|
Project Information
Members
|
MyTime is useful for Jehovah's Witnesses allowing us to focus on the ministry by keeping keeping organized notes. MyTime keeps up with our calls, return visits, literature placements, and field service time so that you don't have to, allowing you to have an accurate field service report. If you find this useful great! I wrote this for the benefit for all, if you are inclined to help support my efforts and offset the costs of doing development you can help me to maintain the $99.00 yearly license for creating an official application that you could download for free from iTunes, here is a way to donate:
Issues with iOS 5 upgrade? see the FAQ for help NEWS12/8/2011: Apple approves 3.2.1 fixing several bugs 4/28/2011: Our area was hit by several tornadoes, please be patient I am still trying to pickup the pieces, I appreciate the emails but please do not send emails of concern I have > 200 emails in my inbox and I don't have time to go through them. 8/10/2010: We had a baby girl! (we did not know the gender beforehand). Needless to say I have an extreme lack of sleep and probably wont get to MyTime stuff for the next month... we will see what happens with my time for MyTime now. Thank you everyone for your encouraging emails! 6/20/2010: the 2.8.2 release that went out has a bug: the tracts look like they are not there but they are in the "All Publications" category, I am fixing this problem. Sorry :( 2/2/2010: We are pregnant!... this is not MyTime news right now but it does impact how much time I can spend on this project. Needless to say, the time I spend on MyTime will be reduced, but I still use MyTime myself and will grumble, just like you, when it does not have useful features... I will have motivation to fix/work on things :) 1/30/2010: 2.8.0 released! Please leave/update your iTunes comments for MyTime (looking for 5 stars :). If you have requests, do that through email to me because the iTunes comments are not sent to me. Looking for...TranslatorsI am looking for translators to translate the text in the MyTime program into whatever language you need. please email me if you can translate MyTime into any other language Graphics ArtistsI am looking for someone to help make better images for the button bar (unless you think that my job using GIMP worked ok). please email me if you can help out with some of my graphics requests DocumentationThere are several YouTube videos here that you can watch to see how to use MyTime. What am I doing?take a look at my design diary to see what I am working on and why I chose to do things the way they are. (I just started this on the Not-At-Homes feature so there is not that much stuff in there right now). InstallingThis works on the iPhone, iPhone 3G and iTouch. I am currently only supporting the version that is available on the iTunes AppStore. MyTime Backup 1.2 software for OSX 10.5.X is avaliable here. See the FAQ regarding how to use it. Current Features in MyTime
Release InformationChanges in the 3.2.5 releaseMaking changes, will be submitted after 3.2.4 is approved
Changes in the 3.2.4 releaseApproved on 1/6/2012. Submitted to apple on 1/4/2011.
Changes in the 3.2.3 releaseApproved on 1/4/2012. Submitted to apple on 12/22/2011.
Changes in the 3.2.2 releaseApproved on 12/12/2011. Submitted to apple on 12/8/2011.
Changes in the 3.2.1 releaseApproved on 12/8/2011. Submitted to apple on 12/3/2011.
Changes in the 3.2.0 releaseApproved on 12/2/2011. Submitted to apple on 11/24/2011.
