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Check-in Fox

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Check-in Fox

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    Check-in Fox

    Welcome to Check-in Fox!

    Check-in Fox is a foursquare client for Firefox OS ‒ Mozilla's new open-source operating system.

    See what your friends are up to and share your favorite places, best picks and enjoyable moments through the power of checking in at your favorite pubs, posting photos of your travels, leaving tips for your number one restaurant and more!

    Before you can use the app, you need to connect it to your FourSquare account - use the button bellow to log in and authenticate with FourSquare:

    Log in to FourSquare

    Also, be sure to check out the Help to read about setting up your GPS proper, current and upcoming Check-in Fox features and known issues.

    Contribute!

    Check-in Fox is still a work-in-progress beta, that means a lot of functions are unavailable as of yet, but fret not, as they are coming sooner, rather than later. Check the GitHub Repository, help extending Check-in Fox yourself by filing bugs, ideas, or helping out in fixing bugs and implementing much-requested features!

    In the coming weeks, as Check-in Fox matures, it would be translated into several languages. If you want to help out in the localization process, just drop me a tweet (all locales are welcome, though spanish, polish, german and french translations remain a priority). If you have found a bug, or want to request a new feature, file a bug on GitHub!

    Install!

    You could always use Check-in Fox from the browser of your Firefox OS phone (and most of the functions should work in other phones & browsers, too) by opening https://checkinfox-flaki.rhcloud.com/.

    If you would like to install Check-in Fox on your phone, there is a packaged version in the Firefox Marketplace ‒ or you could choose to install it from the home page:

    Install Check-in Fox

    Venue details:

    view on foursquare

    Check-in Fox Help

    Main screen

    After authentication, you are presented the main screen of Check-in Fox. On the top left corner is the menu button, tapping this gives you access to the menu drawer. Most functions - as of now - remain unimplemented, you can access the Help & About sections, and Log Out here.

    The Geolocation button

    On the top-right corner of the main screen is the Geolocation button: the spinning animated Geolocation button means the device is looking for a precise location (GPS fix), after a precise location is acquired, the icon changes to a stationary, unanimated one and the map on the bottom of the screen is updated to reflect your supposed location. Your geolocation is automatically updated as you travel through the wilds, but you could click this button to manually start a location refresh (this will also result in reloading of the venue list, showing the venues close to your new location).

    Your last check in

    On the top of the main screen, some details about your last check-in are displayed: when and where were you last seen, according to foursquare.

    Venue list and search

    Under your last check-in is a search box and a list of venues around your supposed location. You could type any search terms into the search box, and hit enter if you are looking for a specific venue, or click the Refresh button on the right to have the list of venues updated. You could use the Refresh button to load a list of venues when inside buildings, as the app will use your last-known position (before you entered the building, and lost GPS connection) to gather a list of nearby venues. By clicking on a venue in the venue list you are taken to te Check-in screen.

    Map

    The map displays your current location, according to your device's measurements. As acquiring a GPS fix on current devices may take a significant amount of time, we initially try to determine your approximate location (that is, country and city or area) to show this on the map - as this is derived from your IP address, this might be significantly further from your actual location. When the device has acquired your (more) precise location via GPS, the map is zoomed in at the presumed position where a blip represents your acquired location. You could zoom (pinch-to-zoom) & pan around to navigate the minimap. Tapping the map brings up a full-screen map where you better see your location and surroundings.

    Note: map functionality will be significantly increased in coming versions, with full-screen map, displaying of friends and venues around and more.

    Checking in

    By tapping on a venue in the venue list, you are taken to the check-in screen where you could publish a check-in with optional accompanying shout message and/or photo. If there are any public photos for the selected venue, they are displayed on the top of the screen in a rotating fashion.

    Checking in

    You could publish a check-in by tapping the highlighted Check in here! button in the center of the screen. You may optionally disclose a shout (short message) via the text box, or attach a photo via the Attach photo button. By clicking the Attach photo button, Firefox OS presents you with multitude of ways to choose the photo - from either the Gallery/Memory Card, or snap one right there with the Camera app. The attached photo is displayed on the bottom of the check-in screen (tap to view full image). If you changed your mind, you could remove the photo with the overlaid Remove button. If you want to share your check-in (and/or shout, photo) with your friends, you may choose to tick one of the share buttons: Share on Facebook and Share on Twitter (or both). If you changed your mind, and decided not to check in, you could tap the back button on the top left corner to return to the main screen. Clicking on the view on foursquare link takes you to the detailed venue page on the foursquare mobile website.

