TS Notification App

[Will]

Don't know why, but for some reason decided to make a smartphone app to notify me when there are more than x players on the server. If anyone is interested and want to test it and contribute just post here...

Right now it's only for android and i wont bother with IOS or windows until it proves to be worth it.
Anyway, who uses windows phones? Right Whip?

P.S.
I think i'll regret this

[Whiplash]

Maybe you should already explain here how to get that app (download link, app name etc.). And, yeah, I guess there is no many Windows phone users around. And I see that app more useful for notification of public competitions, than for x number of players. But, of course, having both will be great.

[magnam]

download link?

[Will]

It's relatively easy to do and the idea is to have a way to keep in touch with new and old players in a simple way. Just install it like any other app and that's it.

What could do:
-Send a notification whenever there are more than X players on a specific server.
-Let the user set the number of players before a notification is sent.
-Let the user set specific hours when a notification should be send. This is to prevent annoying notifications during work/study hours or so.
-Besides automated notifications we can also use it to send 'manual' notifications for new tournaments or other stuff that might come along.

I don't want to create something that will annoy the users with constant notifications. I want to give users the choice to customize it to their 'needs' otherwise it will be worthless because people will soon uninstall it. And let's keep it in perspective, this is just a simple game. But truth be told, I've spent more hours playing it than i want to admit, and it has a cool (sometimes annoying) community.
Let me know what you guys think it should be included (so i can ignore it )

[Will]

download link?

The app is already available at the google play store but I'll upload a new version later today (hopefully) and i'll post the link/name here.

[max tre]

Boa ideia Will!
Maybe also an in-app "page" like this one may be useful to manually check how many people are playing, even if the threshold number of players is not reached.
And of course every Windows Phone user has already bought some cheap Android mobile just in order to play Pokémon Go. Thus, not a problem there.

[Will]

Boa ideia Will!
Maybe also an in-app "page" like this one may be useful to manually check how many people are playing, even if the threshold number of players is not reached.
And of course every Windows Phone user has already bought some cheap Android mobile just in order to play Pokémon Go. Thus, not a problem there.

Yes, if you open the app, it will show the players even if the threshold is not reached. Another idea would be to display the name of players online, but I still don't have idea on how to do that, or even if it's feasible.

[Whiplash]

O boy, there is a good chance that the app actually caused the server to brake down. The app could use some cached version of the server list on some other server, but I don't know where.
Badeend: "Letting the app check a cached version on his own server would already be a big improvement, depending on the number of people using his app. He shouldn't let the app make direct requests to turboserver.org"

[Will]

O boy, there is a good chance that the app actually caused the server to brake down. The app could use some cached version of the server list on some other server, but I don't know where.
Badeend: "Letting the app check a cached version on his own server would already be a big improvement, depending on the number of people using his app. He shouldn't let the app make direct requests to turboserver.org"

Hope not. Here's what i did:
Since i'm the only one testing it, the app indeed checks the ts server directly, here:
http://turboserver.org/s.php?q=list
So when i open the app it will call that file to return the number of players and display it on the app. But that is just for testing since it will infact use a cached version that will reside on my own server for the app. So the only service requesting the number of players will be the app server and not the app directly. Ideally the TS server would update the app server every time there is a change in the number of players, so it can update it's own cache to be available for the app and to send notifications for the users that choose so. But this is out of my reach. However if someone can suggest a way for the TS server to 'contact' the app server every time there is a change of players instead of my own server to 'ask' the TS server at regular intervals, that would be great to reduce bandwidth.
Right now the interval is once every 5 mins.

[Whiplash]

Another idea would be to display the name of players online, but I still don't have idea on how to do that, or even if it's feasible.

Unfortunately that's not possible. But you could make that all the players who are using the app can check them self inside of it (by pressing some button) if they're in the game. And then the app could present the list of all those active players. It's not a perfect solution, but it's still something. A player could then base the notifications on the name of another player(s). That way they will invite each other to play.

[Will]

Ok. If someone wants to try and test it here's the link:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... ions&hl=en

Better yet, search for 'Sliders Notification' on Google Play .The icon will say TSN.

There are 3 screens. The 1st is the one that shows the players currently* on LVP2. The 2nd one is for News and announcements and currently contains non-related stuff that's just for tests, and the 3rd one is for settings. You can leave your TS nick there and also set the minimum number of players to trigger the notification.

Be aware that you will probably need to update it very soon, because bugs and new features will show up soon.
Leave comments and suggestions here.

*There is a delay between the time a player enters the server and the time it takes for that info to show up on the app but also on the TS website. This might improve soon.