My favorites | Sign in
Project Logo
Project Home
  
Downloads
  
Wiki
  
Issues
  
Source
    
Summary | Updates | People
Code license: GNU General Public License v2
Labels: iphone
Feeds:
People details
Project owners:
  toopriddy

MyTime keeps up with your return visits and field service time so that you can accurately keep up with your field service activity report for the month.

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:

iPhone 3.0 software info

Apple is taking FOREVER to approve a release that was given to them over 3 weeks ago that fix all 3.0 software issues. There are workarounds that you can do to still use MyTime:

Sorry I know these are annoying but they are ONLY there because of the 3.0 update and fixes were prepared so you would not experience these problems but sadly apple has not released the updated version of MyTime

NEWS

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.

If you live in a country that has a "legal unlocked" iphone sales channel (I know Hong Kong does) then please contact me. I am on tmobile and am looking for a replacement phone, preferably one that I do not have to worry about software unlocking.

6/21/2009 News flash: if you upgrade to a new phone your data from ALL programs will not be restored. You need to use the email backup feature in MyTime->More->Settings->Email Backup to transfer your data to the new phone!

6/12/2009 So, I am pretty stupid... I forgot to turn off some debugging utilities when I released the last 2 versions of MyTime and it causes a crash after extended use of MyTime (which is probably 99% of what you do, hah). I have found and fixed the error and hopefully I will not make such a bonehead mistake again. This is the bug that most of you who have reported crashes while entering a publication are experiencing.

1/13/2009 Yey the update fixes peoples language problem. Though there is a bug if you enter information from the "studies" view it does not save the data :( I have already fixed this and it will be included in the next update

On a side note, I am planning on being in Australia (Cairns, Sydney, Hobart) and New Zeland for a family reunion in September/October and would love to meet anyone who is using mytime (not like we are not going to meet many brothers and sisters at the meetings anyways). Quantas is having some crazy cheap flights from the US for the next 2 days. Send me an email if you live there and when your meeting times are or even if you don't live there and you have information about what to do there.

1/12/2009 Just got an email from apple, the 1.8 Version has been approved and is on the AppStore right now

1/7/2009 I have called apple, and sent them an email about the language issue mentioned in the next news item. If they dont speed things up, it will take a minimum 4 days to get this fixed (possibly released Sunday or Monday but it is out of my hands). Please read the news item just below:

1/6/2009 There is a bug with the iphone software that is making US english people's iPhones display French or some other language. I have submitted a fix to apple on 1/6/2009 but am waiting on apple to approve the update, I have called them and send them emails about solving this issue to no avail. The problem is region translations (like UK english v.s. US english) it is not handing the US english correctly so it is picking another language, well 2.2 seems to go right down your list of languages in Settings->General->International->Language not that this helps you or anything :( This is why some of you are seeing French, some Japanese, some German. Basically all non English witnesses are ok with this version, I am resubmitting tonight with a fix. This was not found in my testing, the beta testers, OR EVEN APPLE's testing, sigh. I am very sorry for this problem, I have received > 300 emails about this problem :(

Possible Workaround IF YOU ARE ON A MAC AND IF YOU HAVE NOT SYNCED WITH iTunes yet, You might be able to use "MyTime Backup" to backup your data, then delete MyTime off of your phone, then sync with your iTunes, which should reinstall MyTime on your iPhone then restore the data using "MyTime Backup"

Looking for...

Translators

I 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 Artists

I 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

Documenters

I am looking for someone to help with documentation or YouTube videos on how to use MyTime (without real addresses and good quality, I would like to have input on the script that you use for videos). email me if you are interested

Installing

This 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 2.2

Features in the 2.3.0 release:

Features in this release (re-submitted to apple on June 12, 2009):

==Features in the next 2.4.0 release: Features already completed and being tested (I plan on releasing to apple the week of 6/6/2009):

==Planned priorities in the next 2.5.0 release: Features I am contemplating on adding based on time:

TODOs/Feature Request List

You can submit feature requests using the wiki page http://code.google.com/p/mytime/wiki/Wishlist or just emailing me (in MyTime on the iPhone go to More->Settings->Comments or Questions to email me)

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

Are you one of Jehovah's Witnesses? Yes, I am in the Huntsville West, AL Congregation in the USA.

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.

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 then you can use the contact link from within MyTime, just look in the settings tab.

Why are you asking for donations? I have received one or two nasty emails (out of the hundreds) 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.

