Strange behaviour of iPad app

[Ellen Herzfeld]

I’m just starting out here with Tap Forms on Mac and iPad/iPhone. I got my Bento libraries into it with the images. I’m now trying to customize things.

Just now, on the iPad, I changed the category of some forms from “uncategorized” to a new category I created. I then added some icons. The app quit after just about every change I made. Not every single time, but often. I then reopened the app and the change was there. The sync to the Mac went well using iCloud.

Previously, saving some searches ended up with the iPad database completely empty. I reinstalled the app and then used iTunes to reinstall the sqlite file.

What bothers me is the app quitting so often after any change, and ending up empty for no reason I can see. I’m not used to such things. To me that’s what we used to call a “crash” and it doesn’t bode well for the stability of the app.

One form has 17 fields and 4327 records, more that 500 have images. Is this too much?

Hopefully it isn’t because it’s going to get bigger.

Ellen

[Brendan]

Hello Ellen,

Are you using the latest 3.5.1 version of Tap Forms for iOS 7 on your iPad?

Thanks,

Brendan

[Ellen Herzfeld]

Yes. I updated to iOS7 and activated auto updates before purchasing Tap Forms for iPad and iPhone. I just checked and it is indeed version 3.5.1.

[Brendan]

Is it possible that the Saved Search you created filter out all of the records or didn’t find any so gave the appearance of leaving the form empty?

[Ellen Herzfeld]

No, I don’t think so because the same thing happened again.

This morning, I opened Tap Forms on the iPad. I got a blank page and after a few seconds the app just quit. I repeated this several times.
I even took a screenshot in case you wanted to see it.
I then quit the app completely using the multitasking carrousel. This did not fix the problem.
I powered down the iPad and restarted it. Same thing.

I then went to my iPad mini. The app opened and seems to work. It is however quite slow, four seconds to go from one record to another. Finally it freezes. It says it is processing changes from iCloud, and after about 5 minutes that it’s updating the Search index. After about 15 minutes I need to do something else so I switch apps for a few seconds and when I come back to TF it isn’t indexing any more and seems to work normally. I go to my saved searches and tap one. Nothing happens for quite a while and I fear it is frozen. But I wait anyway and after a while the result appears. Now, I understand the possible need to wait, but I think a spinner or some other indication that the app is still alive and doing something would be useful.

Next step : on the iPad mini, I create a new saved search. Then I tap it to use it. Count the time: after about 45 seconds, the app quits. I relaunch it. The result of my search appears. However, after quitting the search I notice that the sort order I had chosen is gone.

Two questions:
What should I do to get TF to work on the iPad (not the mini). Maybe remove the app and reinstall it?

Is it that I have too many records? What is the reasonable limit.

Ellen

[Brendan]

Hello Ellen,

How many records do you have? If you could send me a backup of your data so I can do some experiments with it that might help me to figure out what’s wrong.

Thanks,

Brendan

[Jbphil1]

Hi Brendan

I agree with Ellen. Lots of crashes of TF (latest version) with iOS 7 on my ipad 4. I am in the early stages of migrating from Bento and none of my databases are very big at this point. Even so, TF is very unstable. Crashes seem random, sometimes when exiting a field, sometimes when using the date picker, sometimes when syncing, etc. Also, after importing a Bento DB, if I change a field type (say from Text to Date) all the data in that field disappears.

I have also experienced problems/crashes with the Mac version using Mountain Lion.

I appreciate your efforts with TF and I will persist with it for the time being hoping that you are squashing the bugs.

Regards

John P
Australia

[Brendan]

Hi John,

The switching from Text to Date issue is because Tap Forms stores text and date values in separate columns in the database. When you switch types, Tap Forms just looks in the other column for the data. But since you never imported the data into that column, the data appears to be gone. If you switch back, you’ll see the data again. So it’s best to setup your form first and set all the field types, and then import your records into the specific form you’ve already setup rather than letting Tap Forms auto-generate a form for you when importing from the Files area. Although the Mac version lets you setup field types during the import process, so you wouldn’t need to setup the form first on the Mac.

Bug fixing is always something I’m working on. But also trying to add new features that people are requesting.

Thanks,

Brendan

[Jbphil1]

Hi Brendan

Another problem I have just noticed: if you place a check mark field at the top of a form it does indeed appear in the list view on the left side. When it is tapped in the list view it toggles as expected, BUT it does not update the check mark field in the record. Also, if you have a calculation that uses the check mark field it will not update until you tap the check mark field on the form. In short, the list view toggle doesn’t actually do anything.

