Frequently Asked Questions
As with support of any application, there have been a small number of questions about Diabetes Log that have been asked by a large number of people. The following is a list of some of the more common of these questions, and the associated answers.
- How do I change the application to record Blood-Glucose readings in mmol/L instead of mg/dL?
- This is one of a small number of preferences that is controlled by the Settings application. The Settings application is available directly from your home screen, and will have a top-level category for settings for the Diabetes Log application.
- Why do I only see seven days worth of data? Where did the older records go?
- This was an unfortunate limitation of the initial versions of this
program. To avoid the initial load of data taking too long, the application
only loaded the recent seven days worth of data when it starts up. All of the
records that were previously entered, and any new records you enter with
dates on them more than 7 days ago, are still in the database. However, when
starting the application, you would be unable to see them.
Newer versions of Diabetes Log (0.96 and higher) have this limitation removed, and the number of days to load and display initially is a preference that can be set either in the Settings application page for Diabetes Log, or in the new preferences/actions pane that exists within my application. This functionality has been available since November, 2008. - Can you add my medication NNN to the list of medicines?
- Can you put MMM into the list of categories?
- Please send me these requests via e-mail to diabeteslog at distal.com and I may be able to add them to the existing lists. However, it has always been my intent to allow each user to edit these lists for themselves. I have not yet started the development for this feature, but it is likely to be the next “big thing” I add to the feature-set of the application. In the mean time, however, please feel free to e-mail me any particular values that would help you, and if I have the chance to change the database contents before I implement the editing system for them, I will add all of the suggestions I have received.
- How can I access my data to give it to my doctor?
- Early versions of this program did not have this feature. I'm very surprised that I did not add this feature before my initial release, but, I released without it initially. Since then I have added a mechanism to Export a set of records in CSV format and use the iPhone/iPod Touch Mail application to allow you to mail them. You can mail them to yourself, or your doctor, depending on your needs. It should be possible to then read them into a spreadsheet application, or a database. This feature has been available since version 0.96, but has a bug affecting users who have an ampersand (&) in a notes record, so it is recommended you use version 0.97 or higher. Version 0.96 was released in early-December 2008, and 0.97 is expected in the second week of January, 2009.
- Can I track other things, like Exercise, with Diabetes Log?
- Many people have requested new types of records, such as Exercise, Vitamins, and others. When I started developing this application, I specifically chose not to support keeping a record of exercise, but feedback has been causing me to reconsider that. I may implement the ability to add Exercise records. This is not in my short-term plan, but I recognize the value of it. I am glad to be able to get constructive feedback from my user community. Please feel free to ask for features. Even if I have reasons that I don't want to develop them, I would like to know what my users would like to see.