[ANN] Bitcointalk Android app

[achow101]

Update: v0.6 Release

The next version of the app, v0.6, has been finished

Notable changes:

• Posts can be quoted
• Your own posts can be edited and deleted by yourself
• New PMs can be sent
• PMs can be quoted and replied to
• Basic Notifications about new posts and messages added
• Notifications can be configured in settings

The release can be viewed on Github: https://github.com/achow101/BitcointalkForum/releases/tag/v0.66

Today I am announcing an Android App for the Forum that I have been writing. It is not complete yet and still has a few bugs to be worked out. The app will allow you to do everything you could do on the website but in an easy-to-read and mobile friendly format.

Current Features

• Browse topics and boards in the forum
• Browse and read Personal Messages
• Receive notifications about new PMs and Posts
• Post replies to topics
• Edit and delete your posts in topics
• Reply to, quote, and send new Personal Messages

Upcoming Features

• Search for topics
• Search for Personal Messages
• Search for members
• Edit Profile information
• View other members' profile information

Contributing
You can contribute to this project in many ways

• Donate me some BTC at 1WCMh2uka2G5xyL9ojebWh1NCKCGThgu8
• Contribute code and create pull requests for bug fixes or new features that you want
• Submit bug reports and new feature requests to the issue tracker at Github

Source Code
The source code can be browsed at the Github Repository

Installation
Once the app is finished, it will be released onto the Google Play store. The APK files will also be available in the Releases section of the Github repository

Direct APK Download: https://github.com/achow101/BitcointalkForum/releases/download/v0.60/com.achow101.bitcointalkforum.apk

Bugs
If you happen to find a bug in the app, please open a new issue if there isn't already an issue in the issue tracker on Github. The issue tracker page also lets you submit feature requests. Everything marked with the "TODO" label on the issue tracker is something that I am currently working on or plan on working on in the near future.

License
The app is open source and released under the GNU General Public License

Screenshots

The Login Page	Home Page	Navigation Drawer	A Board	A Topic

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[avatar_kiyoshi]

This is great, i'm looking for app for this forum on android.
how about the signature? it will can show on the app? can the notification appear when i close the app? so i can open it for quickly.
i'm watching on this project.

[achow101]

This is great, i'm looking for app for this forum on android.
how about the signature? it will can show on the app? can the notification appear when i close the app? so i can open it for quickly.
i'm watching on this project.

Signatures will not be displayed. They don't display well in the app. If a lot of people want it, I will add it, but it doesn't look very good.

When I add the notifications in, I will make sure that they can be displayed even when the app us closed.

[mj2121989]

I usually access Bitcointalk from my phone browser. I will definitely try this app out. 

[tiggytomb]

Nice looking app, I also use my phone browser a lot and an app which tidies things up would be great.  it is a shame about the signatures not looking good when they show up.

[medUSA]

I actually don't have any problems using my phone browser to access bitcointalk. This app is looking great, may try it in the future. Can I suggest grabbing the latest message from bitcointalk's twitter account. So when bitcointalk is down, user knows what's going on.

[Mitchell]

Signatures will not be displayed. They don't display well in the app. If a lot of people want it, I will add it, but it doesn't look very good.

When I add the notifications in, I will make sure that they can be displayed even when the app us closed.

If you start displaying signatures, could you please add an option to turn it off as well? The app looks nice (even though it could use some design work) and I'll try it out, once I've read the source code.

[bitwarrior]

This will be a great app for android, I am sure a lot of guys are looking for this kind of app. Good luck to your project and hope to see it finally released soon.

[FruitsBasket]

That is an amazing app that you made knightdk. Those sreenshot come from a Huawei phone, I also have that phone, I love it. But back to the app, u will get credits for this, such a good work for the community. Send me a PM with the bugs and mayby I can help/solve the problems.

[achow101]

That is an amazing app that you made knightdk. Those sreenshot come from a Huawei phone, I also have that phone, I love it. But back to the app, u will get credits for this, such a good work for the community. Send me a PM with the bugs and mayby I can help/solve the problems.