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. I do not plan on making a single view where you can just increment/decrement your Field service activity report without accounting for that information in a call somehow. Sorry if this is an irritation but it helps to ensure that we are following the direction that we are given as to how to keep up with our calls and field service activity in an organized way.

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. The Blackberry does seem like a good platform to do this on since it is available on most all networks in the US, but I dont know about the International market, most people that I know of internationally use Nokia phones or the iPhone (MyTime is being used all over the world, I would say that > 60% of the ~11,237 users are not in the US but this is a guess because the statistics I get from apple are based on unit "sales" and not total usage). Sorry, I have to stick with my iPhone it is just too useful to abandon.

Can you get this to work on the G1 or other Android phones? Nope, same as the blackberry below, BUT there is a brother who is doing this from scratch, He is doing beta tests right now and does not have anything available for the general public. Here is the website http://servicetime.hobbyshelf.com he has screenshots and more information. If you are interested in helping, you can email him at android@hobbyshelf.com but just like me he is doing this in free time so please don't email him about anything unless you are wanting to help testing efforts.

What if I upgrade to a iPhone 3G? Will I be able to transfer my MyTime data? Yes, just get your new phone, authorize it, and then RESTORE the phone using the backup from your first generation iPhone. Just make sure before you upgrade your iphone that you get a full backup before doing this.

Does this work on the iTouch or iPhone? Yes it works on the iTouch, iPhone and iPhone 3G

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.

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? MyTime 1.5 will add the ability to manually email the MyTime data to yourself. It is built-in for the 2.0 software so you don't need a backup button. When you sync your iPhone/iTouch with iTunes, iTunes will backup all of your applications and data, including the MyTime calls data. If you are using iPhone software < 2.0 there is no good way to sync the data from MyTime with your computer so that you can recover from a catastrophic iPhone failure. At least you have the instructions above for backing up the MyTime data. If you want to manually backup and restore you could download and use MyTime Backup on OSX 10.5.X.

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:

  1. turn off your iphone (hold the power button at the top for a couple of seconds till the slide to power off appears and then slide it to turn off
  2. press and hold the power AND home buttons and HOLD THE BUTTONS DOWN for exactly 10 seconds and then immediately release the power button and STILL HOLD the home button for 10 more seconds
  3. (the screen should be black right now) hook the iphone to your computer, it should say that it is in a mode where you need to restore the iphone. IF YOU DO NOT GET THIS MESSAGE FROM ITUNES THEN YOU DID SOMETHING WRONG START OVER, select to restore the iphone from itunes. THIS WILL BLOW EVERYTHING AWAY ON YOUR IPHONE, but it will restore from the last backup that you had, so if you did not have anything that changed since the last backup then it is not a big deal.
  4. wait forever, restoring takes a while, when the iphone comes backup then select the backup to restore from and then do some more waiting.
  5. Things should be like before you deleted the application

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.

  1. On your iPhone/iTouch go to MyTime->More->Settings and touch the "Backup Data".
  2. Now on OSX start the MyTime Backup program and select "Restore"
  3. then find your old record.plist file from your backup.
Sorry there is no NON-OSX version of 'MyTime Backup' right now.

How do I restore a backup that I retrieved using the "email me my backup" from the MyTime program? You currently cant unless you are using OSX or have access to a Mac. Many people just asked for the ability to have a hard copy of their calls even if they cant restore it from a Windows PC so I added the email ability. I have looked into a Windows solution for restoring a backup and it looks like a bunch of work (compared with the 2 hours it took me to create the OSX version) that I can not commit to right now. If you are using OSX then you need to get the latest version of "MyTime Backup" because I have recently added the ability to backup from the emailed file. Here is what you have to do once you get the email:

  1. copy the contents of the email into a text file (ONLY include the body of the email, not the subject/to/from, ONLY the body; you should see something like "version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?..." )
    1. To save a file on a mac, open "TextEdit"
    2. Go to File->New
    3. Go to Format->Make Plain Text
    4. Now paste the body of the email from the MyTime program (THIS IS ONLY THE BODY OF THE EMAIL), please do not include anything else but the BODY of the email.
    5. save the file and give it a memorable filename and place to live.
  2. Now just use the "MyTime Backup" program like normal:
    1. On your iPhone/iTouch go to MyTime->More->Settings and touch the "Backup Data".
    2. Now on OSX start the MyTime Backup program and select "Restore"
    3. then find the file that you just created using TextEdit and open that file.

