An updated version of the Android app was recently published on Google Play.
This version has some significant changes that bring it up to date with latest requirements for the Google Play store. The app should successfully run on Android 8 (Oreo) or later, but also remains compatible with older versions of Android.
A new program release of Plant Base for Windows and Mac is now available. Version 2.1.8 is essentially another maintenance release with just a few fairly small changes and some bug fixes.
There is not yet a new release of the plant database to go with it, so it’s only the program part. As usual, updating the plant data has been happening continuously but is not significant enough to justify issuing yet – so that will come later on.
I’ve decided to remove 3rd party advertising from the website. All external content ad-spaces (Google Ads) have already gone and also most affiliate scheme banner ads. A few direct referral text links remain, almost all on the Links page or in the picture gallery pages. These are relatively unproblematic but will be reviewed in the near future.
At the moment I am revisiting the development of a Plant Base edition for Linux. This was briefly looked at before but this a more concerted effort and a good winter project! Strictly speaking Plant Base already runs on Linux, in that we have the existing Android edition and Android is built around a Linux kernel. However, in this case we are talking about Linux operating system distributions for PC’s and laptops.
Our web database, Plant Base Online, has now been updated to the same data release level as the software products.
As well as the website plant search forms this same data is also available to the Android PBO viewer apps.
An updated version of Plant Base is released and available on the downloads page – 2.1.7.
This is essentially another maintenance release and there are no really big changes. It does contain some important bug fixes, so it is a recommended update for all existing users.
We have reduced the purchase price of a Plant Base license by £5 to just £20.
This is to coincide with the release of version 2.1.7
There is no definite plan about whether this will be a permanent price change or not, we will see how things go!
Due to the ridiculously high number of attempted spammer registrations, the ability to self-register a username for this blog has been removed.
An approval system for new registration was already in place, and very effective. However, the huge volume combined with my limited time means that I can no longer deal with the administration for the approvals and/or rejections.
Plant Base for Android in now available on Google Play.
To accompany the main app, a simple and free Data File Support app has also been released. This provides three file maintenance functions that are not included in the main app. A first essential for new users who do not run the PC or Mac editions is the database file download, which will install the database onto the device ready for the main app to run. So the entire install can be done on the device, without the need for a PC or Mac. The Data Support app also has an Import function that will be useful when there is an updated database release. There is also a database compact function, which may be good for some people.
Version 1.27 of the Plant Base for Android app is available for download by registered users. At the moment this is still part of the Beta test phase, but we are treating this version as the first candidate for general release.