Android Development

Quit Smoking Incentive Widget

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Information about this project:
Currently on Google Play.

Use this widget to track how long it has been since you quit, and how much money you have saved.

Many people, including myself, are trying to quit smoking. While I was searching for ideas for new apps to make, this one occurred to me as a fantastic incentive to help me quit. I know it would be useful to you as well. You can set your quit date, cost per pack, and how many packs per day. There will be no preaching here. Notice there are no links to any other resources (unless Google Ads decides to show something). This program stands on its own as an incentive to help you quit.

I hope it works for you!

Download:
icon From Google Play
icon Local version. Follow instructions on previous page.


This thing took me WEEKS to get working right. Seems like a lot of work for something so simple. But there were a bunch of strange hurdles to jump over. With everything I learned from this, I should be able to develop other things much more quickly. Unless I don't. Nothing is ever as easy as it at first seems.

Here follows a short log of the development (in reverse order)...

As of 11/7/2014...
I just realize that I never updated the log to finish this story. The app has been out in the wild for quite a while. It's almost the least used, least reviewed app I currently own. Don't really know why. Maybe there are too many like it. Maybe it's not the greatest app ever. Probably that. But, it DOES work. And it does what it's supposed to.
As of today, I'm on 3 weeks of not smoking, and my widget tells me that amounts to a little over $200 in savings. This is what prompted me to come back and revisit this prject, and remind people that it exists at all. I really do hope that others use it.

As of 5/30/2014...
It's done. It's live. My solution to the spinner issue is something I should have thought of before. I'm using regular input boxes, but limitting the character set to only show numbers. Wow, I should have noticed that was an option earlier. Would have saved me a boatload of trouble.

As of 4/26/2014...
The screen orientation problem is fixed. After weeks of researching all the wrong possible issues, it turns out it was a stupid flaw in my code. In any case, it works now.
The only thing left really, is the input for the numbers. I do NOT like the spinners, and I think it's a sucky user experience. It's sucky not only because they don't look good, but because it's too many steps. I'm thinking that the simple solution is to change the input type. I know how to do this, I just haven't gotten to it yet. That orientation problem had me occupied and frustrated for so long, I'm just a little burned out with it. But soon - very soon - I will have that last little thing wrapped up, and I will be able to release this for real!!

As of 4/6/2014, here is the current progress... The primary layout for the widget is done. I fixed issues with the layout. I finally understand the difference in how the fonts work between different screen types. So this thing looks pretty consistent everywhere. It's also set now to be a 2x1 size, which means it takes up very little desktop space. I've got all of the preferences set to work with spinners (dropdowns), and an actual Android date picker. This means the program is essentially bulletproof. You can't put in any values that would otherwise crash the program. The only hangup with this is that the spinners, by default, are not all that attractive. I hope to fix that somehow before release.
The only other BIG problem I have is that when the screen orientation changes (on tablets, not phones), the widget resets, but doesn't update itself. So it just paints out the raw layout. The values don't update until the next automatic cycle. I have to figure that one out before I can release this.

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