Aruba Apps

The mobile OS companies have their quirks when it comes to Beta releases.  Apple drives me batty every time, they have the most arcane process and controls one could ever imagine.  Even Google, the relatively straightforward outfit, got onto a track early on where they wrapped the Beta process into Google+.  It was a pain, prospective Beta testers had to sign up to Google+, then join a Group, then download a Link et cetera et cetera.

But no longer!

Now there's "Open Beta" for Android, so we'll give it a try.  The link below (if I believe and trust in Google) will get you the latest Beta version - if you are interested.  While I am confident the new look and menu will get your juices flowing, be aware that there's a lot of new code with a number of bugs no doubt lurking in the thickets, and one of the reasons I do this is to flush out crashes and the like before unleashing it on the general populus.

https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.arubanetworks.arubautilities 

This seems so simple!  Let me know how you get on with it, I'm ready to be pleasantly surprised.

Peter

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Release notes for ArubaUtilities_100:

!- Moved to Android Studio

!- New look with black background, black buttons, Aruba orange RGB255,131,0

!- Added Multi-SSH Tab for 2x SSH clients

!- Added mDNS Tab

!- Added Ping Tab

!- Added DNS Tab

!- Improved Log Tab performance

!- Removed mock location code and permissions

!- Improved Controller tab (more robust to fast-repeating commands)

!- Improved iPerf performance

!- Fixed Bluetooth scanner to correctly recognize Aruba iBeacons by checksum

!- Put sleeps into Gaussian calibration to keep app smooth at startup

This beta process works well, though I think there is a fault with the GP locator in the Airwave view (yellow dot). On the previous version it was reasonably accurate (moreso than Airwave itself I found!). However, on this version, the yellow dot remains in the top left corner of the map and refuses to move.

Also, when accessing the Airwave view, on the previous version it found my device and loaded the appropriate map accordingly, yet this version appears to be missing this functionality and I have to load the map manually. Is this intentional?

If needed, I can provide the logs as output from the "Email Log" button.

Hello Domo, it's a real pleasure to hear from you - app development is still a one-way process, we write features that seem sensible/useful, push it out to production and _hope_ that people start to use them and find them useful.

- You put your finger on the one feature I removed when making the floorplan selection menu-driven.  Instead of working in the background when the app starts up (so when you get to the Tab the floorplan is already loaded) you are expected to "Select Site" to begin the download.  You should be able to use the top menu option "*** TRACK ME ***" to get your local floorplan.    Having said that, all the pieces of code are still there and I could easily put back the auto-discovery/load function if there's demand.  (In fact, your email is enough evidence that it's useful so I will take a look.  The manual selection would still be there, but it will load your local floor without being asked.)  With automatic floorplan selection/download I worry that it takes several XML exchanges with Airwave and in my experience this is quite error-prone and after a failure it's difficult for the app to explain to the user what went wrong.  Manual floorplan selection is a simpler process, more transparent to the user.

- The yellow square GP location takes AP information from Airwave reports, makes its own heatmap and places your device on the floorplan.  If the calculation doesn't complete, the square stays in the top-left corner.  I haven't changed that code recently, apart from some delays (which can be several minutes, depending how many APs it has to calculate) so the app doesn't slow down too much on startup.  In Settings you need "Show Locally Calculated Location".  If you toggle the "Hiding Heatmap" button to "showing 5GHz" and see the heatmap, it should be working and the yellow square should move.

Many thanks, please let me know:

i. If you miss the automatic floorplan discovery/download feature enough that I should put it back.

ii. If you leave the app running for several minutes, and the "showing 5GHz" heatmap button displays a heatmap over the floorplan, does the yellow square still stay at the top-left?

Peter

Thanks for the update, Antar. I am happy to have to select the map manually - I just wasn't sure if that was intentional or not.

I left Aruba Utilities running overnight, showing the heatmap, and the yellow dot had not moved at all. That said, I have now identified an issue with our VisualRF (post-upgrade to AMP 8.0.9) which is resulting in it not locating clients on the maps. This is reflected in the app with no red dot being shown for my device, though would this affect the yellow dot if that is calculated locally?

Hello Domo,

There should be no direct link between the Visual RF location (red square) and the GP location (yellow square) but they use the same underlying data.  For GP, the app goes to Airwave and gets the location of APs, their transmit powers and how they hear other APs.  So if that data is good, the app should be able to place the yellow square.

It's possible I inadvertently added a bug to the GP when porting the code to the new-look app.  I'll take another look.

Peter

I found a bug preventing the yellow square from working, a thousand thankyous for pointing it out.

Now I need to make sure it is the only bug...

I will get a new build out over the weekend, if I don't see anything else that needs fixing.

Peter

You are welcome, and I look forward to trying out the new version!