Go here for older release information Feature Request ListYou can submit feature requests using the wiki page Wishlist or just emailing me (in MyTime on the iPhone go to More->Settings->Comments or Questions to email me) automatically lookup does not unhighlight on 3.1.3 last address not there on call General:
Publication Related:
Hours/Statistics Related:
Calls Related:
Territory/Not At Homes Related (this is being renamed "Territories"):
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)Are you one of Jehovah's Witnesses? Yes, I am serving as the congregation secretary in the Madison, AL Congregation in the USA. Help! I upgraded to iOS 5 and my data is missing! Many people had issues upgrading to iOS 5 when they prematurely disconnected their devices while iTunes was doing the initial sync (upgrading to iOS 5 can take a very long time since it blows everything away and then reinstalls all applications and data). If you disconnect your device before the initial sync is done then all of your application data might not have been restored. You can restore your data by:
Does this work on the iPod Touch, iPad or iPhone? Yes it works on the iPad (must upgrade iPad to iOS 5), iPod Touch, iPhone and iPhone 3G(S). I would like to move forward in the near future and stop supporting any iOS before 4.1. There are a lot of hoops I have to jump through to make sure that old devices are still supported :( Do you accept Feature Requests? Yes, in fact there is a Wishlist page on the Wiki tab that allows you to add your own feature requests. If you want to email me about a feature that is not on the feature request list (Please read the feature requests on this page, I get >10 emails daily about things that are already on the feature request list) then you can use the contact link from within MyTime, just look in the settings tab, please be patient it took >2000 hours to get mytime where it is right now and I do this work in my spare time (which I do not have a lot of it lately since we have a new daughter). I am the congregation secretary, I have a family, and a full time job; needless to say I don't have a lot of time, please if you ask for a feature do not keep emailing me about the feature. I receive between 60 and 200 emails a week about MyTime and it takes a minimum of 1 hour a day to respond to people and help ones that are having problems, the less email I read/respond to the more time I spend with my family and work on MyTime. I am currently having to keep balanced with the time that I spend on making sure that MyTime is bug free and servicing feature requests (and my feature requests, too ;) and make sure that I am primarily focused on Jehovah... I do this for fun. I asked for something in the iTunes review but you did not reply, why not? I can not actually reply to posts in the iTunes reviews. I cant even get your email address to address your concerns, sorry. Blame apple. This website is the main/only way you can really communicate with me outside of emailing me toopriddy@gmail.com, but please read the rest of this webpage. What happened to the RBC Hours?!? The RBC hours have been put under the same view as "Hours", just press on the button at the top that says "Hours" to change to a different category like RBC or you can define your own (like Temporary Bethel Work or Pioneer School). Why dont you have a single place to enter magazines and hours? The focus of MyTime was to follow the direction given in the OD book to us about keeping accurate field service reports which includes detailed information about our return visits and what we talked to them about. MyTime focuses on that and keeping up with your field service hours is a bonus. There is a way to enter your data from the start by going to Statistics and pressing the Edit button, but I do not recommend doing this on a normal basis for recording placements, return visits, and hours. Can you keep a count of magazines and return visits like you do the hours? Yes, it already does this (it even tells you this when you first look at the statistics screen). I just don't show the return visit, magazine, brochure, study, and book counts if you do not have any. How do you add a return visit? After you add a call, you can see the call in the Name, Street, and Date sorted views. Click on your call you want to add a return visit to. Then click "Edit" and then click "Add Return Visit". The first "visit" that you input for a call is the "initial visit" you have to make another "return visit" to count the visit as a "return visit" Why is the return visit count not accurate, where are my return visits? It is probably because you have not made a "return visit"; in MyTime you have to have 2 visits in a call (two dated visits) before I count 1 return visit (this is just like how you should count return visits). If you are adding your calls from your call book, make sure that you date all of your visits even the first visit, because MyTime will not count a return visit unless you have returned and added a second visit to the MyTime database. How do I enter in an existing study? You have to enter your study as a call (cause they started out that way), and make a "dummy" visit to let mytime think that any subsequent visit is a "return visit". Now press "Done" to save the call and select the call again and then press "Edit" and then "Add Return Visit", now just enter the last time that you studied with them this month and change the type of the visit to "study" and press "Done". Each time you have a study with them, just enter another "visit" and change the type to a study and you can keep up with where you left off in the notes section. How do I schedule a return visit? MyTime does not work with the calendar yet but you can accomplish this; You can do a Next Visit Date right now in MyTime. Here is the tip: Go to an existing call, press "Edit" then press "Add Additional Information", then press "Edit" so that you can add another additional information "type", press on the "Add Custom Information" Then type in "Next Visit" and scroll down and select "Date/Time" and then press the "Done" button. now at the main "Add Info" press and hold on the move icon at the far right of the "Next Visit" row and move it up to the very top of the screen into the "Information Always Shown" section. Now press "Done" and then press the back button labeled "Call". You should now have a "Next Visit" Additional Information value in every single one of your existing calls and it will be there in all of your new calls. You can then go to the More->Sorted by ... view and then press on the top left button and change the sort to the "Next Visit" and that view will be sorted by your scheduled next visits. I would like to plan out my return visits for the day, how can I do this? Please take a look at the above FAQ entry for the "Next Visit". It explains how you can create an "Additional Information" to schedule next visits, well you can do the same with ordering your calls in advance (the above FAQ entry and the tutorial videos in MyTime->More->Tutorials help you to see the concept of what you will be doing below).
