[WIP] JJ2 Android Server list app - GIP on your Phone :)

[wKtK]

<07-02-2012> AndroidGIP has been Discontinued. Fear not, the development will go on, only in a different project. Read my post here (http://www.jazz2online.com/jcf/showpost.php?p=473970&postcount=18) for more info.
<20-01-2012> Added a new version. Password support added. Some bugs fixed. Cleaned this post up a bit. See FAQ (next post) for a short guide on using passwords.

What it does:

AndroidGIP let's you check JJ2 Servers on the go, showing the gamemode and the players inside. Passworded servers supported!

Media goes here:

Here are some screenshots from my phone (Galaxy SII) (subject to changes, ofc.):

http://f1r3w4ll01.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/b2_titlescreen1.png
^ A new titlescreen :) I hope you like it.

http://f1r3w4ll01.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/b1_serverlist.png
^ An overview of all servers, retrieved from a list-server.

http://f1r3w4ll01.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/b2_serverlist1.png
^ Info for a server. A lot of the bugs here have been removed, and player-info is way more accurate now. In the future, things like ||* will be parsed correctly.

Well, you've convinced me. Gimme.
Also known as: Where to get it/Download.

This app is Discontinued, and it's functionallity will be incorporated in another project.

However, for anyone interested in beta-testing I'll upload a beta-version. Keep in mind, however, the beta-version may occasionally crash or display strange/no results. I'll try to do my best to make the beta's uploaded here at least safe for your phone, however I can't promise anything.

The no.1 important thing to keep in mind with beta's is: You Mileage May Vary.


Link to the beta version:<download &="" install="" <font="" color="Red"> </download>http://wktk.4shared.com/<download &="" install="" <font="" color="Red"> install at your own risk!</download>
When reporting a bug, please include the size in kb of the APK you downloaded, so I know the version.

Problems, Bugs, ETC.

The following major bugs are known/reported ATM:
DONT REPORT ANYMORE. THIS PROJECT IS DISCONTINUED.


Loading/Parsing a playerlist crashes if a player joins/leaves at that exact moment;
The error-dialog doesn't show up for each crash yet, and shows wrong info sometimes;
Server information, especially plus-data, is not completely inplemented yet;
If you're on a plane, throwing your phone out of the window will break it.

Are you the only one who realised this project?

Well, at the moment I'm the only one working on the app, doing all the programming/GUI-design by myself. My original (very small) programming/media creation group has kinda died...
However, I recieved some help from several people, including members of this community:

ÐJazzy for providing me with the Protocols needed for communicating with servers. See them on ERE. Which reminds me:
21:14:10 CoTD SE': I want a credit for providing DJ's msn ^there you go~
Neobeo's great JazzSD program saved me from ripping some graphics myself
Jake presented me with a great idea, and will probably collaborate with me in order to realise it.

And of course thanks to all of you who showed their appreciation for this project, and offered ideas/feedback.

See next post for a F.A.Q

[wKtK]

Wait, I have some questions:

Sure, I'll try to answer 'em. Please feel free to post other questions in this thread.

{Q} Is this going to cost me any money?
{A} No, of course not. I would be a jerk if I tried making money of JJ2. The app will always be free. Keep the following in mind, however: This app communicates with servers over the Internet. Your mobile provider may charge you depending of your use of on-line content/bandwidth.

{Q} Will people be able to cheat with this?
{A} NO. This app only provides a list of current games on your android phone. It's just a server-list. And I hope you rather be a honest-loser than a cheating-winner. Cheating sucks.

{Q} How do I install this on my {insert phone here}
{A} The beta is provided as an .APK-file. This is a package containing the application and data (images/text etc.) Please search google on how to install APK-files on your phone. A TIP: Don't rename to .jar. That won't work. Google.

{Q} It just chrashes/shows a blank screen...
{A} Make sure you installed the app in a valid way. I'm testing this app on my Samsung Galaxy SII, so the app may be incompatible with other phones. I'm planning on resolving this once I finish adding the features to the app.

{Q} How do I login to a private server?
{A} First, download the newest version! Ok, you can login in 2 different ways:
- Manual Login: Simply touch the server, like you do with public ones. A password dialog should show.
- Auto Login: In the main menu, choose Configuration. Under Passwords, enter the servernames and corresponding passwords. an example is given in the app.

