Introducing DW:DO - the webapp

What is it?

DW:DO is a website - or if you choose to install it on a device, a web app - which supports praying Mattins and Evensong using the Ordinariate's Daily Office (Commonwealth version, with the feasts etc for England).

It does the tricky work - working out the liturgical day, finding the right collect, making sure you don't use Psalm 95 as an invitatory on day 19 of the month and do use the right Creed on Trinity Sunday, and things like that.

It's set up fairly minimally. It doesn't provide many things which are optional - hymns or antiphons, for example. It also doesn't do optional memorials: you get the primary feast for the day, or the ferial day.

How is it used?

Open the office page. You will immediately see today's office - if it's the morning, mattins will be shown; if it's after noon you'll see evensong. If it's a Sunday or Solemnity, the introduction is shown as well. (If you've left it open on your device since last time you'll need to refresh it).

You can select from options as you go down the page, where appropriate: for example, most days you can choose between the Venite or the Jubilate as the invitatory at Mattins - just tap on the appropriate tab.

Scripture readings

For various reasons (issues like copyright and download size) I haven't included the texts of the lessons in the app. I have included links to the NRSV Catholic Edition on the Bible Gateway website; but you may prefer to use your own source for the texts.

Personally, most of the time I use the app alongside the printed Divine Worship: Daily Office, using the book for the readings.

Installing as an App, and Offline use

You can install the site as an app on your phone or other device.

• On an Android device, in the browser, you will be offered installation once you've visited the site a few times - or you can select 'Install DW:DO' or 'Add to Home Screen' on the browser menu (at least you can on my devices!). An icon then appears on your home screen.
• On Apple devices, I understand that you use the 'Share' icon in Safari, then 'Add to Home Screen'

Once installed, the app no longer needs to connect to the web to be used. If your device is connected, it will check for updates from time to time - but you can use it while in a railway tunnel, on an aircraft, or in that nice peaceful place to pray which happens to have no network coverage. Just remember that the links to Bible Gateway won't work, so you'll need the book, or your own Bible (or an offline Bible app) for the readings.

Options

If you tap in the menu icon at the top right, you'll see a few options. Any change you make is saved immediately.

• In a couple of places there are options which are appropriate for the cases where there is a priest officiating, or a lay person. As standard it assumnes a priest: if in fact you usually pray it alone as a lay person, or in a group with a lay officiant, then you can change the default here.
• You can also change the size of the font to suit your eyesight!
• Finally, if you use an ereader which allows you to use webpages or install webapps, you can have 'page' buttons shown at the bottom of the page. This makes the experience more like reading an e-book. It's not perfect, because on a web page it's difficult to calculate exactly where a page will end - so there's a slight overlap.
• Also in this screen, you can seledct a different date and office, if you want to see what will be included in the Office for a specific day.

Close the options screen by tapping on the 'X' at the top right.

Future Development

I'm planning to keep gradually developing this app. At this point I'm conscious that a lot of the programming could do with tidying up and making techncially better, so extra functionality may need to wait a bit!

I'm personally not all that keen on adding hymns and antiphons - I don't know of any electronic source for them, and scanning them in manually is painfully time-consuming and error-prone!

But if people elsewhere in the Commonwealth want to use it, I'm open to adding Welsh/Australian/New Zealand feasts etc in due course. And you may have other bright ideas!

Found an issue?

I'm pretty sure it's not perfect! If anything odd happens, or you notice errors in texts, please email me and let me know. I can't guarantee an immediate fix, but I'll certainly be on to it when possible!