Monday, June 28, 2010

Feedback

So far I'm looking to narrow down the changes I make in the next minor update to Handicap.  I've started designing the changes for tracking your scrambling and sand saves in a round.  I may also add the ability to track penalties for a round.  

I am currently developing the ability to search rounds and courses.  This is kind of an big change in the code but worth the work.  I think as people start adding more rounds it'll be easier look at past performances via search.  I'm not ready to implement search to create new courses.  The cost out weights the benefits right now.

I'm curious if people like the grass background. I've been thinking about applying themes to the app to allow people to change the background.  Maybe a solid color scheme would look better.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Upcoming Features

Now that version 1.1 has been released I'm currently looking for new features to add to by Handicap application.  I'd love to get some requests from my users so see what they would like to see improved or added to the app.  I did get some suggestions about looking up course data and having the ability to post scores to GHIN.  I am looking into possibly licensing the GHIN software but I'm just researching.  I have not had much luck finding a way to load all the different courses.  We'll see what happens.

I'm working on added a next and previous button to the Hole detail screen.  This way as you play you can switch easily from hole to hole without going to the scorecard screen.  Should be up Thursday or Friday depending on how testing goes.

Friday, June 4, 2010

Handicap Help

How to add a Course
Inside the application you need to click the menu button on your phone. You should see two options: Add Round or Add Course.  Select Add Course.  This will show you a new screen with text input fields.  You should fill in the name, tee box, slope, rating and holes if you want the app to track your handicap.  These fields can be filled out be the data you would find on a score card.  Click the Save button to save the course.

How to add a Round
Inside the application you need to click the menu button on your phone. You should see two options: Add Round or Add Course.  Select Add Round.  This will show a screen with multiple spinner drop downs.  Select a course, score and holes played for handicap tracking.  You can also enter the number of fairways, greens and putts for additional stat tracking.

Rounds Tab
This screen will display the golfer's name, handicap and a list of rounds ordered by most recently entered.  You can click on an individual row to edit the round or delete the round.

Course Tab
This screen will display the list of courses you have entered in the app.  The courses are listed in alphabetical order.  You can click on an individual course to edit the data or delete the course.  If you delete a course you will also delete all rounds at that course.

Handicap Tab
This screen allows you to edit the golfer's name and view the golfers stats.  You can see the 18 hole and 9 hole handicap for the golfer.  This screen also shows your average score, fairways hit, green in regulation and putts for 18 holes.

Play Round
This screen allows you to enter a rounds data one hole at a time.You can pick the course from the spinner and then click on each hole to enter your score, putts, hit the green or hit the fairway.  This screen will keep a running tally of your stats at the top of the screen and will not save the round until you click the Post button.

Why is my handicap 0?
This app uses the USGA formula for handicap tracking.  To get a valid handicap you need to have five rounds posted.  You will also see a 0 if your course is missing the rating, slope or holes.

Why is my handicap 95.9?
When you setup your course you did not provide a slope or a rating.  You need to provide this data to get a valid handicap.

How to get a Handicap(N)
This is a nine hole handicap.  You need to setup the course as a nine hole course and use the rate and slope from the USGA course database.

Don't see a 9 hole handicap or Play Round
You are using the free version of Handicap.  These features are only available for those who bought the full version of the application.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

I've been working on a handful of bug fixes for Handicap.  It's interesting to see what happens once someone else starts using the app.  I've created a few modifications to help bullet proof the UI and fixed some bugs associated to the Play Round screen.  I'll post another article with the list of bug fixes.