Theme support and improved settings

Just a quick update to show off some of the new Themes and Settings:

The new "Settings" page. Each option opens a new settings screen. The previous Settings screen was a bit of a jumble with many things listed in a bit of a random order. It also looked a bit too "plain" and hopefully the new icons and the lighter indented text make it a better.

The preference to set a Theme. There are three currently coded.

The main bookmarks list rendered using the new "Light" theme. Note the rendered button bar across the top and a bit more colour in the results themselves.

For the people who asked to be beta testers, I might be ready to send something out tomorrow.

For all others, barring any bugs, this should be published in a few days.

ChromMarks - updated 2nd Jan 2011

A new update for ChromeMarks.

The major change is the (hopefully) working Android Bookmarks sync.

ChromeMarks will now be able to copy your Android Browser bookmarks to a new folder visible in Chrome and keep them synced there. You can edit them on your PC and when you next sync in ChromeMarks, the changes will be reflected in your Android browser.

This is the first release for this feature, and probably the one that makes most people use the "edit/create" functionality built into ChromeMarks - so I don't doubt that a few new errors may be spotted over the coming weeks as more and more people start using more of the functionality.

As such, I'd suggest that if you really rely on your bookmarks (Android browser and/or Chrome) then I'd hang off trying this out until most of the bugs are ironed out. The worst that could possibly happen is it just deletes a bookmark you didn't want it to, so it's not like it will set your phone on fire... -)

That said, it'll never get the bugs fixed unless some people give it a whirl!

Other changes this release include a ton of bugfixes. Thanks again for all the bug reports, they really do help me get exactly to the root of the bugs.

The main bugs so far have been due to the annoying way that android handles orientation changes. When you turn your screen around, android destroys the activity and starts it again. Sounds reasonable, but if the activity is busy doing something (e.g. opening a folder, syncing) then that existing work starts to crash as it is no longer attached to a working window. Grrr. Hopefully I've fixed most of these now - though admittedly I can't get the Settings screen to work well yet..

Additionally, I've made substantial changes in readiness of Theme support. Although you can't tell, the app is already running a new Theme. The next release should bring some more options, including a "Light" theme that looks a bit more fresher.

Enjoy!

ChromeMarks updated 2010.12.10 - Two way Android browser bookmark sync

A new release for ChromeMarks.

You can now sync your device's bookmarks to a new folder in Chrome and then maintain them on both the device and your desktop. Each time you sync, the bookmarks will be synced both ways. At the moment, the *only* browser I can find on Android that will allow another app to amend their bookmarks in the Stock Android Browser. If I can find more, then I'll see about integrating them as well. I've mailed the Dolphin devs to ask about their app, but had no response yet.

** HOWEVER ** I had to push another release to temporarily remove this functionality. One of the users noticed that Chrome would crash if they deleted this new folder. This is annoying as it seems to depend on your release of Chrome - older releases seem to work fine, newer ones are being more tetchy. This indicates that the Chrome devs have broken something that was working fine before. I'm currently building Chromium so I can debug it and work out what's broken. Once I know, I'll either raise a Chrome bug or find some other way around it.

** UPDATED ** I have indeed tracked this down to a bug in Chrome. I've raised a bug report for it (number 66609) but don't expected it to be fixed anytime soon. Even if it was fixed, I'd have to wait for it to get to the stable channel and then wait a bit more to ensure as many people as possible have the fix. So I'm working on another solution that is a bit less elegant behind the scenes, but should work just as well for the user.

ChromeMarks Lite released

A new app on the market today.

A free version of ChromeMarks that provides the core functionality, but the best extras are still reserved for the paid version. The following features are in the paid version but NOT in the new free version:

1. Create, edit, delete bookmarks.
2. Automatic syncing (e.g. like Mail and Calendar).
3. Bookmark Icon update.
4. Desktop Shortcuts.

The "Lite" version also includes ads and a link to "Feed the developer" via PayPal.

I'll still continue to develop the Full version first and foremost (the next feature will be syncing of the local bookmarks into a Chrome folder) so don't think you are being neglected!

Hopefully this free flavour should get some action on the market (the first person who downloaded it upgraded straight away and kindly left a 5 star comment to say so) and further promote the app.

ChromeMarks - update 2010.11.13 - now with search

An update to ChromeMarks.

You can now search your bookmarks, from within the ap and also from the Google Search widget on your homescreen.

From within the app, simply press your search button or click search on the menu. The usual rules apply with the search results - clicking on a bookmark will launch it and clicking on a folder will navigate to it.

If you click on the magnifying glass/arrow to the right of the search box then you'll get the results inside ChromeMarks where you can additionally long press and edit as normal.

To enable the widget search, you have to enable ChromeMarks as a search provider. Either click on the search widget, click on the menu and open it's settings then go into the "Searchable items" menu. From there, click on ChromeMarks and enjoy. Alternatively, in ChromeMarks, go into the settings menu and there is a new option there to take you most of the way:

A couple of bug fixes along the way - thanks again for reporting the bugs.

Laters!

ChromeMarks - update 2010.11.07 - create folder shortcuts

An update for ChromeMarks tonight.

The major change is the ability to create a shortcut to a folder. Clicking on the shortcut simply launches ChromeMarks in that folder. Each shortcut will need an icon, so ChromeMarks gives you four default icons to choose from and then we append the icons of all the browsers you have installed on your phone:

NOTE: Please don't ask for the Google Chrome logo - it's copyrighted by Google and not for use in a commercial app. To be honest, I don't even think the ChromeMarks icon itself is entirely legal due to the usage of a very small Chrome logo..

A sprinkling of minor fixes. Several of you have been kind enough to click the "send" button when you get the new Crash Report Dialog. That's allowed me to fix a few bugs - but most bugs seems to be coming when the app wants to issue a popup but the user has already closed the app/launched something else/gone to the home screen.

A reminder to goto the community website (link top left corner of the blog) to vote for or request new features.

Laters.

ChromeMarks - update 2010.10.30 - Better folder browser

Another update to ChromeMarks

1. Improved the folder browser used when creating a new bookmark or amending an existing one. Previously it was a standard "Spinner" widget which meant it was a list of all folder, but a flattened alphabetical list. The new widget gives a hierarchical view of your folders retaining their existing order(*) and structure.

(*) order is the same order folders display in the app - i.e. currently alphabetical.

A screenshot of the new dialog:

This new dialog is still a work in progress and I want to improve the styling and indenting a smidge, but the core of it is now in place.

Comments..?