I’d like to introduce the results of a project I’ve been working on for some time. Maps have always been a passion of mine (so much that I went to university to be a cartographer; ended up studying as a geodesist and have worked in related fields ever since). It was fun to reapply some old theory and build on my understanding of Garmin image management and the infrastructure I put together for my high-resolution Rain Radar app.
The aim was to bring on-demand mapping to *all* devices, not just those Garmin deemed worthy of offline mapping. To deliver an app with different, zoomable cartography using Open Hiking Map and satellite imagery and unique capabilities with Ordnance Survey (GB) maps on a cached tiled map display.
App Store Link (with YouTube video): https://apps-developer.garmin.com/apps/f0ffb7a3-dc56-4ac2-9428-08250c816474
(as usual, be nice with direct feedback, not critical reviews)
There are plenty of ideas on how to add capabilities to this, but for this forum here are some points that might be interesting to developers were;
Maxing the Storage Cache: this was a real win for tiled maps – delivering decent performance and reducing web requests. Maintaining the cache and gracefully handling usage limits was work but through my Exception catching web service I'll (hopefully) get to build a pattern of devices and storage size limits.
No-Input Payment Authorisation: I don’t like Garmin’s (or other’s) terrible on-device UI’s for inputting alphanumeric authorisation codes or email addresses for registration and licensing – so I worked out a couple of web services for seamless (no user input on the device) integration and updates with a Merchant of Record handler.
QR Code (ScanCode) Experiment: I quite liked adding the ability to scan a code for my license info / payment, rather than just opening a openWebPage () link via GC. This allows any third-party devices to open the links.
Annoying Different Exceptions Thrown on Imagery: across 54 devices, the same code is used to handle the same (or similar) images, but 5 devices decide to do different things! The following x2 exception messages are thrown by a handful of devices;
"Source must be native color format" - reported by Forerunner165 and EdgeMTB
“Source must not use a color palette" - reported by InstinctCrossover, Venu4-41 and Forerunner570
Another ongoing issue I still have is that the codebase that runs on the Sim for 54 devices, fails for only (if I tested them all!) the Edge 850. I can observe via breakpoints and console that my glance view text is being updated in code, however there is just no screen update at all. I would blame the Sim but in my server logs I have 1000’s of requests and none are from an 850 so I assume it’s a real-world fail as well. Nothing in Era either, as there is no crash (Sim runs, just no UI update) even with forced requestUpdate(). Anyone with an Edge850 pls let me know...
Finally, my wishlist;
* better access to info/exceptions on graphics memory pool
* more standardisation between devices for image handling
* more storage on devices which could be easily provide more
* better information on connectivity (vehicles connected to mobile phones know signal strength and battery of the connected device so a watch/head unit should also be able to know in order to allow user to make informed decisions without independently looking at the phone)
* proper API access to the stack-trace other than println() which then requires extraction off the device (put it in an extended exception)