iOS app for personal boating logbook

[Jaysen]

I'm sure more than one of you have guessed that I'm a bit of an IT nerd. I'm also a bit of a boat nerd. I'm working to transition to less IT and more boat. In an effort to do that I've been working on qualifying for some USCG licensing. One of the problems I have is dropping my dang logbooks into the drink. Oddly I've never dropped my phone so the obvious solution is to use it for my logbook. A quick look in the app store and nothing there is simple, inexpensive, or free of someone else owning my data.

So I'm writing my own.

My current plan tracks the boat (name, owner, manufacturer, model, length, reg) and trips (start, end, boat, crew, log entry). The goal of this app at this time is more of a crew member trip logbook than a formal captain's log. The app will output to a PDF for submission to ... whomever. There is no cloud service, recurring fees, or data sharing planned. Basically, you pay once and you own your data.

I'll post some screenshots shortly. Hopefully, you all will have some ideas on how to improve the app and make it helpful to more than just me.

Thanks.

[narfi]

All beyond my knowledge, and I don't know how friendly i-things would be toward it, but....
I have used niche programs or apps before where they used my Google account and Google sheets for 'cloud' storage without requiring any fees or subscriptions.

Basically what you are discribing is a more offline friendly version of Google sheets anyways right?
I think that just because you haven't dropped your phone in doesn't mean you won't at sometime and you will wish you had cloud storage at that time.

[Jaysen]

Basically what you are discribing is a more offline friendly version of Google sheets anyways right?
I think that just because you haven't dropped your phone in doesn't mean you won't at sometime and you will wish you had cloud storage at that time.

Not really. I did model it in a spreadsheet with lookups for the boat data. There are several other apps that I want to make that will use the same data set. Basically I'm separating out unneeded functionality from overly complicated apps and making them a bit smaller. I'm old. I don't like things that have too much junk I don't need ...

There is lots of "cloud storage" native on iOS. Backups (that should be done regularly), sync FS, etc. The problem that I'm running into is that "cloud API" based data means that you can't get the data when you aren't connected. Like when you are 20mi offshore. or you turn off cell/wifi to save bat. It's a complaint I've seen a few times. The other concern folks (including me) have with that type of cloud storage is "who has my data". Sure, there's nothing in there that is dangerous today, but why would I want to be responsible for keeping your information out of the hands of anyone you don't want to have your data? This way it is up to you and it lowers my cost.

Not saying there won't be some future need. Day one all storage is local.

If you all can ignore some screen formatting issues, here are the current, unbeautified app screens.

main screen: do you want to see boats or trips?


You picked boats. Here is the list of boats. Tap one for more details or the + to add a new boat.


You tap on Lil Bit More. Here are the details. Hit edit to change things


You tapped edit. We just cancel and go back to the main screen


This is if you tap Trips. Here is the list of trips. I need to add sorting and filtering. You can hit the + to add a new trip or tap a trip.


You pick the trip from November where some dingbat broke his sails.


If you tap edit you can change details of the trip.


From core functionality it's working well (voice recognition for the lag entry is nice). There is a lot of polishing that needs done. I'm not a UI guy, which makes iOS programming simpler since the UI is pretty much defined by apple.

[VT_Jeff]

That's a lot more far along then I would have guessed based on your previous code "sample", nice work!

Do you have to deploy apps via the iStore or can stuff be side-loaded th4ese days? I ha a brush with iOs apps about 10 years ago, and I think they all needed to go through the store, and all needed to be iOs compliant/approved etc, is that still the case?

[Jaysen]

Apple remains the overlord that rules with an iron bar (that they regularly apply to the side of developers heads). That said, the rules are clear and I just have to conform.

Once I’m a bit further along we can pseudo side load for limited beta testers. Very limited capacity for that though.

As to my previous example: there may have been alcohol influencing that typing on my phone. And in my liquor soaked defense I would point out that I’ve I love you been working on this app for 3 weeks. Prior to that I never actually loaded Xcode or even looked at swift. So while the overlords are a PITA, they do make rapid development easy.

[VT_Jeff]

Apple remains the overlord that rules with an iron bar (that they regularly apply to the side of developers heads). That said, the rules are clear and I just have to conform.

Once I’m a bit further along we can pseudo side load for limited beta testers. Very limited capacity for that though.

As to my previous example: there may have been alcohol influencing that typing on my phone. And in my liquor soaked defense I would point out that I’ve I love you been working on this app for 3 weeks. Prior to that I never actually loaded Xcode or even looked at swift. So while the overlords are a PITA, they do make rapid development easy.

Gotcha. interesting. I Love you too, but you're not getting my Bud Light!

[Jaysen]

Dang autocorrect!!!

I have “ly” set to short cut for messages to the real boss. For some reason “only” tends to get forked up. It only happens when I’m trying to be serious though.

That said… I’m leaving it because it’s hilarious. Especially in this context.

Also… keep your bud. Mic ultra is my soda of choice.

[VT_Jeff]

Dang autocorrect!!!

I have “ly” set to short cut for messages to the real boss. For some reason “only” tends to get forked up. It only happens when I’m trying to be serious though.

That said… I’m leaving it because it’s hilarious. Especially in this context.

Also… keep your bud. Mic ultra is my soda of choice.

Hilarious indeed, Mic Ultra preference noted!

[OrangeQuest]

I was looking up what it would take to get a 6-pack license and one of the requirements was logging a set number of hours on a vessel to show you have boat experience. Seems you could swear that you have the logged time, but documents were better. Since there is no proving you can handle any vessel you will be capt of. From what I understand just take the written test, show you passed a physical, show proof of all the first aid stuff and give them all the required taxes/fees. Found out you can pay schools that will teach you and make sure you will get the lic. if you give them enough money, pay to play kind of thing. May be why ships crash into things.

but for the logged hours why couldn't you just use a GPS app that tracks your time on a vessel, and you still must swear it was you and what you were doing or the captain of the vessel does?

[Jaysen]

I looked at that.

Other than the same privacy concerns, it didn’t let you associate a trip to a boat (is required for proper documentation) and it kills battery. The goal is lightest possible app for privacy and device.