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Kevin Faust
15,353 PointsAPP LAUNCHED: Anyone need a custom timer?
Hey everyone,
I started this a bit over a month ago and I've finally completed the app. What made it slow was the following:
-After watching Ben Jakuben workshop on using Parse.com(a backend service), I overcomplicated my timer app by adding login functionality because I thought it was so cool
-I also unnecessarily added third party libraries (took a long time to figure out how to actually do it) but it ended up being counterproductive in the end
-Finally, I tried to add an achievement screen (epic fail) which again didn't suit my app's purpose at all and sapped alot of time
So in the end, I scrapped all those things (was a great learning experience through trial and error though), with the following functionalities:
-Can choose work/rest times, can change themes, can have option for vibration (when timer reaches 0) as well as a screen to view a few of your statistics
So aside from that, here is the app!:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kevin.pomodoro
If you are looking for a timer app with some unique features, please give it a try!! I am always welcome to feedback as well and if there is anything you would like to see in the future, I will happilly incorporate it to the best of my abilities.
Thank you and happy holidays
2 Answers
Ben Deitch
Treehouse TeacherHey Kevin! The app looks great; really cool to see all the pieces come together like that! Sounds like a lot of what made it so slow was scope/feature creep; it really is a learned skill to not let the creep in and keep your apps appropriately scoped. Also, if you're looking for more work to do, my pick would be updating the color of the status bar on Lollipop and up to more closely match the themes. Thanks for sharing your app!
Ps. Fragments is definitely on the way ;)
james white
78,399 PointsHi Kevin.
Glad you had a learning experience from creating your app.
Do you have a github repo?
You might think about posting the source code to your apk so that others can learn from it.
Kevin Faust
15,353 PointsKevin Faust
15,353 PointsThanks for the feedback and I'm looking forward to the new courses on treehouse!