Friday 9 November 2018

Weight Tracker User Guide

Welcome, this is the user guide for the Android Weight Tracker app. This app allows you to record you daily weight measurements and then see your progress as a chart or report.

Home Screen



The app is designed around the home screen, it is a navigation hub for the apps features. From the home screen you can:
  • Add new daily weight measurements
  • Review and edit your data
  • See a chart showing your weight versus time
  • Statistics about your weight and BMI
  • Change settings like the weight units
  • Share your readings with other devices

New Weight

Here you enter you daily weight measurements that you have taken from a bathroom scales.



The date will automatically be set to today's date, however to change the date press the - button to roll back one day, or + to roll forward one day. Pressing the date itself will pop up a date picker for you to select the date. Note that you can not enter time, the time recorded for the entry will be your device's current time.

The app will automatically set the weight to your last measurement, you can change it by pressing either the + or - buttons, or pressing the weight itself to pop up a text field where you can enter your weight via the keyboard. The + / - will change the weight by either
  • 1/2lb if your weight unit is pounds
  • 0.1kg if your weight unit is kilograms
  • 1lb if your weight unit is stones
When done, press the ADD button and the weight measurement will be recorded and you will be returned to the Home screen. 

If you wish to enter more weight readings, check the Stay on the screen check box.


Edit Readings

Here you can view a list of your readings, you can also delete and edit your readings.


You can share your readings by pressing the share button, top right. The app will export readings to other apps such as Email clients. This is useful if you want to view your data in a spreadsheet. 


Touch a reading and you will be shown a screen similar to the New Reading screen, here you can edit or delete the reading.



Chart

You can view your weight measurements as a chart showing weight vs time.


The chart will show your all your data and fit the axes accordingly. However you can change the time scale via the menu top right, 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, 1 Year or all time. 

The graph will show a red trend line, the trend will depend on the time scale you have chosen. If you are close to your target weight the app will show it as blue horizontal line.

Pressing the share button (top right) will take a screen shot and allow you to share the image via other apps.

Sync


Here you can save and restore your data from your Google Drive, this is useful for synchronising readings between your devices.

Firstly the app will need permission to access your Google Drive, it will pop up a dialog asking you to choose an account. If you do not wish to use this feature, press back several times to get back to the home screen.

If you have allowed the app permission to access your Google Drive folder, the app will search for the latest weight readings in the folder and display the date and time at the top of the screen.  Press REFRESH LATEST button to make the app search again for the latest readings as Google Drive can take several minutes to Sync across your devices.

Press SAVE TO GOOGLE DRIVE to store your readings in the Weight Tracker folder of your Google Drive.

Press RESTORE FROM GOOGLE DRIVE to load the latest the latest readings from the Weight Tracker folder on Google Drive. When loading readings, the app will synchronise them to those stored in the apps database, new readings will be added, same readings will be over written with the readings from Google Drive. 


Example 1

If you store your readings on your phone but wish to view them on your tablet, follow these steps:
  1. On your phone, SAVE TO GOOGLE DRIVE
  2. Wait a few minutes to allow Google Drive to sync
  3. On your tablet, press REFRESH LATEST until you see the latest time stamp
  4. On your tablet press RESTORE FROM GOOGLE DRIVE

Example 2

View your readings in a spreadsheet on your PC

  1. On your phone, SAVE TO GOOGLE DRIVE
  2. On your PC open the Google Drive app (or website)
  3. Wait for the readings to appear in the Weight Tracker folder
Note that Google Drive is a cloud service, so ensure you have WiFi or mobile data enabled to allow Google Drive to communicate to Google's servers.

Report 

 The report screen shows your BMI, statistics and trends.



Trends are calculated using line of best fit and are then used to work out if you are losing or gaining weight. The app will use the trend line to work out when you will reach your Goal weight.

Settings

Here are all the settings you need to configure the app for yourself, side swipe each screen to get to the next.


  • Set your weight units and target weight you are trying to achieve.
  • For BMI calculations you will need to enter your height

Auto Backups


Every seven days the app can save your readings to Google Drive, but first you will need to

  1. Allow the app permission to use your Google Drive, eg go to Sync and choose an account.
  2. On Settings, go to General Settings and check Automatic Backups
If you lose data, you can go to Sync and press RESTORE FROM GOOGLE DRIVE to recover data from your last back up.

Weight Tracker Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy, Terms of Service and Licence for the Android Weight Tracker app

Privacy Policy


The app will store your weight readings in a database stored on your device that only the Weight Tracker app can read and write to. Your settings are also stored on the device and only this app may use them.

The app will not share or transmit your data without your knowledge:

  • The app will allow the user to share data with third party apps using the share functions.
  • You may opt to backup/sync your readings to your Google Drive account
If you use the Sync feature, the app will ask you to log into your Google Account so that the app can access your Google Drive storage area. When saving your files to your Google Drive, the app will store them as in a plain text format in a folder that the app creates (Weight Tracker). When restoring data from your Google Drive, the app will query the drive for all files in the Weight Tracker folder and load the the readings from the latest file.



Google Admob and Firebase


The app uses Google Admob and Firebase analytics to deliver relevant targeted ads to you, to find out more about how Google uses information from this app visit: https://www.google.com/policies/technologies/partner-sites/

Feedback Emails


I may temporarily store any emails you may send to me whilst I deal with any issues raised. Your email address will not be used for any marketing by myself or third parties.

Your email client may store sent or draft messages from yourself and replies from me.

Note that I use Yahoo! email service for my feedback, to find out more about Yahoo, an Oath company, click the link below:
https://policies.oath.com/us/en/oath/privacy/index.html


Terms of Service


By using this application you are bound by Google's Terms of Service

Using this app you agree that MPD Bailey Technology and its agents (Mark Bailey) are not liable for any information shown within the app.

