Is Wifibooth compatible with the current iPad OS?

Having a problem that isn't related to cameras or printers?
calzone
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Joined: Wed Feb 07, 2018 5:54 pm

Is Wifibooth compatible with the current iPad OS?

Postby calzone » Mon Aug 29, 2022 9:18 pm

I have hesitated on updating my iPad for more than a year now because I'm scared something will break and wifibooth will stop working or stop talking to the DNP printer over WPS as a result.

But it's getting very hard to avoid updating the iPad… and what's more, I want to buy a brand new iPad that's a little smaller and faster and allows for better functionality in other ways. That would definitely put me in the "newest iOS" bucket.

I also switched to using a camera connect cable and let me tell you, the performance difference is night vs day.

Anyway. My workflow, sales pitch, and hardware setup …vs amount of time available to invest in managing that setup …vs the money it generates (this is a side gig) …vs what it would cost to change completely… add up to make it totally prohibitive for me to move away from Wifibooth for the foreseeable future. Basically, it's wifibooth or get out of the business entirely.

I'd like to know how compatible wifibooth is now… and what plans and projections for ongoing compatibility there are given the newer product you've released (which I did look into but it's just not a feasible switch for me for reasons stated above).

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tim
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Re: Is Wifibooth compatible with the current iPad OS?

Postby tim » Tue Aug 30, 2022 12:44 am

There are no known issues with iOS 15.6.1 (latest at the time of writing): every feature that works on iOS 14 is expected to work on iOS 15.6.1, except for one that we're aware of: "volume up" button functionality to trigger the camera stopped working circa iOS 15.5 (this includes most cheap bluetooth remotes). The feature works for a while but then when max volume is reached, the app cannot lower it, so it stops working. Apple intentionally removed this ability because they don't want apps using these buttons for anything other than volume etc.

If a feature breaks in a new version of iOS, we will release an update to fix it unless Apple has made it impossible.

We won't announce anything about iOS 16 until it is released. If you're looking at updating then we recommend doing this before iOS 16, in case there's a surprise like there was in iOS 13 (nightmare)
Please write a review for Wifibooth on the Apple App store! Indie developers like me really need people like you to review their apps. Instructions on how to write a review: http://goo.gl/w8NsDI.

calzone
Posts: 42
Joined: Wed Feb 07, 2018 5:54 pm

Re: Is Wifibooth compatible with the current iPad OS?

Postby calzone » Tue Aug 30, 2022 12:22 pm

Thank you Tim.

Are you able to comment on whether we should consider Wifibooth to essentially be mature and sunsetted now, with no further updates planned other than those needed to fix those issues brought on by new iOS updates and only as long as they are reasonably simple to fix?

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tim
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Re: Is Wifibooth compatible with the current iPad OS?

Postby tim » Tue Aug 30, 2022 12:39 pm

Yes, that's correct. These are the two main reasons we decided to make Booth.Events instead of Wifibooth 5:
- Wifibooth's architecture (in the code of the app itself) is at its limit
- Wifibooth is missing a key feature - user-defined templating - which cannot be added without major headache, including breaking things for existing users

That might sound disappointing, but keep in mind Wifibooth had a great run of 4 major versions with hundreds of updates over *six years* - so as far as the architecture getting stretched to its limits, it didn't happen too fast :) I can still remember sitting at a Swiss bus stop underneath the bernese alps, late in the evening (had a 45 min wait for the bus, it was on time within 15 seconds as per swiss usual), tinkering with the early alpha that would much later become Wifibooth. It was all Eye-Fi at the time! The idea of reverse-engineering Canon/Nikon PTP/wifi hadn't even occurred to me as a possibility yet.

Fast-forward a decade or so and we've poured *all* of our learning into Booth.Events, and built some things we've always dreamed of building into Wifibooth but were never able to. We've also tightened our target personas: an issue with Wifibooth from the design perspective is that it tries to serve everyone but doesn't really fully serve anyone.

We also resisted the urge to make Booth.Events subscription-only: we know that some people hate subscriptions even if they're all-you-can-eat of expensive server/hosting resources.

I forgot one other thing about Wifibooth that's an important limitation/issue to call out: as third-party platforms other than Apple make large breaking changes, we have to sometimes remove them. Casualties so far: Twitter (they simply removed the ability to use their APIs the way Wifibooth needs - you have to be a big-partner business now, and we're not), Instagram (ages ago - Facebook bought them and turned off everyone's access), and Facebook -- where technically we could try to make it work again, but i'm just so fed up with dealing with the sheer raging dumpster fire that Facebook is (from the developer side at least), i'll never integrate with anything Facebook again :lol:

The list of features we dream of building into Booth.Events in the future is so long that we have to use Trello to manage it.
Feel free to add to it ;)
Please write a review for Wifibooth on the Apple App store! Indie developers like me really need people like you to review their apps. Instructions on how to write a review: http://goo.gl/w8NsDI.


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