I'm actually not using a huawei, it is a nexus 5.

Take a look at the issues page. I put some of the bugs that I found there. Maybe you can help with those.

[FruitsBasket]

That is an amazing app that you made knightdk. Those sreenshot come from a Huawei phone, I also have that phone, I love it. But back to the app, u will get credits for this, such a good work for the community. Send me a PM with the bugs and mayby I can help/solve the problems.

I'm actually not using a huawei, it is a nexus 5.

Take a look at the issues page. I put some of the bugs that I found there. Maybe you can help with those.

Then the phone looks the same, with those buttons in the bottom. Anyway, tell me what html elements are not showing and I will look into it and try to help you, send the details through PM. I would be happy to help this app!

[shorena]

That is an amazing app that you made knightdk. Those sreenshot come from a Huawei phone, I also have that phone, I love it. But back to the app, u will get credits for this, such a good work for the community. Send me a PM with the bugs and mayby I can help/solve the problems.

I'm actually not using a huawei, it is a nexus 5.

Take a look at the issues page. I put some of the bugs that I found there. Maybe you can help with those.

Then the phone looks the same, with those buttons in the bottom. Anyway, tell me what html elements are not showing and I will look into it and try to help you, send the details through PM. I would be happy to help this app!

AFAIK thats just how android lollipop looks, no matter the hardware.

[Mitchell]

I cannot import the project into Android Studio. Gradle is cussing at me for missing something. Is there anything special I need to do to get it working?

[achow101]

I cannot import the project into Android Studio. Gradle is cussing at me for missing something. Is there anything special I need to do to get it working?

Did you install the SDK? You need the latest version for Android M.

[Mitchell]

Did you install the SDK? You need the latest version for Android M.

I have the SDK, but not the latest version. I'll update and see if that works. Haven't developed for Android in a while.

[achow101]

Did you install the SDK? You need the latest version for Android M.

I have the SDK, but not the latest version. I'll update and see if that works. Haven't developed for Android in a while.

I'm using SDK version 23 and build tools 23.0.0

[phishead]

Awesome looking app! 

Are you planning on making a version for iOS?

[achow101]

Awesome looking app! 

Are you planning on making a version for iOS?

No, I don't know how to write ios apps

[bloods-n-cryptos]

Today I am announcing an Android App for the Forum that I have been writing. It is not complete yet and still has a few bugs to be worked out. The app will allow you to do everything you could do on the website but in an easy-to-read and mobile friendly format.

Current Features

• Browse topics and boards in the forum
• Browse and read Personal Messages

Upcoming Features

• Post and edit posts in the forum
• Send Personal Messages
• Receive notifications about new PMs and Posts

Contributing
You can contribute to this project in many ways

• Donate me some BTC at 1WCMh2uka2G5xyL9ojebWh1NCKCGThgu8
• Contribute code and create pull requests for bug fixes or new features that you want
• Submit bug reports and new feature requests to the issue tracker at Github

Source Code
The source code can be browsed at the Github Repository

Installation
Once the app is finished, it will be released onto the Google Play store. The APK files will also be available in the Releases section of the Github repository

Direct APK Download: https://github.com/achow101/BitcointalkForum/releases/download/v0.4/com.achow101.bitcointalkforum.apk

Bugs
If you happen to find a bug in the app, please open a new issue if there isn't already an issue in the issue tracker on Github. The issue tracker page also lets you submit feature requests. Everything marked with the "TODO" label on the issue tracker is something that I am currently working on or plan on working on in the near future.

License
The app is open source and released under the GNU General Public License

Screenshots

The Login Page	Home Page	Navigation Drawer	A Board	A Topic

Apologies if this has been asked, but any plans on an iOS version?

[ZonedOutSpace]

Looks good!

