I am trying to decrease the size of my app as much as possible because my app will have a lot of moving parts. Will minimizing files and deleting files that are not used in the app decrease the size? When installing a framework, you normally get more files than you need.
When your app is delivered it is delivered as a ZIP file (APK == ZIP, IPA == ZIP, XAP == ZIP, etc.). So it is compressed. Of course, images and similar objects are already compressed, so there is no decrease in size of these objects.
Certainly deleting unused files will help. Does your project have a unique www directory in the project, where the sources are located? This will help, especially with future releases. See this FAQ if you need help converting your project to one that contains a www directory > https://software.intel.com/en-us/xdk/faqs/general#www-folder
Related
I am looking for a solution on how to setup the Windows CE 6.0 design image to integrate my custom application.
I want after building the image and starting it on the target machine to be able
to access my application from the \Hard Disk\Program Files\CustomApp folder.
In addition I require the application to be persistent. It must not be lost after reboot.
I am aware of copying the application to the Hard Disk out of the NK.BIN but if is possible I want a solution like adding dlls or other files to Windows folder.
I am usign an SQL CE database along with the application so I want the data to be persistent too.
Thanks in advance.
If the \Hard Disk folder contents are not persistent (and I assume they aren't since you're asking this questions), then getting the app to "persist" can be done only as a slight-of-hand trick, just like the contents of the Windows Folder. At boot, the OS will get expanded into RAM, and if you've included your app in that OS, it will get extracted too.
First, you must include your app files (exe, dlls, all dependencies, etc) into the OS image by adding them to a BIB file.
Next, you must understand that all files get extracted to the \Windows folder. There are no exceptions. If you want it in a different folder, you must use a DAT file to tell the OS where to put it one the OS has been extracted. Be aware that the DAT file does a copy, not a move, so if you want it elsewhere, you'll have two copies of the app on the device. A typical solution is to use the DAT file to place a shortcut, not a full copy.
The last part of your question is the hard, or maybe impossible, part. Your database is not going to persist. You could include a copy in the OS, but every time you hard reset, a new copy of the database as it was when the OS was built will get copied out. No new data will survive.
To get that to work, you need a persistent file store on the device. If you're the OEM, you might be able to implement one with any remaining on-board storage (where the OS image file resides) or with separate mounted USB/CF/SD/HDD media. How you do this is highly hardware and BSP dependent, plus it's way more complex than can be described here on SO.Without knowing anything about the target device, it difficult to even give you any pointer on where to begin. Here's a very generic starting point for Flash storage.
a former coworker (artist) and myself (programmer) are currently developing a small game together in our free time. Since he is not at all interested in learning how to use XCode, save making his own builds (I don't blame him, he is a great artist, but with only little understanding for technical stuff), this is how we have been working so far:
We share a dropbox folder where we store all the ingame artwork
Once enough or important changes have been made, I'd create a build (ad hoc distribution) and send it to him
From time to time we'll meet and work together a couple of hours, maybe once a week since we live in different cities
This was ok for most of the time. However now we're busy finetuning the content and game mechanics. In this development stage, our workflow is just to slow and "disconnected". Whenever he is working on the artwork, he'll have to wait for me to make a build to be able to see the changes reflected in the actual context. Since we're not always working at the same time, this sometimes means he'll have to wait for days - not at all satisfying.
So, what I'd like to know..: What would be the best way to allow him to change the content without the need to rebuild the game?
I know the contents of an iOS app bundle cannot be changed once compiled. So here's what I was thinking about so far:
move the content to the documents folder during development so that it can be accessed via iTunes (handling propably awkward in light of the amount of files in question)
incorporate dropbox into the game, so that the content could be loaded right from our shared folder (extra work needed to implement this, dropbox restricted to 5000 API calls per day while not in production status)
load the content from a webserver (even more complicated compared to using the dropbox)
What do you guys think? Are there better and more comfortable ways to achieve smooth collaboration in our case? Am I missing something?
Thanks alot!!
