TVPLAN (BETA) for Windows 10 UWP

[WilliamABradley]

Hi guys,

I have been building a TV show Planning and Scheduling app for Windows 10 over this year, as I was passionate about TV and decided I would do this, having learnt C# in the Christmas Holidays. I have spent over 270+ hours on this project building a Universal Windows 10 App and I finally believe it is time to get it to the public for feedback, testing for bugs and general use.




It uses TheTVDB as the primary TV Show scraper, as well as the more recent TV Maze integration for more accurate Time zone adjustment.

Here is the link to the app: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/apps/tvplan/9nblggh22flg
Here is an album containing screenshots of the app: TVPLAN BETA Screenshots - Album on Imgur

It has a bold and modern design, although the design in some areas are currently unfinished.

You can use context menus to access some great commands for bulk watching episodes, it also features limited Multi-lingual support, using machine generated translations. The app will also update and send Toast Notifications to you to let you know when Episodes are coming out in your local time, you can customize your preferred Fanart or poster art, and many more features in the future to come.

If you have Windows 10, and feel that you want to try out my app. Then please send feedback using the built in Send Feedback button, or send me a message or post in these forums.

Thanks,
William

 

[TechFreak1]

Looks pretty neat, definitely going to give this app a go .

Edit: liking the detailed change logs!

Feedback Update 1:
Bugs:

• 
  .Move the scroll bar under the linear month view down a few pixels
  .Image quality needs adjusting
  
  .Scrolling through the months doesn't change the month at the top, for instance if scrolled to all the way to the left it will still say "September". However if I clicked on the 31st Dec, the body will scroll down to 31st Dec.
  .The same is true for the calendar on the top left hand corner and the up/down scroll bar in the body of the app.
  .Added a show however they are not shown in the body of the app, for instance the above image has a showing date on the 12th of August. It wasn't listed until I added another show - "The Strain". However this bug only occurred once as a reinstall looks like fixed it.
  .Another bug I noticed was adding a second show didn't auto refresh the list (this after a reinstall)
  .toggling off "Separate hamburger" in the settings make the search bug out as it doesn't load after that. Even toggling it back on doesn't rectify it. However restarting the app rectified this, oddly enough clicking on the hamburger it toggles search - even of "separate hamburger" is turned off or on.

Additions/Suggestions:

• 
  .It would be nice if you could add regional support / search at start up as for instance in the UK the series Zoo has recently started (if possible).
  .A start up tutorial would be welcome
  .A plus icon in the shape of the series cover as when the app first starts it won't be clear to most to go to search, then add their show via the heart icon.
  .Replace the heart icon with a plus icon or alternatively add a plus icon inside the heart.
  .Add channel name next to time
  .Additional Filters in the library would be handy, for instance horror, channel, filter by month, day
  .Show ratings under the thumbnails, as sorting by ratings doesn't make sense otherwise.
  .Would it be possible to add support for user added sources thus the app will act as an aggregator (you could make this a in-app purchase thus at least rewarding you for your efforts :wink

Questions:

• 
  .I'm guessing when you say "separate hamburger" you mean "turn off hamburger menu"?

General:

• 
  .The over all UI looks pretty polished, I do like the auto resizing thumb nails under the "To watch" section.

 

[WilliamABradley]

Thanks,
this is really helpful. To answer your question, the separate hamburger button, was an old debugging setting, that seemed to have lost its translated string (Separate Hamburger was a placeholder). It was used to see what the app would look like with separating bars, like Groove Music, which is what I was modeling part of the design on.
That is some good feedback, I'm not sure how easy it would to have regional preferences in the search function, but I have an idea on how I could implement it. For the image quality, the images are pulled from TheTVDB so it depends on the image quality on their servers, or the image that was uploaded by the Users, I can look at TVMaze and see if their image quality is better, or any other alternate means.
The reason that the month stays the same at the top of the upcoming page, is because I will switch it to the Calendar Control in the future, which looks better than mine, and is fully customizable, and better optimized for loading.
I will have a look at those sorting methods you told me, I did also feel that the sorting on the Library needed some identification, as to what each show pertained to in that sort.
I will work on adding a start tutorial function when I have the time, however I have exams coming up, and I also have to write about this is multiple internal examinations over the holidays, so my time to make modifications at least now, is limited.
Thanks,
William

 

[TechFreak1]

Your welcome, good to hear you've got solutions in mind and don't mind waiting as exams come first!