{Q} Do I need root access/a custom rom?
{A} No. It just needs permission to access your network, in order to connect to the servers. And you need Android 2.1 or higher. However, almost everyone meets that requirement :)

{Q} Does the app have a homepage?
{A} Yes, check it out at lunarsoft.info (http://www.lun4rsoft.info) (redirects here til i add content)

{Q} How does the join feature work? Can I play JJ2 on my phone?
{A} First of all, This is NOT a port of JJ2. This will NOT enable you to play JJ2 on any other platform than already is possible.
Now on the join feature: I've not yet started to implement this, but it'll probably communicate with another program on your PC that passes info to JJ2. AGAIN: this will NOT include any functions to give you an unfair advantage over other. NO cheating.
However, you might want to check this out... (http://www.jazz2online.com/jcf/showpost.php?p=473970&postcount=18)

{Q} Will it support my proxy settings?
{A} At the moment, it doesn't. But once I've squashed a few GUI-bugs, I'll check on that. If possible, the final version will use your phone's proxy settings :)
UPDATE2: Proxy support for socks-proxies has been added to the engine, and will be added to the app soon.

{Q} Will you port it to IOS/Windows Mobile/Other Mobile OS?
{A} No. Because I do not have a phone with one of these OS's to test the app on. However, read the question below this one:

{Q} Will it be open source? I want to Learn/Improve/Port/etc.
{A} I support open source. So yes, the app will most likely become open source at some point. However, this must not impact the general users so it will only happen when the app is finished completely. This is in order to prevent half-complete versions of the code floating around, causing problems for... well... everyone. Also, I don't think the code will be just downloadable, I'll probably distribute it to people who contact me with a good reason (see the last part of this question). But that moment is still far away, and this answer is by no means final. If you got a better suggestion, feel free to post it here.

{Q} I have another question...
{A} Feel free to post it :) I'll try to do my best. On weekdays, I mostly reply after 19:00 (GMT+1) due to college and stuff.

[GLaDOS]

This looks like a quite useful app for Android users, looking forward to the beta release. I wish you the best of luck with coding it!

[Toni_]

Why is there a Join game button? We're not able to join because there's no JJ2 for this platform.

[Lithium]

I think it lets you see the players in the server.

[wKtK]

Why is there a Join game button? We're not able to join because there's no JJ2 for this platform.

Thanks for your reply

From the F.A.Q (Post #2):

First of all, This is NOT a port of JJ2. This will NOT enable you to play JJ2 on any other platform than already is possible.
Now on the join feature: I've not yet started to implement this, but it'll probably communicate with another program on your PC that passes info to JJ2.

So It'll just tell jj2 on your PC to connect. This will be useful in combination with notification support I plan to add later :)

[cooba]

This is way too cool. Finish the beta soon so I can make a J2O newspost.

[wKtK]

This is way too cool. Finish the beta soon so I can make a J2O newspost.

Thanks for your reply :)

I'm happy that you like it, I'll PM you when the beta is uploaded here :)
Expect it end next week, fri-sun.

Never thought I'll be in J2O-news, lol :D

[Jgke]

Idea, try changing the background in the running rabbits-picture to the colour to the background colour of the main screen. Also, I can give you free hosting for the app of yours, if you want :)

[wKtK]

Idea, try changing the background in the running rabbits-picture to the colour to the background colour of the main screen. Also, I can give you free hosting for the app of yours, if you want :)

Hi Jake,

Thanks for your suggestions, I appreciate it :)

The RR picture is transparent, but i had to place it in a button because the way of check if a user clicked that was easier. This will of course be fixed in the final version.
EDIT@20-11-2011: The running rabbits-pic is now replaced with a title-screen. Enjoy :)

About the free hosting, thank you very much for your offer. The app is still in development, and until it's (almost) finished I'll provide the hosting on one of my old domains (the same the screenshots are hosted on).
When the app is finished, I plan on building a website for it and hosting it there.

However, if any need for 3rd-party hosting (or a mirror upload) arrives, I'll be sure to contact you.

Again, Thanks for replying :)

[CrimiClown]

Okay, so it's cool and all... but what is the practical use? I check my GIP when I start up the game and thus I am ready to join.

[wKtK]

Okay, so it's cool and all... but what is the practical use? I check my GIP when I start up the game and thus I am ready to join.