    Note: the Add a friend (tagging) button is not avaliable in current version of the application

    Post check-in screen

    After a successful check-in, the Post check-in screen is displayed, where you could review your results, and the app lists the points you got for this check-in. If you attached a photo to the check-in, it is shown here again as well. Click OK on the Post check-in screen to return to the main screen

    Geolocation in Firefox OS

    Geolocation in early versions of Firefox OS makes use of the device's (A)GPS sensor. This means, that acquiring a precise location might take significant amount of time, and would probably work only outdoors, with clear view of the sky. This makes it harder for one to use this for such highly location-dependent applications, as foursquare. The cell network & wi-fi based geolocation on Firefox OS devices poses several privacy-related issues - and mozilla traditionally takes privacy very seriously - but is a very actively developed portion of the OS, and is coming to Firefox OS, rather sooner than later.

    Setting up geolocation properly

    First, you need to set up AGPS APN. You will find this in the device SettingsAGPS-Settings menu. You should set it to the same value your cell data APN is set to, in SettingsData settingsAPN. If you don't know this, you should ask your network/data provider.

    Next you need to go outside. Current geolocation on FirefoxOS is GPS-only, which means it won't work indoors, you'll need a clear view on the sky to acquire a GPS fix. You should also turn off Wi-Fi and use cell data, as AGPS won't work on a WiFi connection.

    If you did everything well - you are outside, with clear view on the sky and have nailed the setup - your phone should get a GPS lock in under 1-2 minutes - and a precise position. Without AGPS, you might still get a lock, but it could easily take 10+ minutes until your phone acquires GPS lock without network assistance.

    About Check-in Fox

    Logo

    Check-in Fox

    About Check-in Fox

    Check-in Fox is a foursquare client for Firefox OS ‒ Mozilla's new open-source operating system. Check-in Fox is still in its early infancy, with lots of missing features and quite possibly some nasty bugs, so please be patient and/or contribute!

    Credits

    Technology and assets used in the making of Check-in Fox

    Privacy

    Please note that Check-in Fox uses the online freegeoip.net service to provide a fallback approximate location based on your IP-address. This is neccessary as current versions of Firefox OS only support GPS/A-GPS geolocation, which is slow to start up and does not seem to work indoors. Mozilla already started creating their own wifi- and cell-based geolocation service, that would replace and obsolete the need for such hacks, but until that they are unfortunately needed.

    Check-in Fox uses the foursquare API to publish checkins. To interact with the API, the user needs to be authenticated and request an "API KEY" for the client. We cache this API key in an online database and bind it to the unique ClientID of the authenticating user - no one could access your API key, without first somehow accessing your device and/or reading your ClientID. We do not use, distribute or in other ways publish these, or any other sensitive data of the authenticated user.

    The above method is required due to Check-in Fox uses the Application API of foursquare, and this is the only viable method of keeping the application "secret" - well, secret. In the future, there might be a setting where you cold choose to create your own API key and use Check-in Fox with that application secret - without the need of online authentication. If you are still concerned, feel free to check out the source on GitHub.

    Anything you do while using Check-in Fox is absolutely up to you. We do not log, track or in other ways monitor your activity on foursquare, and any liabilities, mishaps and problems are entirely yours to solve - we do and can not take any responsibility for your actions. In short, use the application at your own risk - and don't blame it on us if/when everything goes south.

    Should you run into problems, send a tweet to @checkinfox, or if you are more into oldschool, drop us a mail at checkinfox.devs@gmail.com.

    Changelog

      • [2013-07-25] v0.4.51 Minor external linking problem fix for Leaflet attributions.
      • [2013-07-25] v0.4.5 First version to be published on the Firefox Marketplace.
        · Fixed minimap issues, implemented fullscreen map
        · Fixed last-checkin-time bug
        · Fixed freeze-bug in single-photo venues
        · Help and About are now viewable without authentication
        · Expanded help with geolocation setup how-to
        · Minor fixes and improvements
      • [2013-07-20] v0.4 First public release, support for basic features: authentication, geolocation, listing and searching nearby venues, checking in with shout, sharing and photo upload options.

      Created by

      István Szmozsánszky (Flaki)

      Contributors

        Licence

        Copyright (c) 2013, István Szmozsánszky
        All rights reserved.

        Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

        1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

        2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

        THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.