Shop’NCook Blog

The first Shop’NCook iPhone application has been released about two weeks ago. After a first glitch 3 days after release, everything has run smoothly. During these two weeks, the app has been installed 1424 times and 667 recipes have been uploaded to the Direct Access online database. That is without counting the numerous “test” recipes I had to remove - actually, I had to make a special moderator version of the application just for this purpose.

I would like to share here how I envision Shop’NCook development on the iPhone and iPad.

Why an iPhone application now?

Writing a Shop’NCook iPhone application has been in my to-do list ever since the iPhone was released. It shot to the top of my list however when I saw Steve Jobs’s keynote presentation unveiling the iPad at the beginning of this year.

My first reaction to the iPad was

I want one in the kitchen!

I have many computers at home, but not one in the kitchen. It is a tiny kitchen and I wouldn’t have the place. Mainly, I don’t see myself typing on a keyboard or manipulating a mouse with hands covered in flour.

But the iPad is something else. It doesn’t have small mechanical parts that can become dirty while cooking and barely takes any place. It’s the ideal medium to consult recipes in the kitchen.

That’s when I became really serious about developing a Shop’NCook application for the iPad. Since the iPad was not yet available in Switzerland (it has only been available here for the last two weeks), I started by developping an iPhone application.

What next on the iPad and the iPhone?

I see complementary roles for Shop’NCook applications on the iPad and the iPhone:

• In Shop’NCook for iPad, I want to focus in developing basic recipe editing and organizing capabilities, as well as allowing users to access their recipes from Shop’NCook software for Windows or Mac OS X.
• The iPhone is a great and environmentally-friendly way to take your grocery list to the store. I want to create a Shop’NCook app for iPhone that lets you access your shopping list, but also create grocery lists on the fly from recipes to take better advantage of the specials in the store.

What is the feature you would most like to see on Shop’NCook for the iPhone or iPad? Let me know in the comments below!

For the last couple of weeks, I have received numerous e-mails of users of Mac’s Snow Leopard system complaining that Shop’NCook doesn’t even start after the latest system update, after having using it for more than one year without problem…

The good news is that this problem has already been solved about one year ago when it occurred on Leopard systems. Snow Leopard is finally catching up with it, surprising a lot of users who did not update their software at that time.

Users experiencing this problem just need to update to the latest version of Shop’NCook, by following exactly the instructions below:

1. Download the appropriate version of Shop’NCook
2. Run the installer software in the image disk. Do not use the drag and drop installation, as it will replace your installation folder where your data is stored and you will lose your recipes. (If it’s too late and you just did it, use the Undo function of the Finder, at once).

On some systems, the installer software does not run. If this is your case, here are the instructions to update manually Shop’NCook Menu. If you are using another edition of Shop’NCook, replace below all mentions of “Shop’NCook Menu 3.4″ folder by “Shop’NCook 3.4″ or “Shop’NCook Pro 3.4″, as appropriate.

1. Rename your current installation folder Applications/”Shop’NCook Menu 3.4″ to Applications/”Shop’NCook Menu 3.4 old” - or any other name.
2. Drag and drop the new folder “Shop’NCook Menu 3.4″ from the installation disk into the Applications folder. If the computer asks you if you want to replace the current folder “Shop’NCook Menu 3.4″, select cancel and do again step 1!
3. The first time you start the software from the new installation, it will ask you if you want to use the default data or import from another installation. Select to import and browse to folder “Shop’NCook Menu 3.4 old”.

That’s it. Let me know if you need more help with the update.

Great start
Shop’NCook Lite was off to a great start:

472 users and over 300 new recipes in just three days!

Then crash!
Early this morning, I receive an e-mail to let me know that the app doesn’t even start. A few hours later, the rating on the app store is

one star…

As a user put it:
“The only reason I gave it a 1 star is due to you CAN’T give it a zero! The app won’t even open!”
What happened
I never expected there would be more than a hundred or so new recipes per month on the server.The first time the application is started after installing, it downloads the index of the new recipes on the server. Three hundred new recipes was too much and made the application crash…
What now…
This problem is now fixed. If you have installed the app within the last few hours and could not get it to start, you can try again and it will work now. You don’t have to reinstall the application, as I have only modified the code on the server so that it does not send more than 50 recipes in one time.