Next WWYS Release 1.3 submitted for review
Duncan James-Bell • March 27, 2020
Filtering Expenses
The first version of Expense Filtering was completed last night and submitted for App Store approval.
This version add a Long Press Menu to the expenses screen to allow filtering by date range or payee (or both). At the moment the filter is not persisted, as in discussion with some users, this was the preferred option; filtering being temporal by nature. The default view is set to a 7 day period. Both these decisions are a bit arbitrary so any feedback welcome!
I will be adding filtering by amount range shortly to complete the filter functionality I currently have planned, then next I will look at recording which expenses have been exported, and allowing export based on the applied filter!
As always let me know you thoughts on these any any other feature ideas.
Duncan's Blog
Delayed 3.1 Update
After the disappointment of any better messaging API this year, I've been experimenting with better ways to export the data from the watch. In the end I decided the best way forwards was to bite the bullet and sync data to iCloud and write a dedicated iPhone App. The move to iCloud data storage has taken quite a lot of work because changing the data schema in the future becomes harder, so I first of all had to bring forward other features such as multiple account support that impact the data schema. So I am going to do this in two stages. Firstly the next version will come with multiple account support and iCloud data sync, then at a later data an iPhone App to improve data export. I've just completed my first beta version for WatchOS, but its such a big change that I will need to road test it for a few weeks before getting ready to release. I also need to update all the instructions on this web site as its a big change to the overall structure and flow for quite a few use cases. If anyone wants to help out with beta testing please get in touch!
WWDC has been a mixed bag in relation to WWYS. I had really hoped for more message API support on the Apple Watch so I could improve export to use iMessage or email, but unfortunately I can't find anything that might assist. On the other hand SwiftUI has made some big improvements on what is possible. This leaves a dilemma; WWYS was always intended to be based on SwiftUI as being the best way to have a good WatchOS only app, the the reality of the current implementation is that quite a bit of the "Outer Shell" had to be built with WatckKit. In the new WatchOS 7 this would no longer be the case, but removing and porting to full SwiftUI would make it very hard to be backwards compatible with Watch OS 6. Having given it some thought I've decided that my approach will be to first update the current App so that it better aligns with WatchOS 7 during the beta period, using its current architecture in a WatchOS 6 backwards compatible way. This is to support anyone on the beta program and ensure WWYS keeps working. In parallel a WatchOS 7 only port will take place to release as shortly after the official WatchOS 7 release as possible. At this point I will drop WatchOS 6 compatibility and so users will need to upgrade to keep up to date with new versions. However, this will be preceded by a final WatchOS 6 release that is backwards compatible.