MPD Bailey Technology and its agents (Mark Bailey) take no responsibility for the actions of any users of this app.

This software is provided 'as is' without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of fitness for a purpose, or the warranty of non-infringement. Without limiting the foregoing, MPD Bailey Technology and its agents (Mark Bailey)  make no warranty that:

  • The software will meet your requirements
  • The software will be uninterrupted, timely, secure or error-free
  • The results that may be obtained from the use of the software will be effective, accurate or reliable
  • The quality of the software will meet your expectations
  • Any errors in the software will be corrected.

The app EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. The app makes no warranty that (1) THE APP OR THE CONTENT WILL MEET OR SATISFY YOUR REQUIREMENTS (2) THE APP SHALL HAVE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR PHONE OR TABLET OR LOSS OF DATA THAT RESULTS FROM YOUR USE OF THE APP OR ITS CONTENT.

Licence


Weight Tracker is licensed under Apache License-2.0:

Copyright 2018 MPD Bailey Technology

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at

    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.

Tuesday 25 September 2018

Privacy Policy (Food Hygiene Ratings iOS)

Privacy Policy, Terms of Service and Licence for the iOS Food Hygiene Ratings UK app

Privacy Policy


The app does not store any information except for the user settings, however the app uses third party services which may collect data and are detailed below. The app does not send any data to MPD Bailey Technology.

Google Admob


The app uses Google Admob to display banner ads on the results screen and establishment description screen. No other ads are show.

To find out more about how Google uses information from this app visit: https://www.google.com/policies/technologies/partner-sites/

Feedback Emails


I may temporarily store any emails you may send to me whilst I deal with any issues raised. Your email address will not be used for any marketing by myself or third parties.

Your email client may store sent or draft messages from yourself and replies from me.

Note that I use Yahoo! email service for my feedback, to find out more about Yahoo, an Oath company, click the link below:
https://policies.oath.com/us/en/oath/privacy/index.html

Food Standards Agency


This app will display public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

All Food Hygiene Ratings information is provided by the live data feed from the Food Standards Agency. If you find any issues with the data please contact the relevant local authority. For more information visit https://www.food.gov.uk

Note that no ratings information or business information is stored in the app.

Apple Maps APIs


The app uses the Maps and Geocoding from Apple.

All map data shown is provided by Apple, using the MapKit framework.

When viewing an establishment on the map, the app will use the CoreLocation API to find the exact geo-coordinates.

Note that no Google Place information will appear on the map

Terms of Service


By using this application you are bound by Google's Terms of Service

Using this app you agree that MPD Bailey Technology and its agents (Mark Bailey) are not liable for any information shown within the app.

MPD Bailey Technology and its agents (Mark Bailey) take no responsibility for the actions of any users of this app.

The app EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. The app makes no warranty that (1) THE APP OR THE CONTENT WILL MEET OR SATISFY YOUR REQUIREMENTS (2) THE APP SHALL HAVE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR PHONE OR TABLET OR LOSS OF DATA THAT RESULTS FROM YOUR USE OF THE APP OR ITS CONTENT.

Licence


Food Hygiene Ratings UK is licensed under Apache License-2.0:

Copyright 2018 MPD Bailey Technology

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at

    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.

Thursday 7 June 2018

Food Hygiene Ratings v1.02 Release Notes

Release notes for Android Food Hygiene Ratings UK v1.02

Establishment Details


When you now view the details of the establishment the app will look up the establishment on Google Places to find its telephone number, website and any photographs. The place details and photos will be displayed in cards. If no place information can be found, a toast will be shown to notify the user that no place details are available.

A dark green floating action button is now displayed on the Establishment details screen, press this to see a map and location of the establishment.

When you now press the send email link on the Local Authority card, the email will be filled out with the establishment details.

Bug fixes:

  • FSA link now works on the ratings card
  • If no address, "Not specified" is shown instead.
  • The map will no longer show for establishments with no address and instead show a notification.
  • Local authority card text is now formatted not to wrap


Results


You can now search a list of results by searching for text contained with in the name or address. The results table will automatically update as you type.

You can also filter results by rating, by checking the appropriate rating in the menu.

Results are now grouped into business categories such as Takeaways/Sandwich Shop, Pub/Bar/Nightclub and Restaurant/Cafe.

Distance from the centre of the map is shown for map search results.

These features bring the app into line with the iOS version.


Maps


Map searches are now disabled by default, but you can enable them in the settings menu.
When enabled, a dark green floating action button (FAB) with a map icon will be displayed in the lower right corner of the screen.

Pressing the FAB on the home screen will show you a map of the UK, you can zoom and move the map and press the search icon in the menu bar to search for results.

Pressing the FAB on the results screen will show you a map of the area containing the results, which you can zoom, move and search again.

Maps have been disabled by default since the establishment's geo-coordinate information from the FSA is inaccurate.

Home Screen


The user interface has been updated to improve its look and feel:

  • The background is now white
  • The advanced search button has been moved to the menu.
  • The menu search icon is now an icon to view the user guide 
  • The find places near me button is now material design (borderless) and is centred
  • The text field clear buttons will now only display when there is text
  • The clear buttons are bigger and centred
  • Clear buttons when pressed will set the focus on the textfield and open the keyboard
  • The action colour has been changed from orange to dark green
  • A small notice to say all data is from the FSA and is live is displayed at the bottom of the screen
  • The keyboard is automatically hidden when navigating away.