1) Ah right, I see that makes sense.
2) I know it's not going to be easy just thinking how you could grow your user base.
3) Got it, if the source image is of low quality then there's nothing anyone can do about that - as the saying goes "garbage in, garbage out".
4) Awesome
5) Thanks, it would be handy when your looking for a particular genre.
6) Good to hear however focus on your exams and revision first lol they are more important than the app right now :wink:

 

[anon(9115560)]

There are some issues that are annoying:

• Very Slow Startup
• TV Shows images doesn’t appear immediately after app launch
• Crashes when you click on “To Watch“

Things that should be added:

• Support for trakt.tv
• Support for Live Tile

Generally, the app is very good and please keep updating.

 

[cxily]

Really nice design and app. Good job!

 

[WilliamABradley]

Hi Guys,
I have been working on an update, but progress is slow due to exams,
I have been doing some Bug Squashing and GUI Tweaking, I have fixed the To Watch Page (Some shows crashed it, due to a fault in parsing the Time Data Json on Episodes that didn't have an airdate set).
Here are some of the new Designs, Upcoming needs a bit of work before I release an update, as it currently is very buggy, such as resizing (Calendar View Control doesn't like being resized), anyway here they are:

 

[WilliamABradley]

Hey guys,
I know its been a while, but exams are done and dusted, meaning that I have finally updated TVPLAN, and it has just entered a true Public Beta.
The UI has received overhauls where needed, however, there are probably still quite a few bugs to be uncovered and fixed.

Here are the changes:
-Major Design Overhauls in most parts of the app. -Live Tile Notifications now added, slightly buggy. -Quite a few Bug fixes and improvements (Shows such as South Park, and others with null time zone info from TVMaze fixed). -Episodes View from Summary UX changed (Currently works well using 16:9 or 21:9 aspect ratios, may not work well with Surface 3/4/Book aspect ratios right now). -Filter your shows using genres to find the right show to watch, specific to genres. -Experimental Media Center style playback subsystem added (Accessed by enabling debugging tools in settings, and selecting it in the hamburger menu (Paths can be added in settings, and removed or edited in AppData (UI has no removal option yet))). -Libraries can now be shared by using the share button, which allows you to share links, which allows your friends to click on the link, taking them to the app, so you can watch the same shows as them.

There is more changes than these that you will be able to discover yourself.
I have also added a feedback forum, where you can request features for the app, or report a bug, which is where I recommend submitting things for me to see, because it can sometimes be tedious via email, and this method is more permanent of a solution.
Thanks,
William

 

[WilliamABradley]

NEW UPDATE (V1.3.0.0):
-Removed all TVMaze API integration, Trakt.TV is now used instead, as it provides all of the information I needed from TVMaze, but with support for more TV shows.
-Library AppData format has been upgraded, Sorting alphabetically is now way more reliable, (Shows starting with A or B should no longer disappear from the Library).
-Xbox controller support partially integrated, if you connect your Xbox controller or Gamepad, a new UI should appear, showing you what buttons you can press, and what they do. (There are quite a few parts of the app that currently do not support controllers yet).
-Show scraping now does something! If you add your TV Shows path to TVPLAN (in Settings -> Data -> Paths), as long as your folders are correctly named, you should be able to see new buttons on the summary page, one opens a file explorer window to the folder, and the other goes to selection, so you can watch the shows in app. (Xbox controller can navigate through all of the pages, via commands from the summary page, Scraping of shows will be optimised next build).
-Added full Theming throughout the app, user can now choose between light and dark themes, as well as multiple custom accent colors, instead of just the system accent color.
-Updated various UI colors to bring some UI unity, which is easier to theme.
-Added Initialisation code, the app should now open more reliably and be more stable, however the time taken to start was sacrificed slightly (Although no input was accepted by the app until this code was complete beforehand).
-Added toggles for Disabling all notifications, Episode notifications, or Live Tiles.
-Added toggle to disable notifications for a single series.
-Moved Paths settings to the Data pivot.
-Show settings should now show properly on mobile devices.
-To Watch has been fixed - Again.
-Restructured Upcoming - Again.
-Cleaned up borders on SplitView, updated old border from bottom stack, now visible all the time.
-Added Syncing button to Master Command Bar, now spins when syncing with Trakt.TV, syncing text or progress bar are no longer used.
-Moved Version No. and Changelog button to About Pivot.
-Created Trakt.TV Cleanser, as an API issue caused duplicates, showing episodes as watched many, many, times, while some watched shows not watched at all.

 

[ROBBIE HALL]

First let me commend you on teaching yourself c# over the holidays.
I like the app. Its really refreshing.

Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

 

[Fco garica]

Good job!!! keep updating

Enviado desde mTalk