Cactus Album app

Anything relating to Cacti or CactiGuide.com that doesn't fit in another category should be posted under General.
User avatar
AKNicolle
Posts: 97
Joined: Wed Nov 27, 2013 2:39 am
Location: Illinois, USA
Contact:

Cactus Album app

Post by AKNicolle »

I've started working on an iOS app (Cactus Album) for keeping track of all my cacti and succulents. I wasn't able to find anything suitable on the App Store, so I figured I'd come up with an app myself. It's still early in development, but here's the first screenshot of the app so far:
Cactus Album screenshot
Cactus Album screenshot
Cactus_Album_Preview_x400.jpg (32.42 KiB) Viewed 4347 times
The app will solely be for tracking and organizing information and photos about your collection, so the database starts off empty aside from having some species names populated in a picker list. You can get a fairly good idea of what I'm aiming for with my app for bonsai (Bonsai Album). For care information, identifying plants, and so forth, I figure we've got a great resource here at CactiGuide already.

Any thoughts? What sorts of things would you like to see in such an app?
Illinois cactus fan & developer of Cactus Album apps (iOS, Mac & PC)
Web: http://andrewnicolle.com
Twitter: @andrewnicolle
User avatar
Snowcat
Posts: 476
Joined: Mon Sep 23, 2013 8:01 pm
Location: Moscow, Russia
Contact:

Re: Cactus Album app

Post by Snowcat »

I had some ideas about this also... Unfortunately I don't know the ways of programming for Android (I used to be a programmer in ancient days, Pascal, C, C++) and have no time to study...

As for ideas. It would be useful to have several groups of plants. For each group you can set a number of days between waterings and the program alerts you that, for example "small pots" need watering today. It would be fantastic if that watering is automatically scaled based on current season and it would be TERRIFIC if the program can get local weather (temp and humidity) and scale the watering calendar based on that data too.
User avatar
AKNicolle
Posts: 97
Joined: Wed Nov 27, 2013 2:39 am
Location: Illinois, USA
Contact:

Re: Cactus Album app

Post by AKNicolle »

I was thinking of adding a watering tab on the bottom, which would present a table of watering schedules. These schedules could be assigned to one or more plants.

Each schedule item would consist of several fields:
- Schedule name
- Water every x hours/days/weeks/months/years
- Type of watering? Spray / light / moderate / soak
- No water between date 1-2
- No water between date 3-4
- No water between date 5-6
- Notification on watering due date: Yes/No
- Last-watered date + a 'today' button

Each plant in the table needing watering (along with each corresponding schedule item) would be highlighted red. The last-watered date field per schedule would also be displayed in each plant.

Does that sound like it'd cover most scenarios?

Using live weather data would be great for those lucky enough to grow outdoors year-round, but that data doesn't come cheap unfortunately!
Illinois cactus fan & developer of Cactus Album apps (iOS, Mac & PC)
Web: http://andrewnicolle.com
Twitter: @andrewnicolle
User avatar
Snowcat
Posts: 476
Joined: Mon Sep 23, 2013 8:01 pm
Location: Moscow, Russia
Contact:

Re: Cactus Album app

Post by Snowcat »

Yeah seems like it will cover most of the possible scenarios...
but that data doesn't come cheap unfortunately!
Really? I was sure you can get weather data for free... Not that I've checked it, frankly speaking. But having LOTS of free weather programs made me think that the data itself is also free.
User avatar
AKNicolle
Posts: 97
Joined: Wed Nov 27, 2013 2:39 am
Location: Illinois, USA
Contact:

Re: Cactus Album app

Post by AKNicolle »

The National Weather Service data seems to be free and covers the US. Where it gets pricey is sourcing data for other countries. I'm not sure how easy the NWS data is to integrate, either.

I imagine the free weather apps either use the aforementioned data, attach ads to their app, or have some other means of financing the data? (such as a high-traffic web site with ads, for instance) There don't seem to be many good options for small developers unless you're developing an ad-supported weather app with 100k or millions of downloads.
Illinois cactus fan & developer of Cactus Album apps (iOS, Mac & PC)
Web: http://andrewnicolle.com
Twitter: @andrewnicolle
User avatar
AKNicolle
Posts: 97
Joined: Wed Nov 27, 2013 2:39 am
Location: Illinois, USA
Contact:

Re: Cactus Album app

Post by AKNicolle »

What would people's thoughts be on pre-populating the app with species names versus leaving the list empty? Note that I'm referring only to the names and not any related information.

The Info screen for each cactus or succulent contains a Species field and a toggle button to switch between the common name and the scientific name. Tapping on this field produces a drop-down list you can scroll through to select the species. New species names can easily be added, or existing species names can be edited. Since I'm not planning to add every known species name in existence, I was wondering if a starter list of say 200-500 more common names for species in cultivation would be fine, or whether you would prefer not to have any cluttering up the list when the app first starts?

Related to this, the screenshot in my earlier post gives preference to the common names when grouping in the table by section. Would it be better to use the scientific names instead? I usually distinguish mine by the scientific name, so I'm curious if others have a preference either way?
Illinois cactus fan & developer of Cactus Album apps (iOS, Mac & PC)
Web: http://andrewnicolle.com
Twitter: @andrewnicolle
User avatar
BarryRice
Posts: 618
Joined: Sun Feb 03, 2013 9:11 pm
Location: Woodland, California, USA
Contact:

Re: Cactus Album app

Post by BarryRice »

Is it possible to have it be customizable? I bet different people would want to track different fields.

