James Purser [INSERT WITTY CATCHPHRASE HERE]

 Sigh, so close and yet so far.

This morning a message hit the Android Australia mailing list claiming that Australia had been added to the small list of countries that  were allowed to sell Apps in the Android market.

Alas, it wasn't so. Instead it appears that Australias addition to the list was in error and we are still part of the great unwashed who are unable to take advantage of googles sales infrastructure.

Come on guys and gals at Google! You have an excellent product and people want to be able to take advantage of it, people are begging to be able to give you money via whatever cut you take via the marketplace, why are we being locked out? Why are you ensuring that those of us outside of the US/UK have to turn to iphone development to make our mark in the mobile world?

Sigh.

Okay here's the next release of Planning Alerts AU.

This version now checks to see if GPS or Wireless Location Detection services are activated and prompts you if they aren't. Changed the Icon and marker graphics (if anyone wants to contribute graphically, please feel free :)).

So here it is:

Planning Alerts AU - 0.6

Okay, here's version 0.4 of planningalertsau, the android app I'm building based on the Planning Alerts API.

In this version I've fixed the following:

Map crashes when there are 0 alerts

• Added About dialog
• Preferences Menu option now works in AlertsDisplay
• Alert TextView now clickable (calls AlertWebDisplay and displays Planning Alerts Page for specific Alert)
• AlertDisplay now shows a message if there are no results

Now, there are still councils for whom Planning Alerts doesn't have results for and they are still looking for help, so if you want to contribute please head along and let them know

As always if you have a bug, please submit it here. It would be helpful if you could include the following information:

• Suburb
• State
• Postcode
• Longitude and Latitude

It'll help me when testing to see if the issue is a Planning Alerts or planningalertsau issue :)

I finally had enough time to sit down and have another crack at the Android App I'm building based on the very cool planning alerts api.

This new release has added basic google maps integration. Once you have successfully returned a list of alerts you can hit the menu button and select Map to view the various alerts.

How to use it:

On a fresh install, before you select an option, you need to fill out your address details, to do this, select the Menu button and then Preferences. Fill out your details and you'll be set.

Future Features:

Saved Searches: Currently the app pulls down a fresh set of results with every call. This needs to be changed so that the user can select a search that they want to keep track of

Request Settings on Initial Launch: Users need to be directed to fill out their details when they first launch the app

Future Bug Fixes:

Error Handling: currently there is really very little error handling within the app. This means we have situations where the app will crash if you attempt to view a null list of alerts.

Any way here's the QR Code:

Edit:

And thanks to Simon Rumble for the first "defect" :)

Just a quick note to let everyone know that version 0.2 is now out.

This version has definitely fixed the 1.5/1.6 version installation problems as well as the JSONArray issues I was having before.

I've also been asked to consider building an iphone version of the app. I'm looking at what's required, but the first step seems to be download 2.3GB of code (including iPhone Emulator and IDE), which makes Androids development environment seem positively anorexic by comparison. 

Anyway, heres the new version

It's been a while since I last did anything with the OpenAustralia Search Droid so I thought I would give it another crack. Over the weekend I've brought it up to what I think is worthy of a 0.1 release and in fact have taken it a little further.

It is a very basic project, something more along the lines of a teaching project, but it has the following features:

• House Of Reps Member Search: By entering the name of the seat you will now get very basic information about the member, including a picture of the member and a listing of the last 20 Hansard mentions. Note this feature actually dies horribly on 1.5 and 1.6 enabled devices, something to do with how it handles a JSONArray.
• Senate Member Search: This is an incredibly basic search. Select the state you wish to search from the drop down and it will produce a list of the Senators for that State or Territory. Note I've also had reports of this crashing for similar reasons on 1.5 and 1.6 based devices.
• Search Hansard: Basic keyword searching of Hansard is allowed. However there are bugs here as well :)

To grab the package go here

If you want to look at the source or log an issue then please drop by here

There is a lot of work to be done yet, both on stupid bugs and features, however it has allowed me to learn a bit more about how Android works.

 Well, here's my first Android App. Essentially it's a recreation of my Google Wave Robot - OpenAusBot, well at least the House of Reps member search.

Right now, it just does basic member searches based on Federal Seat, returning name, party and date elected. Still working on the ImageView.

Further plans are to build postcode search and geo-search.

What I don't have (yet) is a real android phone, so if anyone wants to download the apk attached to this post and make sure it works (it uses the Android 2.0 SDK), that would be great, thanks.