Practiscore and printing

[euxx]

I'd like to capture some user experience with printing match results and stage verification from Practiscore.

For starters, here are couple things you can do in Practiscore on Android.

• With internet connectivity, you can use Google Cloud Print to print to Cloud Ready printer or to a printer connected to Windows, Mac or Linux computer.
• Without internet connectivity you can use PrinterShare app ($10) to print to printers over Bluetooth, or WiFI printers on the same network, or printers connected to Windows computer on the same WiFI. PrinterShare can also print to Google's Cloud Print printers.

The above worked for me with regular inkjet printers, though that is not reliable enough to be used at the shooting bay. Though the first option is probably not going to work on Nook devices without Google services activated (most commonly used rooting option).

To print, you can use "Share" action on the action bar on results screen or on review results screen (starting from Android 1.2.5) and then select "Cloud Print" or "PrinterShare".

Also, you can use Cloud Print to produce PDFs from html reports produced by PractiScore and save them to your Google drive.

[wgnoyes]

How do you get EITHER one of those on tablets (most of us are running nooks) where you don't have google market running?

PrinterShare app is $12.95

[vluc]

From developer's website where you can dl the apk

http://www.printershare.com/download-android.sdf

Edited September 24, 2013 by vluc

[wgnoyes]

Okay, got it and installed. Now what? There's no "share"-anything on the action bar or anywhere else in 'review results'.

[euxx]

Okay, got it and installed. Now what? There's no "share"-anything on the action bar or anywhere else in 'review results'.

Bill, where did you get 1.2.5 version for android to try this?

I was only planning to post this version on Thursday...

As for Google services on Nooks, you can get them running on Nook, though not completely sure about Cloud Print.

Anyhow, I wanted to kick this in to get people play and experiment with this stuff. Also, there might be some people out there more experienced with hardware side of things...

[wgnoyes]

Okay, got it and installed. Now what? There's no "share"-anything on the action bar or anywhere else in 'review results'.

Bill, where did you get 1.2.5 version for android to try this?

I was only planning to post this version on Thursday...

As for Google services on Nooks, you can get them running on Nook, though not completely sure about Cloud Print.

Anyhow, I wanted to kick this in to get people play and experiment with this stuff. Also, there might be some people out there more experienced with hardware side of things...

So there a missing piece: 1.2.5. Okay, good.

As to google services, that's a non-starter. We (Chris Wren and I; well, he mostly) want to have a rooting system that basically creates a dedicated match scoring appliance, and we don't want people to have to jump through a whole lot of propeller-head hoops to get this and that to work. One rooting system, for instance, had you playing around with youtube of all things to get the market to run and the instructions always were to the effect that this might or might not work, and or you gotta wait awhile, or you have to hold your mouth right, or whatever. That's BS, and Chris is developing a rooting card now based on the nook graphical manager where you just basically insert the card into a regular nook, boot off the card, make 2 selections and your nook is rooted and PS and dropbox installed in less than 2 minutes, ready to use. Adding the market and all its vague "try this, try that, try it again, wait awhile" nonsense into it is just not going to work for us.

[euxx]

As to google services, that's a non-starter.

Maybe for you and not for Nooks, but there are plenty of people running Practiscore on other Android devices. Some may want to take advantage of this information.

We (Chris Wren and I; well, he mostly) want to have a rooting system...

Bill, I have to point out that this thread is not about rooting Nooks... and not about printing only on Nooks.

[wgnoyes]

It's a thread about printing from android, which says install this or that from the market place, and that leaves most nooks out in the cold. Some vendors (like practiscore, and thank you for that) provide direct links to the .apk file. For those that don't, whatever the app is, we can't use it, because getting the market to run on any of the rooting schemes out there is a long shot at best.

I would venture a guess that the overwhelmingly VAST majority of actual match scoring is being done with nooks for obvious reasons: unit cost and superior screen readability. I should think therefore that, if anything from a development standpoint, the first device that any new version of PS should be tested upon is a nook because that is your predominant customer base.

But anyway, it's your topic, so back to printing from [native] android devices.....

