Aaron Pearce

As I wrap up dAmnMobile, I am starting to wireframe dA Mobile, this will be a longer project due to having to research deviantART's internal API, DiFi.

dA Mobile will encompass the majority of dA's features including galleries, browsing, profiles, commenting, forums, upload, messages and notes.

I will be polishing every one of these features to the standard I feel neccessary to get them to match with deviantART's style and ease of use. This means that the app will run and look as if it was an official application from dA itself.

dA Mobile will be a paid application just because of the time invested by me into development and research, I will hopefully be releasing parts of the code as open source for use by the community. All research into DiFi will be released for use by anyone guaranteed. Hopefully I will also be launching a new site as a home for these apps and the development blog shortly.

dAmnMobile 2, codename Sunya is nearly ready for release, just a few more bug fixes and a new icon to come, then a quick upload to the App Store. Once reviewed and released, I hope you all update and enjoy the new version, it is much more stable, a lot better designed and hopefully easier to use!

Decided it was time to update you on dAmnMobile Sunya, the next major version of the app. Basic functionality for use on dAmn is implemented, a new data store is in place along with a great new way to add chats and a chance to promote your own chat in the app for a low cost!

The data store is based around SQLite which means the app will be more responsive to use while also being easier to maintain for me as the developer. This new data system combines major features of the application into one database, meaning that all data is easily found and read, lowering memory and CPU usage by the app.

The message/chat view has and still is being dramatically overhauled to allow the app to show messages and images correctly, this includes avatars/icons.

The app settings are fewer in number, and bot mode has been removed as it is mostly an unused feature which potentially slows the application down. There will be a simple way to change accounts which will just clear the username and dAmntoken from the database then allow you to re-authenticate with dA.

Onto dA Uploader for iOS, version 1.0.1 is coming soon. This update fixes small bugs, adds a indicator while uploading and fixes the rotation of images so they are correct once in Stash.

There is also a small alteration to how the ads work in dA Uploader, currently if clicked it does not confirm that this is the action wanted, in version 1.0.1 this is fixed, it will now ask for confirmation before opening the ad when clicked. Hopefully these updates to dA Uploader will solve the issues that occur.

Overall the aim is that dA Uploader 1.0.1 will out within a week or two, while dAmnMobile Sunya will be out in a month or two.

Over the last two days, dAmnMobile may not have been usable to some users that updated to version 1.0.2. I was attempting to update to the new deviantART API for dAmn authtokens, sadly I did not correctly implement this feature as deviantART changed the returned information to allow the application to grab the token. This version that was crippled by my bad implementation was reviewed by Apple and released to you as users.

I quickly moved to fix this, and uploaded a fix to the App Store review queue immediately. I asked for an expedited review to fix the problem as soon as possible while also temporarily pulling the application from the store to stop downloads of the unusable version.

I made a mistake, I am sorry for this and I wish to thank you as the users of my application for understanding my mistake and alerting me of it within seconds of the update coming out.

dAmnMobile has reached its limits based on the original code, it is time for a new generation of the app. Introducing codename, Sunya, the next generation of the app, starting from scratch I will be rebuilding dAmnMobile, this is where the codename Sunya has meaning. Sunya means zero or nothing, therefore the codename fits the project.

Each part of dAmnMobile will be rebuilt, starting with the authtoken grabber, you will see this early in the upcoming update for the app, 1.0.2. This is now using the dA API for grabbing your dAmntokens for login.

The dAmn connection and socket engine will be redesigned to allow a better system along with backgrounding of the application. Hopefully this will relieve some of the issues that have been arising with the application so far. It will be more event based to allow for quicker and smarter responses to dAmn and the user.

Messages are currently stored in plain text files, this will also change in Sunya. The system will be ported to a much faster and more reliable SQLite system which will allow a much more responsive app for the user.

Along with the new backend, the frontend will be redesigned, the app will look better while also performing better as well. A new rendering engine based on a single UIWebView will be used to allow for more responsive scrolling while also being much less memory intensive.

A lot more improvements are planned for Sunya, some more secretive than others, for now, this is all I will be sharing, if you are interested in following the development of the app, please follow me on Twitter or subscribe to this blog.