jketterer / leaf-log

Personal project to create a tea journal and learn the Flutter framework

Leaf Log

A modern log for all drinkers of tea.

About

Leaf log is an Android app built with Flutter.

It helps you log any and all teas you may drink, keeping track of important information and allowing you to take notes for next time. It also includes a timer, which lets you brew your tea straight from the app!

Background

This app is a personal project to help me learn the basics of Flutter. I've messed around with Android development in the past, but always got overwhelmed before finishing a project. After coming up with the idea for creating my own tea log, I discovered Flutter as a framework to help create beautiful, cross-platform apps. Flutter (and Dart) was relatively simple to learn, and it helped inspire the design of Leaf Log as well as facilitate its development.

Ultimately, I'm very glad I discovered Flutter, and I'm excited to see how it evolves and to work with it in the future.

Get Leaf Log

I created Leaf Log as open source, since education was the main purpose of its development. This app will always be free, and it's my hope that people can use and enjoy it. For now, Leaf Log is only available on Android, but I've kept the code inclusive so an iOS version is possible in the future.

You can download Leaf Log today on the Play Store!

leaf-log's Issues

Add local notifications

Notify the user when their tea is finished brewing if they leave the app

Increase volume when timer goes off

Ensure users will hear alarm by increasing volume when it plays, and reset it afterwards

Allow users to view tea details from search

Refactor search functionality

Change the search so it doesn't open a new page, but changes the title bar and updates the tea list

Redesign README.md

Flesh it out, add screenshots, explain project

On-screen timer is inaccurate when app is suspended

When the user leaves the app or locks the phone for more than a few seconds, the on-screen timer sometimes freezes. The notification timer remains accurate, but they get out of sync.

I suspect this has to do with Android taking away resources. It might be possible to protect the timer service, or possibly redo the way the timer is handled.

Implement real database (SQLite)

Update to Flutter 3

Flutter 3 was released a few weeks ago. It's hard to tell if there's anything to be done to take full advantage of that update, but if there is it should be done ASAP.

Investigate timer service

Change icon based on tea type on tea cards

Increase tea name char limit

25 seems to be a little low, possibly extend to 30-40

Long tap buttons to reduce time

Allow users to reduce timer by long pressing the add time buttons

Allow users to change main theme color

Theme color will change appbar, buttons, and timer accents. Will not affect color accents for teas.

Add search functionality to tea list

Allow users to search for a tea in the main tea list page

Provide mock data source implementations to UI

Animate start/pause/reset buttons on timer

Finish basic session list widget

In order to demonstrate that valid data is making it to the frontend, I need some way to visually represent the different sessions associated with a tea. The tea details page is likely the best place for this list initially.

The design doesn't need to be good, it just needs to show the data so I can ensure valid information is making it down the pipeline correctly.

Change animation for timer buttons

The SlideTransition is pretty boring; look into getting at least an EaseIn animation, possibly some form of bouncing as well

Clean up timer button animation

Allow users to change tea color for every tea

Users should be able to change the color of each individual tea. It will still be originally set by default colors, but they should have ~16 colors to choose from when creating/editing their tea to customize.

Create attractive details page

Display details about a selected tea in an attractive layout

Allow users to store tea in folders/groups

Definitely have to implement this the right way, but it would give the user some organizational control over their list

Redesign timer page

It looks ugly :/

Add dark mode

Keep screen awake while timer is running

Use Screen plugin to keep screen on while user is brewing a tea

Redesign database

Right now, the SQLite database I use only has one table, which stores the Tea models. This doesn't allow for a lot of flexibility for the Teas, since we can only store one instance of the related fields per tea. In order to allow things like multiple brewing methods, it'll be better to use separate tables.

Auto-captitalize text fields

Possibly turn on/off in settings

Limit character length for tea name, brand, and temp

Add settings menu

Allow users to open a menu to change their settings and preferences. Users should be able to change color theme, add tea types, and change default sort method

Allow users to change tea type colors

Preferably through shared preferences

Implement data sources for chosen database

Implement tests

Flutter provides a pretty decent testing suite, and Leaf Log currently has no tests

Add new sort methods

Allow users to sort by different aspects of each tea (like type, rating, recently brewed, times brewed, etc.)

Allow users to edit their teas

Allow users to specify brewing vessel

The user should be able to save various brewing vessels, each with a name, description, an type. Types could include teapot, mug, cup, gaiwan, and others. The most commonly used (or favorite) brewing vessel could be displayed on a tea's info page.

Play alarm sound for longer

Extend the amount of time the alarm plays when the timer reaches zero

Allow user to log individual brewing sessions

An important aspect of brewing and enjoying tea is experimentation. In order to get the most out of your tea, you should brew it in a variety of ways to discover new flavors and determine your favorite way to enjoy the tea. Right now, Leaf Log only lets the user save one time/temperature combination; it would be better if the user could save multiple "brewing sessions", each with their own set of parameters and individual rating.

This is a pretty significant feature, and will require a complete redesign of the Tea Details UI. It will also shift the core focus of the app away from individual teas and more towards a collection of brewing sessions.

Design data source interfaces

I anticipate communicating with the database through data source objects. Before that, I need to design the interfaces that the UI will communicate with.

I will need separate data sources for the various data models I have implemented, even if the lower level ones will be used solely in the larger scope data source implementations.

Extend max brewing time

10 seems to be too low, extend to 15-20 minutes instead

Add support for different brewing methods

The user should be able to log different ways of brewing the same tea. These entries should contain brewing method (western vs. gong fu), steep time, quantity of tea, brewing vessel, and other various notes. I don't think these entries need to have ratings, since the user can keep track of that in the notes section.

Tapping one of these entries should start the timer for the time specified.

Create logo

Build mock data source implementations

Remember brands for new teas

Implement either a dropdown for previous brands or a predictive text feature when creating a new tea

Add gong fu brewing mode to the timer

Gong fu style brewing differs from western brewing significantly when it comes to timing, and right now the app is heavily biased towards the western style. A separate mode for the timer should be added; this mode could automatically reset and add 5-10 seconds to the previous time once it finishes.

Further down the line I should add functionality to let the user completely customize a gong fu session for a specific tea, but for now they should at least be able to set global defaults for gong fu brewing.