FINALLY! - Over 6 months of time (since August) - 41 Plugins used (over 80 in my arsenal) - Over 1,000 screens, all entered and configured by hand (no copy tool) - Literally thousands of child items - TONS of modification to make it custom Just submitted it to the app store a few minutes ago. Hopefully won't run into copyright issues with the apple police... it's a grey area, since it's based on a public place with copyrighted stuff everywhere, lol. PLEASE... I want people to play with the app and basically beta test it for me, so I can make any changes if needed before review. LINK TO BETA: https://app.io/5v3K4o (Universal Orlando Tour Guide) It's a companion app for Universal Studios in Orlando. Includes details for everything there, as well as tools for before, during and after your trip. This has been the project I have been working on my entire buzztouch career, so please leave me some feedback as to what you think, what could be improved, or whatever. Thanks to everyone who helped along the way! The plugins and code are probably more custom than original by now to achieve this app. PLEASE leave some comments here... Looking to see what people think of the final product... Good, bad, or otherwise

Grabbing now! Well done on a big project. Bet you felt a big sigh of relief on submission. Pat on back. Shout you back.

lol, yes, definitely. I originally started with Buzztouch to whip out a whole bunch of small apps, and ended up doing the opposite... one large app the entire time I've been using BT. It was the data entry that took all the time... entering and linking child data, hand typing all of the text, in each screen, etc. The coding was a piece of cake. Data entry sucks, lol. BTW... the "discussion & Reviews" for most rides is currently blank... I plan on populating with some dummy data before it's released, which I can do remotely. For example, the original park ride section discussion & reviews rides have 2 or 3 dummy reviews each. They will all have that within a few days... just so people don't see it empty and not want to use it

Wow! That is a lot of content! No wonder you are "angry!" Looks very well done.

Thanks. Particularly proud of the "live cam" section... I should turn that into a plugin actually. Also if you take a look at the weather section, I was also able to integrate the live cam into Smugs weather plugin... so you can actually see the weather out there. Should be fun during hurricane season, lol

Nice nice nice! You had been hinting at this long-running app -- congratulations!!! Wonder how app.io does their rendering. It looks spot on! Even Kittsy's carousel was spinning. The copyright aspect will be interesting. As long as you stay away from their images, I hope you should be fine. -- Niraj

Yeah, I was impressed with app.io, first time using it (thanks for the tip MrDavid). I noticed the carousel was working fairly smooth as well, and even the games can almost be played perfectly, even the quick moving ones like pong. Yep, I'm a little worried about copyright issues, but all of the images and videos were from public uploads from people visiting the park. I used none of Universals pics or images, or even other places that review parks or whatever. I'm just thinking some reviewer at Apple sitting behind his desk will say "oh, theres an image of Harry Potter... and look, another one of spiderman... those are copyrighted...DENIED!", lol. But, there's lots of apps related to Disney and Universal in the app store (not grounds for a valid argument in apples eyes though), so it probably just depends on if your reviewer has had his morning coffee yet or not. I wanted to include a coloring book, but didn't want to push the copyright issue with images of spiderman, the hulk, etc. I was also very careful with my name... "Universal Orlando Tour Guide" instead of referencing Universal Studios. However... Universal Studios website actually is universalorlando.com, which was an oversight on my part after I had everything ready to go... so we'll see.

Congrats! It's like having your first child lol LA

Lol, yep. This isn't my first app... I actually have over 10 apps in the app store since 2008... but this is my first Buzztouch app, and by far my largest app as far as content goes.

Thank GOD for buzztouch! LA

INTENSE. Angry, you are a gem. David https://btmods.com/chat ^ Chat with other BT members live!

Now we see what you have been busy on. Outstanding! Best of luck.

Thanks guys, appreciate it. Does anybody see anything that should be changed?

