# RiverFlows Android app



## robinj (Aug 16, 2008)

Ok, I'm an idiot- the site is riverflowsapp.com, not riverflows.com.


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## freexbiker (Jul 18, 2005)

currently downloading will let you know.


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## go big (Mar 26, 2010)

So far it doesn't seem to want to download, for me.......


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## freexbiker (Jul 18, 2005)

go big said:


> So far it doesn't seem to want to download, for me.......


Ditto. no go for me either. Running on a moto droid


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## Nathan (Aug 7, 2004)

Mine wont download this or any other updates. I wonder if it is a market issue.

One question without having it downloaded, is it only USGS gauges? If so is there anyway to add dwr stations?


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## afox (May 10, 2004)

I was able to download and install it I have an HTC Hero running android 2.1

-Some important gauges are missing from the list. In Colorado I could not find "Poudre at Canyon Mouth", or "Big Thompson below lake estes".
-Its a little slow loading the list of gauges and the graphs but not too bad.
-If the gauges were organized by drainage might be faster to load and a little easier to find your gauge.
-The Favorites option is great! This should make it really easy to quickly look at the gauges you're interested in.
-It would be really cool if there were some sort of alarm option, gauge goes over a certain flow and you get a text message or email, etc...


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## robinj (Aug 16, 2008)

Thanks for all the comments so far- it looks like the Android Market is having some issues.

Crap. Murphy's layin the smack down with his law again.

To answer the questions:
It's only USGS Stations at the moment. USGS has a uniform web service for getting data from everywhere in the US, so it was the path of least resistance to build an app using that service. As far as I can tell, there's not a lot of difference between DWR data and USGS data, but I haven't looked at it that closely.
I am considering using data from NOAA's AHPS services in order to display forecasts and flow stages, etc.

As for the difficulty in finding a gauge, did the onscreen keyboard show up when you arrived on the site listing page? It should, but if it doesn't you can make it appear by holding down the menu button. You can then filter by site name.

I have thought about an alarm capability- however, before I write that I want to build the ability to regularly reload favorites in the background so they will still display relatively up-to-date data even if you lost cell reception hours ago. With that in place, it should be easy to add alerts.


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## brandob9 (Jun 13, 2010)

- Installed in under a minute
- Took about a minute to fetch sites "Loading Sites..."
- In list search function is awesome
- Star to favorite is sweet
- Graph looks good
- Feel and flow is good

The summary is that you have an excellent start. 

If you can also patch in the NW River Forecast Center's info, you'd have the ultimate weekend planning tool for Paddler's Pint! 

_I'm running a Samsung Fascinate (Galaxy S) on 2.1 and ATT_


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## brandob9 (Jun 13, 2010)

robinj said:


> Thanks for all the comments so far- it looks like the Android Market is having some issues.
> 
> As for the difficulty in finding a gauge, did the onscreen keyboard show up when you arrived on the site listing page? It should, but if it doesn't you can make it appear by holding down the menu button. You can then filter by site name.


Market worked perfectly for me. I was a little weirded out by the keyboard just being there until I took a couple seconds and figured out to just start typing. Can you add a little flag for the first time through?


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## basil (Nov 20, 2005)

Couldn't find the guage for the Foxton run. I searched on "platt", but it didn't come up.


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## Nathan (Aug 7, 2004)

There shouldn't be a difference in the data between USGS and dwr, but dwr has several sites that usgs doesn't, like Big Thompson below Lake Estes, and N.F. South Platte at Bailey.

I'm still having trouble downloading anything from the market.


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## marusak (May 3, 2010)

You're awesome! I had trouble downloading it, but it finally worked. Now if you could just make the cell service in Farmington suck less that would be great. 

Oh, and I think we're running Cataract together in two weeks. See you there!


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## robinj (Aug 16, 2008)

Ok, now I'm understanding the difference between CO DWR and USGS- there are a number of sites (particularly on the front range) that do appear to be CO DWR-specific. Most of the graphs on the DWR site for gauges in the southwest are just regurgitated USGS data, so I wasn't aware of the distinction. The DWR for colorado does have web services, so adding those gauges shouldn't be too difficult.


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## brendodendo (Jul 18, 2004)

Loaded fine for me from link on website. I like the "favorites" feature. I did not find or see the on screen keyboard. 

Would like to see info from NOAA Colorado River Basin Forecast Center. 

How are you planning on selling this on the market? Will you revert to a paid model and make all of us "purchase" the app, or will you provide a "limited" version free and a full version for a charge. I also prefer the ad based model where the applications remain the same both free and purchased, but the free app included ads from AdMob and/or Google. I only purchase apps that provide functionality that I can not get from a web based source, in this case, most of the functionality is available on the web via a well placed shortcut on my desktop. I also believe that a free app that includes a donate link is better than one that is considered paid.

