Main News Stories

Checklist Updates

Rhys Cox — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 20:42:05 +0000

Recently with the latest betas of the iPhone SDK I've been working on a new version of Checklist making use of the new APIs to offer a more stable and easier to use version of Checklist for iPhone OS 3.0.

The progress is positive and I'm on target for a release not long after the final release of iPhone OS 3.0, so look forward to the update!

What's coming in Version 3.0 of Checklist

Rhys Cox — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 20:28:24 +0000

There have been a lot of issues with the current iteration of Checklist that I freely admit were in need of fixing, mainly:

- Various random crashing issues
- Inefficient management of large lists

Both issues will be fixed by a major rewrite of the entire application - this is already partially done with most of the instability completely eradicated.

The application now makes use of Core Data - a new feature of iPhone OS 3.0 - to manage your list items and ensure that your checklist is saved quickly in an efficient manner.

I intend to add the following features to the final release that will be available shortly after iPhone OS 3.0 is released to the public:

- Priority Sorting
- Colouring of List Items
- List Item descriptions
- Support for exporting list items via Email and SMS

As a side-effect of upgrading to a new technology I will be removing support for old list data in the new application, however be assured the update will definitely be worthwhile.

Expect video previews of the new update shortly as features are added!

Checklist Improvements

Rhys Cox — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 10:26:00 +0000

I've been adding a few new features recently and overall improving the UI of the app.

Here's a screenshot of what the latest build looks like:

As you can see a lot has changed, let's run through what'll be different about the main list view in Checklist 2.0.

First off, I decided that tapping part of a list item to check it off, with it still remaining in the list was mostly redundant, it makes more sense to use the standard swipe delete or edit - delete methods to remove items from the list.

Secondly, I've added fully working priority sorting and descriptions to Checklist. You will be able to specify your own sections to sort your list your way, along with choosing colours for the list items to further categorise your lists.

These are just a few of the multiple enhancements I will be adding to Checklist over the coming weeks.

E-Mail Support

Rhys Cox — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 10:06:05 +0000

One of the features I've recently posted about is E-Mail support - I've had a lot of feedback about backing up your Checklist data and I feel this would be the best way of doing it.

In Checklist 2.0 when you tap on an item, you will be presented with the new Detailed Item view, which looks like this:

As you can see the detailed item view now displays the Section Header as the title for the view, along with the item name and description fields - both of which are fully scrollable for large text entries.

Alongside this is a new 'Send E-Mail' button - tapping this will format an E-Mail from the item in your list and present you a view like this:

E-Mail support directly through Checklist is a great feature that will enhance your productivity with Checklist substantially.

Check back soon for previews of more new features that will be available in Checklist 2.0.

What to Expect from Checklist 2.0

Rhys Cox — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 09:24:12 +0000

With WWDC over there's bound to be a lot of hype with not only a new iPhone coming out but the new iPhone OS being released - both next week.

I'm definitely looking forward to next week not only for the new OS and iPhone but also for the latest build of Checklist which has been submitted for approval today - meaning it should be ready for launch when OS 3.0 debuts!

One final feature I haven't yet shown off is item colouring support, this was a frequently requested feature as it allows users to differentiate items from one another.

Here is an example of how this works in Checklist 2.0:

Coloured items currently look like this in the new build:

In previous shots of the new Add Item view, you would fill out the item title, description and heading and then tap Save, now you can tap Done and select a colour for this item, as shown below:

Which will then save your item with your chosen colour:

Now with Checklist 2.0's codebase being entirely new there will no doubt be a few occasional bugs remaining even after my testing, I ask you not to hesitate to e-mail me about these bugs, the more communication I have from my users the quicker I'll be able to iron out any bugs from the application and improve the overall user experience.

Thanks for all your support - I look forward to seeing feedback from the new version!

Growing Pains

Rhys Cox — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:21:47 +0000

There's been a lot of feedback about the latest version of Checklist since the update was released a few days ago.

The main issue seems to be the old Checklists not appearing - unfortunately when updating applications the old preferences files are removed sporadically, which isn't in my control, however this issue is now resolved with the new format I'm using in Checklist 2.0.

Two features I forgot to implement when developing Checklist 2.0 were Checking items and Badge support. With Checklist 2.0 I started off from the ground up implementing all the features in previous versions, unfortunately I forgot about these two, but you'll be pleased to hear these are back with Checklist 2.0.1 that should be available for update next week.

As you can see along with these features will be a new icon, a small change but nice nonetheless.

