WorldView Live ( i-phone app)
Paul
via web
Hi
First I downloaded the free version which seemed ok for free, but
it only updated my favourite live sea front webcam about every 35
minutes.
When viewed on a computer the webcam that I refer to realy is live,
as it is updates every second (or faster).
This is The Exmouth Seafront Beach Webcam (UK, England).
I read the details on the i-phones App Store for the paid for
version (World View Live) & it appeared to promise to update
the picture as soon the the camera updates, so I purchased
it.
The live (paid for) version works exactly the same as the free
version. only updating my favourite seaside webcam about every 35
minutes, not every second.
I have tried tapping the refresh button but still it does not
update as it should.
I have found other live webcams that do not update on World View
Live (i-phone) as they would if viewed directly using a
computer.
Please advise.
Paul
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Support Staff 2 Posted by Andreas Linde on 14 Jan, 2010 10:36 PM
Hi Paul,
WorldView uses the webcam database of http://webcams.travel/ for showing webcam images. This service does cache the webcam images itself and revisits the webcams depending on their popularity, but never more frequent than ever 15 minutes. The free version of WorldView shows exactly these images. So the image updates whenever webcams.travel service visits the webcam again to update its cached image. This way images can be provided faster, because the webcam is not overloaded with requests and also webcams.travel doesn't want to take away the people from watching the webcam website itself.
Now the Live edition of WorldView extends this functionality, meaning I, as the developer, am adding direct access to lots of webcams shown on the website of webcams.travel. So I manually check each webcam, check the update frequency and instead of showing the cached image from webcams.travel, the app accesses the webcam directly. This is only possible for the webcams I added, meaning currently more than 2.000, while webcams.travel catalogue has more than 11.000 webcams. (As I wrote in the app description). Now there is another technical hurdle, the iPhone cannot show webcams which use Flash or Java, only ones that have images or Motion-JPEG for video.
Hope this description helps understanding the way it works in more detail and extends what is already written in both app descriptions.
Now regarding the webcam you mentioned: This was so far not added to the database. I added it with an update frequency of 1 seconds. The streaming video available on the website uses Flash or Java, which is not available on the iPhone. You will see the live image, automatically updating every second in fullscreen starting tomorrow after your first start of the app.
Best,
Andreas
3 Posted by Paul & Sue Mcloughlin on 15 Jan, 2010 10:59 PM
Hi Andreas
Thank you for the fast reply & for speeding up the Web-Cam I mentioned to update every second. Much appreciated.
If I want to add a webcam it looks like I need to type a user name & password, but I don’t remember the App Store asking for a user name when I set up the account. It asked for my full name, and it always asks me to enter my password when I download an app but, that’s all. If I did give a user name I cant now remember what it was.
Can I just make up a user name as long as I enter my correct password ?
An idea for you next software update would be to extend the search facility to select from listings. I know that there are thousands of cameras worldwide, but the selection could first be from a list of countries, which would then take you to a list of towns & cities.
Best regards
Paul
P.S. I would like to give WorldView Live a good review but cannot find where to do this.
My invoice from i-Tunes has a link marked write a review but when I click on it, it just takes me to the i-Tunes website & I cannot find anywhere to give your app a review star rating.
-----Original Message-----
From: Andreas Linde [mailto:***@tenderapp.com]
Sent: 14 January 2010 22:37
To: ***@btinternet.com
Subject: Re: WorldView Live ( i-phone app) [Support]
Support Staff 4 Posted by Andreas Linde on 15 Jan, 2010 11:20 PM
Hi Paul,
if you want to add a webcam without using webcams.travel archive by entering the URL to the webcam image yourself, then username and password are optional. If you are accessing publicly available webcams you won't need them mostly. If so, the website would tell you so. But make sure the image URL you type in, is pointing to the URL of the image which is getting updated. Some webcams do create a new URL for each new image, so these won't work.
Anyhow, never use the username and password of iTunes, they have nothing to do with this!
Regarding the listings idea, that might be possible, but I think finding in the list of all webcams of e.g. Germany the one you are looking for is very hard, because that list would contain hundreds of webcams. Anyhow getting a list of cities for a given country is currently not available from webcams.travel, maybe they could add it. Lets's see. But why not using the map function under the nearby tab?
