Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Jacking up the price

This is topic Jacking up the price in forum Ground Level at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://ft-forum.com/ft/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=5;t=002967

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 02-15-2016, 09:25 PM:

I got the idea this morning that as of this coming Friday, all ticket prices will be going up by $1. I haven't raised the prices since I got my digital cinema setup five years ago, so I guess it's time. Don't want to fall too far behind and then hit people with a huge increase.

Had to do a bit of a re-write on my app today since I had hard-coded the admission prices into it. Now I've got smarter -- it already hits my webserver to get what's playing this week, so now I'll hit it to get the prices as well; that way I won't have to re-write the app every time I change the admission prices.

Posted by Mitchell Dvoskin (Member # 751) on 02-16-2016, 07:46 AM:

So what happens to people who have not upgraded the app? Do they get the old price?

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 02-16-2016, 10:45 AM:

Android automatically updates devices to the latest app version when they are installed through google play. When compiling the app you increment an android:versionCode field in the manifest -- google play and android uses that number to determine what the latest version of a given app actually is and update it if it's outdated.

So by now nobody will have the old app on their device unless it's been turned off, and if they do it will be updated when they next turn it on.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 02-16-2016, 12:32 PM:

Android update is an optional thing...none of my apps are allowed to auto update...the damn thing would be updating every second of the day and possibly the app I'm using.

Posted by Dustin Mitchell (Member # 372) on 02-16-2016, 02:01 PM:

What Steve said. I manually authorize my updates in the evening just before I go to bed.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 02-16-2016, 04:57 PM:

Yep...it coincides typically when I put it on the charger.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 02-16-2016, 05:23 PM:

Frank - you could modify your website so that if outdated apps contact it, instead of playing times, they receive a hint to update their app only. Otherwise you will get complaints by people who continue to use the old app.

You should have requested prices and/or update information from your website right from the start. It's probably best if your app always reports it's version number to the website.

- Carsten

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 02-16-2016, 05:38 PM:

Well, this was my first attempt at writing an app and it was mostly just to learn how it's done. I am actually mildly surprised at how many people use it. My websites gets multiple hits every day from people checking the what's playing link through the app.

In hindsight, I suppose a good way to handle this would have been to use a different link for the new version of the app. Then I could put an "outdated app" notice on the original link.

Live and learn, I guess. Now I know more about this than I did before.

On the other hand, if any of you folks don't have an app for your theatre, I'm here to tell you that you should get one. It's a popular thing.

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 02-16-2016, 06:35 PM:

"Disney made me do it."