Mobile Companion App

The Option page is invoked using the gear button in the upper left corner of the Mobile application.

Reset Database

If there is a need to reset the database, such as wanting to apply a new set of RapidRemarks, you can use this option to clear the database. Also, Whisper may make changes to the database or how data is formatted which may require the database to be reset. In any case, this option will completely clear the database, losing any reports and RapidRemarks on the device and may occasionally be requested to be used after updating to the latest version. After tapping this option, you will be asked to confirm before it proceeds.

Export Photos

There may be a situation where you may want to separately save all your photos you took with the Mobile app during an inspection for transferring to a Windows PC or to a Mac. Use of this option only transfers the photos taken by the device, not existing photos (photo names that start with "Photo_2"). How you transfer the exported photos depends on the device, Android or iOS. You can also check the "Clear existing exports" checkbox to clear any previous exports if they haven't been removed when copying to the PC or Mac.

•Android (Windows PC transfer only)

Attach your Android phone to a Windows PC using a USB cable. Using the Windows file browser, Select your device on the left side of the file browser. Double click on the device on the right side which will show the device's folder, one of which will be "Documents" (not "My Documents"). Double click "Documents" to show a folder "Whisper Exports". Double click that folder which will show one or more folders, each folder being the report number containing the photos from that report. You can drag that folder or the photos with in that folder over to a location on your PC.

•iOS

- Transfer to a Windows PC

This will required iTunes to be installed on your PC. Connect your iOS device to the PC suing a USB cable. Open iTunes and click on the device icon near the top left of the iTunes window, which may be just to the right of the category dropdown. Under Settings on the left panel, click "File Sharing" which will show the WhisperReporterMobile app entry on the right panel. When you click on WhisperReporterMobile you will see a list of files shared by the Mobile app. The photos for each report that you exported will be in the "Whisper Exports" folder. Select that "Whisper Exports" folder followed by the [Save] button where you can select a location to save that folder to. This folder will contain all images from all reports that you have exported photos from, in their respective folders by report number. There is currently no way to just copy one subfolder within that folder and no way to delete it using iTunes, so it will fill up over time.

- Transfer to a Mac

Connect your iOS device to the Mac. User Finder, select your device on the left panel, followed by the "Files" tab on the right panel. You should see the WhisperReporterMobile entry on the right panel. Expand that entry and you will see the "Whisper Exports" folder which you can drag over to a location on the Mac. You can also right click the "Whisper Exports" folder and select Delete to remove it from your iOS device (It will be recreated the next time you use Mobile to export your photos for one or more reports).

Photo Options

Here you can specify how the photos should be taken. The options include:

•Resolution
The default resolution is 640 pixel width as it is on WhisperReporter Ascent. This is a fairly good setting for photos of deficiencies used in a report, but sometimes there is a need for a higher resolution such as when taking photos of product serial numbers for example. You can select a different resolution here, but please note that higher resolutions result in a greater file sizes.

•Ratio
The default ratio is 4:3 as it is on WhisperReporter Ascent. So even if taking a photo in portrait orientation on the mobile device, Mobile will crop it to the selected ratio. At times you may want to take a full portrait photo, such as when taking a photo of a water heater for example. In that case, select the "As Taken" ratio. When using that ratio, the photo's ratio will depend on the mobile device's orientation.

•Quality
Mobile compresses photos to a JPG image format. The default quality setting is 80% as it is on WhisperReporter Ascent. This is typically a good quality/photo size balance when taking photos of deficiencies. Higher qualities may result in slightly sharper images but also result in a greater file size.

Other Options

•Auto reopen camera/library until canceled
Enabling this option will cause Mobile to automatically open the camera again after taking a photo and open the photo library again after selecting an image, allowing you to quickly take multiple photos and insert multiple images, respectively. To cancel the cycle, use the virtual back button on Android, or the virtual Cancel button on iOS.

•Use abbreviations for Topic Checkboxes
This option allows the use of abbreviations in the Topic Checkbox panel, e.g. I for Inspected, etc. Using abbreviations collapses the Topic Checkbox panel, giving more space for the edit area. Useful on small mobile devices like phones. Abbreviations are managed on Ascent using the Topic Checkbox Abbreviations picklist, which is created on your first report transfer to Mobile. Each time a report is transferred to Mobile, the abbreviations are also transferred, keeping Mobile up-to-date..

•Case Sensitive RR lookup (enhanced items)
When using enhanced picklists and enhanced cloakable text (items that begin with a ^ or ^^) for a RapidRemark lookup to replace them, you can perform the default case insensitive lookup or a case sensitive lookup.