[squawksarah]

Aviasoft Nature Explorer v2.1.1
Requirements: Android 1.6 and above with 180mb free SD Card space.
Overview: Nature Explorer for Android has 11 nature topics to view. Each item has an illustration, photograph and text description. Birds also have distribution maps and optional bird songs. The database has an Editor to allow easy editing and adding of records or topic lists. Version 2 has a new front end Menu with a picture icon for each topic, item and group. Also improved tab usage and wider screen display support. Also extra bird features including bird plumage images.


* Birds (European)
* Butterflies (European)
* Insects
* Marine Life
* Wild Flowers (European)
* Trees
* Fungi
* Weather
* Fossils
* Rocks
* Birds - extensive features
* Picture Menus for some topics
* Data stored on your SD Card (180mb)
* More support for devices
* Database records visual editor within the Windows version
* Topic Items can sorted A-Z and shown as Latin or common names
* Video, Audo and photograph Capture feature to save videos, images and bird songs from nature
* Search Functions improved
* Bird plumage detailed images added
* New! Menu design with picture icons for each item in list.

More Info:

Code: Select allwww.aviasoft.org

Download Instructions:
Download Program 0.4mb
Download Data Folder (v7) 175mb
User Guide 1mb

Known Issues: May not work correctly on HTC Wildfire phone.
Changes in 2.1.1 (Tablet layout now working OK)

[squawksarah]

This version has major changes in the way the menu works.

Over 1000 database files have been added or edited. Birds data has been greatly improved and added to.

For this reason I strongly recommend previous NX users download the full Aviasoft database folder.

(There is a basic updater folder on my website if you don't wish to do this. This basic updater will not include all the data changes and is intended only to make the new version program function correctly. It includes new index and group files but no changes to other data.)

This has been tested more than other releases but it may still have bugs, possibly in screen sizes I can't easily test. Please let me know if you come across one.

Sarah,
great step forward! Also in my case the graphic seems ok.
May be some index need to be revised because no item is displayed : I made a quick tour of the application.
Tomorrow will check in depth possible problems: eg. rare vagrants, sorted , shows some odd numbers with wrong image; this will be very easy to fix without compromising the great work done by YOU.
Tks a lot.
A.P.S. One found: BIRDS , INDEX44 (vagrant) has a blank line inside.

[maxkonrad]

Samsung Galaxy Ace GT-S5830 (320x480)

[squawksarah]

Sarah,
great step forward! Also in my case the graphic seems ok.
May be some index need to be revised because no item is displayed : I made a quick tour of the application.
Tomorrow will check in depth possible problems: eg. rare vagrants, sorted , shows some odd numbers with wrong image; this will be very easy to fix without compromising the great work done by YOU.
Tks a lot.
A.P.S. One found: BIRDS , INDEX44 (vagrant) has a blank line inside.

Found that error in index44.txt file. There was a blank line after species 'Barbary Falcon'. Blank lines must not exist in indexes! Apologies folks. (I will start a 'fix' update for any data issues.)

FWIW: I RECOMMEND USING NOTEPAD++ for editing these files.
The Windows NotePad.exe is limited in being able to view Android text files correctly.

You can download NotePad++ completely free here: www.notepad-plus-plus.org

The 320x480 menu labels will be fixed! Thanks for the helpful bugs feedback.

Sarah,
using this new release (which I like very much), I see an increased need to go to MENU.
For that reason I would consider very helpful a third button (bottom, between back and forth) pointing directly to Menu and saving one step.
Thanks
A.

[squawksarah]

Sarah,
using this new release (which I like very much), I see an increased need to go to MENU.
For that reason I would consider very helpful a third button (bottom, between back and forth) pointing directly to Menu and saving one step.
Thanks
A.

Amedeo

The Menu Page is now considered the main level of the program. You can only exit the program from the Menu. I considered the middle button option. But there was an easier way to return to the menu level. If you press the system's BACK button when on the Display Page you will go to the Menu Page. This is different from earlier versions for Android where the back button would exit you from the program. (A third button would add clutter to the display but it could be added if required.)

Sarah

[squawksarah]

NEW VERSION 2.0.1 with update files

I have posted a new version 2.0.1 which fixes a bug in the search button and a bug where a birdsong would continue when moving to a new bird if you had changed the tab view while the song was in progress. Fixed a display problem with labels for menu lists in HVGA. It also includes a data updater folder which only has the Vagrants index file that was causing a problem.

User Guide is included.

http://www.mediafire.com/?tt8o4uknilzodb2

Sarah

[lohtse]

Hi Sarah

Absolutely wonderful work as always...BUT!!!! sorry there's a but... I miss the silhouette/shape search type view I have on winmo.. The one where you could do a general match to shape and colour of say a flower or fungi and insect.. It's so useful when getting kids to identify something(same for adults) as is far easier when you see something to associate it with something in the guide. For this reason though I have it on my android devices I prefer to use the winmo version and constantly do and only use droid one if all winmo devices are in use with those I teach etc are using them..

PLEASE is it possible to implement it to android!??

[squawksarah]

Hi Sarah

Absolutely wonderful work as always...BUT!!!! sorry there's a but... I miss the silhouette/shape search type view I have on winmo.. The one where you could do a general match to shape and colour of say a flower or fungi and insect.. It's so useful when getting kids to identify something(same for adults) as is far easier when you see something to associate it with something in the guide. For this reason though I have it on my android devices I prefer to use the winmo version and constantly do and only use droid one if all winmo devices are in use with those I teach etc are using them..