Here is a bit of insight from the CTO of App.io when they used to be called Kickfolio. They are running the app on their servers -- must be MacMini or Mac-based VMs or both. Then they capture the video frames to stream to your browser. Bear in mind, his answer was posted in Dec-2012. I'm sure they have greatly improved the technology since then. I'm surprised why Apple has not purchased them. With the purchase of TestFlightApp.com, then App.io would be the perfect combo to present us Developers with a bountiful gift at WWDC! -- Niraj

One of the finest efforts I've seen. I adore the 'live cam' screen, and would like to steal it from you, lol! Everything ebbs and flows the way it should until you get to the 'social' tab, which then looks very different, and no obvious instruction on how to get out. Not a deal breaker, but very odd; it comes out differently and looks different than the rest of the app theme. Good Luck on your tremendous efforts! Cheers! -- Smug

Thanks smug. Yeah, the social tab needs a bit of theming... It's still using the scringo defaults. Other than color matching, I didn't see an easy way to have it use my current backgrounds or anything. Yeah, the live cam section is pretty slick. Did you see I added the live cam to your "smug climate" plugin? Now you can SEE the weather besides just reading it. Happy to share the live cam code/graphics with you if you want them. The particular cam I use though is different than most cams though... It saves a jpg image every few minutes and overwrites the old one... So not sure it would work for most true live cam feeds... It would have to be image based. But yeah... I thought having it display in a movie theater format was perfect for the universal app. Took a lot of trial and error with masking and layering the curtain png files over the html iframe and getting everything just the right size to mask the video area. It displays on ipad perfectly as well without modification.

Wow Angry Ninja, that's awesome. Played around with it a bit and I'm loving that app.io site. Cool way to beta test. Congrats on getting such a whopping amount of content so well organised in one package! A UX thought for you: Because there's so much content in there, can I suggest that you'd want to minimise the amount of repetitive text in some of your menu labels? eg in City Walk>Bubba Gump you've got the nav bar saying "Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.", then your main menu label line "Photos of Location" and your sub-label is then "View Photos of the Bubba Gumps Location". Not sure whether that text is hand-entered into your app or whether it's pulling it and auto-assembling from a dbase, but if its the former then consider streamlining the text so its less repetitive? I already know that I'm in the Bubba Gump section because I selected it previously; it also says so up in your nav bar. So maybe further menu label references that include the words "Bubba Gump" aren't needed at all on that screen. That kind of stuff might be something to test with a few people, and if you find they don't need that constant reminder of where they 'are' in your app, it might help to reduce the amount of text on each screen, which will make it much cleaner, visually. Especially important in such a content-rich app as this. (One of my shady pasts involved UX design for museum exhibits, so that's where this is coming from...) You've already got a really awesome example of best practice in one of your other screen sequences, the "Secrets" screens. This is excellent text flow - if you look at the opening screen once you hit that "Secrets" button, the menu doesn't repeat any of the text in the nav bar, and the sub-lines on your menu buttons don't repeat any of the text in the main menu line. It's spot on, helpful and explanatory without being repetitive, even though it has more words. (Unlike this post?? :) ) Hope this is helpful. Awesome job, I'm really envious!! Cheers Paddy.

Nice looking app, I do like your home screen.

Thanks guys. @Paddo, I agree. The nav bar titles are hand coded (otherwise it would be the name of the screen, which wouldn't make sense to the end user). The row descriptions are hand coded as well. Originally the names were put in there to occupy the space of the 70px height, and unfortunately I continued the entry throughout. I could change them, but probably would require about 600 screen edits. Still, something I may do in small increments, as I see your point and agree it would look and flow better that way. @Arubaman: thanks. I couldn't find a menu plugin that laid it out exactly how I wanted... Even the button menu, which was close. The home screen is pure html using the html pro plugin, with each item location laid out pixel by pixel. :)

That Home Screen will be easy to make after I get my revised plugin released. It is indeed a nice Home Screen!

Angry: 600 screen edits sounds like it's in your control panel. Maybe I should keep quiet, but you can still do some serious find/replace queries in your phpMyAdmin or whatever SQL interface you have for your database. It just takes a strong stomach and a full backup before you try anything. It's like a scalpel; you can save a life, or take one. Cheers! -- Smug

Hey Smug, yeah that would be in my CP. The problem with a database find/replace is that every line would be something different, so no specific replace criteria. As far as phpmyadmin, no issues there, I'm fairly comfortable with it.

