As advised by @mstenta , i’m initiating this thread to engage developer @Symbioquine and other testers of the Asset Link PWA -test instance of which is now being hosted at https://asset-link-test.farmos.net (thanks Mike for the hosting )
My own interest in this app remains as described in the AL UseCases thread, further elaborated back in February. Right now, i’m just trying to create my first Asset record, and my progress thus far is as follows:
So i’m stuck here, as app won’t let me save that first record until i complete that first invisible field (see attached screenshot). I’m running iOS version 16.11 on a iPhone 13, accessing the PWA via default Safari browser. If there’s a way to clear this stumbling block on my end, any pointer(s) would be most appreciated.
Hm… Trying to grab a 2nd screenshot of the error msg- said something like “complete this field” over the green patch above -i somehow got into an edit mode that let me change the name of the asset, now saved as ‘BigGreenMachine’ in this test instance… But it did not save the 3 photo i had loaded into the initial form. So now i’m trying to add those pix, stored in my “Photos” app library, but i can’t: the “Edit” link, accessible via the hamburger icon to right of default “View” mode, does display the Edit link in dropdown menu as an active choice, but it does not do anything when touched.
Gonna have to leave it here, while i go do some farming!
@walt Thanks for reporting this! There might be a few things going on…
I’m able to replicate the “Edit” tab issue myself too (in the farmOS UI of this test instance on mobile, not in Asset Link). It seems that the secondary tab links are not clickable on mobile after you expand the secondary tabs. I tested this on another instance without Asset Link and it works as expected, so maybe there’s some interaction that’s causing the issue. Worth noting that the collapsible tabs were just added in the new release of farmOS v2.1.0, so this is probably a very fresh bug. I would say ignore this for now - if you need to edit assets via the farmOS UI in this testing instance, you can do that outside of a mobile context.
I was able to open asset link for the equipment asset though, and renamed it back to “Red Tractor” - so that seems to be working properly. I didn’t try uploading photos.
Just to set expectations, that release won’t be until Sunday evening or Monday some time since I’m about to leave for the weekend. In the meantime, please use either the work-around that Mike mentioned (desktop site) or click/tap on the far right edge of the desired menu entry - only the left 100px of that menu is (invisibly) covered.
Ah, but this is not the stopper; as Mike rightly pointed out, editing can be done on the desktop.
No: the stopper for me is, i want to create records in the field, but- as you can see in the image i posted above -the required field ‘Name’ of asset is entirely covered by that div screen (as are ‘Status’, ‘Flags’ and ‘Owners’ fields), with no way to get around it. So i can neither create a new Asset record, nor an Observation log about existing Asset in the field… And those are the two things i need this mobile app to do for me.
the required field ‘Name’ of asset is entirely covered by that div screen (as are ‘Status’, ‘Flags’ and ‘Owners’ fields), with no way to get around it
@walt Are you referring to farmOS UI or Asset Link UI? The bug that @Symbioquine fixed was affecting farmOS UI - so you can just ignore all manifestations of that and assume it will be fixed. Better to focus testing/feedback in this thread on Asset Link UI, which is NOT affected by that bug.
I’ve watched that video, @mstenta, and i sort of understand this distinction in terms of UI, but i’m having some trouble with UX, understanding how to use this tool to create and update records.
For example: as i am waiting for that UI fix to enable creating a new record, i tried to edit an existing record- e.g. BigGreenMachine in the test instance -by adding a photo. I could see no way in the AL app to do this (tho video indicates it should be possible), so i added 3 photos to that asset via web desktop interface. Now i can view this asset in the PWA i saved to my iPhone, but when i pop into the AL app via floating menu, i don’t see those pix as shown in the video, which shows the ‘Slow Red Tractor’ with 3 superimposed yellow buttons. What i see instead is just what you see in the appended screenshot… And then when i click on the Image upload button (the LH icon of that central pair), it gives me an option to copy/ paste an image, but that is not working for me.
So, i dunno: could be i’m just slow on the uptake (too often true ), but i also think there’s a wrinkle or few in the app to be ironed out here. If you’d like to have a chat about it @Symbioquine , let me know so hopefully we can find a bit of time for this.
That would be for @mstenta to say, @pat , but it looks to me- judging by the mix of data that’s in there -it’s a multi player environment for multiple testers. For my part, i’ve only created & edited one Asset record, but there are other assets & logs i’ve had nothing to do with.
This is good feedback @walt! I think there’s a few things going on here;
Single (left) clicking or tapping (relatively quickly) on those image upload buttons should give the option to upload a photo either by selecting an existing one or taking a new one with the camera. The “enable clipboard input” mechanism (that I think you’re describing) allows a photo to be pasted - and should only occur when right clicking on desktop or long pressing on mobile.
Perhaps you can try again with that explanation in mind and see if it is still not working for you?
Probably what’s happening here is Asset Link already had the BigGreenMachine asset loaded previously and didn’t reload it from the server again - thus didn’t know about the new photos. This is obviously faster, but has the downside that the asset may be out of date. I’ve been thinking about how to address this while preserving the speed of using in-memory data and without unexpected visual updates after things have already loaded.
For now, when viewing an asset, the menu in the top right corner (three dots) has an option to manually reload the asset from the server.
Stay tuned for progress on a more seamless automatic update mechanism soon (I hope)…
I’m happy to chat more directly if what I’ve written above doesn’t sort those issues out
It would be great if more folks join and test! I think Mike needs to create an account for you though…
Ah yes: that was it; reload manually works. Solved!
That one didn’t work, alas; two probs remain:
BOTH those icons- the one on L (what looks like image upload) and on R (the camera icon) -they do the same thing, which is open my camera.
Long press opens the ‘enable clipboard input’ function, as it should… But then there is no way to paste the image i have copied to clipboard from my Photos app. As you can see in attached image, clicking in the entry field opens an entry helper that does not give ‘paste’ as an option.
I’m due on a conf call in 2min, but will try to find the chatroom later, in case you are there @Symbioquine . But as i said: no urgency on my part, we can prosecute the issues by async messaging -as you wish.
It’s difficult for me to test some of this due to not having an iphone (the iOS simulator in XCode is only so helpful for things that involve the camera), but as I recall there isn’t a great way to tell safari the difference between when you want to take a photo vs upload one so both drop directly into the camera. That said, I believe the camera has a little icon in the bottom corner where you can select an existing photo instead of taking a new one.
I believe only certain browser and OS version combinations are going to support pasting images from the clipboard at the moment. Without testing more I’d probably assume Safari on iOS doesn’t support it. Do you know of another web site where you’ve seen it working for you? Perhaps test on this forum (which definitely supports pasting images as part of posts to upload them - at least on desktop & Firefox)?
NB: This worked in Safari on iPhone (see below) but only via the image upload feature, selecting an image in my library to upload. The copy/paste method was not available.
Anyone who is interested in testing Asset Link can have a login to https://asset-link-test.farmos.net - just send @Symbioquine or myself your email address in a private message and we can add you.
(FYI @Symbioquine I granted you the role necessary for adding new user accounts so you can do it too.)
No, Asset Link should prompt to update to the latest version once it is available and plugins get automatically reloaded from the server after some time.
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), but i also think there’s a wrinkle or few in the app to be ironed out here. If you’d like to have a chat about it 