Thx, John P

[PeterO]

Have same issue.
With ios7.0.2 and iPad 3 the app is crashing often.
Today I have deleted one old form and if was deleting and deleting and came not back .
I pressed the home button and after that the app is showing a blank page. After a while it close itself.
Re-start is not helping.
How do get back my data?

[PeterO]

I could restore it from Tap Forms for Mac. Because I have 500MB pictures I have used iExplorer to store picture direct in the app.
Issue is not solved, please work on a fix!

[Brendan]

Hi John,

Actually the checkmark on the list view is working. The problem is on the iPad version it’s not refreshing the display on the right side when you’re holding the iPad in landscape mode. I’ll fix that. If you tap on a checkmark, then tap on a different row, then tap back on the other row, you’ll see it has been updated on the right.

Thanks,

Brendan

[Brendan]

Hi Peter,

It sounds like you didn’t allow the delete process to finish. How many records, fields, photos, etc. did you have in that form you were deleting? It could be that there is a journal file in your Tap Forms Documents folder which is still trying to be processed when you re-launch the app. One way to get back in is to delete the journal file and re-launch the app. But the journal file contains all of the changes that haven’t yet been applied to the main database file. So you may need to re-delete the form if it’s still showing after you delete the journal file.

You can find the journal file using iTunes File Sharing.

Thanks,

Brendan

[Brendan]

I’ve fixed the checkmark problem. So now when you tap on the checkmark field on the list view, it will refresh the checkmark on the details view.

Thanks for bringing that to my attention.

Brendan

[Jbphil1]

Hi Brendan

I don’t have the fix yet but on my version if I go to another record and then back again the checkmark shows correctly. However, calculations based on the checkmark still don’t update. Did you cover that in your fix?

Regards, John P

[Brendan]

Hi John,

I tested that and it did update the calculation. Do you mean the calculation at the bottom of the records list view or a calculation in the details view? Because I didn’t actually test that scenario. I know it works when you tap on the checkmark on the details view.

Thanks,

Brendan

[Jbphil1]

Hi Brendan

I mean a calculation in the details view. If I click a checkmark in the list view, leave the record and come back, the checkmark in the the details view has updated but not the calculation.

John P

[Brendan]

Hello John,

Ok, I’ll look into that and fix it. 3.5.2 is coming out shortly, but it doesn’t have that particular fix in it. But it does fix the refresh issue.

Thanks,

Brendan

[Linus]

Dear Brendan,

I don’t think version 3.5.2 did much to improve stability. For me at least it’s now much worse. The app crashes every few minutes on average, sometimes several times a minute. This seems to happen more often when linking records or shortly afterwards, but seemingly random crashes are common too.

I have two fairly large tables (about 1000 records each) and a few more with a handful of records.

Best,
Linus

[Brendan]

Hello Linus,

Is there any way you can send me some crash reports so I can look? You might consider backing up your database using the Tap Forms Backup & Restore function, copying that backup file to your computer via iTunes File Sharing (or upload to Dropbox) and then uninstalling Tap Forms and then re-installing Tap Forms. The only times I’ve heard of Tap Forms crashing so frequently is when there was a bad install of some sort. Normally uninstalling and re-installing fixes it.

Thanks,

Brendan

[Jbphil1]

Sorry Brendan, but v3.5.2 has not fixed the checkmark problem on my ipad. Calculations using the checkmark do not update when you click the checkmark in the list view.

John P

[Linus]

Brendan,

I followed your instructions but to no avail. After starting up the app, I received a message stating that it needed to be updated (is this normal?). After updating, I fired up the app again only to have it crash on me three times in less than a minute.

I would love to send you a crash report, if only I knew how.

I’m running iOS 7 on a third-generation iPad, if that is of any help.

Best,
Linus

[Brendan]

Hello Linus,

I have sent another update to Apple this evening which hopefully will solve your crashes. There were some that got in there when using a checkmark field in a form.

John, I also worked on some more code to ensure the calculation fields which involve a checkmark field get updated on the detail screen when you tap on the checkmark in the list view.

It will probably take Apple a few days to get to my app review.

Thanks,

Brendan

[Linus]

This works perfectly so far. Well done!

Linus

[Jbphil1]

Yep. 3.5.3 looks good.

Thanks Brendan

[Brendan]

3.5.4 is on its way too now.

[Author]

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