The VitaDesktop Blog

September 10th. 2007, 11:07pm

Alright, the VitaDesktop beta is ready to go! If you don’t know what VitaDesktop is: it’s a program that I wrote to make accessing Vitalist more convenient.

For more info on VitaDesktop, including screenshots, please see this post.

If you’re ready to try it out, please click here to download VitaDesktop Beta.

I look forward to hearing your feedback!

Enjoy,
Michael

5 Responses to “VitaDesktop Beta for Vitalist Released!”

nedbaker Says:
September 12th, 2007 at 2:46 am

Michael,

Some really quick first-five-minute bugs using the Compact version on XPSP2 Firefox 2.0.0.6:

the Dashboard, Actions and Waiting lists all show up fine, but the Inbox, Someday, Ticklers and Reference are all just blank; I have to use a right-click Back to get back to some navigation

the same happens when I add an action, which I guess tries to take me to the Inbox, but that’s just blank again

I can’t get the iPhone version to work beyond clicking the Sign-In link on the home page.

On a more general note, what I’d like would be a way to access the new Quick Add function in Vitalist, for typing in a whole load of actions very quickly.

Have a good one.

Ned

Michael Says:
September 12th, 2007 at 10:33 am

Hi Ned,

Thank you very much for the feedback and the bug reports.

Those are some really strange bugs. Would you be able to tell me which version of Internet Explorer you’re using? Does the “Full View” work?

(VitaDesktop uses the same “WebBrowser” control as Internet Explorer; so my first thought is that your version of I.E. may be incompatible — which would still be very odd considering that you’re using Windows XP with SP2.)

My other thought is that the Vitalist team may have been doing some updates to the site last night; so everyone may have been seeing the same thing you were. If you try the app again now, does it still do the same thing?

As for the Quick Add function: that function currently only works in “Full View” mode. In essence, VitaDesktop is really just a highly customized, super-efficient web browser that has been tailored specifically for use with the Vitalist website.

All of the actual Vitalist functionality that you see in VitaDesktop is the same that you’ll see in Vitalist when you access their site either via your desktop, or cellphone/iPhone.

However, when the Vitalist team releases their public API, I plan on looking into adding some additional functionality. In that case, it may be possible to simulate the Quick Add feature for the Compact and iPhone modes — that is, if that functionality .

Anyway, please let me know what happens when you try VitaDesktop again, and which version of I.E. you’re using so that I can test it on my machine.

Thanks again,
Michael

Michael Says:
September 12th, 2007 at 12:57 pm

Hi again Ned,

Okay, I think I found the problem. It’s actually a bug with Internet Explorer 6 (which I’m assuming is the version you’re using): for some reason, certain pages on the mobile/iPhone site seem to have a problem loading in I.E. 6. You’ll notice the same problems if you go to http://m.vitalist.com or http://iphone.vitalist.com in I.E. 6.

Here’s a quick (temporary) fix: any time a page doesn’t show up, right-click on the page and click “Refresh.” The page should become visible.

Another option that should permanently fix the bug is upgrading to Internet Explorer 7. You can get it from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/ie/getitnow.mspx.

Hopefully, there will be a way to make this work with I.E. 6, but I’m not sure how long it will take or if it’s even possible. I’ll file a bug report with Vitalist to see if there’s anything that can be done on their end. I’ll also be investigating possible solutions for VitaDesktop. I’ll let you know when a full fix is available.

Thanks,
Michael

Michael Says:
October 4th, 2007 at 10:49 pm

Update: This bug was resolved promptly a few weeks ago by the team at Vitalist — thanks guys!