Online Astrological Software

Minderwiz

I've recently found this site:

http://astroapp.com/

Which offers web based professional software. The list of features is amazing; in fact so amazing that I'm a little sceptical about it. It comes in several versions, one of which is free but is very basic. There are then subscription versions which include a ' pro version' as well as financial and oriental modules.

The possible advantage is that this can be run on tablets or even smartphones and because it's web based, work done on a smartphone can be finished off on a desktop or laptop and it doesn't matter what operating system(s) you are using.

Subscriptions can be for as little as a month and are not automatically renewed unless you explicitly choose that option. Now at this stage I've taken out a month's subscription to see what it's like. I am not recommending people to subscribe, rather if anyone has found it already and has experience I'd love to hear from them.

At the end of my month, I'll do a full review but I suspect for the beginner it will still be better to start with something else and cheaper.
 

kalliope

Hi Minderwiz,

I posted about this back in May (post here), asking if anyone had used it, but no one bit. I've paid for a month here and there to use the traditional astrology features, and think it's pretty decent. I look forward to seeing what your more experienced opinion is after you use it for a while.

As you say, it's great that it should work on all devices, and that everything is saved in the cloud. I like that it doesn't auto-renew, especially since I tend to go through phases with my studies.

Some cons: The user interface is a bit clunky, as I said. I use a 13" Macbook, and find that some of the pre-designed pages don't fit nicely on my screen. I was excited about designing my own pages, and the feature that allows you to collect elements into a reading and then print it, but got annoyed that the included images (charts) were so large and were not easily edited for size. When I printed a PDF from the generated HTML, many of the charts broke across pages, so I had to edit each one for dimensions depending on other elements on the page, which was very time consuming.

If I only had to do such a thing once, and then it would remember my settings for next time that would be one thing, but I don't think that was the case. So that was a major disappointment.

In general, my biggest complaints with all software have to do with printing the elements I want, especially when I'm doing funky things to run Windows software on my Mac. My ultimate wishlist feature is to be able to have a collection of charts, tables, and lists, etc. that I can save and print automatically for each person. Something like a multi-page Page, or self designed "report". Not that I've even figured out how to use the Page Design feature of Janus, which I suppose I should try to do. :neutral:

As an aside, I recently signed up for Chris Brennan's Hellenistic Astrology Course! I occasionally peek into your HA thread and it looks like you've been getting a lot out of it.
 

Minderwiz

Thanks for the feedback Kaliope. I don't remember the post you made so please forgive me for not responding. Though I would have been, like now very much at the trial stage.

I agree that the interface is clunky especially on a tablet, though it claims to have a 'mobile' mode. I've only been using it for a couple of days, so I'll reserve judgement for a bit, though display on a Nexus 7 presents some difficulties with large tables and for other mobile work I'm using a 14 inch HP Chromebook, which still presents some difficulties in getting a very wide table on screen, even in a 1368x768 display, I've still not worked out those reports LOL.

Glad you've signed up for Chris' course. It's developed quite a bit over the last couple of months, with three or four large lectures added. My early thread was very much touch and go and I'd redo much of it now. Partly that was due to trying to get to grips with Schmidt, as Delphic Oracle draws heavily on his work. Chris seems to think that Schmidt over plays some of those themes and I think I would be much better off if I had ignored Schmidt and stuck to Chris.
 

astroapp

AstroApp and Page Designer

Hi Kaliope,

I'm the author of AstroApp and I just stumbled across this thread.
First of all, I'd like to thank you for your feedback, it's always very useful to hear what users have to say about our program.

If you don't mind, I'd like to ask for some clarifications on your suggestions.

If I only had to do such a thing once, and then it would remember my settings for next time that would be one thing, but I don't think that was the case. So that was a major disappointment.

In general, my biggest complaints with all software have to do with printing the elements I want, especially when I'm doing funky things to run Windows software on my Mac. My ultimate wishlist feature is to be able to have a collection of charts, tables, and lists, etc. that I can save and print automatically for each person. Something like a multi-page Page, or self designed "report".

That's exactly what the Page Designer is supposed to do. You should be able to create 'multi-page' Pages by simply dragging elements (such as tables, graphs, etc) to the bottom of the Page. The Page's vertical size will adjust automatically. Then you can save the page and use it for your charts in the future. User Pages and user settings are being preserved along with all the user charts across sessions, subscription periods and subscription/edition types. If for some reason this doesn't work for you, would you mind sending me a PM (or a message to support at astroapp.com) with a screenshot of the Page you're creating? I may be able to help you with this issue.
Generally, we're producing new releases about every month so if this is a bug that is technically feasible to fix, it can be addressed fairly quickly.

Thanks,
Gene
http://astroapp.com
 

Minderwiz

Gene,

Thanks for your contribution, I'll leave Kaliope to respond on that particular topic as I'm sure she will want a little more guidance through email or PM.

