OpenCpn Draw plugin disappears after install on Android

[chris14679]

I'm using the latest, paid-for, official Dave Register Android app on a Mediatek tablet running Android 7.

I go to the settings, list of plugins, click "install" for the OCPN-Draw plugin, enable it and click "OK".

There are still no buttons available on the toolbar for OCPN DRAW (I want to import a GPX file of draw data which I exported from OpenCPN on my Mac).

I exit OpenCPN and reload the app in case it needs to restart to make the plugin work. Still no Draw buttons. I go into settings->plugins and now the plugin has disappeared (greyed out), it is not installed or enabled.

rinse and repeat - each time I reinstall, it just disappears again.

Has anyone managed to make the Draw plugin work on Android? Any suggestions on how to make it stay installed?

thanks!

[sv_pelagia]

Just tried. Draw installed but no change to display. Usual "Draw" buttons did not show up.

So, seems to confirm your issue.

Unless there is something we are missing....

[jongough]

I have been made aware of the issue which I am looking into. The Android environment is new from a build perspective with plugin manager and I don't have a device to test on which makes it a bit more difficult to check if a fix works.

[chris14679]

Thanks for getting on to the case so quick. Do let me know if you'd like me to test anything.

There are Android simulators available to download, or you can pick up an old battered android phone for $10 to test on. Considering I paid for the app (twice, once for personal use and once for business use) I think it's not unreasonable to expect the developers to invest some of that revenue in test equipment. Hopefully Dave will share some of the proceeds of app sales with the plug-in developers for such purposes.

[bdbcat]

chris...
Working the problem. Complicated by time zone difference (AEDT vs EDT). Please stand by...


Thanks
Dave

[cagney]

Testing on O 5.2.2 with Draw 1.8.12.
I see the same problem, which may boil down to this line in the log

18:23:34.357 ERROR dlunix.cpp:162 dlopen failed: cannot locate symbol "glScalef" referenced by "/mnt/expand/5aa222d5-8301-48fd-b616-ddb8887052a3/user/0/org.opencpn.opencpn/manPlug/libocpn_draw_pi.so"...

[jongough]

I am in the process of trying to setup a virtual andriod (takes time doing the downloads at ~200KB/s, our internet speed). If you want to do a test I did put up a change yesterday which is in the alpha cloudsmith repository. It will require downloading and using the install local method as I have not made the change to the downloadable catalog. To do the test you will need to look here:
https://cloudsmith.io/~opencpn/repos...lpha/packages/
and pick the file you want to use. It is complete and will install if you use the expert mode.

Originally Posted by chris14679

Thanks for getting on to the case so quick. Do let me know if you'd like me to test anything.

There are Android simulators available to download, or you can pick up an old battered android phone for $10 to test on. Considering I paid for the app (twice, once for personal use and once for business use) I think it's not unreasonable to expect the developers to invest some of that revenue in test equipment. Hopefully Dave will share some of the proceeds of app sales with the plug-in developers for such purposes.

[bdbcat]

All...
Tested latest plugin from Cloudsmith, 1.8.5.0.
Does not work. Info sent to Jon.


Thanks
Dave

[chris14679]

Hey guys, just wondering how it's going with the fix?

We want to use openCPN on waterproof android tablets on our fleet of electric boats for hire. Total beginners exploring a shallow muddy tidal river with the tide going out, what could possibly go wrong?! the idea is to have highlighted red hatched areas in the shallow bits you can't go into and watchdog alarms going off if they stray into the wrong place or leave the operating area. Eventually I'd like to even make some enhancements so it shows different restricted areas depending on the height of the tide.

So I spent a very long time drawing and annotating detailed overlays for the entire river using OpenCPN draw on my mac expecting we could export them to the tablets so it's pretty frustrating!

I was really impressed with the power of both plugins so I very much hope we can make this work on Android.

Thanks!
Chris

[jongough]

Work is still going on for Android. Unfortunately the platform does not support some of the graphics functions that are used, so these are having to be changed. Other issues have shown up with dialogs, accessing them and sizing them amongst others. So this is not a quick, easy change.

Hopefully we should have something in the next month, but.... There will be alpha and beta versions for testing, which is likely to be iterative, and will rely on testers helping identify edge and usability issues.

[chris14679]

Thanks very much for the update Jon and for your hard work to get it working.

Happy to help with testing if someone can send or link me to an APK I can install or point me at an idiots guide for compiling and installing a beta version for android. My main computer is a rather old mac and after a bit of initial digging I'm not sure if that's capable of compiling opencpn for android. I have no time to set up a linux machine at the moment.

[jongough]

The testable versions will be available from cloudsmith (https://cloudsmith.io/~opencpn/repos/ocpn_draw-alpha/packages/ and https://cloudsmith.io/~opencpn/repos/ocpn_draw-beta/packages/) as plugin manager install packages (*.gz). These will need plugin manager to install.

If you have a system that can run docker (and good internet) you can use circleci local to run the build, but I would wait until we have a workable version if you are not used to these types of environment (we are still getting the build processes working properly for all the different platforms).

[chris14679]

thanks Jon, I did look at those cloudsmith packages, couldn't work out how to install them on Android as all the plugins seemed pre-installed with no option to install new ones manually. Where do I get plugin manager?

I was a software developer years ago but I'm a bit rusty now. Never used docker or circleci.

[jongough]

You need to be running OCPN 5.2.x an you will find it under 'settings/plugins' and you should see 'update plugin catalog:master' button at the bottom of the screen. If this is not there then you are running an older version. If the option is there you should be able to tap on a plugin (greyed out) and be offered to install it with a button. This is how most plugins will be installable in future.

[jongough]

To run circleci you will need to goto the circle I site and get the package to allow you to run it. You will also need to have access to a 'bash' command prompt. The command to run the build is documented for 'circleci local' in the circleci web pages. If you are interested I can help in a couple of weeks(not near my development machine at the moment).