I am happy you want to write a nice review thanks, to get the the easiest way is I guess using the search function in iTunes. So start iTunes, then choose iTunes Store. If on the top right of the top black bar you can see "Sign In", click that and enter your iTunes account data. Next type "WorldView Live" in the search bar on the very top right. Click on it in the search results and below the images you should have a link like "Write a review". Maybe that one works better than the one in the invoice.
Best,
Andreas
5 Posted by Paul & Sue Mcloughlin on 11 Feb, 2010 10:54 AM
Hi Andreas
A few weeks ago you kindly made my favourite webcam (The Exmouth Seafront
Beach Webcam) update live every second.
Something has gone wrong with this. The iphone is receiving an update every
second but the picture is not updating.
The picture is from last night, but I have checked on a computer & the
webcam is working fine updating real time.
The Exmouth webcam people have recently installed a new camera which allows
computer users to queue for control to change the views, & zoom in etc.
I realise that these controls will not be available on the iphone because of
no Java, but it should still show the camera views, & it was doing so last
night. The new camera views were changing, but not now.
The new camera shows the date & time, & last night on the i-phone it was the
correct, but now it shows the time as 01 : 05 which must have been the last
real live picture on World View.
On a computer the time is correct, & the picture is live.
Please could you fix this problem.
Best regards
Paul Mcloughlin
Support Staff 6 Posted by Andreas Linde on 11 Feb, 2010 11:02 AM
Hi,
the webcam provider isn't providing up to date images of the webcam any more. Currently only the flash stream is available. Check the main page http://www.exmouthcam.co.uk/ and you'll see the gray large box which should contain the latest image. Which it isn't.
Until the webcam provider doesn't provide that, there is nothing I can do. Once they solve it and the image is available at the same link, WorldView Live will get it again without any changes needed.
Best,
Andreas
7 Posted by Paul & Sue Mcloughlin on 11 Feb, 2010 11:45 AM
Hi Andreas
Thanks for the quick reply.
On the grey box it says something like click here to view the webcam.
The link then takes you to www.exmouthcam.co.uk/webcam/
If you add /webcam/ to the address would that fix it ?
Paul
-----Original Message-----
From: Andreas Linde [mailto:***@tenderapp.com]
Sent: 11 February 2010 11:02
To: ***@btinternet.com
Subject: Re: WorldView Live ( i-phone app) [Support]
Support Staff 8 Posted by Andreas Linde on 11 Feb, 2010 02:05 PM
Hi Paul,
no, that wouldn't help. Since that points to a HTML page with lots of images, but none is the webcam image (and even if so, how would the application now which is). The Flash part is something that is not possible to use on the iPhone. Believe me, if I could get it work, I would know how and what to do. But it is not possible.
Best,
Andreas
9 Posted by Paul Mcloughlin 2 on 11 Feb, 2010 06:44 PM
Hi Andreas
I e-mailed the Exmouth web cam support & they replied.
They have been doing some maintenance work. They said their server
will be working again as normal this evening.
I have just checked again using worldView-Live on my iPhone & the
Exmouth web cam is updating perfectly now.
Best regards
Paul
Sent from my iPhone
Andreas Linde closed this discussion on 11 Feb, 2010 06:45 PM.
Paul & Sue Mcloughlin re-opened this discussion on 10 Mar, 2010 10:07 PM
10 Posted by Paul & Sue Mcloughlin on 10 Mar, 2010 10:07 PM
Hi Andreas
I have just downloaded your latest update for WorldView Live.
This has problems.
Firstly I noticed that you now have settings within the app, but the same
settings are still in the i-phones main settings, so which ones do you now
set ?
I set both exactly the same to avoid conflicts.
I then received a message asking if I wanted to backup my bookmarks. This
sounded like a good idea so I selected Yes.
It then deleted my bookmarks.
I used search to put back my favourite webcam (The Exmouth Seafront
Webcam).
Before your new update this camera updated every second, (remember you made
it do this for me) but now it only updates about every hour.
I have checked on a computer & this camera is still operating live as
before.
Please advise
Paul
Support Staff 11 Posted by Andreas Linde on 10 Mar, 2010 10:52 PM
Both settings are the same. I did put them into the app additionally, because lots of people didn't know there are settings for the app (like changing map style, etc.).
I'll check the backup problem you mentioned this weekend, sadly won't have any time for that before.