I'm still using AstroApp and I think that is likely to continue indefinitely. Because of family health issues, I've not been able to give it the thorough testing I intended but it has now become a regular part of my Astrological armoury. There is very little adequate astrological software for Android or Google Chrome OS and until I found AstroApp, none which cater for a traditional approach.

I use Solar Fire 9, Delphic Oracle 8 and Morinus for my work and one issue is the obvious one of transferring charts from one to the other - usually by re-entering the data. AstroApp presented me with a fourth format, but I liked the idea of the qck import and export. Getting to grips with that took me most of the month. The AstroApp help file mentions exporting from Solar Fire 7 in qck format but I can't find any direct way to do that in Solar Fire 9 and there's no mention of the feature in the manual. Also I had problems with Solar Fire failing to read the qck exported files from AstroApp. Two downloaded freebies from the net now allow me to export to AstroApp using the *.dat format from Solar Fire and then converting to qck format, which is readable by AstroApp and a conversion from one qck format to another allowed me to export from AstroApp to Solar Fire.

The alternative CSV export for AstroApp didn't work becauseSolar Fire seems unable to export or import in CSV format. It's locked into an ancient form of ASCII,

The qck format now using the conversion programs nowseems to work for databases but is not really suitable for individual files. Nevertheless it does mean that I can use the two programs in tandem and via the two freebies, link to DO and even Morinus, as one of the freebies converts qck files to Morinus format.

This is more a criticism of Astrology programs in general, as there's no common format that all can read, such as rtf or txt files for wordprocessors. My reference here is that AstroApp says I can import and export directly to Solar Fire and in practice, so far, I can't do that. SF specifications are not the responsibility of AstroApp and they may have changed but it would be nice if the help file was a little more informative/up to date.

The ability to use the programs in tandem is a big incentive to getting stuck into the wide range of functions on AstroApp. In particular delving into the ability to edit the 'Arabic Parts' (really Hellenistic Lots). That really would prove to be extremely useful.

I've not bothered with the reports and page design function much, though I can see the potential and I must admit that I tend to use Solar Fire or Delphic Oracle for printing out charts, or saving in jpeg (or pdf) format. But AstroApp plays it's part in that process, often being the start of the process. Producing a chart in AstroApp is easy, once the defaults are set. Indeed it's easier than Morinus for generating up a horary. I do like to have a chart wheel that shows both decans and Bounds (Terms or Confines) but whilst AstroApp can do this, the result is frankly terrible to view. So I stick to Delphic Oracle or Morinus for that stage and keep to Bounds and Signs in AstroApp. It doesn't seem as easy as the others to export a picture format for attaching to posts here. So as yet I still use one of the others for that stage.

I'm still not sure I'd recommend it for regular general use by forum members, because the subscription is not cheap. Though for the serious amateurs amongst us, especially those with mobile devices or more than one PC/Mac at home it's worth it.
 

astroapp

Gene,
This is more a criticism of Astrology programs in general, as there's no common format that all can read, such as rtf or txt files for wordprocessors. My reference here is that AstroApp says I can import and export directly to Solar Fire and in practice, so far, I can't do that. SF specifications are not the responsibility of AstroApp and they may have changed but it would be nice if the help file was a little more informative/up to date.

The ability to use the programs in tandem is a big incentive to getting stuck into the wide range of functions on AstroApp. In particular delving into the ability to edit the 'Arabic Parts' (really Hellenistic Lots). That really would prove to be extremely useful.

I've not bothered with the reports and page design function much, though I can see the potential and I must admit that I tend to use Solar Fire or Delphic Oracle for printing out charts, or saving in jpeg (or pdf) format. But AstroApp plays it's part in that process, often being the start of the process. Producing a chart in AstroApp is easy, once the defaults are set. Indeed it's easier than Morinus for generating up a horary. I do like to have a chart wheel that shows both decans and Bounds (Terms or Confines) but whilst AstroApp can do this, the result is frankly terrible to view.

Thank you so much for such a detail feedback! Let me address your questions (in no particular order):

Exporting charts. The *qck file import/export feature has been suggested by Hank Friedman. He had tested this extensively with his arsenal of astrological programs but that was way before the SF9 release. I'm really not sure if there is a bug in SF9 or they're preventing such imports deliberately. If you have chart files from other programs (any programs) in *qck or plain ASCII formats that you're able to import into SF9, could you please forward a few samples to me. I may be able to workaround the issue from my side.

Exporting an image is actually quite easy: you just need to expand the View/Export menu and select the Image option there. Then you can save it as a regular image using the "Save Image As" functionality of your browser of choice. In almost all cases that would simply require right mouse click on the image and selecting the "Save Image" menu option.
Sharing on FB is even easier - it's a one button click from the main screen.
There is also an undocumented feature that allows sharing actual links to chart images. Please let me know if you're interested in that type of sharing.

Wheel styles with decans and bounds - thank you for the suggestion, this is going to be added in the upcoming monthly release.

