that I have my home GUI implemented now, the control pages are automatically resized for my iphone. However, in the new beta, my control page looks like this ... cutting off much of the control page.


ISSUE #2 with new beta:

There needs to be a way to choose a home page that automatically opens when the app is activated ... ie - I want the first thing that I see to be my main home GUI control page, not the list of devices.

Great start though ... I'll have more thoughts after I play with the app for a while

One more thing ... I would like to be able to chose which variables are displayed under the "Variables" tab so that I don't have to look at all of the information that I don't need.

[jay (support)]

Thanks for the feedback!

I believe Matt is still tweaking the scaling of the control pages (using pinch gestures), but i have to say that in the case of my house, scaling my main page to fit the iPhone would render it unusable because the controls would be too small (I have a floorplan of the entire house with the lights and other devices in the corrrect position). I suspect it's a design tradeoff when you are designing your control pages. It's sort-of synonymous with the print vs web views in publishing: do you try to use one layout for both or customize to the respective channel? OTOH, perhaps an option on the control page ("Scale to fit iPhone screen") would be possible - we'll think on it.

There needs to be a way to choose a home page that automatically opens when the app is activated ... ie - I want the first thing that I see to be my main home GUI control page, not the list of devices.

From the post above about known issues:

The currently selected view is not saved when the Indigo Touch quits. It does remember which connection was active, but does not yet restore you to your last view.

I believe the goal is to open the app to the last thing you were viewing (pretty standard iPhone UI principle) - so if you're mostly on the control page, it would open to that page.

One more thing ... I would like to be able to chose which variables are displayed under the "Variables" tab so that I don't have to look at all of the information that I don't need.

Also from the post above about known issues:

All Variable folders are visible and are not adjustable in the Mac Client (unlike Devices and Action Groups). This will be addressed in an upcoming beta.

That's the task I'm working on even as we speak.

There needs to be a way to choose a home page that automatically opens when the app is activated ... ie - I want the first thing that I see to be my main home GUI control page, not the list of devices.

I also would like to choose a home page that loads on start up.

I believe the goal is to open the app to the last thing you were viewing (pretty standard iPhone UI principle)

I don't want Indigo to remember the last screen I was on, (if the last control page I used was to control my sprinklers, or something else a rarely use).

Also it would be nice if we can make the bar at the top and bottom of the screen disappear.

Great job for the first beta
Ed

Great job for the first beta
Ed

Does this mean I missed the cutoff for the iPhone beta?

[jay (support)]

Does this mean I missed the cutoff for the iPhone beta?

Matt's the keeper of the official list, but I don't find your UDID email...

[matt (support)]

Hi Bob -- you made it into the beta. Download it and give it a spin.

Hi Bob -- you made it into the beta. Download it and give it a spin.

Cool. Thanks Matt.

Great job Matt (and Jay) on Indigo Touch! From my few minutes, it works pretty well, and I no doubt you'll add several of the suggestions you are being bombarded with right now to make it even better. Did you break the record for the number of posts to this forum in a single day?

Here are some initial thoughts, not sure how reasonable they are:
1. To please both camps, can you make it a preference to use either a selected control page or the last viewed page when Indigo Touch is launched?

2. Bug: On the page below, whenever I tap on any interspace between any of the buttons, it treats it as if I pushed the play button (animation, scripts, and all).

Side by side comparison of same control page in Safari and Indigo Touch


3. I love the way that the "back" button in the top bar keeps track of the last control page visited. However, compared to viewing with Safari, I've lost screen real estate: a) I can't control what is in the top bar anymore, and b) both the top and bottom navigation bars are taller than what I'm used to in Safari. Things get even tighter if I now have to include navigation buttons in the main area. I think this can be partly alleviated by adding a "Home" button to the right on the top bar. This "Home" button would either go to the first control page opened in that session or the "specified" control page (a la #1 above).

4. To help with the navigation buttons/real estate issue, another helpful approach would be to have the ability to add the ability to load another control page after button actions have been concluded. I think I've suggested this before, as it's not really iTouch specific. Using the example image above, I press "Rick" to go to a list of my playlists. I'd like to press a playlist button, have it's actions fire, and then automagically go back to this main itunes page. Maybe a new applescript command that I can use to load in a new control page?