[Ceizer54]

Nice Idea but i would like to point out something that i noticed from screenshots..
The login page is custom build and many people (including me) can't just trust some page and enter the login information..I know you have provided the source code but still i advice you to alteast make users login directly to original page at bitcointalk.org in your app and then redirect them to your custom app pages for other purposes..This will make your app look more awesome and genuine

[achow101]

Nice Idea but i would like to point out something that i noticed from screenshots..
The login page is custom build and many people (including me) can't just trust some page and enter the login information..I know you have provided the source code but still i advice you to alteast make users login directly to original page at bitcointalk.org in your app and then redirect them to your custom app pages for other purposes..This will make your app look more awesome and genuine

I know that is a concern, which is why I made it open source. Even so, logging into the original page on bitcointalk probably won't work too well and it would still have the same issues with logging in through the login firm in the app. After all, it would still go through the app and that opens it up to attack by the coder.

 What I will be trying to do is actually deterministic builds, just like what bitcoin core does. That way you can verify that the binary was built from the source I punished. Unfortunately there is no easy way to do deterministic builds for Android yet, but I will be working on that. The guardian project (Android tor apps)  managed to do it so I will try to mimic them.

[achow101]

Apologies if this has been asked, but any plans on an iOS version?

Already been asked, but I will answer again.

No, there are no plans for an ios version. I currently am not capable (I neither have the knowledge, money, nor a mac) of writing ios apps.

[bitwarrior]

Is there any ETA yet for the release of your App in the market? Will this be free or it needs to be purchased instead?

[achow101]

Is there any ETA yet for the release of your App in the market? Will this be free or it needs to be purchased instead?

No ETA yet. The app will be free.

[darkagentx]

Wow nice app for the forum, too bad it does not go with IOS and it only works for android.

[Zombier0]

I will surely test as long as it runs on htc

[achow101]

I have completed the next version, v0.5, of the app. You can now post new replies to topics. There are no shortcuts for styling (smileys, code, quotes) and the additional options drop down does not exist. Styling will still work if you do it by hand, but there are no shortcuts for them.

You can download the apk at https://github.com/achow101/BitcointalkForum/releases/tag/v0.5

[achow101]

The next version of the app, v0.6, has been finished

Notable changes:

• Posts can be quoted
• Your own posts can be edited and deleted by yourself
• New PMs can be sent
• PMs can be quoted and replied to
• Basic Notifications about new posts and messages added
• Notifications can be configured in settings

The release can be viewed on Github: https://github.com/achow101/BitcointalkForum/releases/tag/v0.66

[Hugroll]

The next version of the app, v0.6, has been finished

Notable changes:

• Posts can be quoted
• Your own posts can be edited and deleted by yourself
• New PMs can be sent
• PMs can be quoted and replied to
• Basic Notifications about new posts and messages added
• Notifications can be configured in settings

The release can be viewed on Github: https://github.com/achow101/BitcointalkForum/releases/tag/v0.66

that link doesnt seem to be working im getting a 404 error also hey great job on the app so far, and is it just me or does the app take a fairly long time to load up threads, im talking about in the range of ~20-30seconds

[everaja]

A suggestion!! Add splashscreen to app , or let me know if you want me to do it !!

[achow101]

A suggestion!! Add splashscreen to app , or let me know if you want me to do it !!

If you can do it, go ahead. Submit a PR and I will have a look.

[BitTalkyy]

Hey, knightdk! if you want, I can publish your app to Google Play, I have developer access.
Also, I think I'll make the UI look better

[achow101]

Hey, knightdk! if you want, I can publish your app to Google Play, I have developer access.
Also, I think I'll make the UI look better

I have developer account as well. It is not ready for publishing yet, it will be once I iron out all of the bugs and add the remaining features.

If you can make the ui look better, please do. Submit a pull request to the Github and I will take a look.

[darkagentx]

Any coming updates for this App? How was the experience on using this? Any plans for iOS?
Btw Dev, if you are still active, you had experience on making android wallets?
Thank you.

[achow101]

Any coming updates for this App? How was the experience on using this? Any plans for iOS?
Btw Dev, if you are still active, you had experience on making android wallets?
Thank you.

This project is pretty much dead. I have stopped working on it due to my inexperience with and lack of care for GUIs.