Official PDGA iPhone App

[chappyfade]

Originally Posted by tpozzy

Hey, Chappy! It's been many years since we were on the board together. I am a hard-core Android user (Droid X phone and Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1!). I am anxiously waiting for an Android version of our app. Coincidentally, I'm also leading that development effort! Mike Dietrich, the talented developer who wrote all of the code for the iPhone/iPod version, is going to be tackling the Android version soon. We just want to make sure that the current release is solid, stable, and what our users want it to be.

We'll be looking for some additional Droid testers soon (although a lot of the current test team members have Droid phones), and we'd love to have a PDGA BOD alum on the team!

-Theo

Indeed sir! It's been 5 years since I was on the BoD....actually, I think we left at/about the same time?

Understood about the new app release and making sure it's stable. That's a good idea. No sense recreating the wheel if you don't have to.

I had an IPhone for a while and liked it in general, and the reasons I switched to an Android are probably the same many have made the switch, so I won't get into that so much as I don't want to hijack the thread. I have a Samsung Galaxy S phone myself, and will probably upgrade to a newer Android phone in a year or so, so if that fits into your plans, I'd be happy to be a beta-tester when the time comes.

Chap

[jhc811]

Originally Posted by cgkdisc

The PDGA Course Directory is not yet set up to collect pars and lengths for each different tee-to-pin combination. That will be a major Course Directory upgrade effort needed to support enhanced app capabilities and live scoring from multiple groups. Planning is underway for that.

Is round rating calculation based on simpler formula such as course length or based on SSA tournament results? The latter would be much more accurate.

As it stands now, looks like I need to save the course name/info for each layout (a given tee to pin combination) Let say if a course have two teepads and two pin configuration, then it will be 4 different layouts for a same course so I will need to save four "courses" (of a same course) in my course listing. Is that correct?

I think it would be good to add SSA field in course setup so that the round rating can use SSA rather than length.

[tkieffer]

Originally Posted by jhc811

As it stands now, looks like I need to save the course name/info for each layout (a given tee to pin combination) Let say if a course have two teepads and two pin configuration, then it will be 4 different layouts for a same course so I will need to save four "courses" (of a same course) in my course listing. Is that correct?

Actually, the number of courses you would have to calculate and save would be exponentially greater if they are handled like we do for casual play. Often baskets are moved independently regardless of whether others are in the long or short position. We don't keep them all long or all short depending on wear, wants, trying out a new placement or other factors. The number of posible layouts for just a 4 option course (two tees, two pin placements) is more like 4 to the 18th power, but since you would have control in the consistent selection of the tee pad used, you could reduce the workload to 2 to the 18th power. That's only about 260,000 courses.

[Jeff_LaG]

Originally Posted by Flash_25296

I am sure the app is nice and will create all kinds of interesting distractions on the course during those backups, and will help people score their card correctly so that the mis-add rule will never need to be enforced again but releasing on the Iphone platform before the android platform is a mistake in my opinion!

The reasons why the app was released on the iPhone first and not the Android have already been addressed several times in this thread by Chuck & Theo.

[havasuDG]

Any ideas on new course updates? There's a course in Oceanside (Goat Hill) that was used for a C Tier at the beginning of the month and it's not listed. I'd love to try out the calculate SSA feature, but that's not much of an option when the course doesn't exist in the PDGA directory. (I just wish they'd outsource DGcoursereviews course directory. Things would be much much better there)

[cgkdisc]

The PDGA Course Direrctory relies on members to update it just like any other directory. So you can get the info and enter it for Goat Hill or encourage the person who has the correct info to do so. (The PDGA tried to work out arrangements with DGCR a year or two ago but apparently nothing came of it.)

[havasuDG]

Any ideas on new course updates? There's a course in Oceanside (Goat Hill) that was used for a C Tier at the beginning of the month and it's not listed. I'd love to try out the calculate SSA feature, but that's not much of an option when the course doesn't exist in the PDGA directory. (I just wish they'd outsource DGcoursereviews course directory. Things would be much much better there)

[wsfaplau]

The scoring feature seems good. The ratings need work.

