Well guys, I made some of you suggested changes to my app. changed the location time interval and distance properties as well as removing notifications. App is still having problems. If i open my Google drive sheet and click on hyperlink image comes down fine.. i created a app that has a list view with hyperlinks in it.. when i open it i see the list. I'll click on one and it takes several seconds before it gets highlighted, but no image comes down. I don't know if its my phone that has issues or app inventor servers are the problem. Galaxy s9 android 10. somebody's got to figure this out. Please.
If you just provide a hard-coded lat/long do you see any performance issues? If so, that indicates that it's taking time to get the location updates. If not, there is an issue somewhere else in the code path. There's nothing going through our servers in this situation as the app is going directly to your Google Sheet.
I did run a little test with wget, 1.2mb file download from google drive and from my own VPS server
Both returned download times of 0.4 seconds (tried @ 5 times with each)
Not saying my VPS would be as fast as a CDN server, but the additional cruft associated with a google drive download doesn't seem to impact on download speed.
The original issue @TIMAI2/@ewpatton was a complaint that using GoogleSheets over a cell network is taking significantly longer to transfer string coded images than over a WIFI network. Mark seemed happy with his WIFI results. No network, other than a 5G possibly can compete with a competent WIFI network. I can't see how he would get an improvement in network using his own VPS or CDN server. Network is slow compared to WIFI, isn't it?
Mark could consider the process of converting a png image to a string and the time it takes to access the string image on a GoogleSheet and reconstruct the image into a png on his Android as a possible choke point. The Android cpu has to do the conversion.
Would storing his images and files on a CloudDB (as png images ... he can do that without converting the image to a string) or FirebaseDB avoid a possible concern Google throttling access?
He is only storing links in his google sheet, image files are stored on google drive.
If by string you mean base64, these files are generally bigger than the image files themselves, but whether they would "come more quickly" starting as a "string" (given that all files are usually converted to base64 before moving them about on the web) is debatable. In any case you can only store 50,000 characters in a cell on google sheets. base64 encodes are usually larger than this.
It seems to me a that app inventor is the problem, since i can get image download from a Hyperlink https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1X1v2c17znTA5GcVCr6u49LXXPmalaX9b typed into browser. Need to find a solution or switch app platform. I have not tried to store images on a different storage platform like OneDrive. I did try deleting app cache and had intermittent responses. Please advise.
Maybe Mark. Is the main issue still that network is slow compared to WIFI or now something else ?
Download your google drive image using a WebViewer ; with a fast WIFI it takes a second to display; using a 4G network, it takes a second+ . Pretty good. Testing using an apk and switching off WIFI to use only network
Use the code above to test; manually turn off WIFI to check network performance.
Your image on the google drive is 320x400 pixels jpeg. When you display the image on your app, it appears you use a ScalePictureToFit (slowing the rendering). You retrieve the image with the Web (you do not use a WebViewer which is fairly fast in both WIFI and network). You use a Web component in your example to grab the image link, then 'process' the results. Your example of quick response downloading from a hyperlink using your PC browser is analogous to using the WebViewer without all the processing you need to display the fish in an image component.
You said what you tried, but didn't show. If you want help, please construct an example app (without all your glitz) and post the code so someone can understand what you are asking your cell phone cpu to do. Remove the Map component and all the extensions and the several Clocks; see how it performs. Re-introduce the app elements one at a time and you might discover the time waster. Keep in mind, App Inventor is an asynchronous, single threaded compiler.
App Inventor graphics are known to be slow compared to what is possible using Android Studio and java based professional compilers. Android Studio is multithreaded and that may be what you think you need.
@Mark_Parente The simple example works both using WIFI and over a cellular network if you compile the apk and install it on your phone. On my network, downloading is almost as fast as using WIFI. How did I test? Tried using the compiled app on WIFI, then turned WIFI off on the device and turned network (data) to active.
Compile, install and try again and let us know what happens please. The example works fine on my TMobile 4G network.
Tested example aia compiled on Android 11 device. I have good internet / poor cellular/data coverage where I am. Takes @ 1 second on wifi to show the image, takes @ 5-7 seconds to show the image on cellular/data.
