Call for Testing: WordPress for Android 6.4

WordPress for Android version 6.4-rc-1 has been released in the Google Play Store. You can join the betaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. from the Google Play Store on your device (under “Become a beta tester”), and comment here or join the Google Plus beta community for more discussion with other testers. (Note: If you see a message that the beta testing program is full, you’ll need to wait for space to open up before you can join the beta. Thanks for your interest!)

What to Test:

Updated: Refreshed Reader Design

Reader streams (the list view, such as “Followed Sites” or tags you follow) got a design refresh to match the current WordPress.comWordPress.com An online implementation of WordPress code that lets you immediately access a new WordPress environment to publish your content. WordPress.com is a private company owned by Automattic that hosts the largest multisite in the world. This is arguably the best place to start blogging if you have never touched WordPress before. https://wordpress.com/ Reader design. A couple big changes to note:

There are now five different layouts for posts in the list view. Here are the rules:
- If the post has 0 images: Text card.
- If the post has 1 or more images and less than 100 characters: Photo card (using featured imageFeatured image A featured image is the main image used on your blog archive page and is pulled when the post or page is shared on social media. The image can be used to display in widget areas on your site or in a summary list of posts. or first image).
- If the post has 1-3 images and over 100 characters: Default card (using featured image or first image).
- If the post has 4 or more images and over 100 characters: Gallery card (using first 4 images).
- If the post has a video as featured image or a video as first usable media: Video card.
TagTag Tag is one of the pre-defined taxonomies in WordPress. Users can add tags to their WordPress posts along with categories. However, while a category may cover a broad range of topics, tags are smaller in scope and focused to specific topics. Think of them as keywords used for topics discussed in a particular post. streams now have a an image headerHeader The header of your site is typically the first thing people will experience. The masthead or header art located across the top of your page is part of the look and feel of your website. It can influence a visitor’s opinion about your content and you/ your organization’s brand. It may also look different on different screen sizes..

: Layouts for different kinds of posts in Reader streams

: Image header on tag streams

Feedback:

Does each post layout work on your device, for example in your Followed Sites list?
Do you notice any design issues while scrolling, rotating your device, or navigating through the Reader?
Look at a tag you follow: Does the image header load correctly? Can you tap to view the post the image came from?

(Related GithubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/ issue and pull request.)

New: Draft Reminder Notification

The app now sends you push notifications when you have a local draft that is more than 3 days old. (Local drafts are drafts saved locally on your device and not synced with your site’s server.) There are a few cases:

For a draft 3-30 days old, the notification includes the post title and age of the draft.
For a draft >30 days old, the notification includes the post title (but not the age).
If you have multiple drafts, the notification includes the number of drafts (but not the title/age).

These cases work independently on each site, so as you switch between sites in the app the notifications will adjust to the site you’re working on.

: Pending draft notification

: Setting to enable/disable the pending draft notification

To Test:

Write a new draft and exit the editor to save the draft locally. (You’ll see the text “Local draft” in yellow on your draft in the list of posts.)
Go to your device settings and set the date to more than 3 days in the future.
Open the app again.
The notification should appear on your device.
Tap “Edit” to open a single draft in the editor or the post list for multiple drafts. Tap “Ignore” to dismiss the notification (it won’t appear again for that draft). Swipe to dismiss the notification, and receive the notification again later (after 24 hours).
Repeat these steps for different sites with different numbers/ages of local drafts.

Note: If you don’t have any local drafts on your site to begin with, the notification may not appear (Github issue). This is a known issue with this first beta release and is resolved for the next release.

Feedback:

Was the notification clear and compelling to you? What was your reaction to it?
Describe what you intended to do after seeing the notification. Were you able to complete the actions/flow you intended, or did you get stuck anywhere?
Please report any issues with the notification itself (the number of drafts, the age of the drafts, the timing of the notification, etc.).

(Related Github issue and pull request.)

Bugs & Feedback

Did you find a bug or come up with a feature request while testing? Did you try the additional flow testing? You can discuss it here, report it using the “Enter feedback about the app” form in the Google Play Store, or head straight to the Android Github repository and open a new issue.

Thank you for testing!

#android, #beta, #needs-testing, #wpandroid

Lance Willett 5:43 pm on December 23, 2016

Sharing a visual record from testing today on a Nexus 6P, Android version 7.1.1 and WPAndroid version alpha-31.

The new Reader views are looking and working great, I love the denser quality of the space and the gallery 4-up photos. I did notice a few empty images (and one video card without a keyframe image) but it seems network related and not as much the Android app itself. Screenshots: https://cloudup.com/cayEvf0CsUu

I didn’t fully test the draft notifications because of the known issue mentioned — but will continue looking at it with the next betaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. (I made some drafts). One question: is the draft date based on creation or last update? Screenshots from a bit of usage in and around drafts and post editor: https://cloudup.com/cqsEdqB-lwR
hoverduck 3:55 pm on January 3, 2017

I like the new Draft Reminder feature…but I have a few complaints/suggestions. Some of these may have been design decisions, so I only wrote a GitGit Git is a free and open source distributed version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency. Git is easy to learn and has a tiny footprint with lightning fast performance. Most modern plugin and theme development is being done with this version control system. https://git-scm.com/. issue on the first one

1) Clicking the notification or Edit button for multiple drafts opens the Notifications page – https://github.com/wordpress-mobile/WordPress-Android/issues/4978

2) I only ever saw the notification when I manually opened the app. Is that a required trigger, or will it notify me on its own if I haven’t even opened the app in 3 days? It’s a great reminder when I open the app, but that doesn’t help me if I’ve forgotten I installed it at all.

3) I’m also not clear what the “Ignore” button on the notification is intended to do. If I hadn’t read this Call for Testing post I would have no idea if the notification would come back, or how frequently. I was left wondering how is Ignore different from just swiping away the notification? Does the notification return after some time period? Does Ignore stop all pending draft notifications, or just this one draft? Just this site? As an alternative idea, what if we flipped it around and made it a Snooze button instead, more like Google Inbox? So by default if you just swipe the notification away it’s done. But give the user the option to Snooze it for another X period of time (an hour, a day, 3 days, etc).

4) Another useful option would be to provide a way to save it as a draft to the web, so I could then edit it from another device. That workflow is unintuitive anyway, so this would give the users a more straightforward method of achieving it.
- mzorz 2:23 pm on January 4, 2017
  
  Hi! Thank you for all this Scott!
  
  And thanks for pointing the bug at #1
  
  2) I agree with you and yes it is a required trigger as of now. It only checks for drafts when the app is brought to the foreground. This has been considered in feature design phase and there were several people complaining about it being an annoying thing. This is going to change with issue https://github.com/wordpress-mobile/WordPress-Android/issues/4972
  
  3) we’re changing that so swipe and IGNORE do the same thing: just dismiss this notification and not pingPing The act of sending a very small amount of data to an end point. Ping is used in computer science to illicit a response from a target server to test it’s connection. Ping is also a term used by Slack users to @ someone or send them a direct message (DM). Users might say something along the lines of “Ping me when the meeting starts.” til next back off time (1 day, 1 week, 1 month).
  
  4) That’d be great but we’d have to have some architecture considerations. In think FluxC will enable this much more easily than it’d be now