Hi everyone,
first post in a while and first Recipes update in a while, too : ) . As already mentioned in another post, the introduction of iClouds had changed some rules on what Apple permits when submitting updates. Although I don’t plan to support iClouds in the near feature (database synchronization = programming headaches), code that had been in the app since day one had to be changed. Well, as of last week, 1.4.0 is out and finally the app is up to date again…
… or almost so. What was planned as a quick 1.4.1 has become probably the biggest update ever in the history of the app: 1.5.0. The new version – just submitted to Apple a few seconds ago – contains a huge list of changes, some of which have been on the hot list of requests for a while! Here are a few I just want to mention quickly:
- A new web-importer: A while ago, I stumbled upon Google Recipes, a dedicated search engine for recipes. What they do is use HTML meta data (Microformat, Microdata, RDF) to allow specific searches based on ingredients and so on. I’ve added a new importer to the App that uses the exact same information to import recipes into the app. Along the theme of the app, I didn’t want to add something which automatically rips of huge bunches of recipes from other people. Think of this more as a replacement for writing the ingredients list down manually.
- Import/export via iTunes: It’s no longer necessary to mail recipes to yourself. Simply upload them via iTunes to the app’s document folder on the device.
- Description/comment for ingredient entries in a recipe.
- Images no longer stretch when being imported.
- Authors can be created directly while entering new recipes.
- Fixes to various importers, mostly Rezkonv.
- … and lots more
I was actually surprised myself how much stuff came together. It feels like a very mature product which is fitting considering the fact that it’s now almost 2 years (!) since the very first version came out. Feedback over the years has mostly be overwhelming, I just wished I had managed to iron out a few of the nasty bugs early and avoid a few 1-2 star ratings in the app store. But apparently, every app has those, so… : )
Once 1.5.0 is out, development on Recipes will go to maintenance mode again. I’ve pretty much packed in everything I personally ever wanted (although the list of ideas is still quite long) and the next big step will be adding iPad support. But first, it’s full steam ahead with Streetsoccer again…
Alex