Storing and sending usage data

[DougN]

Hi,

I'm about to send our first prototype out to 5 - 6 people to do some beta testing (via Ad Hoc profiles). I'm thinking that it would be interesting to get some quantitative data about how they've used the app (it's a learning game). Things like how many times they launched it, how long they had it open for, what answers they tapped on each of the question cards, how often they used the repeat function, etc. So this is a two-part question, since I'm new to recording this kind of usage data:

1) Where should I look for good examples of this, or does anyone have suggestions for how to track this in LC? For example, should I be adding usage data to a field? Do I need a database (I hope not, as I haven't used those before)?

2) What's the best way to get this off the device and into my hands (after asking my testers if it's OK, of course)? Have the field dump into an email and send it in a structured format?

I was thinking of adding usage data to a text field, and then having a function the user can choose to send the data to me by email. But I'm sure there are better ideas out there!

Thanks,
Doug

[Jellicle]

I was thinking of adding usage data to a text field, and then having a function the user can choose to send the data to me by email. But I'm sure there are better ideas out there!

I'd write it out as a single text file to the Documents directory on the phone so that it persists between launches (as I understand it, unless you copy your stack to a directory on the device you can't save it between launches), and then read that into an email when it's time to send it back to you.

As to structure, how about the following, each on its own line in the text file:

# of launches: <increment a number>
total time open: <increment a counter based on calculations using the seconds>
Q1: <answer given>, <# times repeated>
Q2: <answer given>, <# times repeated>
Q3: <answer given> ,<# times repeated>
etc.

Just use the chunk functions to write the data.