Then you can use these 3 fields to plan out your day. You can see them sorted by day by going to the MyTime->More->Sorted By... view and then pressing on the top left hand button. The following instructions show you how you can create a "Display Rule" to see your calls sorted by day and priority; you will only have to do the following once:
Why are my calls not showing up on the "Mapped Calls" view? There are two main reasons why you would have this problem: 1) You have to make sure that you have entered all of the address information including city and state or country if you are outside of the US. 2) You have misspelled the street, city, or state/country. If you are sure that you have not done the above things then email me your mytime backup (MyTime->More->Settings->Email Backup to toopriddy@gmail.com) with information about what call is not showing up. I would like to know what calls are not showing up on the map You can make a filter for all calls that are not mapped.
Why are the map pin colors different? Pin colors are based on the number of days since the last visit. (Green < 7days, Purple < 14 days, Red > 14 days) Does iTunes backup the MyTime data? Yes, every time you sync with iTunes. (Please sync with iTunes often so that your data is saved) How do I reset the Service Year Totals? How can I get the "Last Service Year Totals" to go away?!? MyTime displays the "Last Service Year" totals in August so that you can turn in your field service activity report and keep a record of the last service year for yourself. MyTime does not display the current service year during the month of August because it would be exactly the same numbers as what you already see in the August section (there would only be one month in that service year). You just have to wait till October for the "Last Service Year Totals" to go away and the new service year totals to appear. MyTime is in its fourth service year now; I tried to make it where you did not have to do anything, it will take care of the service year totals for you. I really dont like how MyTime works, I want things to be done like XYZ! Any requests can be sent to me toopriddy@gmail.com or you can put your requests up for discussion on the wishlist page. If you really want something different then there are several options (free and paid). I used the passcode feature but cant get into MyTime! HELP! Here is a workaround to turn it off:
How do install the Watchtower library on a Mac? Go to "google.com" and search for "install watchtower library mac" and most likely the first link is what you want. I do not endorse or condone doing this (I installed WTLibrary on my mac using VMWare fusion and do not require any 3rd party tools). Can you get this to work on the Blackberry or X phone?!? I have received a lot of email about this. Sorry, I dont own a Blackberry and probably don't plan on in the near future. From what I have investigated it is a completely different programming environment than what I am dealing with for the iPhone (meaning I would have to rewrite things from scratch... another > 600 hour investment). I am currently having to keep balanced with the time that I spend on making sure that MyTime is bug free and servicing feature requests (and my feature requests, too ;) and make sure that I am primarily focused on Jehovah. I am afraid that adding more to this will only make things bad. Hopefully someone who has a Blackberry and is motivated enough could take on this task. If I chose to make MyTime avaliable for a bunch of platforms, lets say Android, Windows Mobile, and Blackberry... well now it will take 3 times as long for me to write features and get you updates. It would also cause problems and incompatibilities because I would have to write to the lowest common denominator. So it is also better for you that I dont write for different operating systems. There is a field service application on the blackberry which is not like mytime but useful at: Can you get this to work on the G1 or other Android phones? Nope, same as the blackberry above, BUT there are two options on the Android Market (I neither support nor endorse either of these programs):
Can you get this to work on Windows Mobile phones? Nope, same as the blackberry above, but there is someone who created a program like MyTime for the Windows Mobile platform http://www.myministryapp.com What if I upgrade to a iPhone 3G,3GS,4? Will I be able to transfer my MyTime data? (or upgrading any device) Yes, but there is a problem here caused by apple. You would think that if you "restored" from a backup you would get your old data on your new phone... but you do not for "security reasons". So the ONLY way you can upgrade your phone and transfer your data is to use the email backup feature in MyTime.
