Watering History Changes
Support requested I post my suggestions below:
Suggested Watering History Changes
1. Add data export capability to WEB interface.
2. Add Zone Number field to the export file.
3. Change format of Date field to yyyy-mm-dd in the export file; this will be more useful to those interested in performing data analysis on the history data. Ref: ISO 8601
4. Revise file format of the export file. The export file name currently uses the extension “CSV” but the file is not using commas as the field delimiter; it is using semicolon as the field delimiter. Some programs, by default, expect a comma to be the delimiter if the file type “CSV” is used.
The ease fix: Use the file extension of “TXT” for the file name in place of the “CSV” extension.
The better fix: Change the field delimiter to a comma and enclose text fields in double quotes.
5. Correct field name spelling in header row: “Time waterd” to “Time watered”.
6. Change header row field name “WaterSaved (gallons)” to “Water Saved (gallons)”.
-
Additional request added
3.1 Change format of the ‘Time scheduled’ and ‘Time watered’ duration fields to hh:mm:ss; the issue is that the current format of mm:ss is, by default, being interpreted as hh:mm when importing into programs like excel. Example: for a duration of 17m59s, format it as 00:17:59 and not 17:59. Ref: ISO 8601
-
Update
For request item 4 (Revise file format of the export file) I recommend using 'TXT' as the file extension and not using double quotes for the text fields; reason is that some applications are not respecting the double quotes as a delimiter for text fields (e.g. the double quotes are being included as part of the field). -
Watering History Export Issues:
- Issue 0. It's broken a long time now.
- Suggestion 0: Remove Watering History Export feature (I'll stop nagging, but others probably won't ;-) - just kidding, please repair feature.
- Issue 1. Export file is in .CSV format, but is actually semicolon delimited (exception: first field is comma delimited.)
- Suggestion 1: Replace ";" with ","
- Issue 2: Date provided as "Dayof Week" "," "MMM dd" (or "Today" "," ). Providing 2 date fields for days other than "Today" wrecks the parsing.
- Suggestion 2: Provide date as "MM/DD/YY". Excel can figure out the DayofWeek if desired. Internationalize date string if feeling generous.
- Issue 3: "Time scheduled", "Time watered" provided as "MM:SS" (see previous commenter ).
- Suggestion 3: Provide "Time scheduled", "Time watered" as HH:MM:SS, or alternatively - just Seconds. Excel can convert to any desired format.
- Issue 4: Export feature provides 7-day watering history no matter whether user selects "Last Week", "Last Month", or "Last Year" .
- Suggestion 4: Provide 7-day, 30-day, or 365-day history according to user option.
iOS App Version 4.6.102(1)
iOS Version 12.0
Mini-8 Firmware Version: 4.0.989
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Comments
5 comments