Settings


New settings screen accessible from the home screen menu, settings are:
  • Search radius (1-10 miles) for "find places near to me" and map searches
  • Results text filter mode, find text contained in the name only or name and address
  • Search timeout (10 seconds to 5 minutes) for FSA web server requests
  • Enable map searches, when enabled shows a green button to bring up the map on the results and home screens.
  • Google places - enable to lookup and show information from Google places in the establishment details.

About


The about screen has been updated with links to app's privacy policy and information about how the app uses Google Admob and Firebase.


Future Work


Favourites:  keep a list of establishments of interest and notify you when a rating changes
Google Places: If a place is not found, show the Google Place dialog for you to try to find it.

To keep the updates coming, please rate the app, send me feedback, tell your friends and keep on checking those restaurants with the app.




Food Hygiene Ratings Guide



This is a guide to using the Food Hygiene Ratings UK Android app. The app looks up food hygiene ratings from the Food Standards Agency, www.food.gov.uk. If you do not have the app, click the link below from your phone/tablet:

 Food Hygiene Ratings on the Play Store

If you have an iPhone please visit the iPhone version of the guide

Notice

There is a bug in earlier versions of the app (eg v1.02.03) to do with the component scores for hygiene, structural and management. Some establishments have no published component score data however the app will show default scores of 0 (very good) for these establishments.  Ensure that you update the app to v1.03.00 where this is issue is now fixed.

Home Screen



From the home screen you can perform a quick search for establishments by entering a name and place, then press SEARCH.

If you want to find establishments near to you press the FIND PLACES NEAR ME button.

From the menu top right, you can view this guide, go to settings, do an advanced search and see information about the app including a link to the privacy policy.


Quick Search


The quick search allows you to enter a name of an establishment and a place. You could just enter a name or a place on its own. Here enter 'cottage loaf' for the name and 'llandudno' for the place, press search on the keyboard or press the search button.

The app will send your query to the Food Standard Agency's web server and wait for a response which usually takes a few seconds but can take longer if busy. All data is live and up to date, no 
information is stored in the app. 


As you can see the Cottage Loaf scores a 5 (Very Good) and you can see a bit of the address, press the result to get more details.


Details




Pressing on a result shows more details about an establishment. You will see the appropriate Food Hygiene Rating icon which should be displayed on the premises, the establishment type and when the rating was awarded.

FSA Website


You can also view the establishment details directly on the FSA website, by clicking the button on the ratings card on the details screen.


Google Places

This feature has been removed due to Google changing the Places API to a new version. Having looked at the pricing for new version of Google Places, I decided to remove Google Places from the App due to cost.

Scores



In the scores card there is a breakdown of the rating into scores for 3 categories: hygiene, structural and management, click MORE INFO for a brief description of the categories. These scores are like hazard points, so lower the score the better. The range of possible scores is 0-30 in steps of 5, with 0 the best and 30 the worst. You can find a more detailed explanation of the scores on page 35 of the FHRS guidance notes.


Details Map


Press the map button on the address card to view a map of the establishment.


The app will initially place a pin on the map based on the longitude/latitude data as returned from the FSA. However these geo-coordinates can be inaccurate, so the app will look up accurate geo-coordinates based on the address of the establishment and reposition the pin.

The map is fully interactive and you can zoom and move the map.

Note if the establishment has no address and no geo-coordinates, the app will not show the details map and pop up a notification instead.


Local Authority



On the local authority card you will see a contact email address and a web site address.
Pressing the SEND EMAIL button will open your email client, address it to the local authority and the body of the email will already be filled out with the establishment details.

If you are a business owner wishing to query any information, your local authority is the best place to start.



Near Me


The app can use the device's location to find establishments near to you. You will be asked to give the app permission to use location services.

On the home screen press the FIND PLACES NEAR ME button.



The app has found 432 establishments in my location of Llandudno. The results are grouped by business type, Takeaway/Sandwich Shop, Restaurant/Cafe, Pub/bar/nightclub etc.

Each establishment displays a coloured icon, a name, distance from your location and address. The icons have been designed for you to easily see poor ratings and good ratings.

Note that the default search radius is 1 mile, you can set this up to 10 miles in the app's settings.

There are quite a few results so the app allows you to filter your results to quickly find the place you're after.

Results Rating Filter



Open the menu (top right) to filter the results by rating. The results list will automatically update.


Results Text Filter



On the results screen press the search icon to search for text in the name and address of the establishment, the results will automatically be updated to show only those that contain the text you have entered.

You can search for text in the name only, go to the app's setting to set the appropriate Results Text Filter.

Settings


You can get to the settings screen from the home screen menu.

There are 5 settings:

  1. Search Radius (Near Me / Map) which specifies the search radius 1 to 10 miles
  2. Results Text Filter - search for text in the name and address or name only
  3. Search Timeout - set the time out when waiting for a response from the FSA server
  4. Enable Map Searches - check to enable map searches
  5. Show information from Google Places  - check to show Place info such as photos


Map Searches


Map searches are disabled by default, to enable them you will need to go into the settings screen and check the Enable Map Searches setting.

Nota Bene the longitude/latitude data for each establishment is inaccurate, this means that the establishments will not be pinned in the correct locations on the map. Worse, the pins will usually be stacked on top of each other. This is why map searches have been disabled by default, only perform map searches if you are comfortable with the pins not showing in the correct location.

Once enabled a green button will appear in the lower right corner of the home screen and results screen. Press this to open up a map.

Pure Map Searches




Press the green map button on the home screen to show a map of the UK.

Pinch zoom and move to St Ives and press the search icon in the menu bar top right. Touch a pin to show a pop out to see the name and rating of a place. Green pins are 5* rated, red 1* star. You can press a pop up to see the establishment details.

