When kill / restart is not enough

Kirk_Masden · 11-06-2019 10:05 PM

I recently got some help with a bug:

Thankfully, the issue has been resolved.

Through the process I learned that changes in the AppSheet platform are reflected more-or-less immediately when I use my app in a browser (a simple refresh is enough) but that on my Huawei Android phone I needed to uninstall and then reinstall the app to see the latest changes in the AppSheet reflected in the behavior of the app.

So, here’s my question: What determines this and how can we be sure that we have the latest version of the AppSheet platform on our devices?

I get the impression that newer and/or more powerful phones may be updating in the background. Is that right? Any information would be welcome. I’d like to be able to explain this properly to students. Thanks.

Fabian_Weller

In Google Playstore it says that the last Update was on 18th of October.
So do you really think this is related to the Bug?

WillowMobileSys

iOS devices do not perform updates automatically. I am not aware of any way to make this happen though I am not extremely proficient in such things…yet!

Sometimes, an app will require an update before it will load. But to perform updates, a user must go to the App Store and choose which updates to apply or apply them all.

This makes sense to me. If you consider the number of apps a user might potentially have on their devices, can you imagine what it might be like if all those app were updating automatically?

Additionally, there may be good reasons why a user doesn’t want to update an app.

Having said that, in the case where AppSheet developers have clients using their apps, it would be a very good thing for the developers to know when and what is being released. This gives them a little bit of a head start to test and verify their apps are still whole.

The earlier problems can be detected, the more satisfied the end users become and that is a benefit for both the developer and AppSheet!!

Kirk_Masden

Here’s a response we got from @Adam in the original thread:

I’m looking forward to the improvement.

Lucinda_Mason

How does this apply to our apps that aren’t available on the App Store? How do users get the updates?

Does that change based on being Prototype or Deployed?

WillowMobileSys

Our AppSheet apps run inside of a device specific container that AppSheet provides for every device. You might remember that when you installed your AppSheet app for the very first time, it was a two-step install process. The first step was installing the container. The second was your specific app.

For the container app, you would look for AppSheet within the store for your device. For example, on an iPhone, you would go to the App Store, search for AppSheet and check if there is an update. If so, tap the Update button. All users will want to do this on a fairly regular basis.

By the way, this is not an AppSheet specific process. All mobile app updates work this way though sometimes apps will require you to update in order to continue using it and will notify users through a pop-up when trying to launch the app.

In case you are interested the last update for the container was posted the beginning of April, version 13.8.1.

Lucinda_Mason

Ok. I get that, normal behavior. But that must not be the cause of why my app isn’t updating with the changes I made yesterday. I have a post from this morning on that. Steve said to send it in as a bug report, though have found several old posts about the phone app not being updated without deleting and reinstalling. I’ll wait to hear back from support on that.

WillowMobileSys

Sorry, my comments were directed more towards that AppSheet container. It seems that some may be overlooking that they still need to periodically update the container manually. A delete and re-install may not have been necessary. They may have only needed to Update the container.

As for your created app, the above mentioned update process is not required. A simple Sync not only updates data but also updates the app changes we developers have made to our apps. BUT, it is the container that controls these “refreshes” for our apps.

So I do wonder if sometimes, especially with new AppSheet features, if there are changes made for us developers such that its dependent on a container change. For example, a feature change was made for our apps but in order to properly download that feature change onto our devices, the container app needed a change as well. Without the container update, that recently changed feature doesn’t download properly or maybe not at all.

I am guessing here but I can see that as a possibility. It wouldn’t happen frequently but could be a greater possibility for new features.

So I would recommend that if you are seeing very strange behavior that could be affected by the container, like app updates not being shown on a device, check for a container update first. If there is one, update and then try Syncing your app again to see if the changes appear. If not, then of course AppSheet needs to be contacted, if they hadn’t been already.

WillowMobileSys

I finally spent a couple minutes searching for this on my iPhone and there is a global setting to control App Updates. See image below. Mine was off.

It seems this should be controlled by each app individually on the phone and indeed there is a “Background App Refresh” setting found, at least, in most apps. AppSheet settings has this. My understanding is that at an appropriate time when the app is in the background (still open but not the active app), the iPhone will download and install any updates if the global setting is on.

Lucinda_Mason

Thanks for the detailed info. I checked and I did have the latest AppSheet version. Then I checked and AppSheet is set to DO BACKGROUND APP REFRESH. That must be the default setting for AppSheet. I don’t remember changing it.

I have contacted support about the phone app not getting the new app definition. I know it happened before and I resorted to deleting the app and reinstalling it. I certainly don’t want my eventual users to have to do that. I’ll post in the thread from this morning when I get an answer from Support. Their first response was to ask “Have you played with deleting the associated cookies, clearing browser/device cache.” and I said I didn’t want to go that route unless it was the only option. I will be having users spread around the world, often with limited tech skills. I need to make everything with my apps as fool proof as possible.

Not happy with the response, see Onboarding view isn't showing on device but does in emulator
Starting view is only when app is FIRST opened.

kamila_klimek

Thanks Lucinda, I connected with you in the support queue - let’s see if we can troubleshoot the update issue. Regarding the onboarding view, that is in fact the intended behavior to “onboard” the users when they first use the app. Maybe making it available on each start would be a feature request? Please feel free to submit it in the feature request channel of the community.