I would also like to see a scrollable widget (alla ADW or LauncherPro) based on "favorite" runs.

Verizon Droid - froyo 2.2 - Rooted
ROM - ShadowRom (latest)
Theme - invertino
Kernal - Slayer 1G


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## go big (Mar 26, 2010)

Hey Guess what? I love it! Awesome app at first glance! I like that I get the inflow to the sewage treatment plant in Yuma! Let's go BOATING!


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## brendodendo (Jul 18, 2004)

One more thought... Allow move to sdcard. Unless an app has a widget, it should be allowed to be moved on froyo.


Thanks, it does look like a nice app. I always appreciate a devs hard work.


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## Boilerblues (Jun 15, 2007)

Is there any way to tie the data to AW's River Info page, or any of the other beta pages?

Thanks for putting this together. Looks like a good start.


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## Nathan (Aug 7, 2004)

I like the simplicity of it.

One thing I noticed was not being able to reorder the favorites. That would be a good option if it is simple to add. Again, I would like dwr as the gauges I look at most are on it.


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## Osprey (May 26, 2006)

Looking good so far on Vibrant. Thanks Robin


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## robinj (Aug 16, 2008)

Thanks again to everyone for all the feedback!

@brendodendo, to answer your questions:
When moving to a paid model, I was planning on simply releasing it as a different app so that the licensing mechanism wouldn't interfere with already-installed versions of the beta. Anyone who downloads the beta versions of the app gets to keep it. I can look into removing the SD card restriction so they can keep it even if they get a different phone.
I hadn't thought about the possibility of making it ad-supported, mostly because I personally dislike the idea of ads taking up space on an already-small screen. I could see what's involved and try it out in the beta version.
I also hadn't thought about a donation-based model, and that approach is a bit more appealing to me than ads. With a lot of donation-supported software, it's easy to "forget" to donate (I'm guilty of it myself), but I think it could work due to the relatively tight-knit and reciprocal nature of the whitewater community.
At the moment, I'm still leaning towards charging for the final version of the app, but I'll seriously consider the other options. I was planning for the price to be in line with that of the iPhone RiverGuide app- with adjustments based on the feature set at the time of release, so it would be pretty reasonable.
I'm not too familiar with the widget frameworks, but I can look at what's involved to build a RiverFlows widget.

@Boilerblues, thanks for the suggestion- this might be fairly easy to do, especially since AW has a mobile site that works nicely (but looks like hell on my blackberry).

Some other features I'm considering:

-A search bar plugin so gauge sites show up in autocompleted results.
-Weather reports/forecasts for gauge sites.
-An interface for browsing gauges on a map using your current location as a starting point.

I'm thinking that adding more gauges, performance improvements, and making the app more robust against loss of reception are going to be my development priorities for the short term, but anyone can feel free to let me know if they think other features are more important.


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## kazak4x4 (May 25, 2009)

I am loving your app, thanks so much for such a gem! It's on my main screen now. 

Question: Is it possible to do "nicknames" for favorites? Instead of default name for the gauge "Green River near Jensen" be able to name it "Deso". An ability to assign different names to favorite gauges. 

With the melt starting up, I am checking your app 3-4 times a day now!

Alex


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## MountainMedic (Apr 24, 2010)

Like it so far (droid x).


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## NathanH. (Mar 17, 2010)

Use it every day before heading to the river.

Thanks!


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## brandob9 (Jun 13, 2010)

I check this before I even think about going somewhere. It's been really stable for me lately, and I just discovered the trick of holding your finger on the graph to see other data available at that reporting station. Slick!


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## NathanH. (Mar 17, 2010)

I have been doing that. It's really handy being able to check things like Water Temp...


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## BLott (Mar 27, 2010)

just got a droid yesterday and got this app this morning

totally awesome, thanks so much. what a time saver and works great with the 'favorites' option...super easy to get what you want.


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## Beardance42 (May 12, 2008)

MountainMedic said:


> Like it so far (droid x).


Ditto and ditto. Great work.


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## Pcdc2 (Jan 24, 2011)

kazak4x4 said:


> I am loving your app, thanks so much for such a gem! It's on my main screen now.
> 
> Question: Is it possible to do "nicknames" for favorites? Instead of default name for the gauge "Green River near Jensen" be able to name it "Deso". An ability to assign different names to favorite gauges.
> 
> ...


Exactly what I was thinking! It would be awesome if we could just touch and hold the items in our favorites and rename them to whatever we call that stretch of river. This is a handy app though, great work. No more searching eddyflower for 10 minutes from my phone's internet to find flows.


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## Butsee1 (May 1, 2009)

Great app! Feeds my flow checking PCS even more!


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## Butsee1 (May 1, 2009)

Adding the historical data to the graphs (as on the NSGS site) would be a cool feature.


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