In practice you will find that pins are placed in the wrong location and usually stacked on top of other pins. I recommend that you only use pure map searches for establishments in villages, suburbs or small towns.


Results Map Searches



Press the green map button on the results screen, the results will be displayed on a map.


In practice it is best to try and filter the results to whittle them down, here I entered "chip" into the search filter to find Fish & Chip places in Llandudno, as most chippys usually have chip or fish in their names.

You can move the map and hit search again, to find places in a radius (specified in the settings) about the centre of the map. Note that any filters will be cleared, but you can press back to see a list of results, set up a new filter and press the map button again to see the filtered results.


Advanced Searched


The advanced search replicates the features you may have seen on the food hygiene ratings website.

Let us say you are looking for  4* and 5* rated pub on Anglesey.

From the home screen, press the menu (top-right) and select Advanced Search


Select the business type to be Pub/bar/nightclub.
Select Anglesey for the area
Select rating 4
Select comparison GreaterThanOrEqual.
Press the search menu icon top right

The app finds 72 establishments.


Scottish Rating System


The app is UK wide and supports establishments that have been rated with the Scottish Ratings System, eg Pass/Pass Plus/Improvement Required.




P+ icon represents Pass Eat Safe rating
P icon is a Pass
! icon is an Improvement Required.

Trouble Shooting


Connection Timeout


The FSA database is often slow at times, so you may need to increase the timeout setting from 30 seconds to a minute or more, see Settings.

Occasionally the BBC / ITV feature Food Hygiene Ratings on consumer affairs shows such as Rip Off Britain. Suddenly huge numbers of folk are using apps and websites to check out food hygiene ratings. This puts severe strain the FSA database and usually makes it unavailable. Problems can last for several days afterwards. Please do not complain about the app being slow or not working.

Different Rating


I often see comments saying that the app is out of date and that the scores on the door do not match. The app itself does not store any data, it fetches all data from the FSA. So if you see a business is displaying a different rating to the app, it's possible that the FSA database has not been updated.

The app allows you to send an email to the Local Authority where you can request clarification. 
Please:
  • Do not challenge the business about the rating (for your own safety!)
  • Do not leave a bad review on the app store about it (be nice)
  • Do not send me an email about the discrepancy (what can i do?)
  • Do consider sending an email to the local authority for clarification.

If you are a business owner and are concerned with the data shown, please contact your local authority to check the status and details of your inspection.


Establishment Not Listed


You type in the name and place and your favourite take-away is not found, one problem maybe that the place you have specified is not in the business address, so the app will not find the business. So try widening the address, eg change Westminster to London.

Known bug! Some phones add a space after you type a word, this will throw the search query. Make sure that you delete any extraneous spaces. This will be fixed in a later release.

Another common problem is that the name of the establishment is different to what it is listed on the FSA database. Try part of the name to see if you can find the establishment. For example, a Fish & Chip shop near to me is listed as Riverside Fish Bar but its name now is Riverside Chippy.

Try finding the establishment on the FSA website, http://ratings.food.gov.uk/
If the establishment is found on the website, but not the app, please send me the name/address of the establishment so I can take a look.

Also bear in mind it may take several years for a business to be inspected, some local authorities have bigger back logs than others. So if a business is fairly new or has recently changed name, it may take time to have its rating listed on the FSA website.

If you are a business owner and cannot find your business, please contact your local authority to inquire about the status and details of your inspection.


Spurious Search Results


Search for Nando's and you will find also Lando's. The FSA database search algorithm is not so strict which is handy if you make spelling mistakes but can be frustrating if you are getting too many irrelevant matches. Fortunately the app is easy and quick to use, so browsing a huge list of results in combination with the filters, make it easier for you to find the establishment you are looking for.

Try the advanced search features to specify your search further, eg for The Swan at Stone, also specify the local authority area, eg Stafford, as there are lots of places called Stone.

Acknowledgements


All ratings information is provided by the Food Standards Agency, http://www.food.gov.uk
The app and this blog post are not affiliated and have not been endorsed by the FSA.

The app is free of charge and is ad funded. Ads are provided by Google Admob, the app will only display a banner along the bottom of the screen. 

Place information is provided by Google Places. See the apps privacy policy for more details.


Finally


Many thanks for using the app and I hope you use it every time you try a new place to eat or drink. It's also a good way of finding new places!

For any problems please send me an email via the feedback button on the About screen which you can access from the home screen menu.

To help keep updates coming, I'd be grateful if you could take the time to rate the app on the Play Store. Also spread the word, tell your friends about the app, you can do this easily by going to the About screen (menu option on the home screen) pressing the 'Email Friends' button which will share a link to the app via Facebook / Twitter (if you have the apps installed) or email.

Privacy Policy (Food Hygiene Ratings)

Privacy Policy, Terms of Service and Licence for the Android Food Hygiene Ratings UK app

Privacy Policy


The app does not store any information except for the user settings, however the app uses third party services which may collect data and are detailed below. The app does not send any data to MPD Bailey Technology.

Google Admob and Firebase


The app uses Google Admob and Firebase analytics to deliver relevant targeted ads to you, to find out more about how Google uses information from this app visit: https://www.google.com/policies/technologies/partner-sites/

Feedback Emails


I may temporarily store any emails you may send to me whilst I deal with any issues raised. Your email address will not be used for any marketing by myself or third parties.

Your email client may store sent or draft messages from yourself and replies from me.

Note that I use Yahoo! email service for my feedback, to find out more about Yahoo, an Oath company, click the link below:
https://policies.oath.com/us/en/oath/privacy/index.html

Food Standards Agency


This app will display public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

All Food Hygiene Ratings information is provided by the live data feed from the Food Standards Agency. If you find any issues with the data please contact the relevant local authority. For more information visit https://www.food.gov.uk

Note that no ratings information or business information is stored in the app.

