I’m finding out that doing things properly isn’t always easy…

I’ve got the “Do not respond” (DNR) lists per schedule working, so I’m working on “Custom Response” lists. As with the initial building of this feature, it’s not easy. But I also just realized something else that I neglected to do with the DNR list… I have to erase all of these settings when you delete a schedule! Otherwise, they may be wrongfully applied to a newly created schedule. I’m fairly sure nobody has actually downloaded my beta yet, so nobody should be affected by this little misstep.

On the other hand, Google has made app data backup and restore REALLY easy… as long as you use SharedPreferences… which I do!

So I’ve implemented app data backup/restore in both versions of Auto Respond. No, there is not a release version yet with these changes. I haven’t even actually released a beta version with these changes… I’m hoping to do that in a couple days when the custom responses per schedule are finished.

Also, I’ve found and fixed A LOT of bugs. Many of which were hidden in the Dock menu, some in the Promote menu, and a rare crash bug when responding to phone calls.

Bottom line – with any luck there will be an updated Auto Respond in a few days, with some new features for pro users, backup for everyone, and fixes for everyone!

Over the past few days, I’ve been spending what little free time that I have (basically any time that I’m awake and not at work) working on Auto Respond.

I’ve found a few bugs, one of which I think I introduced in the latest beta, so you shouldn’t have to worry about that one. The others are all in the Dock menu.

For those of you on Android 4.0+, you may notice that after opening the dock menu and starting to scroll, some of your settings change. Amazingly this is not a bug caused by me. It’s actually a bug caused by a flaw in the Android OS which happens when you have consecutive settings screens, and one ore more of them have a switch preference. To my surprise, someone on Stack Overflow found a fix – and I implemented it. (If you are a coder and don’t know what Stack Overflow is, find out. If you’re not a coder, it probably doesn’t matter to you.)

For all versions of Android, the “Get current message” and “Preset messages” buttons for the dock message options were not working. Again, this has been fixed.

None of these changes have been released in any version, because before releasing my next beta I want to finish what I’ve started with data backup. Yes, that’s right… backing up the settings, messages, schedules, and whatever else may be included in Auto Respond. This will be available to free and pro users, and it will be using Google’s new backup service which puts the data in your Google account. That means that if you get a new phone you can just re-install the app and have all of your data back.

Also, I’m working on adding custom responses to each schedule in the Pro version. The custom responses was a lot of work to implement initially (which is why it’s a pro-only feature) and we’ll see how much work it takes to implement it per-schedule. I know I can do it, but it may take some time.

So there you have it. A lot going on in the way of changes and fixes in Auto Respond. The new version will hopefully be out in a week or so, depending on how quickly I can work.

I just published a new beta version of Auto Respond. If you want to check it out, you need to join my Google+ community. (Unfortunately this is Google’s restriction, not mine.) This beta only applies to the Pro version, none of the major changes affect any of the capabilities of the free version

The community can be found here:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/103951105335573781027

There is a sign up for the beta testing in a post in the community.

Here is the full change log:

• Added do not respond list to individual schedules
• Change Screen title from “New Schedule” to “Edit Schedule” when editing a schedule
• Change Screen title from “New Message” to “Edit Message” when editing a message

I know that last one affects the free version, but it’s a very minor change.

The next step is to add the “custom response list” to individual schedules yet. Now that I have the “do not respond list” per schedule, I should be able to bang out individual responses fairly quickly.

I just published Auto Respond 1.3.4. Most of you are probably asleep (or will be by the time it’s available) but it’ll be ready for you in the AM. Here’s the change log:

• Fixed a crash in Dock menu when clicking settings name instead of switch (4.0+)
• Moved “help” to the bottom of the menu
• Reload all widgets on reboot
• Changed error message in “Do not Respond” settings to be more clear

Sorry for the bugs… I created a new function that was similar to an existing function. I copy and pasted the code, but what I didn’t realize is that the trigger had to be opposite on the new function.

This created all sorts of havoc. I found a few other things when I got home that needed to be changed to allow the new function to work properly.

It should all be fixed now though. The new version has been published, and should be available in a couple hours when Google’s servers sync.

Sorry guys, but there is a bug in 1.3.3 that causes schedules and some other things to not work properly! I stupidly got some logic reversed, and broke some things.

It is a quick and easy fix… I’ve already fixed the bug in the code.. but I do not have a compiler on my work computer, so I can’t release an update until I get home! I’ll be home in about 2 hours, and I’ll release the new build ASAP!

I said it would be quick, and it was.

I successfully added a “status” widget to Auto Respond, both Free and Pro. A lot of copy and pasting mainly, a few extra lines of code here and there, and bam: new widget. I hope you enjoy it!

As usual, the new version has been published, but may not be available for download for a couple of hours, due to delay on Google’s servers.

As I said recently… I love my users!

Someone just contacted me about something which, unfortunately, cannot be done the way that it was presented. The user wanted me to make it so that when Auto Respond is on, the icon on a home screen shortcut would be green, and when it’s off the icon would be red. This icon cannot be changed dynamically like that (and if it can, I haven’t figured out how to do it yet) because the icon is actually hard coded into the app.

The good news is, there is another way to go about getting this functionality – and that is to make another widget! This widget would be available to both free and paid users, as it would not have any functionality that bypasses ads. I am going to call it the “Auto Respond Status” widget.

Basically, it will look like the message widgets: an app icon and some text. In this case though, the text will always be “Auto Respond”, and the icon is linked to the global status of Auto Respond, not the status of an individual message.

Clicking on this widget will simply open the app, just like a shortcut (dragging the icon from your app drawer to the home screen) would. But unlike that shortcut, the widget will show you whether or not the app is enabled by displaying a color coded icon.

I have not begun work on this widget yet, as I just received this request a few minutes ago. But I don’t think this will take me a lot of time. Much of the code from the message widget can be reused for this one.