Sunday, March 29, 2009

Camera Plus 2.1.1 in review

I just submitted version 2.1.1 of Camera Plus to Apple for review and (hopefully) approval. This new version fixes a critical bug with the Tap Anywhere to Shoot functionality that was introduced with version 2.1.

As some have noted, the Tap Anywhere to Shoot feature stops working when you discard an image (it works fine if you just keep saving images). I apologize for this bug—it shouldn't have come through and I wanted to give you a brief explanation as to how it came about.

Like many developers (at least, I hope), I keep all my work in a code-versioning repository. This makes it possible for me to keep track of the various versions of Camera Plus independently from each other—for example, I have an experimental version of CP ready to go when iPhone OS 3.0 is released—as well as keep an ongoing backup of the code.

Version management is, normally, a wonderful feature, but occasionally gives the developer a false sense of security. In this particular case, when I submitted version 2.1 to the store I created a copy of it in my repository so that I could continue working on CP and go back to what I had submitted to the App Store in case Apple discovered some bug.

Well, Apple didn't find any bug, but I did—and, therefore, I had to make changes to the original version I had submitted and resubmit my binary again. In the process, I copied a file in the wrong place and, thus, I introduced the Tap Anywhere bug.

Now, I use a battery of automated tests to check the basics of the application every time I submit it to the store. Certain operations, however, are difficult to perform in an automated fashion—Tap Anywhere is one of them—and, therefore, I also keep a checklist of manual tests that should be performed before publishing a revision of the app. The checklist includes tests for Tap Anywhere, but, evidently, the test coverage was not adequate—and didn't pick up the one particular use case that is causing the feature to fail.

8 comments:

  1. Hi. I really like Camera Plus and it has helped me take much better pictures in low light. One thing though- in this latest version I can't find the control to change the grid size. Can this still me done?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Is the tap anywhere bug fixed? I need this app for my wife's phone, but I don't want to hose up her phone... she will never let me install another app like this if it does! Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Not working with new iphone release 3.0
    Pls, fix ASAP
    Thanks,
    Daniel Alberstein

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi,
    This app is not working anymore in iphone 3G OS 3.0

    ReplyDelete
  5. After installing iPhone 3.0 with changements in original camera, Camera Plus crashes at the moment of taking a photo. Please fix it! I'm missing my Camera Plus 2!!!

    Thanks Gerald

    ReplyDelete
  6. I guess you know your app completely stopped working with 3.0 ...

    ReplyDelete
  7. Version 2.1.1 crashes on iPhone OS 3 when the shutter is pressed.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Yes, I am aware of this. I have a patch almost ready to go, but be aware that Apple has started rejecting apps like CP now (see, for example, DarkRoom). Keep your copy of CP on your phone. If Apple lets the update through, it will be free for everyone.

    ReplyDelete