TOKYO (Tom Bluewater) – These days, I’ve been using CloudKit to develop iOS and macOS applications at the same time. CloudKit is an amazingly useful tool for software developers although it’s a bit difficult to learn due to lack of information. Anyway, at the end of the last year, I thought to myself “Could I possibly use CloudKit for the Scrapboard project? I know Scrapboard users want to have access to the same dataset whether they use a desktop computer or an iOS device. And the answer is Yes. A desktop application that I submitted to Mac App Store a while ago is called Scrapboard Cloud.
The history of Scrapboard Cloud goes back to April 2013 when I submitted StickHere to App Store. It’s an iOS app that let the user paste text notes and pictures on a virtual bulletin board. And I then released Scrapboard for Mac users in October, 2014.
Anyway, Scrapboard Cloud lets you use a multi-page virtual bulletin board to create and post text notes, pictures and more. As the name suggests, this application lets you upload data to iCloud so that you can use the iOS counterpart to get access to the exactly same dataset. Use of the iCloud data server is optional. If you don’t plan to share data with other devices and machines, you can use your virtual bulletin board, saving data locally.
Tom Bluewater
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Tom Bluewater
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Features
- The virtual bulletin board has an infinite number of pages. The user can have any number of posts at any page.
- Drag and drop an image file (BMP, GIF, ICNS, JPEG, JPEG 2000, PDF, PNG, PSD, TIFF) directly onto the board to create a picture post.
- Drag and drop a text file (RTF, TEXT, TXT) directly onto the board to create a text post.
- Drag and drop text clipping from a web browser directly onto the board to create a URL post. Click on the title of the URL post to access the corresponding URL.
- Create a time post so that the application will count down the remaining time second by second till an event takes place.
- Move any post anywhere around the board with your mouse pointer. The user must touch only the edge for a text post.
- Double-click on the post itself in order to edit, delete, move it.
- Set an expiration in terms of minutes, hours or days so that the application can tell you how many events to going to expire.
- Upload data to the iCloud server with a click of a button.
- Download the latest record of posts from the iCloud server with a click of a button.
- Download a record record in the past from the iCloud server.
- The fullScreen mode is supported.
- The application supports the retina screen.
- Languages: English and Japanese only.
- Application file size: 24.8 MB.
- The application comes with a built-in 19-page user guide. Click on the Quick tour toolbar button or choose Show Quick Tour under Scrapboard Cloud whenever you need to see it.
System requirements
- 10.12 (tested with 10.12.6), 10.13 (tested with 10.13.1)
- 64-bit system
- Internet + iCloud acount if the user chooses to save data on the iCloud server
Limitations
- The width is fixed for the text post, URL post, time post.
- When the user creates a picture post, the application will save the entire, orignal state regardless of a scale rate. So the data sizes of the local disk and the remote disk are expected to become large. If you want to save space on your hard disk drive, please rescale the image file before you drag and drop it onto the board.
- The title must be described with one line of text for the URL post and the Time post.
- In creating a time post, a future event must take place at least one hour later than the current time.
- Since macOS and iOS adopt different coordinate systems, when the user synchronizes the remote disk to the latest record from the iOS counterpart, a post that was originally shown at the top of the board will appear at the bottom with this application.
- When you select an RTF file in order to create a text file, its content will be converted into plain text.
- In order to use the same record of posts with iOS devices, the user needs iScrapboard, which will be a separate purchase since it’s available at a different store (App Store).
Version history
Nothing so far…
Trial/Demo version
Click here to download a trial version. This trial version will remain fully functional for 7 days, starting from the very moment you first launch it. If you are running this trial version under macOS 10.12 Sierra, you need to quit the application right after the first launch to evade a Sierra bug.
Note that if you use the trial version and then decide to purchase the actual product at Mac App Store, the latter will not give access to old records you have created with the former. That’s not a limitation intentionally put on by us. Since use of the CloudKit framework requires a provisioning profile, there is no trial version avaiable.
Video tutorial
There is no video tutorial at this time.
Scrapboard Cloud is a product of Tom Bluewater.
Apple and the Apple logo are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Mac App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc.
App will not start on Sierra 10.3.2. Crashes immediately.
Process: Scrapboard Cloud Trial [1430]
Path: /private/var/folders/*/Scrapboard Cloud Trial.app/Contents/MacOS/Scrapboard Cloud Trial
Identifier: net.mhvt.ScrapboardCloud
Version: ???
Code Type: X86-64 (Native)
Parent Process: ??? [1]
Responsible: Scrapboard Cloud Trial [1430]
User ID: 501
Date/Time: 2018-01-09 07:55:21.338 -0500
OS Version: Mac OS X 10.13.2 (17C205)
Report Version: 12
I’m sorry. I didn’t realize that you have posted a comment till now. “App will not start on Sierra 10.3.2. Crashes immediately.” Do you mean, High Sierra 10.13.2? OS X 10.3 is Panther, which is 15 years old.
Yes, 10.13.2
Thank you for your confirmation. I’ll get back with you in several hours after updating my OS.
I have updated my System to macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 Developer Beta (17E139j). I have been able to launch the trial version in question.
Actually, it can be the matter of developer provisioning profile. I’ve uploaded a new trial version zip file named ScrapboardCloudTrial2010a.zip as opposed to ScrapboardCloudTrial2010.zip. If it doesn’t work, there isn’t much that I can think of for now.
Downloaded your latest, it crashes.
Details: https://www.dropbox.com/s/kwisrnlfr04xjsv/sc-crash.txt?dl=0
Hello, Michael.
Thank you. I’m afraid I will never find out why the trial version crashes. In the meantime, I’ve sent you a coupon code for this application. You can redeem it, using App Store application. If you don’t know how to redeem it, you need to click on ‘Redeem’ under the Quick Links caption on the right-hand side of the window.