Yachtworld app gone?

[Tom.B]

We tried signing on to the Yachtworld app the other day and got a 'could not connect to server' error. I came back today and got the same thing. I deleted the app to try and reinstall, but when I went to the app store to download, what I thought would be a new version, I can't even see it listed any longer. Have they completely dissed the app? (For iPad in this case)

 

[steve3377]

Noticed that too a few days ago.

 

[sunchaser]

TomB

But can you can still log on the "old fashioned" way?

 

[steve3377]

Noticed that too a few days ago.

Yes

 

[Tom.B]

TomB

But can you can still log on the "old fashioned" way?

Yes, but running it in Safari on an iPad is clumsy. While not perfect, I kinda liked the app.

 

[sunchaser]

Yes, but running it in Safari on an iPad is clumsy. While not perfect, I kinda liked the app.

Clumsy? Not on my IPad or Windows, it is saved as a favorite. When I get apped out I just resort to really clumsy things like washing a boat, car, house windows or pruning roses.

 

[stubones99]

I miss the yachtworld app too. I have called and emailed them about it and heard nothing back from the inquiries.

Is it worthy of an independent app? IOS or Android? I wonder what the legalities of web scraping their site to put it on an app... Would be nice if there were a JSON back end rather than web scraping the data off the site and put it on a tablet.

What do you guys think?

 

[stubones99]

I guess it isn't worth some development fun to build one to replace what they had...

There seems to be NO interest here.

 

[Mermaid]

I was recently informed that Yachtworld traded hands and I've also notice technological deficiencies with the website. Photos are difficult to load and lots of errors. Never tried the app. They must have cut some staffing...

 

[stubones99]

I am working on an app to browse Yachtworld and wonder if some of you guys (and gals too) would be interested in beta testing it. I have apple products (iphone / ipad) and only one older android tablet. I plan to buy a kindle fire tablet to help test the app with.

It will be able to do advanced searches (and save them for later), show resulting matching boats and let you click the one you want from the list. You have the option of saving a favorite boat for later comparison. I want to allow portrait and landscape mode for images, and have an option to zoom in, if the image is a high resolution file.

I should be able to support most smartphones & tablets, with minor adjustments, since screen resolutions and width vs height ratios differ.

What I need to know is:

Who is interested in this beta project?
What hardware do you intend to use?
What features would be important?
I am planning to make it ad supported with low cost to shut off ads once it goes live.

Initially, I will only support US$ searches but could support other currencies if requested. Once it goes live, all participating beta testers will be issued a code for a free product.

I have contacted Yachtworld / Dominion Media / Boats Group numerous times to get permission / approval to do that and never gotten ANY response from anyone, CTO and down. They might as well not be home.

I am hoping there will be more interest in this app than there is on my Nautical Dictionary.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B013W4BLL2

Thanks!
Stu

 

[mramoo]

There was another Beta called "Boatwatch" it didnt make a go of it.
I would like to see what you are trying work.

 

[stubones99]

There was another Beta called "Boatwatch" it didnt make a go of it.
I would like to see what you are trying work.

What I'm working on isn't like that, but is a replacement for what we had back with the original YachtWorld app where we could perform searches, and then peruse their website images and description details from an ipad (or other device. since I can't confirm that anyone is home at BoatsGroup, I'm simply scraping their site, building lists and displaying what I find on various devices.

I'm using Corona SDK to make it portable across different devices, but since I don't own too wide a variety of devices, I can't test all those platforms.

Thats why I posted it here...

so, what do you have that would run Apple IOS, android, kindle fire, nook, blackberry(really???) who knows. Corona supports lots of platforms, far more than I'm willing to test on. I think it even runs on AppleTV too! Talk about armchair fender kicking...

 

[SeaMoose]

You should talk to dominion marine, the owners of the database and the API. My company built a brokers site that uses the API to show their listings.

I'd be happy to beta test, but if you're scraping off the site you won't get far it's their IP, ya know?

