BrookONLine 4+

While, in theory, Brookline has joined other municipalities that enable residents to report problems, this is a terribly written, barely functional app.

Major problems:

The application is completely dependent on a data connection to a functioning server. I constantly get timeouts and cryptic server errors ("Server Error 422" is a particular favorite). There is no ability to cache a report for later submission, as is provided by other applications (e.g. AT&T Mobile's Mark the Spot). If submission fails for any reason, the report is lost.

The application is poorly behaved. It does not release the iPhone GPS receiver, which results in extremely rapid discharge of the battery. The app keeps the GPS receiver active when the iPhone is put to sleep, as well as after switching to another application.

It is incredibly slow and non-responsive. It takes a minute or more to respond to screen input. I often see issues while walking my dog, and end up putting the phone in my pocket while waiting for it to respond or submit a report. If, for any reason, I forget to check the app after pocketing my iPhone, the app will drain the battery while futilely reporting server errors.

The server side appears to be equally problematic. Server errors are a regular occurrence - unavailable, timeout or numerical error codes.

Finally, the designer provides a limited number of predefined report types, much more restrictive than the old town web site form, which is clearly being deprecated as it is now hidden in a hard to find location.

Needs a MAJOR rewrite, but is apparently not being maintained, since there have been no updates for over a year.

Nine out of 10 times I have tried to submit or report something, it fails. Please update this app. The town of Brookline should be in the 21st-century.

Error:
Report Submission Failed
Unprocessable Entity