PLEASE is it possible to implement it to android!??

Hi Lohtse

The picture menus were originally put in the Android verison. I took them out because of the huge code overhead and because it seemed to slow down the loading of the program and caused Android to get buggy. (Too many buttons, etc). All the picture menus also made adding new screen layouts (for different devices) a real pain. So I replaced them with the menu picture icons, which do the same thing (but not for your needs where a whole page is useful for kids).

Sorry about that, but I feel for general use this is the best way to go.

I will look to see if I still have the old Android code with all the picture menus. If I can find a suitable version I will send you an apk which works with the new dataset. It won't have all the new stuff though (bird details, etc) and I cannot do further work on it. Use it 'as is'.

Version 1.70 with all picture menus (working with new data):

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=Z9QNZ2EM

Sarah

Dear Sarah,

Your new data folder references almost all European birds. Great work and excellent service by you! Only the birds 43 (Western Reef Egret) and 57 (Snow Goose) are missing in index44.txt.

By the way, is it possible that you stored Eurobirds/index44.txt as ANSI file? My Perl script NXLocalizer.pl tells me that there are non-UTF-8 characters in lines 6, 66, 69, 126, etc.
The following files seem to be ANSI files as well:

Eurobirds/22t.txt
Eurobirds/246t.txt
Eurobirds/247t.txt
Eurobirds/284t.txt
Eurobirds/294t.txt
Eurobirds/307t.txt
Eurobirds/418t.txt
Eurobirds/419t.txt
Eurobirds/423t.txt
Eurobirds/480t.txt
Eurobirds/515t.txt
Eurobirds/529t.txt
Eurobirds/545t.txt
Eurobirds/546t.txt
Eurobirds/685t.txt
Eurobirds/689t.txt
Eurobirds/704t.txt

Best Regards,

Rainer

[squawksarah]

Dear Sarah,

Your new data folder references almost all European birds. Great work and excellent service by you! Only the birds 43 (Western Reef Egret) and 57 (Snow Goose) are missing in index44.txt.

By the way, is it possible that you stored Eurobirds/index44.txt as ANSI file? My Perl script NXLocalizer.pl tells me that there are non-UTF-8 characters in lines 6, 66, 69, 126, etc.
Rainer

In ansi format? That seems possible as it is the normal format for UK text files. Save it as Unicode8 if you need to. I will check it out and add those two vagrants to the index44.txt file.

[squawksarah]

Version 2.0.2 apk and 'data update' now out.

- Data Updated: Birds data added 2 rare vagrant birds.
- Bug fixed: Search bugs fixed.

First off, thankyou Sarah for all your hard work so far Unable to find a decent android European bird app, I was excited to find mention of yours in another forum which led me here. Even better is that it appears to be under active development! Kudos

A tip for those having difficulty with excessive transfer times of the data folder to their device:

Basically, the problem is with a large transfer of lots of tiny files, every transfer is like a "transaction" which creates a transfer overhead - meaning large transfer times... over 5 hours in my case on a Galaxy SII!

1. Transfer the zip of the data to the root of your device

2. Using a file app such as File Explorer, locate and decompress the zip to the same location

3. Still in File Explorer, locate the decompressed folder, it will be called Aviasoft_Data_Folder_version_7 or similar, inside this folder is the Aviasoft folder. Cut this folder, go up one level and paste the Aviasoft folder.

4. Delete both the Aviasoft_Data_Folder_version_7 folder and Aviasoft_Data_Folder_version_7.zip

5. Install the .apk

Job done in under 5 mins

(edit: you could save step 3 by creating an Aviasoft.zip on your pc with the folder inside the Aviasoft_Data_Folder_version_7.zip and using that instead)

[squawksarah]

First off, thankyou Sarah for all your hard work so far Unable to find a decent android European bird app, I was excited to find mention of yours in another forum which led me here. Even better is that it appears to be under active development! Kudos

Thanks for the compliment. I am pleased the program is good for birders.

If you are refering to the birds forum I did post it there. And most people were supportive. I haven't updated that page though, due to the over-moralistic attitude of one member (there is always one on every specialist forum).

The program has been much developed since that time (as you point out). There have been thousands of hours' work put into it by myself and others. While I wrote the program other people have improved on the data base to bring it to where it is now. The birds section is the main one and it can be used purely as a birding app if required.

I appreciate your posting a resolution to the slow transfer of the data folder on some devices. My solution is to take out the Micro SDCARD and insert it into the PC directly. Copying takes maybe 5 minutes that way too. But my phone (Orange San Francisco/ZTE Blade with Android 2.2) only takes 5 - 10 minutes to transfer the Aviasoft data folder via USB. I can't really understand why so many people get messages saying the copy will take 5 hours or more. Your phone is superior to mine so I would expect better performance for you.

If you don't mind I will use your step-by-step guide for slow transfer devices in the user guide.

The app is actively being developed. When a bug is reported I try to post a fixed version of the APK installer asap. I am not quite sure where to improve the program at present. I don't wish to swamp it with arcane features that make it too complex to easily use in the field. So suggestions for useful improvements are always given consideration.

Best wishes

Sarah