Google Maps APIs


The app uses the Maps, Geocoding and Places APIs from Google.

All map data shown is provided by Google Maps.

When viewing an establishment on the map, the app will use the Geocoding API to find the exact geo-coordinates .

Place information is provided by Google, image attribution and link is shown in the bottom right corner of any Place images shown

For further information, see Google Privacy Policy.


Terms of Service


By using this application you are bound by Google's Terms of Service

Using this app you agree that MPD Bailey Technology and its agents (Mark Bailey) are not liable for any information shown within the app.

MPD Bailey Technology and its agents (Mark Bailey) take no responsibility for the actions of any users of this app.

The app EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. The app makes no warranty that (1) THE APP OR THE CONTENT WILL MEET OR SATISFY YOUR REQUIREMENTS (2) THE APP SHALL HAVE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR PHONE OR TABLET OR LOSS OF DATA THAT RESULTS FROM YOUR USE OF THE APP OR ITS CONTENT.

Licence


Food Hygiene Ratings UK is licensed under Apache License-2.0:

Copyright 2018 MPD Bailey Technology

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at

    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.

Wednesday 16 May 2018

Crossword Solver King Release Notes

Release notes for Crossword Solver King v3.27 (Pro v1.05), January 2020.

Main changes

  • Updated the word list which now contains over 310,000 words
  • Added two smaller word lists (TWL and SOWPODS) that are suitable for word games
  • New keyboard layout setting to switch between standard layout and simple layout
  • Updated the dictionary websites list that the app uses to find definitions.
  • New Repeated Letters filter to only include words that contain repeated letters.
You now have the option of 3 words lists TWL, SOWPODS and SCOWL. TWL and SOWPODS are new word lists for Scrabble players, TWL - Tournament Word List is for US Scrabble players whereas SOWPODS contains many more words suitable for UK and most other Anglophone countries.

I've changed the keyboard layout in the previous release and this has caused issues for some users. You can now fix this by going into Settings and choosing the standard layout in the Keyboard Layout preference.

The new Repeated Letters filter is the opposite of the Distinct Filter and should come in handy for Codeword puzzles.

Any issues drop me an email via the feedback button on the app's about screen.
Mark


Release notes for Crossword Solver King v3.26, September 2019.

New Features
  • Added a new privacy section in the About screen (see menu - About & Privacy), it has links to the app's privacy policy where there is an explanation of how the app uses your data. There is a brief explanation of how the app delivers ads to you and you can select whether to view personalised ads or less relevant ads. Note that if you do not see different ads when you change the show relevant ads setting, it just means that you are not being shown tailored ads anyhow. There is also a link here to the ad free version of the app which you will have to purchase.
  • Added Chambers 21st Dictionary as a look up option
  • Hopefully the keyboard layout has improved for all users (this will depend on your phone and keyboard app), less clutter, no emojis and no function bar. Numbers should now be shown as separate buttons. Let me know if I've broken anything and if you preferred the keyboard layout in the last release.
  • Filter text input fields now use a mono-space font to make it easier to see the letters.
Bug Fixes, the last release caused a multi-fold increase in the number of crashes and ANR's that gets reported to me by Google. So I spent a lot of time improving the code and fixing bugs.
  • Removed the EU Consent form as this was causing all of the new crashes and ANRs. Several customers reported the app not starting up at all. Instead of using Google's EU Consent form, I've created my own form in the about section (see above). 
  • Ads are now reloaded immediately when you change the ad preference.
  • Disabled right to left language support as the app is English only and didn't display correctly for locales such as Arabic.
  • If you enter decimal numbers in the filter's number picker fields, the values are now rounded to the nearest integer.
  • Removed unnecessary nested UI layouts, so the display code is now more efficient
  • Inspected all the code, fixed many compiler warnings, converted some code to Kotlin from Java and refactored some code to be more efficient.

Many thanks to those who have sent me suggestions and bugs, your feedback helps to drive the app development forward.

Release notes for Crossword Solver King v3.25 and Crossword Solver King Pro v1.04, Aug 2019.

New Features


  • You now use ? for missing letters in crossword searches. To enter ? press space or .
  • New options to revert back to previous behaviour when pressing space or .
  • For two-word anagrams you can now use a hyphen to split the words
  • Added new definition options: Google Define, Google Dictionary, Lexico
  • Distinct filter that only includes words where all the letters are different
  • About screen now has a link to the app's privacy policy
  • For EU users, you are now asked to review your ad preferences. You can review your ad preferences again later via a button in the about screen. (The Pro version does not display ads, so you won't be asked)

Updates


  • Created new adaptive icons for later versions of Android
  • Added new words to the word list
  • The Automatically show keyboard option will now show the keyboard every time you go back to the tips screen.
  • Moved the filter reset button to the top of the screen
  • Filters are now only disabled when pressing clear or back. To reset filter settings, you need to go into the filters screen and press RESET.
  • Removed the Go Pro nag box from the standard version of the app.

Bug fixes


  • Reset now clears the Pro filters
  • Settings screen ripple effects now work on Android Pie
  • Automatically show the keyboard now works on Android Pie
  • Word pattern filter would crash if given bad input



Release notes for Crossword Solver King v3.24 and Crossword Solver King Pro v1.03.


280,000 Word List

I've removed the standard word list of 130,000 words and created a new word list of 280,000 words based on the SCOWL word lists. I have removed the Use Pro Word List setting as there is only one word list now.