Another feature missing from the new Checklist that was available in the original Checklist is the ability to delete old preferences and to hide the badge number, both of which are back in Checklist 2.0.1.

Some users reported that they were confused as to which fields in the Add window were for what purpose - now there are placeholders to indicate this, and the Category and Description fields are now optional.

Thanks to some source code revisions you are now also able to edit the Category for existing items after adding them to the list.

The new version will be submitted to Apple shortly, and after the approval process the new update will be available for download - this process should take no longer than 2 weeks, although it should be less.

Checklist Upgrades

Rhys Cox — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:02:56 +0000

Beta testing for a new revision of 2.0.1 is underway, I've received a lot of complaints about Checklists disappearing.

I chose not to include upgrade functionality - because in the past when Checklist has been updated on my user's iPhones/iPod Touches their old lists have been removed - causing me to assume that the old preferences files must be deleted when the application is updated.

Regardless of if this is or is not the case, 2.0.1 will now have the ability to upgrade old lists to the new format, if Apple didn't delete your preferences file when you updated, your old list will appear under the 'General category'.

Sorry for any inconvenience, I hope for the updated version to be released promptly following Apple's approval.

Restoring your old lists Manually

Rhys Cox — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 05:47:24 +0000

For those of you who wish to restore their lists manually instead of waiting for the update I've written this guide to aid in this process. You will need an iTunes Backup from before the installation of Checklist 2.0 for this guide.

For Mac Users:
Download iPhone / iPod Touch Backup Extractor from http://supercrazyawesome.com/downloads/iPhone%20Backup%20Extractor.app.zip

After launching the application, click the Read Backups button:

Then choose a backup from before you installed Checklist 2.0:

Finally click extract, a folder will open - go to Library - Preferences and open up com.bpsoft.Checklist.plist to find an XML document containing your old list:

For Windows Users:
Download iPhone Backup Extractor from http://www.reincubate.com/res/labs/iphonebe/iPhoneBackupExtractor-v1.0.0.12.zip

After launching the application, click Next, and a list of backups will appear, choose a backup from before installing Checklist 2.0 then click Next:

Click next again:

In the list, go to Application - com.bpsoft.Checklist - Library - Preferences - com.bpsoft.Checklist.plist and check that file, then click Next:

Finally choose a destination and click next, then go to where the folder was saved, then go through the Library - Preferences folders to find com.bpsoft.Checklist.plist which contains your old list:

Checklist 2.0.1 is now available!

Rhys Cox — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 00:08:41 +0000

The long awaited update to Checklist 2.0 is now available from iTunes.

In this release I've drastically improved the application to act almost identically to the pre-2.0 release whilst ensuring that the new features remain.

I've solved some long standing issues with version 2.0 in 2.0.1 - such as the lack of many of the features that were present in previous versions, and necessary user interface tweaks.

Just to let you guys know I won't be stopping just there with 2.0.1 - I have big plans for 2.0.2 which will be released in a few weeks - to continue to solve complaints and bring back the functionality of the original application I will be adding a 'Simple Mode' which can be activated through the Settings application, in this mode Checklist will act exactly like the pre 2.0 version, except it will still have all of the improvements to the code that version 2.0 brought.

Descriptions, Colours and Sections will be hidden from the interface entirely, but are easily restored just by toggling off Simple Mode and re-launching the application. This feature will bring the best of both worlds and give users who prefer the old Checklist their old application back, and those who want the new features the option to still access them.

Categories are a new feature that has been hit and miss with users, some like it and some hate it, but nevertheless it is a useful feature for sorting lists - a user recently suggested to me that they would prefer to view Categories in a 'folder' style structure rather than list headings, whilst I can see this would prevent endless scrolling of the list - changing the user interface so drastically without consulting the users first has proven to be a bad judgement call, so I leave this up to you - comment on this article if you wish about which you would like to see - Folders or Headings, or any other user interface improvements you can think of - I take all comments and suggestions seriously and consider each and every one.

Checklist 2.0.2 coming soon - Simple Mode, UI Improvements and more!

Rhys Cox — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 19:30:38 +0000

Checklist 2.0.1 was recently released through the App Store and I have had good feedback about this release - I agree with everyone that this should have been the initial 2.0 release and instead of irresponsibly releasing a beta-class upgrade I should have waited and fine tuned the release.

Checklist 2.0.1 many of the issues users have had with the application, and Checklist 2.0.2 will solve the rest.

I have had many comments from users stating that they wanted the old Checklist back, the simpler and easier to use version without all of the feature additions and fancy extras - this will now be available through something I'm calling 'Simple Mode'.

