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App Store Success or Lack there of..
steven_buxton
OS Professional Posts: 6 PRO
I have now tried 6 different apps from the app store and the only one I have had success with is the BOM Sample App. I have had issues ranging from "Application failed to load." to Integrated Cloud Apps just not working. Seems like some apps work in safari, some only chrome. Support from the application providers is spotty, some are great, some never respond to email.
Is anyone else having better success?
My latest endeavor is Power Surfacing, and the desktop app can login, but the "Import from Onshape" and "Upload to Onshape" dialogs never open. Its basically a stand alone app with no Onshape integration at this point.
I find this experience jarring as the rest of my Onshape experience has been stellar. I have been a pro user since I was allowed to send them my money, but the app store has been a total let down for me. Lots of potential, but the experience has sucked so far. Seems like there needs to be an app review process or some way to enforce an acceptable experience.
Is anyone else having better success?
My latest endeavor is Power Surfacing, and the desktop app can login, but the "Import from Onshape" and "Upload to Onshape" dialogs never open. Its basically a stand alone app with no Onshape integration at this point.
I find this experience jarring as the rest of my Onshape experience has been stellar. I have been a pro user since I was allowed to send them my money, but the app store has been a total let down for me. Lots of potential, but the experience has sucked so far. Seems like there needs to be an app review process or some way to enforce an acceptable experience.
3
Comments
The onshape team is very tallented and professional. Using onshape native functionality is an awesome experience...everything is so well thought out it leads to a wonderful experience.
Others will have difficulty matching this...which in turn will create unfortunate gaps in the overall experience.
Each App is going to have its own experience. That is the premise of the Marketplace.
However they all should function as advertised. And you should be getting answers to your support questions in timely manner. That is something we feel very strongly about.
Like the Apple App store, there is going to be built in user feedback mechanisms like a rating system and comments. Not all of this is in place yet. I think this will serve to better let users know right away how a particular application has been recieved by users
I see you mentioned PowerSurface. My guess is that there is some kind of user authorization issue. We can get to the bottom of that.
Let's take these issues offline and see if we can figure it out?
Joe
jdunne@onshape.com
I agree with this to an extent. I would extend that to say that each App is going to have its own good experience.
There needs to a bar set on that experience and someone at Onshape needs to curate that. You mention the Apple App store, I have built and delivered a few apps there, the submission process is a pain in the butt, a bit subjective, but in the end I always have delivered a better app then what I originally submitted by the time it gets approved. As a user of the Apple App Store I have a very high degree of confidence that the app will basically function as described because of this review and curation. As a comparison to this I avoid most apps in the Android marketplaces unless they are from developers I trust as there is no review and I have no clue if the apps will work, crash my device, or send all my contact information to spammers.
An additional bonus to a defined review process for the Onshape App Store is data security. I am giving these apps access to my Documents, in some cases these are proprietary works whose IP I would like to protect. Right now, I have little trust that my data will be used appropriately. A review process that documents and governs the allowed usage of data would go a long way to making this more transparent and trustable.
Its all about trust, right now my experience with the Apps in the App Store leaves me to have little trust in the process. Little trust that the apps will work as described. Little trust that the app developers are using my data appropriately. Little trust that my issues will be resolved in a timely manner.
I am excited about the potential of the App store, there have been many apps I have wanted to use, but the experience has tempered my excitement to a large degree. I find I am exporting my models to load into my standalone rendering and simulation tools instead of trying the Onshape integration over and over. At the end of the day, I still need to get my work done.
@joe_dunne - I have sent screen captures and other information to David at Power Surfacing, I am waiting to see if they can figure out what is going on. If there is anything you would like to check out from your side, please feel free to send me a message.
Well put points. Our goal is to deliver something in between the two marketplaces Apple vs Android. Since as you say they take 2 very different approaches. This is something we have thought about a lot.
There is a curation and review process. Apps just don't get posted to the App store. It's rather involved frankly. However we are not going as far as say Apple. We are giving App Partners a bit more freedom in some areas.
Keep in mind it's been 10 weeks. We have a long way to go. I hope your experience improves as we add more apps and refine some of our own processes as well.
Thanks for the feedback
Joe
This comment relates to Cyborg3D (PowerSurf). It is a single app in the app store that just happens to have been mentioned here and happens to be very cool.
It is a connected desktop app (Windows only for now) and offers sub-D ('organic') modeling for up to 20 simultaneous surfaces for free for Onshape users.
The workflow (today) is; model in Cyborg3D and then export to Onshape. Once in Onshape the body is treated as a first class citizen (solid body), that can be edited/modified. Improvements to this workflow are coming.
The reason that i am writing this, is that i agree with the original poster - there are subtle differences to the user experience across each of the apps and wanted to show anyone that reads this, a simple stumbling block and how to get past it.
Once you have modeled your organic shape in Cyborg3D, click on File/SendToOnshape.
Depending on how many documents you have, it might take a minute for the Document dialog to appear.
Once open you can choose to send the PowerSurf body to any existing branch of any document as a new element (part studio) OR, if you want to create a new document, the trick is to scroll to the bottom of the document list and select 'Create New Document'
Ta Da!
Its also worth pointing out that Cyborg3D (and most connected desktop and connected cloud apps) load Onshape documents in groups of 20 and so (just as you do here), you might have to click 'next' a few times to see all your documents.
I hope this helps - Philip
@joe_dunne - You mentioned,
Is this process or are the rules documented anywhere? I would be interested to read them to understand the data security agreements.
As there is potentially lots at stake with the data here in Onshape, some businesses might have a good chunk of their IP in Onshape, I am not sure you will be able to successfully walk the middle line between the Apple and Android model. I look forward to seeing how this shakes out, but I suspect I will be in the stands watching instead of on the field playing.
Thanks for listening.
Steven
We sent you an updated version that should fix your issue. Could you please try it out? If it works for you, we will post it for general consumption.
Onshape has posted in several places the steps that they take to keep my data secure, and I trust them with my data.
But with the apps in the App Store (mainly the cloud based apps), I have a hard time entrusting my private company data with them since they have no information about their security policies or data retention policies - do they keep any of my data on their servers? For how long, and how is it kept secured?
As far as Power Surfacing data is concerned, when it is added to an Onshape document, it is secured just as any other Onshape document (on the Onshape server). Your Power Surfacing data is stored on your local machine (under your control) until it is uploaded to Onshape. And we do not keep any of your data on our servers.
Thanks for the response and clarifying how your app works. I figured that is the way the linked desktop apps work and that's great, I'm ok with that.
My main concern is with the internet cloud based apps that are available. In those cases a users data is out of his/her control and (possibly?) out of Onshapes control. I think those app vendors need to step up and clarify how the users data is kept private and secure.
Does the Onshape team do any checking or verification of the security polices of these app vendors when the app is submitted?
I don't have any specific information to answer your question regarding cloud based plugin apps for Onshape. I'll leave that to the Onshape folks to answer. However, I know that they have evaluated this issue pretty carefully, and I'm pretty sure that they are addressing security issues for embedded cloud apps.
David