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I am making an app where the user will probably want to import a custom settings file.

It is a tuning fork app, and there are more tuning systems in existence than you can shake a stick at. I will supply a settings file that contains maybe half a dozen common tunings. this will satisfy 99% of customers, but those who want to go the extra mile I would like to provide the option of complete customisation.

Now it doesn't make sense to make an elaborate UI design. it would take users hours of painstaking way looking up numbers on Google or using their calculator, and keying in various tuning systems.

also what if they reset their phone?

what if they want to transmit this data to the iPad?

what if they want to send their configuratino to a friend?

what if I am maintaining a wiki which holds 300 different tuning systems, and they would like to grab half a dozen?

the best solution path I can see is to have the user create a text configuration file, with a simple format. something like this:

theme: "A3"
comment: "An octave below concert pitch (ie A4 440Hz)"
presets: {
A3 220Hz=220.0
}

// http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitar_tuning
theme: "Guitar Standard Tuning"
comment:"EADGBE using 12-TET tuning"
presets {
E2=82.41
A2=110.00
D3=146.83
G3=196.00
B3=246.94
E4=329.63
}

theme: "Bass Guitar Standard Tuning"
comment: "EADG using 12-TET tuning"
presets: {
E1=41.204
A2=55.000
D3=73.416
G3=97.999
}

Question is, how to get this on to their iPhone?

I don't want to rely on iTunes. maybe they will take their phone on holiday with them, and not their computer. maybe they don't even have a Mac, and they don't have iTunes on their PC. maybe they don't have a PC. maybe they just hate iTunes?

I don't have the resources to set up server space and actually host something myself.

first question: does there exists some place on the Internet I can deposit a text file and retrieve it with a minimal URL?

second question: I would also like to provide a mechanism for the user to load the file directly from their computer, ( say for example they are off-line ) -- how to do this?

P i
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2 Answers2

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Making a file in that format seems like an awful lot of hard work for a user. It also seems like it would be a pretty big headache for you having to parse that data as the user will undoubtably only rarely get the format correct.

If I was designing this app I would make a UI for the settings. By making the UI you decouple the app from a computer completely as you no longer have to make a text file.

The only potential reasonable solution which is not viable as you do not want to set up a web service would be to create a small web front end where a user can edit their pref's through a custom form and then save the results. Then you can serve up the info by giving them a url, but this still seems a lot harder than just doing it on the device.

Remember that you will also have to implement UI anyway or the user will be forced to use a computer to configure their app - which quickly results in your app being canned for an easier alternative.

If this is still a route you wish to continue down then see this post for filetype association:.

Community
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Paul.s
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    From my days of configuring my Quake setup, I have been a great fan of configuration files. it lets you get everything together, and see what you are doing, cut-and-paste, comment, email, drag slabs of text off webpages. it is only going to be a small fraction of users that actually care enough to make their own tunings, and if they have the patience for this, they can surely have the patience to work with the text file. In fact I think they will appreciate it. – P i Jul 11 '11 at 17:08
  • Really on a portable (keyboardless) device it is a lot of hassle to manually have to enter so much information, and then there is a problem with moving that data between devices. Also how can people share their configs? I cannot see a more practical solution. – P i Jul 11 '11 at 17:12
  • I would unfortunately disagree. The ase of editing you gain from using a text file is completely offset by the requirement of stepping away from your device to create a text file and then play around importing it. If you make the UI right then it will be intuitive and immediate (no messing around). You have to remember the way people use their devices is: out of the pocket -> load my app -> use it quickly -> back in the pocket. This happens in quick succesion at no point does a user think I have a great new tuning I want to use lets pop over to the computer. – Paul.s Jul 11 '11 at 17:13
  • you have made me realise that my question was badly formed. I have revised it, to illustrate the rationale behind this choice of solution path. – P i Jul 11 '11 at 17:40
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If I paste something into Pastie, eg

http://pastie.org/2197740

I can get the raw text back by copying the URL of the ' download ' link.

(NOTE: cannot use the 'raw' link, as that still displays an HTML file containing JavaScript)

EDIT: Using http://min.us you can actually deposit a textfile, and then pass the URL -- which you get by copying the link from the ' download ' button on the page ).

EDIT: gist.github seems to be the perfect tool for this -- you can write a text file in the browser, and save it. and pastes typically persist forever. just need to throw the URL through bit.ly to shorten it.

P i
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