For the new word list, I've carefully removed abbreviations, hacker words, Roman numerals, profanity and offensive/taboo words. I've also replaced all two letter words with the approved TWL and CSW words. Accented letters have been simply converted to their base letter.

The new word list now has a lot less non-words and over 1200 new words compared to the old Pro word list, including neologisms such as crowdfunding. Thanks to everyone who sent in word suggestions.


Rebranding

The name of the app has now changed from CleverDic Crossword Solver to Crossword Solver King, its still the same great app and still developed by myself, Mark Bailey. I've changed the icon to show a crown on a crossword.

There is now an User Guide for the app and this replaces the guide on solving cryptic crosswords.


Dictionary Definitions

Added Word Game Dictionary, Collins, Oxford Living Dictionaries and Merriam Webster Thesaurus to the list of look up options for the Dictionary Definition setting. On the pop up menu, added Collins and Word Game Dictionary The word game dictionary is a quick way of checking if a word is allowed in Scrabble, how many points it is worth and its definition.

On the pop up menu, I've added an option to copy all the words to the clipboard as this was a oft requested feature.

The google look up now uses the dictionary query instead of define. For instance looking up eyewash only returns ads for define whereas dictionary will show ads but also the dictionary definition

Filters

The containing letters filters now works correctly if you enter the same letter multiple times, so if you entered ee, feed is allowed but not fed.

There is a new contains word filter, which checks if a match contains the word you specified. Try it with moonstarer and enter room in the contains word filter, you will find anterooms, restroom, tearoom, rooms...

For Pro users there are two new Pro Filters, Word Pattern and Regular Expression. Word Pattern is useful for Scrabble games where you can detail some of the letters on the board and Regular Expression is for advanced word searches. Please see the user guide for details.


Miscellaneous

Three word anagrams are now supported, enter cli ntea stwood to find old west action. The spaces fix the size of the three words to be searched (3-4-6), even with this limitation the app will find 100's of combinations. The maximum query length has been increased from 30 to 42 letters to accommodate 3 large words and larger results will now be shown on multiple lines.

And finally as a oft requested feature (well complaint!) I have added a setting to show sub-anagrams. If you uncheck this option the app will not search for sub-anagrams only show you 'true anagrams'.

Thanks for all the feedback and please keep it coming.



Monday 14 May 2018

Crossword Solver King Guide

User guide for Crossword Solver King and Crossword Solver King Pro apps for Android.

Crossword Solver King has over 500,000 words, phrases and synonyms which you can easily search helping you find those difficult crossword clues.

The guide will explain how to use the app for solving crosswords, make the best use of advanced features like filters and other powerful searches you can do for other word games such as Scrabble and Countdown.

Welcome

To quickly familiarise yourself with the app, there is an interactive list of the various search types for you to try out. Press the SHOW ME button on each of the hints to see what it does. Press MORE INFO to display a page explaining the search type in greater detail.





You enter your own search queries in the text box at the top of the app and then press the SEARCH button to start the search. Press the X button (top-right) in the tool bar to clear a query.

Pressing the menu button will give you options for settings, information about the app and a link to this user guide.

To return to the main help screen from a search, press the back button.


Clues


Enter the clue and the app will search its built in thesaurus to find related words. Eg enter condiment to find ketchup, mustard, wasabi and more. The thesaurus also contains common phrases, so you can enter multiple words, just use a hyphen to separate the words, eg enter close-shave to find narrow escape.

For cryptic clues enter the first word and last word of the clue and the app will find synonyms for both words.

The app will also find anagrams of the word you enter and the results table is divided into two sections: synonyms and anagrams.

Tip! If the app is unable to find any synonyms try again with another similar meaning word.

Tip! If the list of synonyms does not contain the answer you need, touch and hold a synonym and a pop-up menu will appear, select search and the app may find more synonyms.


Missing Letters


As you fill out a crossword you will also fill out other clues with letters. Use the app to find matching words, you use a question mark (?) to represent a missing (unknown) letter:

r??p?????

The app finds 64 words such as raspberry, ragpicker and respected. You can quickly scroll through the results to find your word. For any words that you do not know the meaning, press the spy glass icon to the right of the word to look it up.

You can also use full-stops (periods), to represent missing letters, enter c..v.r to find clever, clover, carver.


If you don't have any letters yet, cryptic clues helpfully give you some, for example:

Sort of cable - flatter one, aluminium (7)

I'm going to assume sort of cable is the definition, even though sort indicates an anagram. I cannot yet think of another word for flatter, but i for one (Roman numeral I) and Al for the chemical symbol for Aluminium, so try ????ial

Out of the 59 nine matches, coaxial looks right as it is a type of cable and coax means to flatter.

Tip! Consonants, especially JKMQWXZ are really good for narrowing down the number of matches

Tip!! Depending on the clue you can guess the ending of a word, s, ed, ing. Plug these letters to help find the right word in.

Tip!!! If an unknown letter must be a vowel, use ! instead of ?

Phrases

The app has over 100,000 built in phrases - common sayings, hyphenated words, names etc. Use a hyphen to separate words, eg enter a????n?-??a?? to find amazing grace

Tip!  You only need one or two letters for the app to find only a few possible answers, a great way to start your crossword off.

Tip! As a convenience you can use a comma , instead of hyphen - to separate words

Shortcuts

If you have many missing letters, you can use numbers to represent a group of missing letters.
Enter m4-3-6 to find miles per gallon, milky way galaxy and motte and bailey

m4-3-6 is equivalent to entering m????-???-??????

Anagrams

Crosswords,  especially cryptic crosswords, usually have several anagram clues, denoted by (anag.) for concise crosswords and many other sneaky indicators for cryptic clues.

