Sunday, March 13, 2011

My first android app: I Wanna See That

Alpha version released to Android Market.
Get it here: market.android.com/details?id=com.I_Wanna_See_That
Or scan this:

This app is for every person who sees a movie preview and says "Hey, that looks good.  I want to see it."  Just open the app, search for the movie, and add it to your to-watch list.  It doesn't have to be a new release.  You can also manage a list of movies that you would like to catch up on.  This is the only app on the market now specifically designed to keep track of a to-watch list.

This is an alpha version of the app.  It is not very pretty yet and not all functionality is ready.  It is mostly for testing.

Thanks to those who try it out and help me test.

For the alpha version only basic functionality is added: view saved movies, search for new movies, and view movie info.

Here are some ideas I have been working on and would like to eventually add to the app:

  1. The ability to check movies off in the list
  2. Come up with a good-looking theme for the app (or several and let the user pick)
  3. Update movie info if it was incomplete when the user saved it
  4. Several movie lists managed by user (ie Romantic, With Kids, Action, etc)
  5. Alerts every week for movies coming out
  6. View local movie times (and maybe even buy tickets)
Feel free to make your own suggestions and help make the app better.
Posted by Evan at 1:40 PM
Labels: ,

13 comments:

  1. UnknownMarch 13, 2011 at 2:20 PM

    I'll repeat my Facebook comments here:

    1) Your QR code is missing something in the link. It wouldn't take me there.

    2) Check your error reports. Mine failed on initialization with a Null Pointer Error. It looks like something in your Util.clearCache? Don't know if you're using some other libraries to handle that, or if that's your own util class.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownMarch 13, 2011 at 2:23 PM

    Oh, found the issue with the QR code. Don't scan the one on FB, it's missing something. The one on this page works.

    ReplyDelete
  3. EvanMarch 13, 2011 at 2:38 PM

    Fixed the crash on start. Thanks Tim!

    And darn FB.

    ReplyDelete
  4. EvanMarch 13, 2011 at 5:52 PM

    I just pushed out version 1.2 already to fix a few more error reports I saw coming in. If anyone sees strange errors, please let me know. It might be helpful to know what you were searching or what movie you were looking at.

    Thanks to those who have helped so much already.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sh33p3rMarch 14, 2011 at 4:41 AM

    This can be great program with a few development. I use Tmdb too. I want to suggest something:
    - Import/Export option
    - Logging to Tmdb, for local language
    - Rate Movies
    - Show Tmdb and Imdb ratings
    - Update/Add movies to Tmdb

    These features can be hard to apply but i think they will make program more useful. Thank you

    ReplyDelete
  6. EvanMarch 14, 2011 at 10:12 AM

    I plan doing some of this stuff already. I will definitely need an import/export when I upgrade from Alpha to full production. I don't want people to loose their movies and have to redo everything. I also like the idea of being able to rate movies and see the current rankings.

    I'm interested about this logging to TMDB. Do you mean to use the phone's local language to query TMDB and get the movie info in the user's language? Or is there some other form of logging that I don't know about?

    I'll have to think on the update/add. It would be nice for when information from TMDB is incomplete. If more people like this idea, I will work on adding it in the future.

    Thanks for checking it out and giving feedback!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Sh33p3rMarch 14, 2011 at 12:29 PM

    In TMDb, when you logged to your account there is an option Preferred Language in Account Details. By this feature, when you browse a movie you can see your local movie title, overview (this information can be edited by users). I thought that if we login to our account then add movie we can have translated info.

    ReplyDelete
  8. EvanMarch 14, 2011 at 1:42 PM

    As far as language goes, it is determined by the application API key, not by individual user language selections. All of the api calls have a language option. All the examples show ".../en/..." in the url but you can put in whatever you want. The rules for this are outlined here: http://api.themoviedb.org/2.1/language-tags. Almost everything has an English version but the other languages can be spotty. TMDB says
    "In the event that you request a language that has not been translated, the data will default back to English. This can be checked with the 'translated' boolean element."

    I can let the user pick their language and I can dynamically change my api call. However, there is a chance they will see it in English anyway. On the other hand, maybe there is a way to pass all the information to Google Translate if it defaulted to English. Either way, there are a lot of other things that get affected in the application because of a user language option. We will see how it goes in the future.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Sh33p3rMarch 16, 2011 at 4:42 PM

    Oh ok, i see. I don't know about API so it's not a big problem. If we search movie title in local language it can bring english one. Actually lots of movies doesn't have translated title and overview., so users should work harder:)

    I have new ideas by the way. There can be a filter/sorting option by ratings, year, votes etc. But please use IMDB ratings for movies, it's a real reference i think.

    And app can get more info about movies, like Director, Cast (3-5 actors), Genre, Country, Language etc.

    I have tried a few apps like My Movies, Pocket AMC Reader, CLZ Movies. So i can say pros/cons by the time.

    Thank you and i will wait for new developments.

    ReplyDelete
  10. HugoNovember 11, 2012 at 10:16 AM

    Finally a simple app for keeping track of movies I have seen and still want to see.

    I want a complete list of all the movies I have seen, so for me some kind of feature to add movies quicker would be nice. Maybe import csv list and then match it with movies. Or just an faster way of adding movies from the search list.

    E.g. When I search Harry. Instead of clicking on each harry potter movie (or even Dirty Harry and When Harry met Lloyd) and then wait for information to load, then click menu and then add. Just have a multiple select option with tick boxes next to the list of movies.

    Also it would be nice if when you click on Watched it, it records the current date and/or gives you an option to enter a date so that you can keep track of when you've seen it.

    One last suggestion. When one's list get's very long it might be useful to have a search function for your movies in your list. E.g. If someone asks you. "Have you seen Movie XYZ?" you can just open the app search for it and say. Why yes I watched it last year, but can't remember it that well lets watch it again."

    Thank you for this awesome app, hope you get enough time to work on it.

    ReplyDelete
  11. EvanNovember 11, 2012 at 9:12 PM

    Thanks for the suggestions Hugo. I've started compiling a few ideas and have started thinking about what improvements I will make. I will definitely incorporate your ideas. Not sure when I will get around to actually doing it but it's nice to know people still like this app.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousMay 2, 2013 at 3:19 PM

      Evan,
      I am having trouble with my connection. I search a movie and it comes back with "Connection Error - An error occurred while searching." Please help me with this!!! I love this APP!!!

      Delete
    2. EvanMay 2, 2013 at 6:25 PM

      I get all my data from tmdb.org. They are having some issues and their entire site is down. Things should be back to normal as soon as they fix their problems. They are posing updates on their twitter site: https://twitter.com/themoviedb

      Delete

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