Chromebook Aquamail Issues / PDF and Contacts

[mikeone]

Since there is nothing to fix in the app itself, the developer can't fix anything outside the app.

That's a fact. No more, no less.

[Kostya Vasilyev]

As I wrote above, it's the Android version, the only one there is, and it works as well as this "Android inside Chrome OS" thanks to which it's able to run on Chrome OS to begin with.

I don't even have a Chrome OS device to test on -- the process of "packaging" my Android app as a Chrome OS app lets me run it inside Chrome (the browser) -- but that's all the testing I'm able to do.

The basics seem to work, I'm able to add Internet / Gmail / Exchange accounts, the app does check mail, the message list / message views work, etc.

I'm also able to click on image attachments and they open in Android Gallery app -- I guess Android Gallery is pre-installed inside this "Android inside Chrome" -- but I guess a PDF viewer isn't.

I cannot fix anything in this "Android inside Chrome", even if it missing a preinstalled PDF viewer means that my app has nothing to launch for PDFs.

And as I wrote above, I made the app available for free.

If you find it lacking, and don't wish to contact Google and ask them to fix the issues (with PDF and other missing pieces of this "Android inside Chrome OS), then just move on please.

I don't have the luxury to chase Chrome OS specific issues, or to purchase a Chrome OS device just for this -- and even if I did, don't see how that would change anything.

[Kostya Vasilyev]

ARC on Chrome should be considered "alpha" too.

Yes, they made it available for all apps (after testing with some specific hand picked ones) -- but does it meet all the expectations of an Android developer and/or a Chrome OS user?

Seems that the answer is "no".

[PatoMail]

Yeah I been using the AquaMail on my Chromebook since last August. I could never open any PDFs that I received either. Being an insurance adjuster you can imagine how many PDF attachments I would get weekly. I'd find myself constantly toggling over to my regular Gmail to open those attachments, which admittedly, became kind of a pain. But the Gmail app works great.. never had an issue with their "built-in" PDF viewer. I still use AquaMail occasionally, but it's more of a quirky little novelty than anything that I could seriously work with on a daily basis. In Blue's defense, opening a PDF file is a pretty basic feature in any email program. Whether it's a Chrome issue or an AquaMail issue, this app is definitely not ready for prime-time. So in a nutshell, use something else if you need to access PDF files regularly.

[Kostya Vasilyev]

But the Gmail app works great

I'm happy to hear it.

I guess you just flip over to the web browser, as opposed to running GMail for Android on your Chrome OS.

Whether it's a Chrome issue or an AquaMail issue, this app is definitely not ready for prime-time

I released AquaMail "for Chrome OS" as an experiment, very soon after Google made it possible to package Android apps as Chrome OS apps and to publish them in Chrome OS Web Store.

And yes, there are issues -- because as I keep writing, this "Android inside Chrome OS" isn't real Android.

I don't even know at this point if this "ARC" is going to receive more work, or if they just played with it, released "something" and left it alone.

However -- this is clearly a toxic issue, and I'm sad to see discussions over and over about how "the app is this and that and just isn't whatever".

And apparently nobody is interested in asking the right people, which is Google:

"You made it possible to run Android apps on Chrome OS, there are shortcomings, are you going to work on fixing them or not?"

[PatoMail]

Yes but why is it only the user's responsibility to contact Google to advocate for this? Shouldn't the developer be working with Google to correct the issue as well? This whole thing about the user "asking the right people" philosophy just doesn't sound right to me IMHO.

[mikeone]

Yes but why is it only the user's responsibility to contact Google to advocate for this? Shouldn't the developer be working with Google to correct the issue as well? This whole thing about the user "asking the right people" philosophy just doesn't sound right to me IMHO.

If you are really interested in knowing how Android supports and ensures interactions between different apps I recommend to read the relevant technical article(s).

Quote from Android's Developer page:
http://developer.android.com/training/basics/intents/sending.html

One of Android's most important features is an app's ability to send the user to another app based on an "action" it would like to perform. For example, if your app has the address of a business that you'd like to show on a map, you don't have to build an activity in your app that shows a map. Instead, you can create a request to view the address using an Intent. The Android system then starts an app that's able to show the address on a map.

Please be aware :
This feature (create a request to view a pdf-file using a PDF Viewer app) is already well implemented in AquaMail.
> please try out how it works within a native Android system like Lollipop or Marshmallow on a mobile device (mobile phone, tablet)

Another part from Android's Developer page:
http://developer.android.com/training/basics/intents/filters.html

Allowing Other Apps to Start Your Activity

If an app (e.g. PDF Viewer app) can perform an action that might be useful to another app (e.g. a mail client like AquaMail), the PDF Viewer app should be prepared to respond to action requests from other apps. For instance, if you build a social app (a PDF Viewer app) that can share messages or photos with the user's friends (that can view PDF files / attachments), it's in your best interest to support the ACTION_SEND intent so users can initiate a "share" action from another app and launch your app to perform the action.

To allow other apps to start your activity, you need to add an <intent-filter> element in your manifest file for the corresponding  <activity>  element.
the responsibility for this is definitely on the side of the PDF Viewer developer(!)

To summarize in short:
The responsibility to ensure that the PDF-Viewer app will appear in the "App Chooser list" is (just and only) on the side of the 'action' app, in particular in the hands of the PDF Viewer app respectively of their developer(s), or even on the side of Google's dev team "Android inside Chrome OS".

About the "App Chooser":
http://developer.android.com/training/basics/intents/sending.html#AppChooser

Attached you will find a screenshot, which shows available PDF-Viewer apps when I want to open a pdf attachment within AquaMail (provided by Google's Android OS... definitely not by AquaMail itself)

[Kostya Vasilyev]

An AquaMail / Chrome OS user wrote that he had success with this app, called Xodo PDF Viewer & Editor:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/xodo-pdf-viewer-editor/okimpmfnmbjbaciaeaikdiecpobfomfh

--

And to answer "why isn't the developer working with Google":

You don't work with Google, Google works with you (if they do).

They picked a few Android apps and worked with their developers back before the ARC technology was made available to everyone.

AquaMail and me were not among those.

I also don't own a Chrome OS device, nor am I going to get one.

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In summary, I've just released this as an experiment, assuming that Google is serious about ARC and that they're going to keep working on it and fix any issues.

I don't know if this assumption is correct, for example:

https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=589927

this is labeled as "unconfirmed" and nobody's contacted me to ask for more info.

Now, even if Google isn't doing all they could be -- does this mean I should unpublish this Chrome OS version? or -- let's be bold -- maybe commit suicide?

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Re: why is it only the user's responsibility to contact Google to advocate for this

Because you

1) paid for an own a Chrome OS device, which now, according to Google, can run Android apps

2) seem interesting in running a certain app which takes advantage of this new capability