To find anagrams enter the letters and press search, for example:

enter eprsu 

to find pursue, sprue and super

The app will also find sub-anagrams, smaller words using the same letters that you entered. These are useful for puzzles such as Wordwheels, TV shows like Countdown and games like Word Cookie and 4 Pics 1 Word.

Tip! You can turn off sub-anagrams from the settings menu

Note! If the anagram you enter is already a word, the app will first try to find synonyms. Anagrams will appear after the synonyms.

Two Word Anagrams

Enter Manchester-United to find mechanised nutter, inducement haters, untested chairmen

The hyphen indicates to the app to look for two words that use all the letters. In the example above the app will first search for words of length 10 and 6 letters, and then search for other combinations of words that total 16 letters.

Three word anagrams are also supported, try cli-ntea-stwood to find old west action. The spaces in the query set the size of the 3 words to be searched, 3-4-6 in this example. In practice you will find that most 3 word searches will return 1000's of results and may take 10 seconds or more. For crosswords, I find it is better to guess one of the words in a 3 word answer, such as and or the.

The app will first search its built-in list of phrases and then its 310K word list. When searching the word list, the app fit together random words that fit the anagram, most matches are nonsense but occasionally it will hit a proper phrase/saying or even an amusing answer.

Blank Letters

In games such as Scrabble you have blank tiles representing any letter, in the app you use + to represent a blank tile.

Enter google++++ to find bootlegger, boondoggle, egyptology

For cryptic crossword clues, you may be given part of the answer as an anagram and the remaining letters you will have to deduce from the rest of the clue. So you could enter the anagram letters and +'s for the remaining letters. For example, here is a clue from the i newspaper:

22ac Stratus spreading around break of day - something in the heavens (8)

Spreading indicates an anagram , stratus is one letter short but we can use + for the unknown letter.




stratus+ returns 7 matches: stardust, startups, statures, stratous, stratums, turistas, upstarts

Stardust is something in the heavens, and break of day indicates d, the first letter of the word day, so stardust is the answer. Notice how the app highlights the blank letter in the list of results.

Tip! You can set the blank letter colour in the settings menu

Definitions

You can press the information icon on the right of a word to look up its definition, example usages and synonyms: 

  1. Press the speaker icon next to word to hear it spoken. Note there maybe a slight delay before the sound is played.
  2. The definitions are ordered by noun (n), verb (v), adjective (adj) and adverb (adv)
  3. Synonyms are colour highlighted and are underlined, you can click on them to view their definition.
  4. If you prefer to see the definition on the web, press the magnifying glass icon on the right of the word.

For web look-ups, you can change from Google to Merriam-Webster, MW Thesaurus, Collins or Wikipedia via the settings menu. For Scrabble fans I recommend the Word Game Dictionary lookup which checks if the word is allowed, its score and definition.

The app works with the English Dictionary App from Livio, an offline dictionary. If you have the English Dictionary app installed, you can send words to the app for it to display their definition.

To quickly access the various dictionary providers, you can long press a word to bring up a menu of options:



The pop-up menu is quite large now, so you may have to scroll the menu to see all the options. Pressing copy will copy the word to the system clip board which you can paste back into the query field on the main screen. Copy All will paste all the words to the clip board so you can paste them into some other app.


NYT Spelling Bee

Spelling Bee puzzles are where you only use the letters provided, but as many times as you like. The middle letter of the puzzle must be included in every word found. Words must be 4 or more letters.

Try $qntuaei to find quinquina, aquanaut and queenie

In this example the middle letter is q and is the first letter after $

Wordle

  1. For known letters try the missing letters search, eg ??e?t
  2. Use the excludes letters filter for letters you know are not in the word
  3. Use the includes letters filter for letters that are in the word


Suffix @ Prefix

This search type is not very useful for cruciverbalists but will be useful to wordsmiths.

Whereas a ? represents a single letter, @ represents 1 or more letters

Enter @ace to find face, hyperspace, peace

You can also mix ? and @ in your search,
Enter sup@x? to find supergalaxy
Here @ represents ergala and the ? y

Supergrams

Find larger words that contain your anagram letters, use * to represent 1 or more extra letters (blank tiles)

Enter microsoft* to find discomforting, nonconformists, oversimplification

nonconformists contains all the letters in microsoft plus nnnos.

Filters

Most searches will return an overwhelming 5000 results, to help you find the right word the app has powerful filters to help you narrow down your search.

Lets first look at an example:

1ac Cross inlaid with gold on church vessel(8)

I have letters a and p, so I try ?a???p??



64 Matches, let's see if we can narrow this down. The clue mentions gold, typically this means letters Au, or, ore. I will use a filter to look for words containing the word 'au'.
Press the pink filter button bottom right. Enter au into the word filter:




Press search:



Saucepan looks good, it contains letters CE for church and span means to cross, so span is inlaid with auce to give saucepan which is a vessel.

Containing Letters

Filter words that contain the letters you have specified, the order of the letters does not matter and you can specify a letter more than once. So aabc will filter words that contain at least 2 a's, 1 b and 1c.

For Wordle players, enter known (highlighted yellow) letters

Containing Word

Like Containing Letters filter but the order of the letters must be the same. So abc will filter words containing the letters (in order) abc.

Excluding Word filter is the opposite and will reject results that contain the word you enter here.

Excluding Letters 

Exclude words that contain any of the letters you have specified. This filter is useful if you do Codeword crosswords. For Wordle players, enter the grey letters here.

Starting With / Ending With

Only include words that start or end with the letters (in order) you have specified. You can change the filters to Not Starting With or Nor Ending With by checking the Not buttons.

