BorzaTV dev talk - More than 500 users!

Hello, we've surpassed 500 registered users in BorzaTV tracker.

We've started this app as something small, personal (and it still is), but hundreds of registered users are a good sign.

Maybe somebody would be interested in the inner workings of the app.

BorzaTV is composed of two parts - the Android application, written in Java and a Python backend. The backend and database runs on Google AppEngine, a great free platform for hosting a web service / web app. Android app communicates with the server through compressed JSON, which leads to very small  transfer sizes for show/episode list or the show finder. The Android app caches the JSON responses on SD card, so for example episode lists are kept for several days and don't need to be fetched from the server so often.

The backed is being continually updated and fixed, and thanks to the high productivity Python offers, it's easy.

Of course, the Android app is still not perfect, so we'll issue updates every 2-4 weeks to add new features and fix bugs.

Among the new features that will be added are "TOP 100 list" of shows, based on preferences of the users. It wasn't meaningful to be included from the start of the app, because the TOP 100 list would be empty by then. Now, with 500 users and about 1000 shows watched by users it is possible. Based on the stats off the top of our head, the leaders would be Family Guy, How I Met Your Mother, Glee, House and The Walking Dead!