OBSOLETE - Droidstack for Android - now with chat support! [closed]

Question

Obsolete - coded for decommissioned version of the API. This app unmaintained since Feb 2011. Source code still available; all other links dead or empty.

Current status

I'm not actively maintaining Droidstack anymore, I guess real life just got in the way. Being in college and having a full time programming job leaves no room for hobby projects. Also, ever since the mobile-optimized web UI launched, I felt there was no need for an app like this anymore. Thus, I might be removing Droidstack from Google Play Store soon. I'll leave the open-source project up, so if anyone's willing to pick up where I left, be my guest (and please let me know).

In the future (once I finish college this summer), I'd like to either pick up development on Droidstack, or create a new, simpler app that only offers what the web UI doesn't (e.g. notifications).

Get Droidstack

To get Droidstack, either:

• Search the Android Market on your phone for "Droidstack"
• Go to Droidstack's Android Market page
• Open the URL market://details?id=org.droidstack on your phone
• Download an .apk file from the downloads section of Droidstack's Google Code site and install it via ADB
• Scan this QR code:

Developers!

Integrate with Droidstack! Check out how.

Changelog

1.0-10

• Chat support!

1.0-9

• UI improvements: internalized and improved drawables
• Usability: Don't load all sites anymore, instead provide a sites picker
• Bugfix: Make notifications actually work (sorry about that)
• Other code improvements

1.0-8b

• Small UI improvements: headers for question and answer lists
• Bugfixes and improvements

1.0-8

• New icon again (people complained it was not representative of the app)
• Sites list now lists all available sites, with the possibility to "bookmark" some of them (picture)
• Share question feature
• Some improvements and bugfixes

1.0-7

• New users activity, similar to stackoverflow.com/users
• Picking a user is much simpler, you don't have to know your user ID anymore
• More intents available for developers! You can use Droidstack to have the user pick a certain question, answer, tag or user and use it in your app! Check it out

1.0-6

• New icon courtesy of androidicons.com
• Clickable tags everywhere
• Better search UI, autocomplete for tags
• New menu option in question lists that allows you to filter questions by tags
• New tags activity, similar to stackoverflow.com/tags
• New button when viewing a question that allows you to open it in the browser

1.0-5

• View user profiles and reputation points changes [picture]
• Improved UI: much faster screen orientation changes, some polishing here and there
• View all of a user's reputation points changes
• The two new activities: user profile and user rep changes can also be invoked by other apps. Check out the Intents wiki page

1.0-4b

• Reputation points change notifications!! [picture 1 and picture 2]
• Preferences: page size (number of items to load at a time) and font size
• The eternal bugfixes

1.0-3b

• A couple of bugfixes
• Improved question display (author reputation points is properly formatted and you get to see when a question or answer was posted)

1.0-3

• Bugfixes, performance improvements
• Awesome landscape viewing of questions

1.0-2

• Adds searching!!
• Can be used by other apps through intents
• Some bugfixes and improvements (thanks to whoever reported the force close)

1.0-1

• First version released on the Android Market
• All, Unanswered, User, Favorite questions, user answers, full question viewing.

About

Droidstack is an Android app that allows you to browse Stack Exchange websites in a very cool, native kind of way, while keeping a Stack Overflow-like look & feel. The API functionality is powered by StackWrap4J. The awesome icon is created by the talented folk at androidicons.com.

Screenshots

I'm updating this Imgur album with fresh screenshots every once in a while: http://foghina.imgur.com/droidstack

License

GPLv3

Platform

Android.

Contact

I'm the only one currently working on this app. You can contact me here (comment/answer) or get my email address from here.

Code

The app is built using Java. Tools: Eclipse and Android SDK (and a bit of GIMP and Inkscape) on Linux. The project is hosted on Google Code.

Answer 1

On the legal stuff,

Looking at your screen shots, your application looks good to me.

The purpose of the guidance in StackApps is to encourage people to diversify their apps and make them really kick ass on their platform. I know the issue is confusing but we are trying to steer people away from "I'm just gonna clone the website" or "I'm going to write the OFFICIAL Stack Overflow Android browser."

No reasonable person would look at your application and think "this is the Stack Overflow website I am looking at!" or "this must be an OFFICIAL Stack Overflow app!"

That's what we are looking for. Your app looks awesome. Good job!

Answer 2

It is the best Stack Overflow Android app I've seen. Would it be possible to support notifications whenever someone comments on or answers one of your questions?

Normally, on the website there is a little red circle with a number in it that shows you the number of unseen messages and answers.

Nice work Felix.

Answer 3

The best Android app I have tested among 3 similar Android apps. Some suggestions and issues:

1. Why are the results fewer than the SO page for the same query? I searched for eventhandler and page, and I got No questions Here on the app but 4 results on SO. If that's what the API returns, is the API limited?

2. If I have a single site, skip the screen where you choose it or make it an option. (I will never use other than SO). Add a choice to add sites inside further in the menu.

3. I don't see the number of search results.

Answer 4

Generally a nice app. What I was missing was a way to set the user globally on all sites. Instead you have to set the active user for all the sites. I don't see the usefulness in being able to set different users on different sites... The best way would be to be able to log in, but you commented elsewhere that this is not yet supported by the API. I would see this to be the first priority when (if) it does!

I like the rep notification, but if you have active both the main site and the meta site for one site, you get 2 rep notifications for each rep increase on the main site. The rep on the meta site does not have a rep on it's own, it just showing the rep on the main site (except SO Meta which has its own). You should not trigger for the meta site on rep changes, unless you monitor the internal rep within the meta and not the rep number shown on the user profile.

I also noticed that YouTube links in the "Musical Practice & Performance" site were replaced with large placeholders for the video, but no video. See this answer.