Distinct

Only allow words where are the letters are different, so better is filtered out but best is allowed.

Repeated Letters

This is the opposite of the distinct filter and only allows words that contain some letters which are repeated, so best if filtered out but better is allowed.

Word Size

Search for words bigger than a certain size, smaller than a certain size or equal to a specific length you have set.

Advanced filters

Specify a word pattern, similar to a crossword (missing letter) search, use . for an unknown letter.  So ?tr??? will look for 6 letter words where the second letter is a t and the third an r. This is useful for Scrabble games where you specify the letters on the board you want to use. You also can use @ to mean 1 or more letters.

The Regular Expression filter is for advanced users who know RegEx, a powerful matching tool used in computer string processing, don't panic I will give you a quick guide.

In the word pattern filter, your pattern is converted into RegEx. So a . is converted in [a-z] meaning any letter a to z, @ is converted to [a-z]+ meaning 1 or more letters. Here are some more examples:
  • [aeiou] letter must be a vowel
  • [a-z]* any letter none or more times
  • [a-z]+ any letter one or more times
  • [a-z] any letter just once

For a simple crib sheet, please take a loot at https://www.petefreitag.com/cheatsheets/regex/ 

I will also mention this example that a user sent in, he wanted to use the letters thidgof to find all words made by any combination of those letters and each letter could be used multiple times, so for example foodfoot.
  1. Enter * for the main query, this will match all words
  2. Enter [thidgof]+ in the Regular Expression filter

Codewords


Codeword crosswords substitute numbers for each letter of the alphabet. You are shown a completed grid of numbers, given 3 letters and you then have to deduce what the numbers are for each letter.


The first step is to fill out the grid with the letters you are given. You then have to try work out words that will fit the grid, this can be tricky but words that use the same letter more than once will be easier to guess.

Lets say you have a word that is made up of the following numbers:

14 12 8 8 23 17 17 23

The 3rd/4th letters are the same,so are the  5th/8th and 6th/7th. In the app enter this query:

??112332



The app finds 11 matches, including barrette, cassette and pallette.

Breaking down the query, ??112332, ? represents an unknown letter that is only used once and the numbers represent letters that are the same, here I specified 3 letters than must be the same 1,2 and 3. So for cassette, 1 is S, 2 is E and 3 is T. Mapping this back to the clue, 14 12 8 8 23 17 17 23, 1 is 8, 2 is 23 and 3 is 17, so S is 8, E is 23 and T is 17.

Lets say we already had E, you would then enter the query as ??11E22E
Notice that I use 2 for the T now.

The Excluding Letters filter is really handy for Codewords, lets say we already have letters LMFR, so we can exclude any words that contain these letters:



 Enter the letters you already know that aren't in the clue, press search.



The app now only matches cassette.

Tip! Be sure to use the Distinct / Repeated Letters filters when doing Codeword puzzles.

Settings

You can get to the settings screen by pressing the menu key (top right) and then pressing Settings from the menu. The settings are split into 3 categories:

Search Settings
  • Dictionary Definition - choose which dictionary website to use when you press the information icon next to a word
  • Word List - Select the word list that the app uses. For Words With Friends, chose one of the Scrabble word lists, these lists do not contain disallowed words. If you are overwhelmed with too many matches, try the smaller Essential words list.
  • Results Limit - You can set the maximum number of results returned to 100, 500, 1000 or 5000.
  • Show Sub-anagrams -  If you only want to see pure anagrams and no sub-anagrams you can deselect this option.
  • Show Synonyms - The app will search for synonyms of words and display any that are found. If you only want anagrams to be shown, uncheck this option.

Appearance Settings
  • Results Size - You can set the font size of the results and even select a large mono-spaced font.
  • Letter Highlighting - Chose the colour of the letters in Blank and Supergram searches
  • Dark Mode - The app now supports a dark mode theme: System - uses your Android setting for dark mode, Battery Saver - dark mode is used when the battery is low.
  • Show Filter - If the filter button is in the way, you can remove it here by deselecting this option
  • Show Copy Result Button - select this option to show the copy button on each result

Keyboard Settings
  • Show Keyboard - Automatically opens up the keyboard when you go to the main screen.
  • Keyboard Layout - Select standard or compact layout
  • Space to ? - Select this option to convert spaces to ? which are used for unknown letters
  • Full Stop to ? - Select this option to converts dots (.) to ? which are used for unknown letters.

Tip! You can reset the settings back to their default values from the menu


Advertisements

The app only shows one ad banner along the bottom of the screen. The ads are provided by Google Admob. You can purchase an ad free version of this app from the Play Store.

From the menu, press About & Privacy, scroll to the advertisements section, press the BUY AD FREE VERSION button, you will be taken to the Pro version of the app on the Google Play Store.

From the About & Privacy screen you can also select to show more or less relevant ads. Google Admob uses tracking data to tailor ads to you, you can stop Admob from tracking you (and using any data it may have collected about you) by electing to show less relevant ads.


Help Out

Thanks for using the app and if you have upgraded to Pro, thanks again.

If you can think of any other uses for the app, please enter them in the comments below. Reading comments in the app store and feedback from emails, users have found all sorts of uses for the app such as deciphering handwriting, learning English, writing poetry,  writing quizzes, creating puzzles and even helping with a hearing disability ( I think they enter part of the word they heard)


Spread the word and tell your friends about the app, there is a recommend button on the Help Out tip to send your friends a link to the app on the Play Store. You can also send me feedback via email and rate the app.

I hope you will enjoy using the app for years to come, remember it's not cheating - just saving you a little time ;)


Mark
App Developer

Updated 12th Oct 2023 for v3.33