Cant you release this on cydia?!? Yes, I could but you loose a lot (short answer: No I am not going to, please don't ask again). On cydia, you will not get backups so when you update your iPhone software or loose/kill your iphone you will loose your calls. The 2 different distribution means (cydia and the AppStore) ends up being a huge headache for me (especially when I am doing this for free and being paid for writing other iPhone software as a side job). So I am sticking with the distribution channel that everyone can use because there are a lot of people out there that do not want to jailbreak their iphone. No, MyTime will not go on cydia. I have an iTouch (or an iPhone with spotty access) and would like to view the maps while out in service, what do I do? When you are using the internet from a wifi hotspot or your home, you can use the Mapped Calls view and zoom into the places/streets that you are interested in and those images will be stored on your iTouch/iPhone so that you can use the map view while you are not connected to a wifi network or have spotty service. Sorry, this is a very manual process and maybe I could come up with something that might make this automatic. I have an iPod/iPhone Touch and I keep loosing my data Most likely this is not a problem with MyTime, but rather might be related to your iPod/iPhone case (I have received one report of 2 iPods failing and having to be replaced in this manner). Do you have a case for your iPod/iPhone that has magnets on it? Some cases that have more than 2 magnets generate a large enough magnetic field when the magnets touch each other that it will reset or cause permanent damage to your iPod/iPhone... my reccomendation: don't use cases with magnets on them... and you might want to go to an apple store and get your iPod/iPhone replaced if it is doing this just to be on the safe side. MyTime keeps getting uninstalled from my iPhone; what is the deal? There are two causes for this (none of them involve me or MyTime being at fault): 1. You have synced your iPhone/iPod with a different computer or iTunes user... The iPhone and iPod do not work like this, iTunes when it asks "would you like to transfer your purchases to this computer" is basically telling you "Would you like to delete all applications off of your iPhone and then transfer the applications in this computer's iTunes library onto your iPhone?" Usually this is never what you want. 2: You have a hardware problem just like what is described above in the I have an iPod/iPhone Touch and I keep loosing my data FAQ entry How do I change the language in MyTime? You don't change the language in MyTime, you change the language of your iphone. From the Home screen, go to Settings -> General -> Internationalization -> Language and change the language there. Why is there not a good way to back the calls up? OR Hey where did the backup button go? There are lots of ways to backup your MyTime data: 1) sync with iTunes; iTunes backs up your application data every time you sync. Sync often, in fact charge your iPhone on your computer to ensure that your data gets backed up often. wiki page http://code.google.com/p/mytime/wiki/iTunesBackup has information about how to retrieve your backups from iTunes 2) More->Settings->Email Backup and email yourself the email backup from mytime (do not forward this email backup, most servers and email clients will mess up the email backup). 3) MyTime webserver go to More->Settings->Start MyTime Webserver and follow the onscreen instructions to go to a webpage to download/upload the data file for MyTime. I deleted MyTime off of my iPhone how do I get it back with the data? First off DO NOT SYNC WITH ITUNES AFTER DELETING MYTIME!!!!! if you sync with iTunes it will backup your phone in the state where you deleted your data (you might have an older backup with older data, but please make sure that you do not sync with itunes). If you did a sync since deleting the application AND you did not do an email backup, I can not help you your data is lost forever. If you have not synced with your PC try this:
How do I use the Backup program? How do I restore my calls from the 1.1.4 version, or any version for that matter? Use MyTime Backup on OSX 10.5.X to restore your calls.
