Desktop & Mobile Apps

[Andy]

Hi guys,

I’ll open up a topic later on to have a meta discussion on my ideas on how to progress with Android app development in general so we can discuss features, bug and so on in a more structured way than in a forum

@Ben you can find the beta client (and the official one) on f-droid
@mikebabb the beta app of ownCloud on f-droid already implements multi select capabilities and an “on device” filter

[przybylski]

First of all its great to see android app being given back to the community
Now some replies:

@Andy

As for the storage location, as far as I know Tobias did an implementation for that and it is present in the beta version

I dipped my fingers into it as well

@Ben

I know several people who are annoyed by the sync process of the android application. They have to sync every file manually. The main feature of an cloud application should be sync files with the cloud. maybe calendar and contacts too. Imho it’s not userfriendly, If that does not work automatically.

Wait what? I thought I added an option to select multiple files for “keep up to date” back when I was developing early version of the app.

@pan

Hope there will someday be a way to select which folders from the device will be synced.

This is something I wanted to work on for a long time.

@Ben

I don’t know how but somehow we have to combine the qualities of a filesystem explorer and an cloud application to improve the user experience

I do have an idea or two

[przybylski]

@przybylski

Wait what? I thought I added an option to select multiple files for “keep up to date” back when I was developing early version of the app.

pan:

Cancel that. I just check my old repo and it turned out that, even tho I do have the code, it was never pushed to github repo sorry.

[Andy]

@przybylski

I dipped my fingers into it as well

Ups, my mistake. I thought it has been implemented by Tobias.

[tobiasKaminsky]

No no, all credits belong to przybylski. I have only added it to beta and tested it a bit.

[nullnvoid]

@jyaworski

IMO Nextcloud clients should just make API calls to Nextcloud-on-the-server with a pretty UI (based on OS/theme) to glue it all together. Doing it this way makes it very easy to implement. A Nextcloud SDK, if you will.

I agree, if it isnt already api based

[Ben]

how does it work now? Is the application using no REST API?

[Andy]

@Ben

how does it work now? Is the application using no REST API?

It is using a ReST API with XML formats (which would still be ReST) and some stuff is implemented via the DAV protocol afaik.

[NasandaStor]

I bought the ownCloud Android app. Hopefully the full NC Android app will be free…

[Andy]

The oC app is free as well if you use f-droid as the OSS app store.

As for the Play Store and if the NC Android app will be free that is something I don’t know - which @frank might be able to answer best

But as a side note… are we honestly discussing 79 euro cents? 0_o

[Ben]

@Andy I think the problem is not the price itself but the fact that most android users don’t have a creditcard. The other possibility is buy a 15€ playstore card for a 80 euro cents application.

I have no problems in spend money for good software, but for end users it could be confusing to offer a free server application and desktop clients but charge something for the android client.

[LEDfan]

I like the idea of making the android app free. A lot of users doesn’t have a credit card. Also explaining that the app is 100% open-source and free but costs money is hard.

Maybe it’s better to ask for donating, flattr, or bountys? This way you don’t loose XX% of the price.

[Andy]

The community as far as I know always worked free of charge anyways but the app has been marked with a price that to have some income for the company. Since I am not a part of Nextcloud GmbH I can’t say anything about their plans, ideas, etc. So we will have to wait for their comments.

[godfuture]

…totally agree with you, Ben.

The lack of folder sync feature killed the Owncloud app for me. I want to sync folders stored on internal and external SD card. FolderSync app does it for me. I also dislike that the Android app downloads every file on first open, due to this fact I have to cleanup afterwards e.g. photos. Quickpic does this better and even generates previews faster than Owncloud client itself. It was hard to advertise the Owncloud app to friends, because they were not content with the slow preview of photos.

cheers

[Andy]

@LEDfan

I like the idea of making the android app free. A lot of users doesn’t have a credit card. Also explaining that the app is 100% open-source and free but costs money is hard.

I had a quick chat with some people from the Nextcloud company and @jan told me that we will release the Android app in the Google Play store for free (and obviously on f-droid)

[supportreq]

This is amazing!! just missing would be iOS…

[PhilD]

Very good. For the benefit of future readers, there are a lot of countries where the government makes it very difficult for ordinary citizens to transfer funds into an international currency (Euro, $US…), get a proper internationally-usable credit or debit card… I have been living in one of those countries. It is very frustrating to show people some useful app, and then realize that it costs 99c and so there is no way for the people to get it on their smart phone. Open source products need to keep this in mind, as has been done here.

[areteichi]

Is it possible to implement background sync in the mobile app? As far as I can tell, the Android client only syncs files “passively”, where one has to actually open the client itself or go into “Accounts” menu in Android to trigger the sync.

I would love to see a feature where files get immediately downloaded to a mobile device as soon as I upload them from a PC.

I didn’t see anyone talking about this feature so… Just a thought.

[przybylski]

@areteichi

Is it possible to implement background sync in the mobile app? As far as I can tell, the Android client only syncs files “passively”, where one has to actually open the client itself or go into “Accounts” menu in Android to trigger the sync.

It is already there. It is possible that you have it disabled. Go to system settings > accounts > owncloud > sync

[areteichi]

@przybylski

It is already there. It is possible that you have it disabled. Go to system settings > accounts > owncloud > sync

I do have that enabled. Never worked for me. But okay, maybe I’m just experiencing a bug then.