Annotate Tester Guide

1. Disclaimers

• In Development: We're actively growing with our testers, but some features are still drafts, which means they need your feedback! Tell us what you'd like to see.
• Bug Fixing Turnover Time: I'm a single developer working on the code. I try to be as responsive as possible, but it does take me some time to fix bugs, depending on their priorities. If you have anything urgent going wrong, you can always DM me on Discord (@thefunkycat).
• Server sleep times: The free servers go to sleep when no one is actively using them. Because of this, it may take a minute or two for the first request to process if the app has been idle. Please be patient with your first request; the ones after that will be much faster!
• Keep your passwords handy: Please save your passwords. You may be logged out frequently.
• Multiple accounts: Feel free to make multiple accounts; the more you make, the more testing you can do! However, please only import your Goodreads/Storygraph library once per account.
• Readathon and Activity Logs: We know everyone is super excited about the Readathon feature but it's still a draft feature and we're actively working on improving it. You can always help us by dropping suggestions in the suggestion forums. If you're testing it, make sure you update your progress while the Readathon is running, and the books you read have a page count.

2. Installation

iOS Testers

Please download the app from the Testflight link in #instructions. Please do not share this link.

Android Testers

I will provide a link to download the .apk file in the testing channel. You simply need to trust the developer (that's me!) and download it to install the app on your device.

Please make sure you update your app after downloading new builds. Read the updating section for instructions.

3. Getting Started

Once you have downloaded the app:

• Create an account. Please use a real, valid email address, as emails are validated.
• Import your reading data from Goodreads or TheStoryGraph. Reach out to me if you need any assistance with this process.

Please note that as you join, your book covers will take some time to initially load and settle. This is completely normal and by design, so don't worry! Once most of the covers have loaded, you will be able to easily identify any that are genuinely missing.

You can double-check if a cover is actually missing (or just still loading) by tapping on a book to view its dedicated page and seeing if the cover appears there.

4. Updating the App

1. Open your app.
2. Wait at least one minute.
3. Force close your app.
4. Open it again.

5. How to Report a Bug

Tap the hamburger menu (the three horizontal lines) on the left side of your top bar, then tap Bug Reports. Fill in the mandatory fields and submit it. Your report will automatically be forwarded to the respective Discord channels.

To ensure we get all the necessary information, please try to answer the following questions in your report:

• What action were you trying to take?
• What happened when you tried?
• What were you expecting to happen instead?

If possible, please attach a screenshot in the Discord channel when your bug report comes in. Make sure you report using your Annotate or Discord username so I can tag you if I have any follow-up questions. Adding your Annotate username to your server nickname is also incredibly helpful!

Once a bug is marked as fixed, it would be fantastic if you could retest it. If that is too much work, no problem at all — I will just go with my judgment that it has been resolved.

If you are ever unsure whether something is worth reporting, please submit a ticket anyway! We would much rather receive a report for something minor than miss an issue altogether.

There are no "bad" tickets. If something has already been fixed, isn't an issue, or doesn't need any action, we will simply move the ticket to the Done section. Every report helps us improve the app, and we genuinely appreciate the time and effort you put into testing. When in doubt, report it!

6. Missing Information in Books

If any of your books are missing covers, are the wrong editions, missing publisher data, etc., you can report this in the app by doing the following:

1. Go to the book page.
2. Tap the three dots on top.
3. Fill in the missing information (optional).

You can also add a book if it's missing via the search page. Please try to include as much information as possible to ensure our librarians handle your ticket correctly. If you notice any of the database issues below, please report them to the librarians so they can be corrected:

• Series name included in the book title: The series name should not appear as part of the book title.
• White folded corner on the book cover: Report any book covers that have a white folded (or "flipped") corner.
• Missing, low-quality, or incorrect book cover: Report books that have no cover, a low-resolution/poor-quality cover, or the wrong cover for the edition. (Please check with the ISBN of the edition before reporting an incorrect cover.)
• Missing synopsis: Report any books that do not have a synopsis.
• Book not assigned to a series: If a book is part of a series but isn't grouped with the rest of the series, please report it.
• Missing or incorrect language information: Report books where the language is missing or entered incorrectly. Common examples of incorrect entries include:
  • English (incorrect capitalisation)
  • eng (abbreviated)
  • engish (misspelled)
  • English, Filipino (multiple languages listed when only one language should be set)
• Non-English books listed as separate books: Report any books that are in a language other than English. Non-English versions should appear as editions of the English original (or its English translation), not as entirely separate books.
• Missing ISBN: Report any books that do not have an ISBN listed.
• Missing publisher: Report any books where the publisher information is missing.