DisTalk. If you can't read, it doesn't mean that you can't communicate.

Hello! Today I will talk about the application DisTalk Pro. I have to apologize for the pause in my posts, once again saved the world , beat the quarter's results, won the silver medal of the Russian Cup by boccia in threes, spoke at the Naked Heart forum . But the promise is the promise, and this week I posted a new version of DisTalk on Google Play and GitHub .

For those who do not understand what I am talking about, I advise you to read this article .


DisTalk Pro

Chapter 0. What do we actually do?

There is such a pretty popular and cheap GoTalk device. The principle of its operation is simple. Cards are inserted into the matrix. The teacher records audio fragments on the cards using the Record button. And then when you click on the card GoTalk plays this phrase. These devices are widely known in the international community and have been used for a very long time (I remember my third class and the “To the toilet” button)
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GoTalk

After my good experience with DisQwerty and DisType, I decided to make a DisTalk application with the same functionality (only, instead of recording speech, use tts). AND…

Chapter 1. Do not do this!

The task is very simple. Make an application that creates the DisTalk folder in the root of the device. The user puts there pictures, ship it to the GridView, when I click on the picture, I pronounce the name of the file. Even so it was fun to switch folders. So that the child’s teacher could make different sets ... I made such an application, I downloaded it in the play market. And now I will talk about how not to write applications. (But I don’t know how and I don’t pretend to be a guru)

Errors and advice of the young and on crutches

Read the documentation and test on different versions of android.

As we all know, with the upgrade of Android to the Lolipop version, it’s not enough just to write in the manifest what you want to write in storage. We must also call the request for access to fs.



By the way, there's nothing at the docks . Stackoverflow is our everything!

For this reason, I could not understand why half of people work, and half of the bug reports happen. In DisType Pro, I use validation and everything works:

private void verifyStoragePermissions(Activity activity) { // Check if we have write permission int permission = ActivityCompat.checkSelfPermission(activity, Manifest.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE); if (permission != PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED) { // We don't have permission so prompt the user ActivityCompat.requestPermissions(activity, new String[] { Manifest.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE, Manifest.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE}, 0); } } 

Respect the user.

My next mistake is that I built a very bad interface. When you first start the user saw just a white screen. There is no hint that you need to connect the tablet to your computer, upload pictures and in general. I naively hoped that people read the instructions in the description of the application on Google Play. But no.

In the new version I did:

• The starting set of pictures that are loaded immediately after the first launch (well, I blew apk to 1 MB, I hope no one died) are copied to the DisTalk folder and the user sees not just the white screen, but the application that is ready for work
• The functions of adding, deleting, editing pictures from the gallery and creating folders directly from the application. Now it is not necessary to have a computer
• Added a caption to each gridview element. Now the user can use not only signed pecs icons, but simple photos.
• Added Yandex AppMetrica (no, this is not an advertisement) to track errors in the application (well, I’m following who said what (:). Users don’t send bug reports, which is useful!

Do not forget the key.

Well, Wan, wrote a new application - well done, but why not update the old one?
Because I lost the keystore and forgot the password from it. So do not. Keep this file in a safe place. I sent a new jks to my email. I keep it!

Shoot video guides for products


Video on how to use the new DisTalk

Chapter 2. What's Next?

Help is needed:

• Think of how to complicate the exit from the application. Experts complain that people with autism are used to playing on the tablet, and they constantly quit the program.
• Think of how to incline words in the stream of speech. That it did not work "I want an apple", and "I want an apple"
• Make a bank of cards
• Add audio recording function to buttons. Experts say that sometimes you need to write down the button with intonation.
• iOS, windows
• Donate because open source

- My site.