For easy-to-use database catalogs such as your App, try out MATE - http://MySQLajaxTableEditor.com -- it is today's modern version of phpMyEdit Then make it spit out the desired formatted JSON Or write your own PHP to generate the JSON Dialect. Or use WordPress with a Custom Post Type plugin and the JSON-API plugin Or get a Xerox machine

No, I mean each replacement line would be a different syntax... Like the original row description line might be: "View pictures of the food served at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company" And based on PaddyO's suggestion, I'd want to replace it with something like: "View pictures of the great shrimp, sandwiches and seafood" But then the next row might be an ice cream place and I'd want to replace that with: "View pirctures of the awesome milkshakes, waffle cones, sundaes and more" So in other words, there's no algorithm to perform a search and replace query of any kind, with any tool, so it would all have to be hand edited... which may still be worth doing.

Hi Angry Ninja. Congrats on a well designed app! A few questions: 1. Did you use a Buzztouch plugin for the Post Comment section? 2. Will it have adds in the live version? I don't see the annoying game adverts at the top on the Scringo plugin section! Can this be disabled? Kind regards Tyrone

Hey Tyrone, Thanks. The post comments plugin is a php script that MRDavid posted as part of his 30 days of buzztouch project (bt30). It's simply linked via the custom URL plugin. It uses a really simple MySQL database, takes less than 5 minutes to setup the whole thing. Each ride/attraction had to have its own table in the database, and I simply copied the script to multiple directories... One for each attraction, to keep them separated. Nope, no ads in the live version either. Technically, I didn't remove the ads (per the scringo license). The ad block is still there, it's just 1px x 1px in size, so the ads display great for tiny insects with excellent eyesight. ;). Can't remember the exact file name of the ad view, but if you poke around the scringo framework folder, you'll see which xib file controls the ads.

Congrats Angry Ninja! I have my fingers crossed for you for approval. This is a monster of an app. I tip my hat off to you :)

Wow, this is impressive!! And an inspiration to so many people!!

Thanks guys, i appreciate all the kudos. I just fixed a minor bug where the "messages" part of scringo made the app crash (turned out to be one of my plugin files was conflicting with Scringo's messenger screen... required slight modification). Resubmitted the new binary to Apple. I didn't change the beta link since this was the only change... so just pretend the messages section works, lol. It looks like an email inbox is all, so you're not missing much there. For anyone looking at the app, if you have been to universal studios, feel free to leave your reviews of the rides, shows, food, etc in the discussion & reviews section of any attraction that you want to comment on. All of that data is saved on the server, even with using the app.io beta link, and will still be in the app when the app is released in the app store. No registration needed, you just type a desired screen name, enter your comment and hit post. The more populated data we have before release day, the better it will look to other users. Same goes for the scringo chat rooms...feel free to post away in there (that one does require free signup, but it can also just log you in by twitter or facebook, so theres no process involved). Theres also a feedback area of the app in the upper right context menu where a few Buzztouch members have already posted comments (thanks guys!) Hey, if nothing else, playing with this apps beta is a great way to view how some of the plugins work that you might be thinking about buying... although many of them have been modified for use in this app, especially graphically... but there's 41 plugins used in there to check out how they are used and what they might look like if you want to see what they look like in action.

I want to make a comment on the Harry Potter ride and on the Butter beer. Is there a search box to easily find those places? I went in Spring of 2011.

Niraj: No search, but tap the "Wizarding World" section from the main menu. There's no dedicated butter beer area, because it's served at three places, 2 of which are simple beverage carts that move around and are literly 2 taps and a cash register with no cart name... but the third place that has a designated butter beer counter is the Three Brooksticks restaurant, so that would probably be the best place to place the review. The harry potter ride... at least the main ride that everyone thinks about, is called "The Forbidden Journey", also located in the same dedicated Wizarding World section from the main menu (or from the ride menu if you manually want to drill down the menus that way). I didn't want to use a menu called "HArry Potter" to help with the copyright rejection situation with apple... but the section is technically called the Wizarding World anyway, so it works. I try to go to Universal once a year, usually in October... although I didn't make it last year.