[euxx]

Bill, actually in my experience the first device most users try Practiscore on is the Android phone they already have in their pocket... Running the app on the range is a whole different story.

Anyways, it is easy enough to get Amazon market to run on rooted Nook and both Practiscore and Printershare apps are available on Amazon app market.

[vluc]

Anyways, it is easy enough to get Amazon market to run on rooted Nook and both Practiscore and Printershare apps are available on Amazon app market.

Uh, having rooted 10+ Nooks, no it is not.

[euxx]

Guys, I am not going to argue about rooting issues here. Yet 10 of my Nooks do have Amazoon market on them... I would rather hear about your experience with printing here.

For instance, lets hear how you guys printing match results? Rumor has it many of you are using ipads as a master device.

[Steve_P]

Guys, I am not going to argue about rooting issues here. Yet 10 of my Nooks do have Amazoon market on them... I would rather hear about your experience with printing here.

For instance, lets hear how you guys printing match results? Rumor has it many of you are using ipads as a master device.

Currently, I do all my printing after importing back into EZWin, using the exporter app from my android phone, which I use as the master.

I do have printershare installed, so I would be interested in trying this from my phone when 1.2.5 comes out.

Steve

[euxx]

You don't need to wait for 1.2.5 to try printing of match results. There are Share button on all screens showing results html. In 1.2.5 you'll have Share button on Review scores screen (at the moment only for uspsa matches).

[sperman]

IMO, having the ability to print the stage summary to replace the paper backup is more important than the ability to print the results at the end of the match.

[euxx]

Okay, some things don't come for free. What this feature worth to you?

For the record, I don't have any easy or cheap solution for this issue (that is why this whole thread been started), but it would be good to know what is at stake.

From my side of things. Some things I can do with a little effort (e.g. use standard Android mechanisms for sharing some data) and other things are nearly impossible (like finding a cheap mobile printer and have it connected with Android or iOS devices). Folks from DAA/CED, Competition Electronics or Pact would have more experience in that area...

[wgnoyes]

You don't need to wait for 1.2.5 to try printing of match results. There are Share button on all screens showing results html. In 1.2.5 you'll have Share button on Review scores screen (at the moment only for uspsa matches).

I have printershare installed. There's no share button. As far as I can tell, printershare is doing nothing. There's no way I can see to select a printer.

[euxx]

I have printershare installed. There's no share button.

Bill, where looked exactly? The Share button is in the Practiscore app...

As far as I can tell, printershare is doing nothing. There's no way I can see to select a printer.

iphone user, eh... If you tap the system menu button on Printershare main screen, there is an "Add Printer" button.

[wgnoyes]

I'm sorry, I don't see a share button anywhere in practiscore 1.2.4. I'm doing this on a nook. We don't need printershare on ios; built-in printer services work fine there and I just printed the score log for a competitor's run on a stage that way. (Thanks for helping, by the way.) There is no 'add printer' button in the printershare app main screen on the nook. There are 3 rows of icons of various descriptions (pictures, contacts, calendar, etc), and a very small "printer" label below that with a generic printer icon and 'Not selected' next to it. Tapping that does nothing, and there is no other cmdbutton anywhere on the screen. I would speculate such a button might be off the bottom of the screen, but I do see in the lower right hand corner a faint "Powered by Mobile Dynamix" line, so I'm guessing that is the whole screen.

Edited September 25, 2013 by wgnoyes

[euxx]

Bill, I was referring to your ios mentality... There is a regular Android system menu button. Even on Nook. You need to tap it.

[wgnoyes]

Sorry, you gotta tell me where; I've never had an android phone or device. On the status bar at the top, I see (left to right) an open-book icon left over from the B&N stuff, a 'back' button, a settings button) circle with 3 horizontal lines in it) that pops up stuff on the bottom that says "add', 'wallpaper', 'search', 'edit', 'settings', and 'more', the wifi-status icon, a battery level indicator, and the time of day. At the bottom, there's an icon containing 4 squares that, when tapped, brings up a list of apps installed. These are 'abd konnect', 'browser', 'dropbox', 'nook touch mod manager', 'practiscore', 'printershare', 'ReLaunch', 'settings' (for B&N), and 'superuser'. That's it.

