Hi all -
I’ve spent my holidays incubating an idea I’ve had for ages, about
developing an iPhone Client that provides a more-native UI for
InterMapper.
Given there had been a little discussion on the IM-Talk list about
it last
year, I wanted to share my thoughts and solicit some feedback on
what people
may be after from the application.
The real catalyst for doing this is the new API in InterMapper 5.2
(currently in Beta), which provides a way to acknowledge a device
via the
API (Finally!).
I’ve spent quite a bit of time over the past week or two reviewing
the Apple
WWDC iPhone sessions; and mapping out what I THINK users may want
from an
iPhone client -- extrapolated from my employer’s use of InterMapper.
To make sure it’s at all possible, I’ve prototyped a few things and
have a
basic client running on my iPhone, which pulls down a list of the
current
devices in trouble, etc. It’s much quicker and easier to use, when
compared
to the current InterMapper web interface, but the code is definitely
not
releasable (sorry!).
But if I’m going to spend the time developing the application
properly and
getting it published on the App Store, I’d be keen to see what
people think
of this and build something that people will actually use. I’m also
based in
New Zealand; so I suspect our network sizes are a little smaller
than some
of yours; and so want to ensure _my_ idea of a useful app marries up
with
broader needs.
MY THOUGHTS SO FAR:
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APPLICATION DEFINITION STATEMENT:
A thumb-optimised client to InterMapper, that provides smart
notification and quick access to “What’s wrong?” for Network Admins
on-the-go.
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KEY FEATURES
* Map and Device List: Focus would be on showing what’s wrong, but
with
option to ‘view all’ and search.
* Outages List
* Ability to acknowledge a device (Would require InterMapper 5.2):
* Thumb Optimised “Ack” screen; which acknowledges with a text
string
built up from a few user interface elements
* Time Estimate
* Text Preset customisable by each user (e.g. “Bypassed”,
“En-route
to site”, ...) or a freeform string
* Who (based on who’s iPhone it is/etc)
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NOTIFICATIONS – using Apple Push Notifications
This is one of the key things I’m personally after – a way to avoid
analysing Up/Down/Warn SMS messages to figure out the current
status; and a
host of other benefits:
* List of recently received notifications, with link to device
(within the
Application) for acknowledging/etc
* Incoming message sounds based on alert severity
* Fallback to SMS if (the Application’s) Gateway Server not available
* Badge count: # of Notifications you haven’t yet viewed (by
opening up the
application)
A Trust Question:
I am thinking of providing a central server that acts as the “Push
Message
Aggregator” and maintains an ‘unread count’ which can be used to
manage the
badge icon; and potentially a few other team-coordination features.
Data
retention would be minimal, only that needed for displaying useful
state in
the application.
This however would mean you’d need to ‘trust’ me and allow these
messages to
pass via my server and maintain state. The alternate would be to
provide
some server-code you could run at your end to maintain this state;
but I
feel this would be prohibitive for initial testing and complicate
application/server updates/etc. Programs like IM+ (an chat client
for the
iPhone) already do this, so I don’t feel this would be unacceptable,
provided the privacy policy is clear.
With this, I can see options to get Push up and running a lot easier
--
you’d simply need to install a Notifier script (e.g. Perl program)
which was
executed for every Notification.
I’d love to get feedback on whether anyone had concerns about this.
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OUT-OF-SCOPE
In thinking about what would “work” on the iPhone; I’ve put the
following as
being “not useful”:
* Graphical maps: Most maps would have to be heavily scaled down,
so would
be hard to read; and would be large/slow downloads.
* Edits / Map management / etc: While ‘probably possible’ via the
HTTP API;
I can’t see any need to do this on the on-the-road.
---------
UNCERTAIN
Feedback welcome.
* Charts: Do you want to see any charts you’ve created, on the
phone? Or
should it say focussed on “Up / Down” and Acknowledgement of
notifications.
* Badge Count: Representing # outages/etc. This is probably not
possible
without adding interfaces to IMDC and server daemons at the each
user’s
InterMapper Server.
* Web Bookmarks: I wondered whether it would be useful to pull up
certain
web pages while within the application — e.g. A Vendor Contact list,
or
another monitoring system/etc. Obviously Mobile Safari can do this
too – but
then you have to switch context.
* Ability to message or maybe assign notifications to other team
members
(with the iPhone client)
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WHAT ELSE?
I want to avoid Feature Bloat – and make sure the application stays
true to
purpose; but there are bound to be some features worth considering.
A few questions:
* What is the FIRST thing (or things) you want to look at when you
open up
the application?
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BETA PROGRAM
Assuming this idea passes the “peer feedback” stage and there’s
demand for
the application; then I’d like to:
* Refine the plan by communicating directly to a few of you
* Develop and test an alpha internally with my employer
* and then do a Beta Programme.
So if anyone’s keen to work a little more one-on-one with shaping
this, and
providing more in-depth feedback as I progress through test
versions, please
drop me an email:
[email protected]
Obviously you’d need an iPhone, and I’d love to find a few Beta
sites with
2-3 iPhone-enabled staff who would be prepared to use this together
— as I
see a major benefit may be to reduce the “multiple people being
notified
when not needed” aspect (that at least happens at our site)
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WHERE TO FROM HERE
This isn’t my day-job, so I won’t promise the community that
there’ll be an
iPhone application out next week; that said — I’ve done a lot of the
leg
work so far with my proof-of-concept application; so I would like to
see
this in Beta in around 2 months, and in the App Store a month or so
after
that. Assuming it’s allowed on this list, I’ll keep people informed
of
progress — screenshots to tease you :)
All feedback welcome, either to the list – or me personally at the
email
address above.
Sorry for the long first post.
Regards,
Mark Mackay.
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I apologise if this is not the correct forum for this — the community
website seemed
to encourage sharing thoughts and product application ideas; but if
this is
not the correct
forum – can one of the moderators let me know, and I’ll cease
immediately.
From the list and reactions from my employer, I think a lot of
people would
be
interested in this App, so am keen to everyone’s understand needs
and make
it great!
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