Mid-Beta-12 Update

Mid-Beta-12 Update

Alright, it's time for another quick mid-phase update. Beta 12 is getting lengthy or at least it can be expected to get somewhat similar to Beta 11 in which we made almost half of the iOS app offline accessible. We blame our high aspiration to support offline interactions while we are a relatively small team. No regrets though! It's bewildering to see how much you can expand your presumed limits. About We/Us More often I use "We/Us" in my updates. That's because in an alternate world we've been posting these updates in the company's blog at this point. However, thanks to COVID-19, last year we decided not to launch the platform and not to reveal the app/company's name. That's why I keep posting updates here.  So, by "We" I refer…
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Beta 11 is Done!

Beta 11 is Done!

It’s been quite a while since I posted an update. Too many things happened in the company, in my personal life and frankly talking about them was my least priority. Without further ado, I’m gonna talk about the most important events: The iOS Offline version is out! Yep, it was the major change I was talking about in my last few blog posts. We have been working hard for the last 3 months or so to bring the offline experience to the platform so users can access their data and interact with the app while they are offline as well. Today we release our first offline version (0.14.0) for iOS users.  It includes a lot of fundamental changes in the app architecture and brings offline experience to almost half of…
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Mid-Beta-11 Update

Mid-Beta-11 Update

As we dived into Beta 11, we realized it's going to keep us occupied for a while! Since we approached the end of 2020, we made some adjustments to the project timeline. Moreover, we had a meeting to re-evaluate the pandemic situation to decide whether to start the public beta test in early 2021 or not. Therefore, I decided to update you on these matters. Beta 11 The truth is we had heavily underestimated the amount of work and changes we need to do to meet Beta 11 requirements and achieve its objectives. We initially thought the Major Change we had planned to introduce would require something between 5% to 10% changes in our codebase. However, once we started, we quickly realized we are facing 20% to 30% changes. We…
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Beta 10 is Done!

Beta 10 is Done!

The last couple of weeks was my so-called "off weeks". I was going to have that carefree calm time that I had dreamed of ever since we started beta phases. However, the fact that now you are reading this release post, completely indicates how that plan went on! Beta 10 We completed the Beta 10. The platform's help document was a bit outdated. We updated it so that it covers the new features we added during Beta 8 and 9. The rest of the phase was all about fixing bugs and resolving semantic issues of the platform features that were either identified by ourselves in the last few phases or reported by testers. Subsequently, we released two bugfix updates; one for the Android-, and one for the iOS app. A…
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Beta 9 is Done!

Beta 9 is Done!

The platform's iOS app is now fully equipped with features we added to the android app in the last phase. It's about time we expanded our circle of private testers. We have released a total of 8 updates; 4 updates for Android ( mostly bugfixes ) and 4 updates for iOS during beta 9. Private Beta Tester Expansion We have already started sending out some invitations for private beta testing. By the end of the next phase, we expect to let the beta users invite a few of their friends as well. One of the major modules we developed in 2020 and one that we are really proud of is a complete solution to generate private testing invitations for our platform. We are going to rely on that to safely…
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Beta 8, a Huge One, is Done!

Beta 8, a Huge One, is Done!

We focused on one of the major sections of the Android App during Beta 8. We have released a total of 8 updates! We've added many essential features and debugged them as much as we could with the small number of internal testers we had + some close friends we invited. The result is very satisfying, and the android app, merely judging based on the major section we worked on in the Beta 8, is almost production-ready (Certainly, it should and will be thoroughly privately and then publicly beta-tested later). Current Platform State Our platform, at its version 1 will have 6 primary sections, some more complex than others and some simpler, but all are essential to provide users a meaningful experience. All 6 have been completely developed and adapted…
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Beta 7 is Done!

Beta 7 is Done!

We are done with another giant beta phase! To me, It feels like it's been a very long time since last time I posted a public update on the project here. The truth is I have published four private updates during this phase on the new features, changes, enhancements, and bug fixes of the project. The internal testers can view those updates. Private Releases We have released two new iOS updates and one new android update to the internal testers in the last phase. In each update, we addressed bugs and added missing supporting features that were reported to us. We are gradually extending our circle of testers to non-internal trusty friends, so technically not all our testers are internal now. However, the number of external ones is low enough…
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Beta 6 is Done!

Beta 6 is Done!

Alright, we have finished the beta 6! This is another excuse for me to write down a few words acknowledging our efforts and give you a brief update on our progress. Internal Tests Although we have postponed the beta test to 2021, we are regularly releasing both iOS and android app updates to our internal testers via Google Playstore and Apple AppStore. It started about a month ago. The testers of the app have access to a private blog, in which they receive the extended version of these update posts, the changelog of each version, and information on new features or enhancements. Timeline We have been pretty much on track so far, and we hope we can keep it up. Yet, since we're tackling implementations of new features, having delays…
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Beta 5 is Done! – Revised Timeline

Beta 5 is Done! – Revised Timeline

Here we are, just finished beta 5; implemented and incorporated all provisions we mentioned before for the testing. We're entirely prepared to perform our beta testing. It's really shameful that the situation turns out to be like this, but I guess that's part of the challenge. Anyway, I just wanted to briefly update you about our progress here in the extension of the previous update. We made some notable changes to our timeline in alignment with the decision we made and announced last week of not having any release in 2020. Here is how our timeline would probably be looked like for the rest of the year. We carefully monitor how the COVID-19 situation evolves. We're going to make a decision about whether we can perform the beta test in…
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F.U.C.K – Facing Unavoidable COVID-19 (K)aveats: No Release in 2020

F.U.C.K – Facing Unavoidable COVID-19 (K)aveats: No Release in 2020

This update seems to be a tough one, a depressing one. We are frustrated, and this is undoubtedly a devastating time for most small businesses. An epoche that nothing but uncertainty surrounded us. We had a meeting this morning, and I'm going to discuss the most notable outcome of it here. As much as we want to trick ourselves that we can test this or that part of the system until pandemic restrictions loosen a bit, we can't ignore that it is, in fact, a horrible time to release/test the app. I tried my best in this note to elaborate on our reasoning. The Problem Our business model, more than any conceptual or logistical aspect, is affected by this pandemic. That is, we cannot leverage our revenue streams until the situation…
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