You can activate Simple Mode by going to Checklist Settings in the Settings application on your iPhone or iPod Touch and toggling on the Simple Mode option - then when you re-launch Checklist it will look and act identically to the original pre-2.0 version of Checklist with no additional work necessary.

Another new addition to Checklist is a confirmation for clearing your preferences - currently when this option is toggled on and Checklist is launched the preferences will be cleared without any warning, to prevent accidental deletion of your preferences you will be warned before this takes place whilst the Clear Preferences setting is enabled until you clear your preferences.

There are also various user interface enhancements to make Checklist easier to use and more efficient and stable.

I am in need of translations to various languages for a future release of Checklist, if you know someone who is skilled at speaking another language or if you are skilled in another language please contact me or comment on this article.

Checklist 2.0.2 is now available!

Rhys Cox — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 21:04:05 +0000

Checklist 2.0.2 is now available for download from the App Store, in this release is 'Simple Mode' - an option in Checklist's Settings that allows for the interface to act identically to the pre-2.0 version of Checklist, Two extra colours - Black and Purple in the Colours section, and a confirmation prompt when you enable 'Clear Preferences' in settings to prevent accidental deletion of your Checklist.

Please leave comments or email me with any future suggestions for Checklist that you would like to see in version 2.0.3.

Checklist 2.0.3 coming soon!

Rhys Cox — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 23:06:38 +0000

Checklist 2.0.2 was released recently with even more improvements to the application - allowing for Checklist to resolve 99% of user's problems with the application, one issue - reordering the list - remains however due to incompatibility with Core Data I cannot as of yet resolve this.

On the bright side there will be some major new features being made available in the next update - Checklist 2.0.3.

In this update there will be two major features added to checklist:

Undo Support
In previous versions of Checklist, Undo was only available within text fields, not when performing operations on the actual list, this will be rectified through Checklist 2.0.3 with full Undo and Redo support to all actions in Checklist.

List Backup and Restore
There have been users in the past that have contacted me regarding issues causing them to lose their lists in one form or another, some due to bugs in the application and others due to accidentally clearing their data. Whilst Checklist 2.0.2 goes part of the way towards preventing data loss through the confirmation prompt displaying when a user attempts to clear their data, Checklist 2.0.3 tackles the problem from another perspective with Checklist Sync.

Checklist Sync is a new web-based backup and restore service that will be available free of charge to all Checklist owners with Checklist 2.0.3 - simply launch Checklist, tap on the title bar and a toolbar will pop up giving you the options to either Backup your list, or Restore it from a previous backup, tap again and it will disappear.

The backup and restore processes work through an upcoming web service that will launch alongside the update.

To backup your list, tap Backup, and then tap Start when prompted to upload your data to the backup server, you will then be provided with a link to download your backup, with which you can then store away safely until it is needed.

To restore your list from an earlier Backup, navigate to the Checklist Sync homepage, click the Upload button and select your backup data. Once the backup has finished uploading, you will be presented with a code; launch Checklist and tap Restore when prompted, then enter your code and tap Start to restore your old backup.

This service will prove to be an extremely easy to use and efficient service for backing up and restoring your list data without sifting through iTunes backup files or using Desktop Sync applications over WiFi - this way you can backup and restore your Checklist on any operating system with the browser of your choice.

Checklist 2.0.3 is planned for release in 2-3 weeks.

Checklist 2.0.3 is now available!

Rhys Cox — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 15:32:33 +0000

Checklist 2.0.3 is now available on the App Store, in this release are two major new features: Checklist Sync and Full Undo/Redo support.

Undo and Redo are features I've had on the backburner for a while now, but they have now been successfully implemented to make list operations simpler.

Checklist Sync is a backup solution for keeping your list data safe and being able to restore from a backup in case anything goes wrong without having to resort to downloading an extra application just to sync your data.

Both features should make Checklist that much better and I hope you all enjoy them.

For the next major release Checklist 2.1 I'm planning on featuring additional localisations so if you speak a secondary language don't hesitate to get in touch with me to have your translations be a part of the official application in the next major release.

Checklist Bugs

Rhys Cox — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 11:08:59 +0000

I've been able to track down two bugs in the latest version of Checklist:
- When a list has more than 8 items and you delete an item from the bottom of the list, another item is deleted instead
- When choosing the Restore option, a failed restore will result in deleting your list data

Both of these bugs will be fixed in Checklist 2.0.4, which I estimate to be released in 2 weeks depending on approval speed.

[edit]

The second bug listed is all fixed, but I can't seem to replicate the first bug at all, can anyone help?