Edit:
At the moment, I have no plans whatsoever to teach my artist how to make his own builds. You can seriously consider this to be an option only as long as you don't know him in person. He's a great artist, though.
So this question boils down to:
How do I modify files / get new files into an iPhone app after it has been built - as easily as possible and, again, without rebuilding the app?
This has to work during development only, by the way, so dirty approaches are welcome.
In some of the WWDC 2010 videos, Apple discusses this. They advise loading artwork from the web and applying it to UIKit elements or OpenGL contexts programatically.
This is complicated, but a good method, because then you make NO changes to your binary and then your artists can work freely, upload the art to a server and you're golden.
I suggest a good HTTP library, like ASIHTTPRequest, to make those requests easier.
Go with the Web server/dropbox option. You might be able to do this by subclassing or extending UIImage and using the subclass throughout your app.
Jailbreak your iPhone, Then you can ssh into the device using Cyberduck. That way you can navigate to the app's Resources folder (or) App's document folder and change files as you want.
You will have to make sure the folder permissions are proper, or else you need to change them.
Also in your game, in the first run, make sure all your resources are getting copied to the App's documents folder.
I would say that your first option is probably the best. You state the issue with transferring a large number of files through iTunes. To fix that I would to the following:
Create an app to create "package" files. It can take a folder of data and save it in a single in file in the following format:
int - length of name string
char[] - filename
int - length of data chunk
char[] - data chunk
Do this for every file in the folder, and you'll be left with a single image file. Copy that through iTunes, and have your game look at that same folder.
So now his workflow is as follows: 1) edit art 2) run your asset compiler 3) copy the asset file to the device 4) load the game
I hope this helps.
You could also do something like this:
modify the app so on its first start it copies the images into the document folder
load the images from the doc folder instead than from the bundle
with a tool like iPhone Explorer you can then overwrite the files in the document folder
it's a bit boring to find the actual app in the list that iPhone explorer gives you, but then it's just a matter of dragging and dropping the files into the right folder.
It may work also with some file in the .app bundle, but I didn't found any suitable app to try it from there.
Anyway if you want to keep the thing almost hassle free for your artist you may want to put everything in a Documents subfolder nonetheless :)
EDIT
I just tried to edit something into the .app folder and it worked OK, so you don't even have to change your code if you use iPhone Explorer to replace images.
Just remember to disable the PNG optimization if you're using PNGs. Look here for the explanation (search for "PNGs:")
good luck :)
I would say set up a CVS repository. When you're happy with what you have, you can commit your code. He can update his code and change the images however he wants. When he's happy, he can commit his changes so you also have the latest images (as long as he doesn't mess around with out files, it should be fine).
Teach him how to update the images, how to deploy to a device, how to commit to the repository and it should go smooth (albeit I think there'd be some teething issues).
Had a question and if anyone has found similar issues. It seems my file size keeps growing. I have had to import existing files and then delete them from the project. It seems that it keeps those files somewhere. From being 40mb and importing a few .WAV files at 30mb each it goes up to 100mb. After I deleted them it seems it doesn't change the file size.
This was a similar issue in Flash IDE - Saving as a new project name would solve this. I'm unsure if it does in Xcode.
Has anyone had any similar issues?
Thanks,
-Andrew
Are you sure you've done a fully clean build since removing the resources? Do a Build->Clean for the target(s) you care about, delete the app binary off the simulator and device for full certainty, and rebuild. If there really isn't a reference to the resource in the project any more, this should ensure it goes away from the resulting bundle.
Which files specifically are causing the problem? Try using the du command to work out where the space is going.
My programming decissions are directly related to how much room I have left, or worse perhaps how much I need to shave off in order to get up the 10mb limit. I have read that Apple has quietly increased the 3G & Edge download limit from 10mb up to 20mb in preparation for the iPad in April.
Either way, my real question is how can I gauge a rough estimate of how large my app will end while I'm still in the development phase?