Regarding Exmouth Seafront Webcam: I added it via search, and it is getting updated every second. Could you please send me a screenshot to verify we are looking at the same?
12 Posted by Paul Mcloughlin 2 on 10 Mar, 2010 11:52 PM
Hi Andreas
No point sending a screenshot as the Exmouth Seafront Webcam is not a
fixed view, it changes all the time.
It allows anyone on a PC to queue for control to change the view ( the
camera can be moved about & zoomed).
The problem seems to be that the search is no longer going directly to
the live webcam, it is now going to webcams travel.
Paul.
Sent from my iPhone
Support Staff 13 Posted by Andreas Linde on 11 Mar, 2010 12:07 AM
Search is always going through webcams.travel. The important thing in the screnshot is the title and the update frequency on the lower left.
There is only one webcam at webcams.travel having "Exmouth" in the title. So the question is, do you have the same webcam as I do. What does it say in the lower left at yours? Please tap the i button and then choose "Share Webcam", choose mail and send it to ***@buzzworks.de so I can check if you have the same webcam. And please tell me what it says on the lower left at yours.
14 Posted by Paul Mcloughlin 2 on 11 Mar, 2010 12:28 AM
The webcam is for the the UK Exmouth It is the Exmouth Seafront Beach
Webcam.
I know The search is now going to Webcams Travel because when I try to
force it to update it says that it is being updated infrequently by
Webcams Travel.
Also The message that I got in the app asking me if I wanted to backup
my bookmarks, I think this might somehow have come through from
webcams travel.
Not sure how to do the stuff you ask below as I am on my iPhone now.
Paul
Sent from my iPhone
Support Staff 15 Posted by Andreas Linde on 11 Mar, 2010 12:33 AM
This may sound stupid, but are you sure you are running WorldView Live and not the free edition? Do you see an ad on top of the list showing webcams?
Because what you get is the message, that the webcam is not accessed directly, but only via webcams.travel, this happens if you are running the free version OR if you are accessing a webcam from the live edition which has no direct access available. Another test, if you go to the bookmarks section, tap on edit (top right), do you see a button on the top left saying "Add URL" ? If not, you are using the free edition.
The stuff I am asking is to be executed within WorldView. But I really guess you are using the free edition instead of the live edition.
16 Posted by Paul Mcloughlin 2 on 11 Mar, 2010 06:51 AM
Yes I have add URL.
I am using the Live version (brown ikon)
I no longer have the free version I deleted it ages ago when I
purchased the live version.
The problem is with the new update.
Paul.
Sent from my iPhone
Support Staff 17 Posted by Andreas Linde on 11 Mar, 2010 08:34 AM
Ok, I think I know what happened. You lost your bookmarks, because the database got corrupted after the startup. That is why you got the dialog asking if you want to activate backing up your bookmarks. This dialog only comes up after a fresh installation of the database. And this only happens on first installation on your device or if the database got corrupted somehow. As an result, the part in the database which tells the app about how often which cam updates didn't get updated (because of a bug on my side in that combination).
So the easiest way around this now is to delete the app from the device, and download it again from the AppStore. Since you now activated the bookmark backups, it will download them again from my server and it should update the other part in the database again correctly. You do not have to pay for a purchased app twice. The procedure in the App Store is a bit misleading. You have to click the purchase button and you have to confirm the purchase. Only then iTunes checks whether you've already bought the app and notifies you that this is actually a free download.
Hope this helps, and I'll fix the bug for the next version. Sorry for the inconveniences this caused.
Andreas
18 Posted by Paul Mcloughlin 2 on 11 Mar, 2010 11:10 AM
Andreas
Yes that has worked.
After I downloaded the new app it asked me if I wanted to download my
saved bookmarks from the sever. I answered yes. The download was going
on for a very long time ( on WiFi ) maybe 10 minutes or more, so
assumed it was stuck & stopped it by pressing the home button.
When I checked the bookmarks I found that it had done the job anyway,
so all is now ok for me.
Thanks for the excellent support,
Paul.
Sent from my iPhone
Support Staff 19 Posted by Andreas Linde on 11 Mar, 2010 10:26 PM
Hi Paul,
yes, there is sometimes a problem the network spinning wheel not stopping even though all data is downloaded. Will look into it for the next updated. Happy everything is fine again.
Best,
Andreas
Andreas Linde closed this discussion on 11 Mar, 2010 10:26 PM.