DayWatch is an Android application that helps you track any kind of items with an expiration date.

If you have 3 year old drugs at home, or expired yogurts in your fridge (hum), then DayWatch is for you!

This is DayWatch documentation. If you have comments or questions, feel free to send a message at the bottom of this page!

New!

• As of version 1.1.0, notifications display expired or expiring items.
• As of version 1.0.1, an « item widget » is available to display a specific item on your home screen. Multiple instances of the widget can show different items.

Category Management

The list of categories is the first screen displayed when you start DayWatch. Categories are ordered by title.

Each category has 3 color indicators:

• Green: number of items which are ok (expiration date has not been reached yet).
• Orange: number of items which expiration date is near.
• Red: number of expired items.

Touch a category to get the detailed item list.

Add a category

1. Touch the « Green Plus » icon at the top of the category screen.
2. Fill in the title of the category.
3. You can also change the category icon.
4. Touch OK to save.

Edit a category

1. Long touch a category name.
2. Select Edit in the menu.

Delete a category

1. Long touch a category name.
2. Select Delete in the menu.

Warning : if you remove a category, you also delete all items in the category (and all related templates, if you are using PRO version). A confirmation will be asked first, of course!

Item Management

When you open a category, you get the list of all items inside. This list is ordered by alert level: red items first, than orange items, and finally green ones.

• On the left of an item is a day count. A red number tells the days since the item expired. A black number (with orange or green background) indicates the days left before an item expires.
• Expiration date is shown on the right of the item.
• If the item has a barcode, a small icon is also displayed.

Add an item

You have several methods to create a new item:

• If you are on the Items screen: touch the « Green Plus » at the top.
• If you are on the Items screen: touch the Scanner icon at the top (PRO version only).
• If you are on the Categories screen: long touch a category, then select Add an item.
• If you are on the Categories screen: long touch a category, then select Scan an item (PRO version only).

An item stores these informations:

• Title
• Category
• Expiration date
• Number of days before expiration date (used to set the orange alert level)
• Quantity
• Barcode (only useful in PRO version, but can be set manually in all versions).
• Notes (whatever you want!)

Duplicate an item

It it also possible to duplicate an item, to speed up input: the new item gets all information from an existing item, you only have to change expiration date, for example. To duplicate an item:

1. Long touch an item.
2. Select Duplicate in the menu.

Edit an item

You can edit an item…

• By touching the item in the Item list (obvious, no? )
• By long touching the item in the same llist), and then selecting Edit.

Delete an item

1. Long touch an item.
2. Select Delete in the menu.

Manage expired items

When item are marked as expired (red) in the item list, you can:

• Delete them one by one, as shown above.
• Delete all red items by long touching an item, then selecting Delete expired items in the menu (current category only is affected by this option).

Preferences

To access Application parameters, click on the Menu button, then select  Preferences.

• Empty categories
  If you check this option, the category list displays all categories, even if they have no item inside. Uncheck the option to show only categories that have items.
• Days before expiration
  When a new item is created, it has 30 « safety days » before expiration date. You can change this value here.
• Default quantity
  A new item has a default quantity of 1. You can change this value here.
• Show DatePicker
  When this option is checked and a new item is created from a template (see below), a DatePicker is shown automatically.

DayWatch PRO

DayWatch PRO has extra functionalities:

• 2 kind of widgets : « global statistics widget » and « item widget ».
• Notifications
• Templates
• Scanner
• « Send » Option

Statistics Widget

DayWatch PRO comes with a widget that shows 3 color indicators:

• Green: total number of all items that are ok (all categories included).
• Orange: total number of item nearly expired
• Red: total number of expired items.

Touch the widget to start DayWatch application.
This widget is called DayWatch Global in your phone widget list.

Item Widget

As of version 1.0.1, another kind of widget is available ((called DayWatch Item in the widget list). This widget displays, on your Home, one item of your list at a time, an item that is more important for you (e.g. : birthday, specific product…).

More information:

• This widget can be placed multiple times on your Home screen, so you can keep an eye on differents items.
• Click on the left calendar to display the item’s category.
• Click on the wheel at the right of the widget to change the item displayed by the widget.

Notifications

Version 1.1.0 : notifications can be activated to display expiring items (orange notification) or expired items (red notification).

Notifications are disabled by default. You activate them this way:

1. Touch the Menu button, than choose Preferences.
2. Check Notifications.
   This setting will be activated when rebooting your phone. Then, notifications will show up (if necessary) twice a day. There is no need for a shorter frequency.

When you touch a notification, it gets hidden, and you access the category screen. The notification will show later again, if items are still incorrect.

Templates

A template is a base item that you keep in the database. You use a template to create items quickly.

Example : you need to create a drug item on a regular basis…

• Title = Aspirin
• Category = Pharmacy
• Quantity = 1
• Barcode = 123456789
• Notes = Adults only

The first solution would be to duplicate an existing item in the Pharmacy category (as shown before).

But you can’t if you have no more aspirin in the list! Instead, show the template list, touch the « Green Plus » at the right of the « Aspirin » template, change expiration date and you’re done!

Create a template

The first thing you have to do is build your template list:

1. Go to the item list.
2. Select an item (item is better if it has a barcode, see « Scanner » below).
3. Long touch on the item, then select Save as template in the menu.

Use a template

You can now use the template to create new items:

1. Click on the Menu button, then select Templates.
2. Touch the « Green Plus » at the right of a template.
3. The item is created and displayed so that you can edit it. If the DatePicker is checked in the application preferences, you can directly change expiration date.

Edit a template

Templates cannot be edited yet. If you think it would be useful, please send me an e-mail, or post a comment on the blog!

As a workaround you can:

1. Create an item from the template.
2. Delete the template.
3. Edit the item.
4. Re-create a template from the item.

Delete a template

1. Long touch a template in Template list.
2. Select Delete in the menu.

Scanner

In DayWatch PRO, you can use a scanner to ease inputs. First of all, you must install the BarCode Scanner application (freely available on the Android Market).

Important : the application won’t automatically fetch product names on the Internet ; the scanner will only search items that match a barcode in the template list. So the scanner works with templates, and the workflow is:

1. Create templates with barcodes (you manually feed you barcode database).
2. Scan a barcode to create new items from templates.

Store a barcode

1. Edit an item.
2. At the bottom of the form, enter manually the barcode. You can also touch the « Scan » icon at the left.
3. The scanner starts: get the product barcode. If it’s ok, the « Barcode » field of the item will be set automatically.
4. Save the item.
5. Create a template from this item.

Find an existing barcode

Now your template is saved, the application will automatically compare its barcode to the ones you will scan:

• On the Category page: long touch a category, then select Scan an item.
• On the Items page: touch the Scan icon on the top of the page.

Once a barcode is acquired, 2 things may happen:

1. A template matches the barcode. In this case, a new item is created from the template and is displayed so that you can edit it.
2. No template matches the barcode. In this case, a new empty item is created, and its barcode is pre-filled.

Send a list

With DayWatch PRO, you can also send a list by e-mail or SMS, to you WordPress blog, or to social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Springpad…).  It’s as simple as…

1. Long touching a category.
2. Select Send in the menu.
3. Choose the platform you want to send the list to. Options depend on the applications you have on your mobile phone.