 

[stubones99]

Using their API would probably be easier, but a dozen or two phone messages to anyone I could find at Domion / boatsgroup and A: no one answered their phone, and B: no one returned repeated messages. C: no one responded to any email I sent requesting status of their app returning or if they would mind if I made my own.

Scraping isn't that hard, although it isn't very efficient. It is no worse than me pulling up their site on my browser, but I can make it fit the device better and cut out the fluff.

If you have a boats group contact that has a phone and actually answers it, I'd like to talk. So far, nobody seems to be home.

Thanks!
Stu

 

[SeaMoose]

Dominion Marine

Sending you a PM now.

Scraping is easy, sure, but you're stealing their intellectual property....

 

[stubones99]

your contact is long gone... email no longer works.

I'm not stealing anything. I'm simply another browser showing their data.

I won't claim that their data is my data, since I'm just like Edge, Chrome, or Brave... Just taking what they send me and putting it on the screen.

I'm not storing anything (other than faves) on the local machine, and not doing a full scrape of their site. You answer the same search criteria, I build the search request and submit it. their server sends it back to me as if I was Chrome...

No legal issues there!

Stu

 

[stubones99]

Hey SeaMoose, here is what I think happens when I tried to contact Dominion / BoatsGroup... They do it so well!

 

[SeaMoose]

Hi Stu
Our client - Who the new mega YW sold "A new website just just a few more dollars a month" was promised that the new website was going to be up in a just a couple of weeks back in August still don't have their website. So clearly they are having merger pains, which often happens when two organizations are rammed together.

I wouldn't give up just yet. Perhaps they will listen to their customers at some point, and engage US in the places online where we congregate - like here for instance.

I'm sure I'm like many people here, avid boater 30+ years, close to retirement, thinking about that last big great boat purchase and needing better tools to help me watch the market.

 

[stubones99]

There is hope...

I'm still working on my piddly project screen scraping yacht browser app. Getting the search criteria forms working like their site does. It will have the option of storing searches, and favorite boats.

 

[SeaMoose]

Awesome. I'd love to see:

Here are the five, ten boats I'm watching if anything changes send me an email. As so many boats sit, sit, sit, and sit some more and then there's a price reduction and they sell. Or a new listing comes up with no details, and I want to know when the details get put in.

 

[stubones99]

I can keep the last couple of prices and dates on your 'favorites' showing any pricing data changes. I don't know how I would notify you on changes since the app has to be running to work, since it isn't my database, and I'm only acting as a browser to their data.

If one of your favorites changed prices, I could note the change in the favorites list...

 

[SeaMoose]

I can keep the last couple of prices and dates on your 'favorites' showing any pricing data changes. I don't know how I would notify you on changes since the app has to be running to work, since it isn't my database, and I'm only acting as a browser to their data.

If one of your favorites changed prices, I could note the change in the favorites list...

If it's written in something that runs on the LAMP stack you need a cron job, I'd host this for free as a service to the boating community... or does your tool run as a browser add on?

 

[stubones99]

If it's written in something that runs on the LAMP stack you need a cron job, I'd host this for free as a service to the boating community... or does your tool run as a browser add on?

Sorry, it's an App, running on Android, IOS (apple) and amazon kindle tablets and smartphones...

It is a browser app, meaning they think it's a browser, but I collect the info from their search function (same as a browser) and parse it into arrays to display it conveniently on a smaller screen and minimize downloading data more than once.

 

[SeaMoose]

Gotcha to do what I am proposing you'd need to parse and store the results on a server.

 

[stubones99]

Gotcha to do what I am proposing you'd need to parse and store the results on a server.

As discussed previously, I don't want to store their data somewhere else. That would tend to open up a can of worms as far as who owns the data, and I'm not fishing for problems.

All I want to do is have a tablet / smartphone yachtworld browser.

I will store the favorite boats links and favorite search criteria. If the app is running and you pull up the favorite boats page, it should be able to see a price change. I can make it do that. Other changes would require a CRC or other storage and I don't want to tax the tablet with memory caching all the favorites to spot changes.

I'll look into implementing the price change feature.

Thanks!
stu