[euxx]

Bill, I don't know what are you looking at now. Will try to make some screenshots for you tonight...

[NMBOpen]

Sorry, you gotta tell me where; I've never had an android phone or device. On the status bar at the top, I see (left to right) an open-book icon left over from the B&N stuff, a 'back' button, a settings button) circle with 3 horizontal lines in it) that pops up stuff on the bottom that says "add', 'wallpaper', 'search', 'edit', 'settings', and 'more', the wifi-status icon, a battery level indicator, and the time of day. At the bottom, there's an icon containing 4 squares that, when tapped, brings up a list of apps installed. These are 'abd konnect', 'browser', 'dropbox', 'nook touch mod manager', 'practiscore', 'printershare', 'ReLaunch', 'settings' (for B&N), and 'superuser'. That's it.

The settings button is the menu button for whatever app controls the display. Practiscore doesn't use it. If you press it while in Printershare it will pop up options including "select printer" at the bottom of the Printershare screen

[wgnoyes]

The settings button is the menu button for whatever app controls the display. Practiscore doesn't use it. If you press it while in Printershare it will pop up options including "select printer" at the bottom of the Printershare screen

Thanks, that was useful. I have a printer selected now.

I still don't see any sort of share button anywhere in practiscore 1.2.4 but as he said before, it may not be available yet.

...oh okay, never mind. At the top of each results page, there's a share "button". (Is there any way to make things like this look like an actual cmdbutton they way we're all used to seeing?) When I click that, I get a dialog asking to share match results using "add to dropbox" or "PrinterShare". Tap printershare and you get basically a blank page instead of the results you wanted to share. There's a box at the top for a url. Nonetheless, I hit 'print' thinking print preview just wasn't working and get another page with a page preview of (again) a blank page. Just wanting to the see the printer do SOMETHING, I hit print, get 'print options', hit 'ok' and this is where it wants money. But I hit the 'print test page' cmdbutton (it actually looked like a cmdbutton) and did get a test page. So the devices CAN talk to one another.

So it has potential I suppose, but doesn't seem to want to select actual results data to print, at least not according to the print preview screen.

But I agree with sperman, being able to print the review score screen is FAR more important than being able to print results from a nook, real android device, or even ios. (Again for ios, we can already print review screens/local score log and results now.)

[euxx]

(Is there any way to make things like this look like an actual cmdbutton they way we're all used to seeing?)

You mean look like ios cmd button?

When I click that, I get a dialog asking to share match results using "add to dropbox" or "PrinterShare". Tap printershare and you get basically a blank page instead of the results you wanted to share.

So, did sharing to drop box work?

But I agree with sperman, being able to print the review score screen is FAR more important than being able to print results from a nook, real android device, or even ios. (Again for ios, we can already print review screens/local score log and results now.)

Already replied to that. In short, I somewhat doubt we'll have a simple printing solution without spending some money on it...

[wgnoyes]

(Is there any way to make things like this look like an actual cmdbutton they way we're all used to seeing?)

You mean look like ios cmd button?

No, I mean look like a button at all. This is not an ios issue, though the two ideally should look alike as much as is reasonable and act alike as much as possible (features, operational flow, etc). Specifically here, I mean enhancing the overall user interface as presented. You know: a rectangle with rounded corners with the word "Share" contained within. Something. ANYTHING more than just "Share" at the top on the header line without any sort of button-like graphic so that it doesn't just get lost in the rest of the header line.

When I click that, I get a dialog asking to share match results using "add to dropbox" or "PrinterShare". Tap printershare and you get basically a blank page instead of the results you wanted to share.

So, did sharing to drop box work?

Hadn't tried it, but went back and did so, and yes, it did work.

But I agree with sperman, being able to print the review score screen is FAR more important than being able to print results from a nook, real android device, or even ios. (Again for ios, we can already print review screens/local score log and results now.)

Already replied to that. In short, I somewhat doubt we'll have a simple printing solution without spending some money on it...

But you were planning some sort of print or share "button" on the review score screen, that would work like results is supposed to work?