Tutorial

This page explains how to navigate through the app and find hidden features.

Main Navigation Pages

Preview and Edit Medleys

Saving a Medley

Main Navigation Pages

Home Page

To get users familiar with the app content, some key texts and collections have shortcuts on the home page.

The button at the top opens 'Live Session' dialog for you to find other users who are currently streaming.

Your profile and settings pages are in the top toolbar, as well as a menu with further topical collections you might find useful.

Search Page

The full archive of over 400 texts lies in the centre page. This is fully searchable in English and Arabic (but watch the spelling carefully).

You can optimise your search using the filters in the top left- these include filtering by author, maqam, topic etc. The button in the top-right sorts the results by the English alphabet, rather than the Arabic, if preferred.

Bookmarks

Any saved texts and sets can be found in this personal archive, once signed in. You can save items to your account privately or publically.

Also, any time the set is opened, it gets saved temporarily here under "Recently Viewed", even if you did not manually save it.

Preview and Edit Medleys

Creating a Medley

By 'medley', we mean any set of texts you group together, such as a few poems that are sung together or a collection of reading and qasaaid to be read in a specific gathering. In this app, you can title your medley and give it an extra note for your own future reference.

You can create a medley from most screens such as the search page or when previewing a collection, by selecting multiple items. This then gets saved to your viewing history, and you can choose to save it permanently to your bookmark page.

There is a shortcut button on the home page and bookmark page to create a medley.

NOTE: in order to start a live session, you must first create a set to share.

Editing a Medley

By default, medleys open to this contents page rather than the text viewer. You can always come back to this preview page from the text viewer by clicking the 'Edit Set' button in the top menu.

(If you don't want to see this contents page, double click the medley card and it will open straight to the text viewer).

Read Mode:

Open the actual text viewer with the very big and now unmissable button labelled 'View Set'
Click "Save Set" next to that button to save the medley to bookmarks
Use the "Go Live" button in the bottom right to start a live session
Open a selection of your own by clicking the checkboxes
Hold down on one title to open just that individual text

Edit Mode:

Reorder, add or remove items (click 'Save All' to save these changes)
Change the title and description (this saves automatically)
If you are previewing this page, you can jump to a text by clicking it. When you return to the text viewer it will open to that page.

You can edit your medley at any time, even during a live session by clicking "Edit Set" from the top toolbar.

Saving a Medley

Once you have logged in, you can save medleys and texts to your account. Note: you do need an Internet connection for this.

When you save the medley, it defaults to your account, private to you. If you have promoted your account, you have the option to save the sets to your profile, where other users can see them. You can toggle between public and private at any time. People can save the sets you put up to their on accounts too.

Text / Medley Viewer

When you select a single text, it will open with a toolbar at the top, containing the following buttons:

Full Text Details

Click the 'Info' button in the top-right of any text viewer to see:

video links on YouTube to hear how the song is commonly sung (there are often many, very different versions);
links to the full collection e.g. 'Shimmering Lights Mawlid' or 'Maqam Rast' if applicable.

Save a Text

Click the 'Save' button in the top-right of any viewer to save it to your bookmark page. It will appear under the "Favourites" section and you can remove it at any time by holding down on the card or clicking this same button.

Note: this is different to saving a whole set.

Report A Text

The report button lets you send feedback such as typos, missing content, etc about a text in particular. This is the most efficient way to send such feedback. You can send the reports anonymously or choose to include your email.

When you open a set of texts, you will get a toolbar with different buttons as described below, along with a bottom navigation bar to go through the medley content:

Edit a Medley

The "Edit Set" button allows you to open the contents view of the set in order to jump to a different position, change the order, add and remove items or change the name. When you return to the viewer by clicking "Save", your changes will be reflected. If you are hosting a live session, your viewers will only see the changes once you've clicked save.

Save a Medley

This will save the entire set to your bookmark page, under the "Saved Medleys" heading. You can always remove the bookmark by clicking this button again, or going to the bookmark page and holding down on the title card.

Start a Live Session

If you are signed in you have the option to share this medley with your followers in the app. After confirming, your medley will open in a new window, and your followers will see your session appear in their Live Session page.

Access Text Viewer Toolbar

The toolbar for the text viewer is accessible by clicking the three dots at the top. If you are currently hosting a live session, some of these may not be available e.g. reporting a text, without ending the session first.

Navigation

Switch from page to page using the arrow buttons at the bottom

By clicking the Page number between them, you can also jump straight to a text without having to click through the entire medley. This is particularly useful in avoiding the spamming of your live session viewers with page turning notifications.

Change Viewer Settings

Customise the Screen

There is a lot of customisation available for the text viewer. Using the 'Customise' button in the bottom-right, you can change the layout of the verses:

for ease of reading, verses default to centred on the screen with couplets split into two. This gives space for a slightly larger font;
the staggered layout makes the couplet separation a little clearer without taking up too much of the screen width;
the classic line-by-line layout displays couplets on the same line, taking up the full width. This makes the text slightly smaller and appears more compact on the screen, suited to wide screens like tablets or iPads.

The English transliteration displays after each line while separating dividers and chorus breaks appear after each verse, where applicable. These are all dismissible from the customise button also.

Set Customisation Defaults

To save your preferences to default, go to the preferences page in your settings. These settings get saved automatically and every time you open a text, it will open with your saved settings.

NB: these are device-specific settings so they aren't shared across your user account.

Profile Page

Your Account

Creating an Account

Anyone can create a free account with their email by setting a new password and clicking "New Account". They are then prompted to click the verification link in their emails, and returning to the app. The account is only created after clicking the verification button. Please don't mess this up.

Logging Back In

This is done from the same sign in page, by clicking "Log Back In". If you have forgotten your password you can reset it (the reset prompt appears when incorrect details have been submitted). If you have any persisting issues, contact an admin. PLEASE don't mess this up.

Your Profile

Private Profiles

The default for all users is a private profile. No one can see your profile, but when you share a live session, viewers can see the name you have set, and a part of your user ID. If you want to share live sessions, you will have to send out your user ID every time, for your friends to enter manually.

Public Profiles

The public profile contains the same ID and display name, as well as any bookmarks you have set to public.

It is easier to host live sessions with a public account (currently free) since others can find your profile and follow you. After following you the one time, your friends can see your live sessions in their home page automatically and can join them at any time.

Discover Others

All public profiles can be found on the second page labelled "Following". You can follow any of these in order to get quick access to their live sessions.

The top listed profiles labelled "Verified" are hosts affiliated with established groups or organisations, and their live sessions get automatically broadcasted to all users on the app, not just followers.

Follow Other Users

Settings Page

Your settings page is home to any display settings and extra information about the development and progress of the app, with links back to this support page.

Display Settings

Set your text viewer display defaults in the "Text" tab, such as the font and divider style.

Switch to dark mode from the middle "Theme" tab at any time.

Feedback Form

The quickest way to get developer or admin support is by the internal feedback form in the top of the third tab, labelled "About". You can send reports or requests, and you can choose to send anonymously, however if your report requires a response you must include your email instead. In order to send, the main fields "Feedback Type" and "Details" cannot be empty.

Share and Rate the App

Along with the report button, you can share or review the app on the official app store. Be sure to pass any concerns by the developer team, via email or the above form, before raising issues on such platforms.

Live Sessions

a mystery.

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