LDS Tools issues continue

Discussions around the iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch versions of the Member Tools Application.
recroft
New Member
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat Feb 26, 2011 1:33 pm

LDS Tools issues continue

#1

Post by recroft »

I have 2 items to post:
1 - Since downloading version1.0.6 (on my ipod touch ver 4.2.1 )everytime I update the data it loads another copy of the callings list. Then I have to use the clear all data function which looses all my custom changes and photos. Then I do the download again and all is okey until the next time. The main membership list is okey(except for my comment 2 below) and so is the calendar. Any ideas? ? ? ?

2 - When downloading the membership info to my ipod touch, along with 2 friends today using a new iphone and an Android phone we all get different info on the same ward list. Parts of families are gone on different platforms. In other words what shows on the lds.org site and our handheld devices is different. Overall all four devices are okey except variations like a missing spouse, child or etc between the platforms. Whats going on?
russellhltn
Community Administrator
Posts: 34417
Joined: Sat Jan 20, 2007 2:53 pm
Location: U.S.

#2

Post by russellhltn »

Do your friends all belong to the same Ward? Different logins have different rights based on calling. Especially for information on other wards.
Have you searched the Help Center? Try doing a Google search and adding "site:churchofjesuschrist.org/help" to the search criteria.

So we can better help you, please edit your Profile to include your general location.
RossEvans
Senior Member
Posts: 1345
Joined: Wed Jun 11, 2008 9:52 pm
Location: Austin TX
Contact:

#3

Post by RossEvans »

I know there are some issues with the sync logic on the iPhone version, which are being worked. See the JIRA issue tracking.

But I am unaware of similar data problems with the Android version, although it has fewer features. If there are problems, they are probably independent of the iPhone problems because the two platforms share nothing except the web services. Could you be more specific about cases: Which data shows up on the website but not on the Android?
recroft
New Member
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat Feb 26, 2011 1:33 pm

#4

Post by recroft »

RussellHltn wrote:Do your friends all belong to the same Ward? Different logins have different rights based on calling. Especially for information on other wards.
We are all in the same ward. We are ward leaders of the YM, HP and I see no reason why the problems we are having have anything to do with lder access.
recroft
New Member
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat Feb 26, 2011 1:33 pm

#5

Post by recroft »

For example we were looking up a family during a PEC mtg on our hand helds. One showed a husband and wiife, one the wife only and the other with only husband. None of us had the children showing. We tried chging the grp by function and no changes in who showed up. Later in the afternoon two of us with ipods chked again and both only had the wife. Once I got home and on my computer I cked again, on the computer both husband and wife were there but on the ipod on a fresh download only the wife.
RossEvans
Senior Member
Posts: 1345
Joined: Wed Jun 11, 2008 9:52 pm
Location: Austin TX
Contact:

#6

Post by RossEvans »

recroft wrote:For example we were looking up a family during a PEC mtg on our hand helds. One showed a husband and wiife, one the wife only and the other with only husband. None of us had the children showing. We tried chging the grp by function and no changes in who showed up. Later in the afternoon two of us with ipods chked again and both only had the wife. Once I got home and on my computer I cked again, on the computer both husband and wife were there but on the ipod on a fresh download only the wife.
Are all these cases of the same family?

By any chance, is there a part-member family involved?

During the meeting, which device was showing both husband and wife?
russellhltn
Community Administrator
Posts: 34417
Joined: Sat Jan 20, 2007 2:53 pm
Location: U.S.

#7

Post by russellhltn »

I'd still like to see each user try their own login to the lds.org/directory page. We still haven't eliminated the possibility that it's something tied to the login permissions.

The fact you saw something different on your device then what you saw (I assume) on the NEW directory page suggests that it's not the login, but it would wise to cross-check.
Have you searched the Help Center? Try doing a Google search and adding "site:churchofjesuschrist.org/help" to the search criteria.