Is the file size of my development folder roughly 1 to 1 ratio? Is the compressed file size of my development a better approximation? My .xcodeproj file is only a couple hundred kB, but the size of my folder is 11.8 MB. I have a .sqlite database, less than 20 small png images and a Settings.Bundle. The rest are unknown Xcode files related to build, build for iphoneOS, simulator etc.... My source code is rather large with around 1000 lines in most of the major controllers, all in all around 48 .h&.m files. But my classes folder inside my development folder is less than 800kb. Digging around inside my Build file, there is lots of iphone simulator files and debugging files which I don't think will contribute to the final product. The Application file states that it is around 2.3 MB. However, this is such a large difference from the 11.8 MB, I have to wonder if this is just another piece of the equation.
I have the app on the my device, I'm in the testing phase. Therefore, I though that I would try to see how large the working version was on the device by checking in iTunes, however my development app is visible on the right-hand the application's iphone screen, but no information about the app most importantly its size.
I also checked in Organizer, I used the lower portion of the screen-(Applications), found my application and selected the drop down arrow which gave my "Application Data" and a download arrow button to the right to save a file on my desktop, named with the unique AppleID. Inside the folder it had three folders-(documents, library, tmp) the documents had a copy of my .sqlite database, the library a few more files but not anything obvious or of size, and the tmp was empty. All in all the entire folder was only 164kb-which tells me that this is not the right place to find the size either.
I understand that the size is considered to be the size of my binary plus all the additional files and images that I have add. Does anyone have a effective way of guaging how large the binary is or the relating the development folder size to what the final App Store application size will end up.
I know that questions have been posted with similar aspects, but I could not find any answered post that really described...what files, or how to determine size specifically. I know that this question looks like a book, but I just wanted to be specific in conveying exactly what I'm looking for and the attempts thus far. *Note all files are unzipped and still in regular working Xcode order of a single app with no brought-in builds or referenced projects.
I'm sure that this is straight forward, I just don't know where to look?
Build Your App using Active Configuration = Release, then right click on the .xcodeproj. Select Reveal in Finder. Then have a look at App Size in the Build Subdirectory.
LocateMe http://img.skitch.com/20100313-8hc87h85c8a4bb6xufhnfg4ciq.preview.jpg
You are correct that the final size can be estimated pretty closely by checking the sizes of the files in the application bundle. However, Apple will encrypt your binary, so in most situations your zipped application will be a bit smaller than the one on App Store.
Take a look at this : http://forum.unity3d.com/viewtopic.php?p=278022&sid=ea6e4878c70379a05c883f7093a4b41c
I have some resources (zipped) that needs to be shipped with my iphone application. When the app launches for the first time, this zipped file needs to be moved/copied to the Documents folder and unzip it there. User can then add more files to this path from the application. Can someone please suggest how can I achieve this?
Thanks!
Based on your comment above:
The reason I want to add a compressed
resource because there are multiple
files. If I don't compress then I'll
need to move files individually. I'll
also need to maintain a list of files
somewhere so that I can read the file
name and then move them. I thought
zipping and unzipping was a simpler
solution.
You could add all the files to a folder in your bundle. When the app launches for the first time use fast enumeration to run through the folder and what ever it finds in that folder, it copies into the Documents folder. Handling folders within folders is slightly more complex (add recursion maybe). This way you don't have to worry about zip or tar, nor to keep a directory of files to install.
Just place the folder of files you want into Xcode's resources folder and tell it to import as a folder not as a group. That way the files get installed in your resources inside a folder instead of just as individual files all over the place.
EDIT:
Better yet, do what I say about putting all the files you want in one folder, add to your project, but not as a "Group", and then at first launch use:
[[NSFileManager defaultManager] copyItemAtPath:(NSString *)srcPath toPath:(NSString *)dstPath error:(NSError **)error];
and it will copy your whole directory from one place to another. EASY!
Add the libz.dylib Framework to your project, and include Deusty's NSData gzip category which will give you compression/decompression methods.
While this is available by using the libz.dylib, it really is unnecessary as it save you little (if any) space. You application bundle is already compressed when being transferred to the phone. Compression on top of compression usually yields little additional compression.
Try it out yourself. You may find that shipping your app with unzipped contents may take up just as much space as zipped contents.