I "played" 2 local courses in Arvada, CO and entered 3 for every hole.

The short Johnny Robert's course at the only listed distance 5400 feet which gave me a 960 rating. Probably 40 - 50 points high.

The longer Bird's Nest course in the long position (7900 feet) at par gave me a 750 rating. Probably 180 points low. (Probably because most tourney rounds are on a tourney layout of 18 holes vs the 24 holes for casual play and listed in the directory)

I know it will improve with time but don't count on the ratings being very accurate yet.

Overall so far so good with the rest of it.

[tpozzy]

Originally Posted by havasuDG

Any ideas on new course updates? There's a course in Oceanside (Goat Hill) that was used for a C Tier at the beginning of the month and it's not listed. I'd love to try out the calculate SSA feature, but that's not much of an option when the course doesn't exist in the PDGA directory. (I just wish they'd outsource DGcoursereviews course directory. Things would be much much better there)

The course directory data is about a week old. I'm working on refreshing it, and setting it up to refresh automatically at least once a day. When we are up on the new website, the app will me updated to run directly off the main database. We couldn't do that for the initial launch because of the development work going on on the new site.

-Theo

[tpozzy]

Originally Posted by wsfaplau

The scoring feature seems good. The ratings need work.

I "played" 2 local courses in Arvada, CO and entered 3 for every hole.

The short Johnny Robert's course at the only listed distance 5400 feet which gave me a 960 rating. Probably 40 - 50 points high.

The longer Bird's Nest course in the long position (7900 feet) at par gave me a 750 rating. Probably 180 points low. (Probably because most tourney rounds are on a tourney layout of 18 holes vs the 24 holes for casual play and listed in the directory)

I know it will improve with time but don't count on the ratings being very accurate yet.

Overall so far so good with the rest of it.

The accuracy of the ratings is directly proportional to the accuracy of the distance that is selected. The best way to get an accurate rating is to enter the individual hole lengths into the app for the layout you played.

-Theo

[BogeyKing]

Used the "show courses near me". Epic fail. Sounded like an awesome idea to hit some courses while on the road. Turned out not such a good idea. Tried to hit two courses and the map directions were incorrect for both courses. They didn't even take near the courses. Kinda lame

Also played a course that has 18 normally, but for a tourney has 6 extra placements. Where is the button to add holes?

Not to impressed with this app.

[cgkdisc]

Had you used the PDGA Course Directory to find those courses, you also would have been misdirected. It's not the fault of the app. The PDGA relies on good information being input by its members. Did you let the course contacts know that their directions or course location might need to be updated?

At this point, you simply create your own custom course with 24 holes if the number on the course in the directory doesn't match what you want to play. A future upgrade (included free) will allow you to add or subtract holes from the number in the directory.

[BogeyKing]

The text directions were fine. The app has that button for directions that take you to google maps or whatever. Yeah that was wrong. The text directions is what saved the day.

Custom course. ****. Slept on that. Thanks, that make me feel a little better about purchasing this app.

[cgkdisc]

The text directions for each course are separate from the lat/lon values used by Google that are stored for those courses. Please consider dropping a note to those course contacts so that can be corrected.

[cbooras]

Originally Posted by BogeyKing

Used the "show courses near me". Epic fail. Sounded like an awesome idea to hit some courses while on the road. Turned out not such a good idea. Tried to hit two courses and the map directions were incorrect for both courses. They didn't even take near the courses. Kinda lame

Also played a course that has 18 normally, but for a tourney has 6 extra placements. Where is the button to add holes?

Not to impressed with this app.

I have used all of the DG Scorecard Apps I could find and think this one has the most potential for being the best, but I trust that it is a work in progress and showed that trust by dropping $5 on it.

My wish list includes...

1. More courses on the map than just a few in a fairly small radius. I would like to be able to move around the map and see ALL courses in the database, rather than just a few.