So we can better help you, please edit your Profile to include your general location.
RossEvans
Senior Member
Posts: 1345
Joined: Wed Jun 11, 2008 9:52 pm
Location: Austin TX
Contact:

#8

Post by RossEvans »

RussellHltn wrote:I'd still like to see each user try their own login to the lds.org/directory page. We still haven't eliminated the possibility that it's something tied to the login permissions.

I can't think of anything intra-ward that would be affected on the website or its web services by permissions in the directory -- nothing that could explain these symptoms for auxiliary leaders. LDS Tools is mostly a rank-and-file app in its current incarnation, and I don't think different auxiliary leaders have any special permissions or restrictions.

This is not an isolated report as far as iPhones and iPods go. There is just such an issue, unrelated to permissions, that iPhone developers are sweating to isolate and fix. As of today the root cause is suspected to involve part-member families, although there is no certainty that other families are not also side-affected. That is why I am trying to elicit more facts to refine the debugging hypothesis.

However, I still am puzzled by the generalized implication of the Android app, which is a completely different critter.
russellhltn
Community Administrator
Posts: 34417
Joined: Sat Jan 20, 2007 2:53 pm
Location: U.S.

#9

Post by russellhltn »

RossEvans wrote:I can't think of anything intra-ward that would be affected on the website or its web services by permissions in the directory -- nothing that could explain these symptoms for auxiliary leaders. LDS Tools is mostly a rank-and-file app in its current incarnation, and I don't think different auxiliary leaders have any special permissions or restrictions.

You may well be right, but I thought there was some difference in the data set exposed to you (and the APIs) based on your calling. It would be nice to eliminate some areas before spending a lot of time in another.
Have you searched the Help Center? Try doing a Google search and adding "site:churchofjesuschrist.org/help" to the search criteria.

So we can better help you, please edit your Profile to include your general location.
RossEvans
Senior Member
Posts: 1345
Joined: Wed Jun 11, 2008 9:52 pm
Location: Austin TX
Contact:

#10

Post by RossEvans »

RussellHltn wrote:You may well be right, but I thought there was some difference in the data set exposed to you (and the APIs) based on your calling. It would be nice to eliminate some areas before spending a lot of time in another.

The possibility of a privilege issue is pretty much ruled out by the facts we have. You were right to ask the question in the first place, but none of the users in recroft's response is logically a leader with any significant privileges even though they report inconsistent behavior. The only place I can think of that leader privilege comes into play in either the directory or web services so far is that top leaders such as bishops can see contact data suppressed by the members from general publication. Just the fact that recroft reports seeing the data on the website but reports missing members on LDS Tools rules out a privilege issue, because the privilege applies at the server-side download rather than within the app. (That can be empirically verified by the user by following the steps documented by jasonhyer at the top of this thread.)

So these symptoms are not consistent with a privilege issue, but they are consistent with multiple other reports of some members being missing from families in the iPhone LDS Tools display, or even displayed in the wrong families. That is the bug that is being worked by the LDS Tools iPhone team.

At this point, without more detail, I discount the secondhand report about the Android app. The hearsay symptoms are easily explainable by pilot error -- if, for example the user had "Include Children" or "Include Spouse" unchecked in the app's Settings and just browsed the headers.

A significant incidence of pilot error is to be expected in LDS Tools because neither the iPhone app nor the Android app yet provides a clean user interface to browse by household then see a complete household-detail display. The core logic is built around browsing by member, with some confusing add-ons to try to emulate the experience of browsing by household. The user interfaces on the two platforms are different, but neither matches the clean user experience of the website. Ideally, I think, the user interface should provide the option to browse first by household or by member the way desktop MLS does. (The Android version of Ward Tools is the best handheld design I have seen in that respect.) But LDS tools isn't there yet. Its design began by emulating iStake, which suffered from the lack of household-oriented browsing.
Post Reply

Return to “iPhone/iPad Member Tools App”