Pricing - there is a special Tradition Basic edition for astrologers on the budget. There is also a progressive discount scale - longer subscriptions are, cheaper they become in monthly equivalents.
Incidentally, I have a holiday sale running at the moment, you can find all the details in our blog: http://astroapp.com/blog

Arabic Parts / Lots Editor - could you please elaborate on this a bit. AstroApp does have such an editor already (Utilities/Arabic Parts Editor menu). I call it the Arabic Parts editor and not Hellenistic lots editor as there are many parts introduced by Al Biruni and also since I do allow modern planets usage and various methods of Lots calculations that are not Hellenistic (such as Arabic parts calculated in RA instead of tropical longitude).

thanks
gene
 

Minderwiz

Thank you so much for such a detail feedback! Let me address your questions (in no particular order):

Exporting charts. The *qck file import/export feature has been suggested by Hank Friedman. He had tested this extensively with his arsenal of astrological programs but that was way before the SF9 release. I'm really not sure if there is a bug in SF9 or they're preventing such imports deliberately. If you have chart files from other programs (any programs) in *qck or plain ASCII formats that you're able to import into SF9, could you please forward a few samples to me. I may be able to workaround the issue from my side.

OK, please PM me an email address and I'll send you some qck files. I was thinking of sending ones that I can't import into SF9, together with the corresponding versions that I can. That should allow you to compare both versions for differences. Obviously one of those files will be the AstroApp version.

If you don't mind, I'll also include a Delphic Oracle version, in both directions, as I've a feeling that there are several variants of qck file, or rather that the programs 'expect' the contained data to be in particular formats. I rather think latitude and longitude co-ordinates are one of the issues, going off error messages on import into SF9. I can't be certain as I've no software to examine the qck files.

My previous version was SF6 and I can't find any difference in the import and export interface between the two versions, so I suspect you are right, the publishers have deliberately taken action to reduce the ease of swapping data from one program to another.

Thanks for the information on picture exports, and yes I would be interested in the method for sending links.

Thanks also for the information on the decans/bounds wheel style. The current version is quite 'messy' but as far as I can see, SF9 doesn't have this facility, though Delphic Oracle does, and the output is good.

astroapp said:
Arabic Parts / Lots Editor - could you please elaborate on this a bit. AstroApp does have such an editor already (Utilities/Arabic Parts Editor menu). I call it the Arabic Parts editor and not Hellenistic lots editor as there are many parts introduced by Al Biruni and also since I do allow modern planets usage and various methods of Lots calculations that are not Hellenistic (such as Arabic parts calculated in RA instead of tropical longitude).

thanks
gene

I have just taken a look at this and it seems to cover all that I'm using at the moment, except for a couple of lots that Valens mentions on marriage and some lots on parents which the editor allows me to enter. The latter ones on parents may already be there but attributed to al Biruni, whose long list in his Book of Instruction in the Elements of the Art of Astrology includes ones that were in use centuries before he was born, and are quoted by Paulus or Dorotheus. I certainly wouldn't expect you to change those allocations, because the editor allows that to be done for those of us who are excessively pedantic, like me :)

In SF6 I hated the fact that I could not reference other lots (parts) in calculating new ones, so it cut out quite a few basic Hellenistic Lots. SF9 allows this to be done now, but like AstroApp, I have to add two lots, a day version and a night version, each time I want to add a new Lot. Morinus is much more elegant (Traditional Version only) in that all I have to do is enter the lot once and tick a box if I want the calculation 'reversed' for night charts. That might be a possibility for future releases, though. Morinus does have the disadvantage of not supplying all those Lots to begin with so that tick box can save a lot of time when you have to enter thirty or more Lots. I don't think that would be something that would arise in AstroApp, as they are already there.

Thanks again for your trouble and I hope to continue the discussion and examination through email, as this could well be of help to both of us.
 

kalliope

Hi Kaliope,

I'm the author of AstroApp and I just stumbled across this thread.
First of all, I'd like to thank you for your feedback, it's always very useful to hear what users have to say about our program.

If you don't mind, I'd like to ask for some clarifications on your suggestions.



That's exactly what the Page Designer is supposed to do. You should be able to create 'multi-page' Pages by simply dragging elements (such as tables, graphs, etc) to the bottom of the Page. The Page's vertical size will adjust automatically. Then you can save the page and use it for your charts in the future. User Pages and user settings are being preserved along with all the user charts across sessions, subscription periods and subscription/edition types. If for some reason this doesn't work for you, would you mind sending me a PM (or a message to support at astroapp.com) with a screenshot of the Page you're creating? I may be able to help you with this issue.
Generally, we're producing new releases about every month so if this is a bug that is technically feasible to fix, it can be addressed fairly quickly.

Thanks,
Gene
http://astroapp.com

Hi Gene,

I just now saw your response here, sorry! Needless to say, I've been in one of my "off" periods of my astro studies and haven't checked into online forums at all lately.

In order to respond intelligently to your comments I'll have to take a look at things again to remind myself what my troubles were. I suspect that the Page Designer is what I'm looking for, but I was messing around with AstroScribe.

When I've had a chance to explore it again I'll let you know. Thanks for responding!