Thanks for your reply,

About a practical use... Well it depends on the person using it, and their way of locating servers/other players. I myself, for example, always check DJazzy's GIP (http://jazzjackrabbit.net/sgip/) before I join a match to see if anyone I know is playing online. During gameplay I mostly leave the page open to continue checking.
This process can be simplyfied by making my phone notify me (sound/popup etc.) when a certain player joins a server. Having a small but complete GIP on another screen would really help some people, judging from reactions I got.

Again, it all depends on how you locate servers you want to join (and the people therin.

And I think atleast some people would find it cool to choose a server on their phone, press a button and have JJ2 on the PC starting up, playing in that server. It's like a JJ2-Remote :cool:

Anyway, thanks for your reply. I'll admit this isn't the most useful JJ2-oriented program, but I hope it'll help some people in their JJ2-life.

If you, or anyone, has an idea/suggestion to make it more useful, feel free to post it and I'll check it out :)

wKtK.

[Jgke]

Perhaps you could even make this to an admin tool instead of just a GIP... You know, able to chat as the server. That would require a server-side program too, but that shouldn't really be that hard ;)

[CrimiClown]

Thanks for your reply,

About a practical use... Well it depends on the person using it, and their way of locating servers/other players. I myself, for example, always check DJazzy's GIP (http://jazzjackrabbit.net/sgip/) before I join a match to see if anyone I know is playing online. During gameplay I mostly leave the page open to continue checking.
This process can be simplyfied by making my phone notify me (sound/popup etc.) when a certain player joins a server. Having a small but complete GIP on another screen would really help some people, judging from reactions I got.

Again, it all depends on how you locate servers you want to join (and the people therin.

And I think atleast some people would find it cool to choose a server on their phone, press a button and have JJ2 on the PC starting up, playing in that server. It's like a JJ2-Remote :cool:

Anyway, thanks for your reply. I'll admit this isn't the most useful JJ2-oriented program, but I hope it'll help some people in their JJ2-life.

If you, or anyone, has an idea/suggestion to make it more useful, feel free to post it and I'll check it out :)

wKtK.
Okay, I think I got it now. The part where you lost me is where I realised I don't have one of those new-fangled phones. Mine can send text messages!!!

But yeah, I see your point, this could prove very useful for people who have these kinds of phones.

[wKtK]

Perhaps you could even make this to an admin tool instead of just a GIP... You know, able to chat as the server. That would require a server-side program too, but that shouldn't really be that hard ;)

Now that's a great idea :)
Although I don't know if I'll implement it in this app or make a separate app for it, I'll try make something like that if I find time. A server-side receiver shouldn't be hard, like you said.

Thanks for your input,
-wKtK

[Jgke]

And if you want some cooperation, I probably could make the server-side, if you do the client-side.

[wKtK]

And if you want some cooperation, I probably could make the server-side, if you do the client-side.

Yeah, that would be good idea :)

However, The GIP functionality of this app has my priority at the moment, as I'm planning on finishing that first.

About chat, Sending chat would be a good option, but maybe receiving all chat would be to much for a bad mobile-internet connection. That should be an option the user could toggle/filter.

And maybe we should further discuss this over PM, as this is bound to flood the thread with offtopic-ness. ;-)

-wKtK [at school, so responding slow ;) ]

[wKtK]

Old text:
(sorry for the doublepost, but the last one was 3 months ago and i got a new version)

Okay, a new version has been realeased, adding password-support. Yes, you can now finally login to Zeal Duels, giving this app at least a bit of a purpose :)

Bugs still remain, but some where squashed. See the first post for a link.

Enjoy :)

Ok, as you might have seen from the first post, this project is discontinued. This is NOT because I'll stop working on jj2 stuff, but the functionality of this project will be incorporated into another project.

I'm making a Cross-platform, Opensource re-write of JJ2.

The android version will be capable of everything this does, and much more.

However, a project like this will take many months, so in the meantime please stick with this. It's functional, and won't brick your phone. Enjoy.

Thanks to all the ppl who gave this feedback.

[MrAlextov]

Please release the source code

[Stijn]

Please release the source code

Why

[Grytolle]

tried it on my new phone! bit buggy but still quite awesome :D

[wKtK]

I found the source code, though it's not commented very well. If anyone wants it, feel free to send me a pm here, or to send me an email.

[Slaz]

I make regular use of the Android GIP on my phone. Buggy or not, it's a handy tool to check passworded clan servers when you aren't around and can't join. ;)