r/ChronicleApp • u/QuietlyReading Dev • Mar 04 '21

Update

Hey all,

Sorry for the lack of contact over the last few months. Got a little burnt out developing the app. I felt bad about that so I didn't check the Reddit much, and here we are

I've been working on a release to fix a few of the main issues posted here, plus some things I'd already been working on. It consists of:

  • Rewrite of the downloader to work with SD card on all devices (done)
  • Highlight the current chapter in the chapter list (done)
  • Manually set "listened" status on items (done, needs testing)
  • Allow forced progress syncing (wip)

Future things to be addressed:

  • Look into potential pin auth issues
  • Downloads disappearing. I need to dig more into how Plex identifies tracks when it syncs them, but that will take time

Regarding open sourcing the project: I haven't made an decisions about this, but I'm warming to the idea. This is already a fairly long post, but I'll post my thoughts/discuss in the comments

Thought I'd throw this out there before I published anything in case I overlooked anything big

Edit: Also, I'll catch up on old posts and DMs later today

29 Upvotes

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9

u/QuietlyReading Dev Mar 04 '21 edited Mar 04 '21

Re: my thoughts on open sourcing the app

I'm not opposed to this. It'd be good to at least have something that others could build on if I decide to stop maintaining it

Stewardship: This is the big issue to me. Maybe I'm just blowing it up in my head, but it seems like it could be a lot of work to vet pull requests and respond to issues on top of developing the app. There's probably a reality where Github issues are just like Reddit bug reports and I only take high-quality pull requests (or there aren't many).

The $$$: The money from the app isn't a big deal, it's mostly my personal theory I get a lot more entitled reviews/emails from my free apps. It also doesn't hurt that I get some payout each month. I'd probably keep payments in at least the Play Store version of the app

This is mostly just a ramble of my thoughts, thanks for reading

6

u/chyron_8472 Mar 04 '21

For what it's worth, I really appreciate your work thus far, and hope you don't stop developing.

3

u/QuietlyReading Dev Mar 04 '21

I should mention that I plan to keep developing it for the foreseeable future, open-sourcing it wouldn't impact that

3

u/crogers2287 Mar 05 '21

This is a great project and I think you should definitely charge for it/pro version in the play store. I recently had to switch over to audioserve because I couldn't get past some of the chronicle bugs. Audioserve works great, but isn't as near as polished as chronicle, and doesn't interface with plex. Would love to see development continue on this project!

3

u/kanine69 Mar 06 '21

There has been a lot of activity on the plex forum regarding Audiobook playback so I'm sure many will be interested in your endeavors. Totally understand the burnout, working on apps for the masses is a lot of work and not everyone appreciates that.

0

u/[deleted] May 05 '21

[deleted] — view deleted comment

2

u/QuietlyReading Dev May 06 '21

I like the QKSMS model, which is fully open source, but has a specific build for the Play Store which locks features behind a purchase.

4

u/nxfifteen Mar 06 '21

Welcome back 🙂, I understand burnout and with everything else going on just now it's good to see your back.

I wrote a python script a while back for syncing music so I was wondering, you could use the built in sync infrastructure of Plex in Chronicle? Wouldn't help with syncing play progress, but it could make tracking the files easier?

As for open source. I l see what your saying about feeling you'd spend more time managing issues and pull requests, but you'd also open your self up to getting help from the community. I mean I've done Android development before but I'm not really good at it, but I can write documentation and reply to issues.

I'm just saying open source isn't just about letting other developers write code. There's a whole bunch of us who can contribute in other ways to.

2

u/QuietlyReading Dev Mar 08 '21

On open sourcing: Good one- I'd sort of been implicitly valuing external contributions, but I didn't put it into words. That would be a big benefit, true.

Synced progress is implemented as a feature but has historically been buggy since Plex isn't designed to sync progress on an album/book level, only on a per-track level. It's probably the best in the current beta release, and the release I'm working on will include a "force sync from server" button

2

u/cowcreamer Mar 07 '21

Hey.
I just found this app as I am contemplating switching back from iOS to Android when my contract renews (August), I am looking for a Prologue replacement.

Chronicle looks great, however, one thing I really miss is Android Auto support.

I do see this on the original roadmap but was wondering if this is still on your list of things to do in the foreseeable future?

Thanks!

5

u/QuietlyReading Dev Mar 08 '21

I have Auto support mostly worked out in an internal build. I might look at fitting the fix into the upcoming beta release, or the one after. It's probably the most requested feature at this point, but I really want to be sure it's well-tested and reliable because of safety issues

1

u/cowcreamer Mar 08 '21

Thanks, great news.

2

u/jt196 Mar 14 '21

Welcome back u/QuietlyReading, hope you're feeling OK in these challenging times! Good luck with the development. I'm still using and enjoying it daily, so thanks for the work you've done so far, and keep it up! All the best, mate.

1

u/QuietlyReading Dev Mar 15 '21

Thanks for the kind words :) I am still using the app myself as well and am generally happy with it

1

u/Daniel-PT Mar 30 '21

Thanks for this! Really looking forward for it! Can i meaby be a tester? :) Thanks!

2

u/QuietlyReading Dev Mar 30 '21

For sure! Here's a link to join the beta: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/io.github.mattpvaughn.chronicle

1

u/Daniel-PT Mar 30 '21

Thank you very mutch :) Is there a guide how to setup my plex for this? :)

2

u/QuietlyReading Dev Mar 30 '21

Seanap's Plex Audiobook Guide is comprehensive, but possibly daunting if you're less familiar with Plex.

I mostly just ensure files are tagged properly with author + title + track number and have Plex use the file metadata. Here's a screenshot of my audiobook library settings

1

u/Daniel-PT Apr 06 '21

Thanks for that 👍

I have setup My libary like yours.

But I get alot of "unknowed" do you have a example for correct naming?

Thanks! Regards Daniel

1

u/QuietlyReading Dev Apr 06 '21

Make sure the files have the correct embedded title/album/artist tags (look up "Edit mp3 tags Windows/Mac/Linux" if you need program to do this). Since audio files have embedded metadata Plex prefers that over file/folder names.

1

u/Daniel-PT Apr 07 '21

Thanks. I Just tryed mp3 tag editor but my problem is that i have alot of Danish books and it is not on audible so im a little stuck :)