2. More customization. Like "DG Caddy", I need to be able to edit hole information (example, home course has 24 holes but 6 are letter holes, 3 of which come after #5 and the other 3 play after hole #15). Simply listing holes #1-24 makes the App unusable for the course I play most often. (I sent this before seeing Chucks note about creating a custom course. This option does not allow for changing the hole number to a letter or "6X, for example).

As others have said, it would be nice to be able to add, and save, distances for other pin placements and choose them as the hole is played. Some courses have up to 5 pin positions and multiple pads.

3. Tournament Mode. I have yet to see a program that lets you keep a running tally of scores for multiple players over consecutive rounds. Is this being considered as the program evolves?

Right now, the most unique aspect of the program is that it shows Tee order as a round progresses. I really like the speed of score entry and visibility.

Thanks for your time and dedication to this App...Charlie

[cgkdisc]

It's going to be an ongoing challenge to upgrade the PDGA Course Directory to match the type of features we would all like to see in the app such as some mentioned above. Until the PDGA Course Directory is upgraded to provide information like length and par for each tee and pin combination it doesn't make as much sense to provide similar flexibility in the app so course data can stay in sync. Those Directory upgrades are in the planning stages.

[seewhere]

why cant you edit hole information without having to play a round?

[cgkdisc]

You don't have to play a round but you do have to tap Start Round to get the option to add a custom course. That same Add Course option could potentially be added after tapping the main Course menu option. But I think the idea was to guide the user to use courses already in the PDGA Directory because the data would already be there for calculating ratings for example. As mentioned in my previous post, course related functionality will be one of the main areas for Directory and app upgrades.

[Jeff_LaG]

Originally Posted by cgkdisc

Had you used the PDGA Course Directory to find those courses, you also would have been misdirected. It's not the fault of the app. The PDGA relies on good information being input by its members. Did you let the course contacts know that their directions or course location might need to be updated?

Indeed, it is neither the fault of the PDGA iPhone app nor the app designers that data from the PDGA Course Directory may be faulty.

But while hindsight is 20/20, I think that members of the PDGA IT team, in conjuction with the release of this app, should have had the foresight to call on folks to update the data in the PDGA Course Directory. This has been done several times in the past decade by Cliffe Towne and company in preparation for the hard copy printings of the PDGA Course Directory. When I was PDGA state coordinator of Pennsylvania 3 years ago, I remember a similar drive and I sent out e-mails to every single course contact in my state to either update the directory, or send me the information and I would do it for them. Pleasantly, I heard back from several dozen people and was confident that the info for my state in the hard copy was mostly up-to-date. It should not have taken much labor or effort to initiate a similar drive; one e-mail to all 50 State Coordinators may have been all that was necessary.

But then again, even such a simple effort may have been all for naught if, due to the slowness of the PDGA website, it took people so long to load the PDGA Course Directory that they gave up on updating the information. As unfair as it may be, folks are going to continue to judge the PDGA iPhone app by the quality of the data contained within it. Sadly, I think that until the PDGA website is fixed and folks can access it in an expedient manner, and until a majority of the PDGA Course Directory is updated with current information, the PDGA iPhone app may continue to yield unpleasant experiences (like BogeyKing's) and garner negative reviews.

[jhc811]

I see that PDGA app do allow me to create course locally with each hole info (feet and par) which is great, but once that info is entered and created, I cannot go back and edit that course at later date. Need the option to allow user to edit the course that was created via "Create Locally".

PDGA needs to improve the course database big time and need to link the tournament rounds results with course info in the database. I just realized that the tournament results/rounds with course info (i.e. tee and pin placement) along with SSA rating are completely separate from the PDGA course database. I think it would be great if PDGA can work with dgcoursereview.com to standardized the course database and have one official central location for course database. Nice to be able to click on a course and then see the latest tournament (and in future league) results for a given course. Then this app can use current SSA for a given course layout which is the most accurate for round ratings. That will give most benefit for the disc golf community, putting ego aside (if any?).