Yuk. Are you on 3G or 4G network Tim? My network takes about 300-400 ms longer to display a fish image than my fiberoptic WIFI/Internet. Your5 to 7 times longer than WIFI is dismal and NOT happening in Texas where I have an Android 4.2.2 that I tested. Is your provider throttling you?
Better reception is certainly better Tim. Glad to know your late model phone can, sometimes, work as well as my ancient Android usually works on the network. 4G download speeds might be typically 5 - 12 Mbps but upload is slower, typically 2-5 Mbps and are about 7 times faster than 3G.
4g network users can experience very different data performance depending on the time of the day, weather, whether their data signals are being attenuated by a building structure, weather conditions, how you hold your Android (the antenna needs a clear path to the cell towers) etc.
I put together this list of factors as I thought about your distress and slow data to explain why your network data speeds may vary. WIFI is usually faster and more reliable (but not always).
Are you using 3G or 4g? Some network providers still use both systems depending on where you are located in their coverage area. Some providers have data caps and throttle users after exceeding the caps and may switch you from 4g to 3g when you exceed those caps or reduce you throughput using other methods. What happens depends on your service plan.
Depending on where you are located, your 4 g networks may operate on radio frequencies from 700+ mhz to several Ghz. Signals at these frequencies are significantly affected by weather (rain), foliage in the signal path (trees) and obstructed by buildings attenuating signal strength. (Why people often have to go outside when phoning from a large building).
Network congestion. You share your 4g connection; lots of users and you get congestion.
A potential cause of a slow download speed while having good signal is de-prioritization. Operators “deprioritize” some users at busy times to help deal with network congestion. The de-prioritization can happen differently for users on different rate plans.
newer hardware on the same network may perform better.
If you want to see fish fast, guess you got to wake up early.
I haven't brought up Speedtest in my browser to check download/upload speeds but probably do not need to.
My house is like a Faraday cage downstairs, and data is patchy even outside, we are just in a rural deadspot, despite what the network providers tell us on their coverage maps.
@Mark_Parente I tested the download. 1-2 seconds for wifi, 4-5 for network. Note that we are also in 'rural' Tuscon, and networking doesn't really work on cold, cloudy days. Like @TIMAI2, reception varies based on everything, no matter how good of a spot the map says we are in
Well guys I had an interesting afternoon. I started out about 1pm EST. I was working on my fishing app and decided to test the image download. I was outside and had 2 bars on my phone. I read the previous message from netminderno.9apps describing his download experience. I continued to try and get images to download with no success. I tried till about 7pm, no luck. At about 9:30pm I tested again and wouldn't you guess, I finally had success with 1 to 2 bars on my phone. I continued till about 11:30pm and had no problems downloading images. So the question is, are Google's servers just overwhelmed during these times. Are they throttling bandwidth? I'm just about out of ideas. Please advise.
Did you read post # 43? It offers explanations for your spotty network performance.
The issue with respect to changing download responses at different times using your network data is probably NOT Google's servers. Your cell provider data plan might be throttling, not Google.
Your own small example where you provide direct links to your GoogleDrive imagesclearly demonstrates the issue is related to your network provider, weather conditions, propagation of the data at frequencies around 600 MHz , 700 MHz , 1.7/2.1 GHz , 2.3 GHz , and 2.5 GHz that are used by 4G LTE technologies (your cell's data link) etc . Various contributors had different experiences downloading using network. I had no issues what so ever.
After 9:30 to 11:30 pm, you got great results. Why? Because there is no network congestion? There are no micro wave radio propagation issues at that time? Your cell phone provider might not be throttling your data (not Google) etc. Why you have issues can be for many different reasons.
You might get better consistent results using a different network provider or data plan or phone or only fishing at night or living with how a cell data network works.
Do you have a friend with a different data provider that can try downloading at your location? Compare the results; he / she might download while you do not. If so, switch providers. If you have different providers and similar performance, blame the lack of download that is intermittent on other factors.
How did I test? Tried using the compiled app on WIFI, then turned WIFI off on the device and turned network (data) to active.
. Various contributors had different experiences downloading using network. I had no issues what so ever.
or living with how a cell data network works.