#1 Requested Feature is right around the corner

Posted on by TheJoeFin

Easily the number one requested feature for Ink Calendar is existing Google and Outlook calendar integration. Soon with version 1.6 that will be possible.

I thought adding the calendars would involve lots of extra authentication and a refactoring of the codebase. However, as it turns out Windows 10 has an API for that. I can request a list of appointments from Windows and all the added calendars will stream in.

The feature works by getting the calendar data from the built-in calendar application. If you have added a calendar there then it gets pulled into Ink Calendar. I’ll be adding more granular control around which calendars you want to include, but I did not want to delay this highly requested feature. I’m excited to roll this feature out soon. Let me know what you think!

Thanks again for using Ink Calendar,

-Joe

Delays in 1.5

Posted on by TheJoeFin

Version 1.5 has been in the works for a few weeks now. It will bring a few new features and some user requests. None of these features on their own a big, but they continue to fill out the applications features.

This version has taken me longer than I had hoped for a few reasons. First I have been busy and not able to work on the app during the evenings. Second there have been a few tasks which have taken me a long time to understand and implement. One involving background tasks, the other was related to graphics work I did which always takes me a long time.

Hopefully I’ll have version 1.5 submitted to the store soon. If I cannot get the background portion working soon I will release the update without that portion, then add it in when I get it working.

Thanks for using Ink Calendar,

Joe

Features Missing From Mobile

Posted on by TheJoeFin

Ink Calendar is available on Windows 10 Mobile. I made this decision because the core functionality of the app works reasonably well on a mobile device with a decent sized screen. Also I want to build a backend for to sync the ink across devices.

While testing new features on my Windows 10 Mobile device I discovered that there were some strange behaviors. When adding the share, save, and print capabilities they would immediately crash the app on mobile. No warning, no exception thrown, no error message while debugging.

When adding the ability to cut, copy, and paste ink the code was fairly simple. I followed the sample app supplied by Microsoft and it was easy to implement. When testing this ability on mobile I got strange errors and the functionality was not there. The ink content presenter could never paste.

These are fairly minor issues and the core functionally of the app is still there, but the errors are odd. Errors like this make it more clear to me that while Microsoft likes to tout how Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile can both run UWP apps… that just is not true. Windows 10 Mobile is so different from Windows 10 that it needs not just UI tweaks to make apps work.

Hopefully any mobile device from Microsoft in the future will come from Windows 10 because that would simplify development and make Ink Calendar way better on that mobile device.