5. Real estate again...Are there ways you could hide the bottom navigation bar and perhaps access these functions through a single button on the top bar (thereby precluding #3 above). I think, and I could be entirely wrong, that most users want this to easily display control pages first and direct access to variables and devices second. The Holy Grail for me is to be able to have my girlfriend be able to simply browse my control pages, she doesn't need anything else.

I'd be happy to trade off needing another click, err, tap or two in order to get more screen real estate in my control pages and making the interface "simpler" (for non-tech oriented users).

Thanks again for all your hard work! You have an excellent start and I'm happy as a clam for how zippy control pages are now!
Happy New Year!
Rick

I believe Matt is still tweaking the scaling of the control pages (using pinch gestures), but i have to say that in the case of my house, scaling my main page to fit the iPhone would render it unusable because the controls would be too small (I have a floorplan of the entire house with the lights and other devices in the corrrect position). I suspect it's a design tradeoff when you are designing your control pages. It's sort-of synonymous with the print vs web views in publishing: do you try to use one layout for both or customize to the respective channel? OTOH, perhaps an option on the control page ("Scale to fit iPhone screen") would be possible - we'll think on it.

My feeling on this is that you'll have to really design your control pages to be iTouch/iPhone specific. When I took what I was using for my desktop control pages and viewed them on the iphone, uck! As much as swiping, pinching and zooming is neat, it gets tiresome after awhile to do that in order to view your page and/or make a button big enough to push. My fat fingers need big buttons!

With Indigo Touch, I've probably lost the last need to have a desktop version of my control pages. From here on out, I think it's all iTouch formatted pages and trying to figure out how to get everything shoe horned into each page I want.

[jay (support)]

4. To help with the navigation buttons/real estate issue, another helpful approach would be to have the ability to add the ability to load another control page after button actions have been concluded. I think I've suggested this before, as it's not really iTouch specific. Using the example image above, I press "Rick" to go to a list of my playlists. I'd like to press a playlist button, have it's actions fire, and then automagically go back to this main itunes page. Maybe a new applescript command that I can use to load in a new control page?

FYI, there is a webserver plugin available to do exactly that, called execAndGo. Doesn't work with the Touch client, but we'll look into it and see if we can change that behavior.

Gosh, I wish I could have gotten into the beta program. Oh well.

One question I have though. With the web based apps, I have created bookmarks that open to specific web pages as my main menu screen. Will that sort of functionality be available, or will I need to launch the app and build a menu there?

[matt (support)]

Gosh, I wish I could have gotten into the beta program. Oh well.

One question I have though. With the web based apps, I have created bookmarks that open to specific web pages as my main menu screen. Will that sort of functionality be available, or will I need to launch the app and build a menu there?

All of your Control Pages will be available (as well as Devices, Actions Groups and Variables). You can build a Control Page that acts as a main menu screen, which links to other Control Pages. We are also investigating the possibility of using Web Clippings to launch Indigo Touch to a specific, user definable, Control Page.

I installed the Itouch app on my phone and it works great. I think it is ready for the App store. It is very responsive, and it is a lot faster then using the mobile Safari.

I also sent in my Ipod Touch at the same time as the Iphone, but I can't install it on the ipod.


I have noticed that the (status:) does not show in the app, for some reason.
Also, Is it possible to open up a link in the app instead of sending you to mobile safari. I have a camera link on a control page.

I noticed that in Indigo 4.02, there is a video camera option. Is that something that will be added soon?






http://www.peppo.com/images/Indigo2/IphonePages.sitx

IndigoTouch works very fast on our iPhones and I only had some issues with the settings part. But these are known issues. Thanks for such a great app.

What I would like to see is the ability to make multiple sets/connections to the Indigo server. This way every (type of) user can get it's own view on the Indigo configuration. The reason I'm requesting this is WAF.
I've made a small subset of items to appear in IndigoTouch, so my wife can use her iPhone and do the easy tasks. She's not interested at all in all those features that can be built using Indigo.
But I want full control and that's not entirely possible this way.


A second request is the ability to view Time/Date actions in IndigoTouch. I use these a lot to make our house look like there's someone at home, when the house is empty. It would be nice to see a list of upcoming Time/Date actions and perhaps the option of executing them earlier and/or changing their execution time.


A third request would be the option to view the current logfile. This would be very handy for debugging. Sometimes Indigo interprets my genious settings the wrong way. To debug that I need to take my MBP and walk through the house to trigger the nescessary events. With IndigoTouch this can be much easier.