Re: Laufhelden - Sport Tracker for Sailfish OS
 

Hi everyone, sorry for the silence. I was working on the next release. It is essentially ready but we have to wait a little longer for the release of Rockpool. We need this for the Pebble integration into Laufhelden. Abranson is currently trying to fix a bug, I hope it won't take too long.

While waiting for Rockpool, I started to look around for a better map plugin. I did this mainly because of two things. First, I want to avoid the annyoing vertical lines bug. Secondly I would like to have access to OSM Scout Server for offline maps.
It seems that there are two possible candidates. The first one is PinchMap QML component. This comes from the app FourSail. I modified it and it's working quite good now. Although it's not ready and I have to add tracklines to it.
Second candidate is the MapBox component of rinigus. This one is very different as it uses vector tiles. It's got a very nice look&feel and allows for linear zoom.
Both solutions should solve the vertical trackline problem and allow for offline maps via OSM Scout server. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. Problem is, I don't know which one to prefer. Maybe you (the users of Laufhelden) could give me a little advise on what map component to use.
Here are the advantages of PinchMap:
- using the already downloaded map tiles of the old map component is possible

Advantages of MapBox:
- really smooth operation as it's OpenGL accelerated, feels very mature (try Poor Maps GL)
- many functions like tracklines and POI's already implemented and ready to use
- nice map styles choosable

Disadvantages of MapBox:
- does not work on Jolla 1 and maybe other phones. It seems to need quite decend hardware, like enogh GPU memory.
- users have to create their own account on MapBox if they want to use online maps (free account max. 50000 tiles downloadable)
- users have to manually install MapBox bindings from Openrepos to their phone
- OSM Scout Server needs vector tiles for MapBox. If you want to keep your classic tiles, this needs much additional space on your SD card

Sorry for too many text. So what is your opinion about that?

Re: Laufhelden - Sport Tracker for Sailfish OS
 

While I am running without the phone so far (hence not using the app, but maybe I should), let me add few comments.

* Mapbox GL can display raster maps as well. The tiles will be slightly blurry (issue https://github.com/mapbox/mapbox-gl-native/issues/10076), but its simple and possible (see example style in the same issue). And you will be able to draw on top of them using its API.

* Using classical raster tile implementation implies that you have to deal with the downloads. Mapbox GL takes care of it leading to simpler code for you. Same goes for keeping cached tiles or vector data - Mapbox GL has it all implemented.

* OSM Scout Server works best if you request larger than standard raster tiles (1024x1024 is used by Poor Maps). It boils down to efficiency in rendering bigger tiles that take care of reducing label cutting on the edge. So far, in addition to Mapbox GL, only Poor Maps has been able to request bigger tiles. Hence the performance of Poor Maps vs modRana, for example, when rendering tiles from OSM Scout Server.

* Mapbox GL is way faster.

* I think you'll be fine with 50000 downloads. Don't forget, vector tiles are cached. When people run they tend to take the same route or at least the same region. Hence the cache should be resolving lots of requests. Right now, while admittedly with the bug in online download for few days, during 6 days we had 3000 requests by Poor Maps GL users. @otsaloma, though, knows better with his stats of Poor Maps and tile downloads.

* As for disadvantages, the hardware limitation is summarized at https://github.com/mapbox/mapbox-gl-native/issues/10029 . In short, J1 and Photon Q failed, everything else was fine. Although I have one user reporting issues with Jolla C and OSM Scout Server vector tiles.

* The other disadvantage of Mapbox GL: you will not be able to get to Jolla Store. Assume: ever. Be surprised if Jolla allows this API.

In my eyes, its just so much easier to program with Mapbox GL. Don't underestimate the time you have to spend on many aspects of map drawing, updating, caching.

PS: I do wonder whether I am biased...

Re: Laufhelden - Sport Tracker for Sailfish OS
 

At best Poor Maps has been maybe around 40000, recently around 20000 a month. But I have never respected the cache retention terms and basically users have likely had tiles cached a bit too long. In my view there are a lot of silly terms and it's better try to get the big things right and avoid a lot of work over little things. Related to that, be careful with "users have to create their own account on MapBox", I can't find a clause right now, but, in general, that's often not allowed.

Re: Laufhelden - Sport Tracker for Sailfish OS
 

:cool::D

@rinigus and @otsaloma, thanks for the clarifications.
As there is no veto from anyone I will go with MapBox now :).

Re: Laufhelden - Sport Tracker for Sailfish OS
 

So as a little christmas present, here is the new release. :)
It's mostly about Pebble integration. All three parameters on the watch are adjustable. The pause button (middle button) on the watch is also working. Remember that you need the new version of Rockpool 1.4!

You can now also edit workout name/description/type. The changes are then saved to the GPX file.

@niemisenjussi made some optimazations on the sports-tracker.com implementation:

• added workout download function which can be used to backup your workouts from there
• downloaded files are visible in Laufhelden as original workouts
• impoved Upload function and it is not visible if username is not set
• sessionkey reuse and authenticate again only if needed

Next release will be about a new map plugin to have offline map support. I am making good progress on that.

Re: Laufhelden - Sport Tracker for Sailfish OS
 

There is a small bug in this release.
When I launch training, after 2 seconds mode turning to night mode. When I use pulley menu to change it back to normal mode, after 2 seconds it's turning back to night mode again.

Re: Laufhelden - Sport Tracker for Sailfish OS
 

Please check if you have the "automatic night mode" feature enabled, because what you describe is exactly what it does. It is enabled by default. You can find it in the general settings.

Re: Laufhelden - Sport Tracker for Sailfish OS
 

Didn't notice this option.
I disabled this option and it's OK now.

Re: Laufhelden - Sport Tracker for Sailfish OS
 

Can you add strava upload support? If not, I could look into it myself.

Re: Laufhelden - Sport Tracker for Sailfish OS
 

Strava is not on my todo list. I'm not using it. I wonder if they even have an API?
Of course you can always do it yourself, I will accept pull requests.