Before you start using BluePic, you should understand which capabilities are available in the iOS app if you have not configured any of the optional features such as App ID, Push, and Cloud Functions.
- If App ID is not configured on IBM Cloud for your app, you won't be able to log in using the
SIGN IN WITH FACEBOOKbutton. This implies you won't be able to post photos under your own name and profile. Having said that, you will be able to post photos under theanonymoususer we have in place. You also can view the image feed without being authenticated. - If IBM Cloud Push is not configured, you won't be able to receive push notifications on your physical iOS device.
- If Cloud Functions is not configured, your posted images will not be enhanced with any weather or tag data.
BluePic was designed so that anyone can quickly launch the app and view photos posted without needing to log in. However, to view the profile or post photos, the user can easily login with his/her Facebook. This is only used to uniquely identify the user by obtaining the Facebook ID and the user's full name.
Figure 1. Welcome page.
The feed (first tab) shows all the latest photos posted to the BluePic community (regardless if logged in or not).
Figure 2. Main feed view.
You get here by simply tapping on an image. You will be shown a collection of information, including caption, author, location of photo, time taken, weather at location, and associated tags. Both, weather and tag info are determined server-side on IBM Cloud with Weather Company Data and Watson Visual Recognition.
Figure 3. Image detail view.
Posting to the BluePic community is easy. Tap the middle tab in the tab bar and choose to either pick a photo from the camera roll or take a photo using the device's camera. You can optionally enter a caption before posting the picture.
Figure 4. Posting a photo.
Please note that while trying to post a photo using the iOS simulator, the app may not be able to obtain your location. To fix this simulator specific issue, simply select any location in the simulator's debug menu:
Figure 5. Set simulated location
If selecting a location doesn't fix the issue, try toggling the location to None and then back to a location for the simulator to successfully simulate a location. Remember this may have to be done for each launch of the iOS simulator. Running BluePic on a physical device avoids this issue entirely.
By tapping the third tab, you can view your profile. This shows your Facebook profile photo, lists how many photos you've posted, and shows all the photos you've posted to BluePic.
Figure 6. Profile feed.
By tapping on the magnifing glass icon on feed view, we can navigate to the search page where we can enter text and perform a search against different tagged images or we can view the 10 most popular tags and search by one of those.
Figure 7. Popular tags and search.
Once the search has been performed, all the results are listed in a view just like the feed view, but this view will only show items that match the search tag.
Figure 8. Search results.