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"

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.

Why is my study not counting as a return visit? This is the same problem as above with return visits. You must add an initial visit before you add a study visit to conduct your study. As per the July 2004 KM: "The study may be reported when it has been conducted two times after the study arrangement is demonstrated and if there is reason to believe that the study will continue". MyTime is encouraging you to work along with the direction that we are provided.

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.

Does iTunes backup the MyTime data? Yes, every time you sync with iTunes (I just want to further clarify this point).

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? Possibly, but 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? The problem with putting the WT Library on the iphone is not complication but 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 applicatoins were granted the ability to use the WT library's data in in those cases they are not doing anything illegal. I am going to be in contact with someone from the legal department to see about this. 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, same reason as above, but you can visit http://www.watchtower.org/bible for an online version of the New World Translation

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 and am very disappointed. It is a pretty bad user interface and 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. To get this program just buy iSilo from the AppStore, then contact the witnesses that run the yahoo group http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/wtpub/ that legally converts the WT Library to the isilo format. They have instructions there on how to install the program. You should receive a link from them to download a couple files with a .pdb extension. If you have a Mac (I dont support/care how to do this on a PC, sorry) then on your Mac you need to run the Settings program and go to Sharing->Enable Web Sharing (remember what it said for "Your personal website"). Now on the Mac open the Finder and go to <your user directory>/Sites/ and create a directory named "isilo" and put your .pdb files into that ~/Sites/isilo/ directory (do NOT ask me for the .pdb file I will NOT distribute copyrighted material, go through the forum to get the approved file). Now in the iSilo program on your iPhone, click on the "..." button at the top right of the screen (did I mention this had a horrible user interface?) and select "download". Type in what the settings->Sharing->Enable Web sharing said for "your personal website" like http://imac/~bpriddy/isilo/ and then click on the .pdb file you want to install. Select the directory to put it in and then hit save (I picked "/"), after it downloads try to download the other files. Now you can view the WT Libarary on your phone! This is the extent of my knowledge of this program or how to get stuff on the iphone using isilo, again I am pretty disappointed at how this works, but hey I can lookup stuff in the reasoning book on my iphone.

How do I sign up for the Yahoo group to get the WTLibrary files? You would need to sign up for a yahoo ID and then join the group after logging into the yahoo group. It is a bit cumbersome, go to http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/wtpub/ then you need to click on the link that says "Sign in now" then click on "Sign Up" in the section that says "Dont have a Yahoo ID?". Then after getting your yahoo ID go back to the yahoo group link http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/wtpub/ and sign up for that. Once you are signed up for the yahoo group, just click on "Post" link in the left hand side and in the message block just ask for the WT 2007 library files. You will need your year text and latest kingdom ministry because you have to answer questions based on those publications.

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 yahoo group for iSilo formatted files have set up a new group just for WtPub2008 http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/WTPub2008/ . To register for the new group and obtain a copy of WtPub2008, you will need a copy of the official Watchtower Library 2008. They will ask specific questions based on it. You won't be able to answer without the Library. So they ask to please wait until you have your own copy, and then register for the new group.

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 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:

  1. Sync your iphone/itouch with iTunes,
  2. select your iphone/itouch device in the left hand view
  3. and click on the "Serial Number" text (it will change from the serial number to a device ID),
  4. now use the copy keyboard sortcut (splat-C or apple-C whatever you want to call it on OSX and CTRL+C on windows) and email me that 40 character hexidecimal string that is in your clipboard (for example, it looks like 12381239481243d1ade123498234). You just have to paste the text into an email using splat-V on OSX and CTRL+C on windows. make sure you include what language(s) you are able to translate to.
I can only do this for 100 people so first come first serve. Please do not send me your iphone/itouch's ID string if you are not going to translate MyTime You can then go to the Translation Instructions page and start translating.

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?

  1. Read the Cocoa Programming for Mac OSX 3rd edition, it gives a good intro to objective C and Cocoa.
  2. Read articles at CocoaDev.com
  3. Download the iPhone SDK from apple
  4. Tutorial on how to make a OSX program http://masters-of-the-void.com/
  5. Take a look at a video class in iTunes of Stanford's iPhone programming class lectures
  6. listen to "Late Night Cocoa" podcast from iTunes (listen to the memory management podcast if you dont know about it, it is very good)
  7. And play with example programs from apple.

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









Hosted by Google Code