By Greg Clapp

Portland television station KATU recently visited BTS to talk on camera about the new PDX Reporter web app and learn about the upcoming version 1.0 release. The segment was featured on KATU News at 6, on January 16, 2018. 

PDX Reporter: City's web app for reporting neighborhood problems to get an upgrade

During the interview, I chatted with KATU News reporter Stuart Tomlinson chatted about the history of the app, the upcoming release, and some of the more popular report types submitted by Portland residents. Tomlinson, a fan and frequent user of the app, commented off camera that he and his neighbors have had great success getting issues resolved through its use, and he wanted to bring more awareness of it to the public.

Originally launched in 2009 as a native iOS and Android app, the PDX Reporter web app beta version was publicly released in April, 2017. The web app was developed by myself and Brittany Smart, and we continue to support and extend it. 

“It's a universal version that can basically be used on any device with a web browser phone, desktop, tablet,” [Clapp] said. “It gives us a lot more flexibility for creating, updating and doing bug fixes, adding new features."

“It's going to be dramatically improved over the beta -- we've learned a lot of lessons over the last eight months,” said Gregg [sic] Clapp of Portland’s Bureau of Technology Services. 

The improved Version 1.0 is expected to hit in late February or early March, 2018. The initial beta was a hastily made prototype designed to mimic the functionality of the aging native phone apps and allow those apps to be retired. Completely rewritten as a true HTML5/AngularJS single page application, the new 1.0 version will boast new features, a more usable interface, and the ability to support customized reporting forms.