And here is what I plan to use for the meta description in the app store. I tried to use as many possible search keywords that I could think of in it for people to find my app, and usually I just highlight the main features of my app in the descriptions and keep them short, but this time I listed every possible feature I could think of, to try to maximize benefit versus cost factor and make a longer description. I think I'll put it up for $2.99... it's worth a lot more than that (was originally thinking $4.99), but I'm going to experiment with a lower price on this app compared to my other apps, to see if I get more downloads at a lower price point instead of the other way around. I wish apple utilized A/B testing options for the app store. Here is the description I am planning to use. My goal here is basically to overwhelm the reader with a flood of listed features, so halfway down the list they say "damn, I'm tired of reading all of this... this is already worth way more than the asking price and I haven't even read it all yet, so yeah, I'll buy it". I'm open to suggestions for any changes: ----------------------------------------------------------------- Universal Orlando Tour Guide is your ultimate companion when traveling to the Universal Studios Orlando area. Not only are we the only app that lists all of the menus for all of the restaurants and food in the park, but we feature so much more than any other app as well, including tools to use while on your trip, before your trip and after your trip. Our app goes into every fine detail of rides, restaurants, shows and more. Included tools even allow you to check ride wait times, clock the speed of the roller coaster you are on in real time, play orlando themed games, chat in real time with other visitors, view Universals live cam (especially fun during hurricane conditions!), and soooo much more! Just some of the included features are: - A full collection of park maps - Restaurant and food cart details - Full restaurant and food cart menus and prices (a Universal Orlando Tour Guide exclusive!) - Tons of photos of all atrractions - Photos of all food at each location - Videos of each attraction - Instant overhead satellite mapping of each location - Live chat and reviews about each attraction - Full list and overview of each and every shop - Dedicated section for toddler and child friendly area - Dedicated Wizarding World section - Dedicated Citywalk section, featuring bar hours and covers - Photos from all years of Halloween Horror Nights - Attraction wait times - Secrets & little known facts about the rides and attractions - Live news and rumors section - Full social integration (Facebook, Twitter, and more) - Visitor radar allows you to see other nearby users of the app - Live cam allows you to keep an eye on the park - Built in messenger, great for parties that split up in the park - Live 5 day weather forecast, with a live view of the weather at the park built in - Countdown features lets you countdown the days until you get to the park, or the days until you have to leave - Park section checklists make sure you don't miss a single attraction - Notes area where you can enter your travel itinerary, things you want to do, or other items of interest - Built in calculator for quick figuring - Tip calculator automatically suggests the amount of the tip for taxi, bellhops, meals, or other things - Speed Radar feature allows you to find out exactly how fast your ride is moving - Taxi Finder will allow you to get a taxi pulling right up to your curb without making a call - Built in ride timer lets you calculate ride or queue duration - Location Finder makes sure you can easily find your way back to your parking spot or hotel if you venture out - Autograph feature allows you or your kids to collect and save autographs from all of the characters that they meet - Airport map lets you get a detailed look at the Orlando MCO airport in advance - Games section features 6 unique games written especially for this app, all with Universal Orlando types of themes The best part is, you get all of this for one low price, with no add-ons or anything else to buy. Plus, Universal Orlando Tour Guide is updated constantly remotely, so you'll always have the freshest data when the parks add new rides and attractions. Once you see everything included, you'll wonder how you ever visited the Orlando parks without it. Universal Orlando Tour Guide is part of a current suite of apps (or apps in development) featuring the "Tour Guide" branding. This app, it's contents, media, links and other sources are gathered from a variety of public sources or used under a GPL license or stock images. Universal Orlando Tour Guide is in no way affiliated with nor endorsed by Universal Studios. All copyrights and trademarks are property of their respective owners. For full terms of use and legal information, view the terms of use section of our app. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wow -- did this awesome App Description take a month to create?!

Pretty much. Not sure if a quick and short description is better, or a long drawn out one like this is better. I've always gone with fairly short descriptions, so thought I'd give this a try for a change.

The app was just approved and is now in the app store. I'm surprised it was given the green light on the very first submission: Here is the link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/universal-orlando-tour-guide/id857178975?mt=8 (purchases greatly appreciated to support buzztouch development, wink wink, haha)

Congrats, Angry Ninja! Glad all the hard work paid off. and on the first submission! :) Cheers! -- Smug