How do I restore a backup that I retrieved using the "email me my backup" from the MyTime program? You can open the email on your iDevice and either press on the link in the email or open the attached file in MyTime. I would like to sync my data between my iPhone and iPad, how do I do this? Currently there is no good way to sync your data between any iDevices. What you can do is use the Email backup feature to email your data between devices. To restore your data from your iPhone to your iPad you go to MyTime->More->Settings->Email Backup->Email MyTime Backup to your email account setup on your iPad. Then on your iPad you open up the email you sent and press on the restore link (THIS WILL DELETE ALL MYTIME DATA FROM YOUR IPAD AND RESTORE ONLY WHAT WAS ON YOUR IPHONE). If you edit anything on the iPad you will need to follow the same procedure to "restore" the data back to your iPhone. This is NOT a sync of data but rather a transfer of data. This is very error prone (as in user error, not MyTime errors) and you can only edit data on one device at a time. Please use this procedure at your own risk. Why dont you store the data on a webserver or have MyTime be a webapp since I could use it on any smartphone or computer? I thought about this before writing the software, but I some areas where I go out in service that I do not have cell phone access, so if I was out in field service I would not be able to use the program at all :( There are many people in my boat too, many that have expressed that Google Maps doesn't even know where their street is because it is so rural. Also, many people have expressed concerns that they do not want their calls on the internet and have inquired how I store the calls and I reassured them that nothing is sent anywhere it always stays on the phone. This was very reassuring for them (and probably for their calls who do not want their identity stolen from the possibly hacked cloud computing servers). On a personal note, I also hate signing up for yet another web service that I have to remember a password for (I use different passwords with > 14 characters each, I am in the Firewall/VPN software business and am very paranoid :\ ahem security conscious) Cloud computing is useful for some things but not all things, sadly there are many companies out there implementing things where someone just learned how to use a hammer and everything is now a nail (cloud computing being the hammer in this case). Everything has a place and I don't think that it fits that well in MyTime given some of the problems associated with it. Can you get the Watchtower Library to work on the iPhone? No, please go to jw.org and download the epub formats that are provided for you. Please do not email me about this, I have already received > 100 emails asking me to do this. I have talked to a brother in the Legal department about the possibility of even doing this and I am in the process of formalizing things so that I would not be doing anything illegal. The Watchtower 2007 CD has some wording in the EULA which points to the fact that the society is disallowing the use of the publications outside of the watchtower library program (this would include any iPhone program). If I ever work on a program like this, I will put information on this site. If you cant get the Watchtower Library on there, now about one or two publications, or even the daily text?!? No, please go to jw.org and download the epub formats that are provided for you. The problem with putting the WT Library on the iphone is legality, it is ILLEGAL to use the WT library's data for use outside of the WT library program (citations and snippets are allowed when they are referenced in talks and whatever). Read the EULA that you agree to when you install the WT Library, they spell it out in gory detail. Certain applications were granted the ability to use the WT library's data in in those cases they are not doing anything illegal. For now, I will NEVER make an application which breaks the law, and that would be anything that would display the society's material without their consent. What about the bible, cant you put the New World Translation in a iPhone application? No, please go to jw.org and download the epub formats that are provided for you. Same reason as above, but you can visit http://www.watchtower.org/bible for an online version of the New World Translation. Distributed copyrighted material, whatever its form is ILLEGAL. What about the Daily Text? No, please go to jw.org and download the epub formats that are provided for you. Same reason as above. Distributed copyrighted material, whatever its form is ILLEGAL. I heard about this iSilo program, that it can show the WT Library on the iPhone, how do I do that? I am not supporting/endorsing iSilo and the WTLibrary for the iPhone. I just downloaded/bought iSilo for $10. It is not that great of a user interface, though it works, and it hesitates a whole lot (like if you try to drag the page to page down, it sometimes does not even realize that you are dragging a page down). The "User interface" is a bunch of "links" to different documents. Here are instructions on how to put the WTLibrary data on your iOS device How do I sign up for the meekspace.com website to get the WTLibrary files? Go to http://meekspace.com/gaining-access/ and follow the instructions there :) I just clicked on "Enable Popups" and I cant get the popups to go away! I hate popups! The popups are enabled to show just once. There are 3 or 4 popups that are scattered through MyTime and only show once for each unique popup. I dont like popups either but they helped to lessen the amount of email I get for common questions. So you disable the popups by viewing them :) I just heard the letter about the new Watchtower CD that it will include a version for Windows Mobile phones, what does this mean for the iPhone? From what I know and what I read on the letter, it will only work on non-smartphone Windows PDAs (though I don't understand what the smartphone limitation is). This does not mean anything for an iPhone effort of creating a WTLibrary program. The brothers handling the iSilo formatted files have a distribution source through http://meekspace.com . Please follow the instructions at http://meekspace.com/gaining-access/ Why are you not working faster to get feature X out? Well I am doing this for free... and in my free time. I have responsibilities in the congregation and a wife and daughter that I don't want to alienate, so I don't have a lot of free time in the first place. This is a hobby and it is fun to work on when I can (I usually do something on it at least once a week). Don't hesitate to mention feature requests that are not already in the list above or in the Wishlist in the wiki pages. I want to help with the translation work, what do I do? Here are the instructions you need to follow: First, I have an email list for each language so that translators for a particular language can review and discuss translation issues. There are only witnesses on these email lists and there are only 1-5 people on most lists. Translators can also break up what work they want to do in pieces to reduce the translation burdeon. Please indicate which email address you want me to add to the email list for translators. Follow the following instructions as well:
I have loads of free time and am very detailed about things and I want to help with beta testing, what do I do? Before a version is released to Apple, I release several versions to the testers and translators to verify that things are OK before releasing to the masses. If you have the ability to quickly run through things within 1 or 2 days of sending out a testing build then you would be able to help with testing, if you are not able to get to the testing quickly then I appreciate your efforts but there are only so many slots for testing that I can give out. If you can be a tester, follow the instructions for the translation work just above and send me the iPhone/iTouch ID. I want to start developing a program for the iPhone, what should I do?