I just played with Easy Scorecard Pro and it is nice that I can create course via EasyScorecard.net's database, but Easy Scorecard Pro interface is not good, the fonts are too tiny. The features is real nice but interface-wise, they should learn from GolfCard Pro.

Again, GolfCard Pro is by far the best, interface-wise. PDGA developers: Please do take a serious look at GolfCard Pro, especially their interface. The best by far.

I want to be able to see the scorecard along with par and hole feet at glance anytime. I want to track fairway hits and # of putts.

Need to add # of feet for a given hole in main score entering screen and also in View Scorecard.

I still want to have option of what kind of round like Tournament, League, Practice that will be helpful for stats reporting.

Also good idea to add notes for each hole in course data locally (not the round data).

Looking forward for a good progress in that area. I have to use GolfCard Pro due to stats features (it allows me to create course locally and able to edit anytime) and hopefully in near future when PDGA app has all the needed features (such as stats and some other items I have mentioned) then I will be happy to dump GolfCard Pro!

[wsfaplau]

Originally Posted by tpozzy

The accuracy of the ratings is directly proportional to the accuracy of the distance that is selected. The best way to get an accurate rating is to enter the individual hole lengths into the app for the layout you played.

-Theo

Thanks Theo, I'll try that

[tpozzy]

Originally Posted by cbooras

I have used all of the DG Scorecard Apps I could find and think this one has the most potential for being the best, but I trust that it is a work in progress and showed that trust by dropping $5 on it.

My wish list includes...

Right now, the most unique aspect of the program is that it shows Tee order as a round progresses. I really like the speed of score entry and visibility.

Thanks for your time and dedication to this App...Charlie

And thank you for your feedback. It's exactly what we're looking for as we continue to improve the app. The ability to add holes to a course in the directory has been noted. I'm interested in your idea about letting the user change the numbering of the holes. For a number of reasons, we'll need to keep the internal numbering, but it may not be too hard to have a display number that can be edited when you edit the hole info.

We might add the ability to automatically add courses when you pan the map, but we're not sure if/how we can do that. We don't want to download the whole database every time, as it would both slow down the searches and put a lot more strain on the server (it's pretty expensive, resource-wise, to get the course data out of the server if you don't filter the searches.

Thanks again for your feedback!

-Theo

[tpozzy]

Originally Posted by cbooras

3. Tournament Mode. I have yet to see a program that lets you keep a running tally of scores for multiple players over consecutive rounds. Is this being considered as the program evolves?

Forgot to address this one! We have lots of great ideas on the feature list for tournament play. We want to make this the best app for tournament play. It will eventually be the main way to enter live real-time scores for PDGA events. We'll eventually let players see each other's cards if they choose to, so they can see if anyone is sneaking up behind them or see how a good buddy is doing.

-Theo

[cgkdisc]

so they can see if anyone is sneaking up behind them or see how a good buddy is doing.

This could facilitate a way to play blind skins.

[mikkis]

Hi PDGA App Developers!

And thank you for this great application. Sending the scores as a CSV file is great and I have a small change request related to that feature. Could you please add the player's nickname in to the file?

Another question is, where can I find the full list of courses available in PDGA course directory? Just a simple list of course names and locations.

BR,
--Mikko

[seewhere]

also let us add players photos..

[krupicka]

If you want the course directory to be more accurate, a great feature for the app would be to update the course info with the GPS coordinates from the phone and upload the info to the PDGA database. This could then also be used to eventually get hole/pin lengths in as well..

[twoputtok]

Originally Posted by seewhere

also let us add players photos..

I think we get quite enough of your photos on FB.

[tpozzy]

Originally Posted by krupicka

If you want the course directory to be more accurate, a great feature for the app would be to update the course info with the GPS coordinates from the phone and upload the info to the PDGA database. This could then also be used to eventually get hole/pin lengths in as well..

That one has been on our main wish list for a while! A related feature is recording where each throw lands to capture throw distances.

-Theo

[krupicka]

Is there a way to delete a round?