I track lots of data for my plants in a spreadsheet.


For example, for my plants, I track the following...

1--genus, species name I use for it, including infraspecific rank and cultivar name, if applicable.
2--any location or collection # data.
3--name it had upon purchase/trade (i.e., suppose the source calls it a Trichocereus but I call it Echinopsis.
4--plant source (i.e., Mesa Garden, etc).
5--a unique accession number for the plant (to keep track of different clones, even if from the same source).
6--pot size
7--winter treatment (temperatures)
8--summer treatment (light exposure)
9--a free text field to record notes.
I'll grow it as long as it doesn't have glochids. Gaudy flowers a plus.
User avatar
Snowcat
Posts: 476
Joined: Mon Sep 23, 2013 8:01 pm
Location: Moscow, Russia
Contact:

Re: Cactus Album app

Post by Snowcat »

I would add a field with dry pot weight. I control the humidity inside some sensitive plants by measuring their weight so having the dry pot weight recorded is useful.
User avatar
BarryRice
Posts: 618
Joined: Sun Feb 03, 2013 9:11 pm
Location: Woodland, California, USA
Contact:

Re: Cactus Album app

Post by BarryRice »

Snowcat wrote:I would add a field with dry pot weight. I control the humidity inside some sensitive plants by measuring their weight so having the dry pot weight recorded is useful.
Huh. Please explain. If you have a pot and plant that is 1000g, then you water it, so it is now 1200 g, do you assume the pot is bone dry if it returns to 1000g?

What if the plant grows?
I'll grow it as long as it doesn't have glochids. Gaudy flowers a plus.
User avatar
Snowcat
Posts: 476
Joined: Mon Sep 23, 2013 8:01 pm
Location: Moscow, Russia
Contact:

Re: Cactus Album app

Post by Snowcat »

Plants growth is not THAT much. Also it is very useful in winter, when they do not grow, for sensitive cacti that do not like yo be dry for a long period but also hate to be wet.
User avatar
AKNicolle
Posts: 97
Joined: Wed Nov 27, 2013 2:39 am
Location: Illinois, USA
Contact:

Re: Cactus Album app

Post by AKNicolle »

Some great feedback. Thanks!

Making the fields customizable is a good idea in theory, but in practice I've found it causes a lot of headaches when doing database schema upgrades and when importing / exporting CSV format data. How I've handled this in my bonsai app is to have a limited set of fields that'll be useful to nearly everyone, and then there's a large notes field to store any additional data people come up with. If I receive a bunch of requests to add a particular field, I'll often go ahead and add it in a future update. This is more likely with fields that are more complicated than just a plain text field. Things are a bit more limited in that app due to the way I display the fields (three fixed-size screens on iPhone), so I'll probably go with a scrolling approach with Cactus Album to allow for more fields.

Here's another question: what iOS devices would you most likely use the app with? It'll be a Universal app, meaning you'll be able to load it on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. I'm curious how many people have one or more of these devices, and whether you'd expect to be able to move the database around between devices?

At some undetermined point in the future I may also consider a Mac version, as I have with my bonsai app. Any Mac users out there?
Illinois cactus fan & developer of Cactus Album apps (iOS, Mac & PC)
Web: http://andrewnicolle.com
Twitter: @andrewnicolle
User avatar
BarryRice
Posts: 618
Joined: Sun Feb 03, 2013 9:11 pm
Location: Woodland, California, USA
Contact:

Re: Cactus Album app

Post by BarryRice »

iPhone. But it would be essential that I could easily export the data for a backup.
I'll grow it as long as it doesn't have glochids. Gaudy flowers a plus.
User avatar
AKNicolle
Posts: 97
Joined: Wed Nov 27, 2013 2:39 am
Location: Illinois, USA
Contact:

Re: Cactus Album app

Post by AKNicolle »

Most definitely. The database can be copied from the app either via iTunes or backed-up to your computer over WiFi. The same approach can be used to transfer the database between devices. There won't be iCloud support, but hopefully the WiFi backup/restore will still be helpful.
Illinois cactus fan & developer of Cactus Album apps (iOS, Mac & PC)
Web: http://andrewnicolle.com
Twitter: @andrewnicolle
User avatar
Snowcat
Posts: 476
Joined: Mon Sep 23, 2013 8:01 pm
Location: Moscow, Russia
Contact:

Re: Cactus Album app

Post by Snowcat »

Oh I forgot about my main wish! I definitely want it to support Android also! Is it possible?
User avatar
AKNicolle
Posts: 97
Joined: Wed Nov 27, 2013 2:39 am
Location: Illinois, USA
Contact:

Re: Cactus Album app

Post by AKNicolle »

No Android, sorry! To be frank, that platform is a bit of a nightmare for developers, with thousands of device and OS combinations to support, and other issues I won't get into here. Cactus Album will be iOS only.
Illinois cactus fan & developer of Cactus Album apps (iOS, Mac & PC)
Web: http://andrewnicolle.com
Twitter: @andrewnicolle
Post Reply