Isn't it materialistic to own an iPhone? Being materialistic is not about what you have it is rooted in our desires, our priorities, and our focus in life (g03 4/8 20-21). I personally depend on doing business on the iPhone to bring in an income for my household (1 Tim 5:8). There was an assembly part this year 2009 that dealt directly with this topic. It mentioned "a device" that could do "all kinds of things even keep up with my field service time and calls". The part mentioned how "devices" could be a snare and take up your time. Most of the time, though not all, you are the best judge if you are going out of your means to purchase something or if this device is going to be a time suck for you. I am not encouraging materialism, and certainly I don't want to be accused of causing people to be materialistic, so please do me a favor and think about Luke 14:28 and before purchasing anything. Why are you asking for donations? I have received two nasty emails (out of the hundreds of "thanks") like "If your a brother, It might not be appropriate to ask for money unless you are going to send it to the world wide work fund... Pray about it" and I want to make sure that people understand why I put a donation button in the program. First, I was asked by many people to have some way of being able to donate to me since I have spent countless hours writing this software and they recognized the effort that I put in this program. Writing and publishing an application on the iTunes AppStore is also not cheap; you have to pay yearly subscriptions just to even have the program show up on the AppStore, even if it is free. The cost, out of my pocket, of doing development is well over what I have received and will receive in donations, I am not making money for this program at all. Based on the society's direction in the Kingdom Ministry about this subject it seems like I am doing nothing wrong by principle, I am not selling the society's literature and I am not asking for money or doing business at the Kingdom Hall. I consider it like helping pay for gas in a car group when someone else drives. Isnt this an apostate ploy to steal our information?!? No, I would not be serving in my congregation if this was the case... Also I freely show you the source code that is running in mytime, just click on the "Source" tab above and look through the source code. Any able programmer could look and see that I am not doing anything malicious (no other Field Service program on the app store is giving you this assurance). I am not gathering data about your usage, I am not posting ads to the user, I am not sending your information anywhere. The only thing that goes on the internet is the geocache location information so as to put your calls on the mapped call view, and it only sends the address of the call to google maps to resolve the GPS location. All of your data is safe and secure in your personal iPod/iPhone. Doesn't the society tell us to not use electronic devices for field service activity? No, I have not found any information pointing to this fact yet (let me know if I am wrong). There is repeated information about "keeping accurate records" like KM 9/88 p3 for instance. Many articles mention to record the information, in fact one article KM12/02 p8 mentions that people have used various means to note their activity "some use a calendar or diary. Others carry a blank field service report slip with them". The gist I get from most of the articles is: record your information accurately so that you can give a truthful report and keep up with your return visits so that you can be a better minister. What was your experience with Apple's development program, I heard that it is a big ball of wax? Here is my experience as a developer writing a free application as a freelance developer and I will compare it with me developing a commercial program as a Company (there is a huge difference, the freelance is much easier and has less of a wait) Freelance, Free Application (after application is developed and ready to ship):
Commercial Application (after application is developed and ready to ship, though this is WAY better now, this was just the first experience):
Screenshots
|
|
|
