A look back at 2024

2024 was a busy year of SongSheet updates - 23 in all! While continuing to work towards cloud-based sync and a macOS version, I made a lot of improvements along the way. Here’s a summary of the key changes:

User Interface Enhancements

The navigation model in the Library was modernized, making it easier to find and navigate between songs and set lists, especially on wide iPad displays. SongSheet also now remembers the last selected song list or set list upon relaunching.

The interface for editing themes was completely redesigned, bringing all options together on a single screen. Not only does the new design make it easier to edit themes, it makes room for some great new features coming down the track.

Additionally, the user interface for picking stanza names was refreshed, making it more intuitive for users when editing songs.

Feature Requests

A new “Feature Requests” view was introduced, allowing users to stay updated on in-progress and planned features, submit new feature requestsand even vote on feature requests. This has been extremely well received - I’ve received tons of great feedback and suggestions, and users have been voting for features they’d like to see. I’m feeding this all back into my development plans.

Importing Capabilities

SongSheet gained the ability to import Word (.doc and .docx) documents, making it easier to import songs from an existing library of songs you may have built up over the years. For some file types, additional metadata can also be specified at import time, making it easier to keep your Library organised.

Set List Enhancements

I added an option to shuffle songs within a set list, as well as the ability to add song numbering to set lists. (I also built out the ability to keep set lists sorted by song title, artist, etc, but it requires a database migration, so I haven’t released it yet.)

Language Support

Greek and Portuguese were added as supported languages, broadening accessibility for non-English speaking users.

Performance Improvements and Bug Fixes

Of course, along with new features, comes the usual “performance improvements and bug fixes”. I’ve been progressively working through the entire app as I work on cloud sync, and this has given me a lot of opportunities to polish, enhance, and fix bugs (especially a few gnarly edge-cases). Overall SongSheet is in much better shape than it was at the start of the year.

Looking forward through 2025

Cloud sync was a big focus for 2024, and 2025 will be no different. As I’ve been working on it, I’ve realised that there are a few more things that need to be added to make it work well. I also underestimated how much legacy code was holding me back from adding some of the features I’d planned. Apple forcing my hand in raising the minimum supported iOS version to 15 has given me a lot of opportunities to simplify and modernise SongSheet’s code, so I’ve been taking advantage of that. This has meant slower overall progress than I’d hoped, but the end result should be more reliable and easier to maintain.

Let me know what you think!

As always, I’m always keen to hear what you think of SongSheet - what’s good, what’s bad, suggestions for a new feature or improvement? Drop me a line!

– Gabriel
Developer of SongSheet Pro