Hello! My name is Ryan Guggenheim; I’m a long-time member of the forum, though I mostly use it as a resource, not posting much. I have learned tons from all of the people on this forum. I don’t consider myself an expert by any means, but have two healthy 5-year old Greek tortoises, Cujo and Tweek, largely thanks to the advice I've received here.
I am an IT professional who is currently out of work, and am using some of my free time teaching myself how to program for the iPhone. One thing I’ve always wanted to do is create a tortoise tracking app that could be used to gather info on my tortoises. I have been working on the app for the last month or so, teaching myself programming as I go, and it’s coming along pretty well. I originally started this as a learning experience, but I think I may have something that others may actually find useful.
In order to make this program - whether it is something I eventually make available or simply use as a learning tool - truly useful, I’d like to get some advice.
Here is what the app is so far.
> Main screen - The first page is a list of Tortoises, each with a photo, name, species and sex (with "Unknown" being an option for sex).
When a tortoise is tapped, it brings you to…
There are some “special” features.
1. What other information would you collect? I can think of some things:
Thank you all in advance! I really appreciate any help that you could give me. And thanks again for all of the work you all put into this site, and into helping people like me.
I am an IT professional who is currently out of work, and am using some of my free time teaching myself how to program for the iPhone. One thing I’ve always wanted to do is create a tortoise tracking app that could be used to gather info on my tortoises. I have been working on the app for the last month or so, teaching myself programming as I go, and it’s coming along pretty well. I originally started this as a learning experience, but I think I may have something that others may actually find useful.
In order to make this program - whether it is something I eventually make available or simply use as a learning tool - truly useful, I’d like to get some advice.
Here is what the app is so far.
> Main screen - The first page is a list of Tortoises, each with a photo, name, species and sex (with "Unknown" being an option for sex).
When a tortoise is tapped, it brings you to…
> Tortoise detail page. This is where tortoise-specific info is listed. Photo, Name, Species, Sex, Birth Date, Date Acquired, Location Acquired, and Price are listed here.
At the bottom of the page there is a link to …
At the bottom of the page there is a link to …
There are some “special” features.
- Tortoise names can be duplicated.
- Deletion of tortoises and measurements is possible.
- It is possible to take photos directly in the app (makes adding a photo of a tort during a measurement simple), or they can be imported from the phone’s Photo Library.
- For each tortoise, the user can import a .csv file (comma separated value file) that has previously recorded measurements. This allows for bulk loading of past measurement info - measurement date, weight and length can be added this way (everything but the measurement photo). This is not a simple process - anyone that’s tried to import a file to an app on the iPhone knows it’s not easy. Ideally, it would pull the file from iCloud, but in order to program for that, I need a paid Apple developer account, something that I don’t have at the moment.
1. What other information would you collect? I can think of some things:
At the tortoise level, I could see tracking:
Lastly, I can see an analysis function being useful. Either showing graphs (weight / SCL by date), or allowing the export of data, perhaps in the same .csv format as the import format.
2. Is this something that people would find useful? As I've said, I'm doing this mostly for my own purposes, but if there is interest....Husbandry Info (tracking parents), but I’m not sure this makes sense - I don’t breed torts, so I’m not sure it’s even possible to tell parentage in most situations.
At the measurement level, I could see tracking:
Temperature Info (basking, warm side, cool side?)
Food? (Not sure how I’d record this… a text box?)
I can also see the ability to track things not specifically related to a single tortoise being useful. Like tracking an incubator. Or perhaps tracking a "pen" ("table", "habitat"), then having each one own one or more tortoises.Food? (Not sure how I’d record this… a text box?)
Lastly, I can see an analysis function being useful. Either showing graphs (weight / SCL by date), or allowing the export of data, perhaps in the same .csv format as the import format.
Thank you all in advance! I really appreciate any help that you could give me. And thanks again for all of the work you all put into this site, and into helping people like me.