I'm working with a designer friend on an iPhone app and he likes to refine all sorts of images relating to the project we're working on. All these images have been added to the project previously (and added to the project folder by xcode) and then are modified in their new location. When I preview the images in xCode, the updated images show up but building and running in the simulator or on a device doesn't pick up the new image. In fact, if I do a clean build it seems to ignore the image all together and blank spaces appear where images should be.
Now, I can delete these files from the project and re-add them and everything works peachy again. But there are a lot of them and I'd rather not do that every time an image is updated. Is there a way to get xCode to review and "learn" about these modified images? Is there a good reason for why it's not doing that automatically?
You didn't specify how you're including those image resources into your project, but I'd guess you're including them directly. So unless there's an underlying process that's changing the file in-place (are you using an SCM like Subversion or Perforce?) you're going to be forced to manually overwrite the files whenever your artist friend updates them.
You should include art assets in the project using a folder reference instead. (I'm still assuming you have some sort of SCM set up to handle exchanging data -- if you don't, set one up ASAP.) However, there are still some outstanding Xcode bugs related to picking up changes to files in a nested folder hierarchy included by reference, but at least you can work around that by doing clean builds when necessary.
Related
Recently I tried to build a flash application in Flash Builder, and I wanted to export it to my iPhone. I have gone through all the required steps in order to certify my application.
Now, with all that done, all that was left to be done is building the ".ipa" file in Flash Builder. Now, this gives the following error:
'Launching TestGame' has encountered a problem.
Error occurred while packaging the application:
NotBefore: Wed Apr 11 18:52:40 CEST 2012
Google didn't give me a decent answer, nor does Adobe's information regarding mobile application development. All I can think off, is that I can't build the application before that date. That's ridiculous, I can't imagine a certain check like that.
I'm pretty sure my ".p12" key file is generated correctly.
Is anyone else familiar with this error? Please, be so kind to guide me in the right direction.
Kind regards,
Matthias.
The error occurs because the compiler didn't find the files under the corresponding directory such as debug-bin or release-bin folder. (explains from: http://forums.adobe.com/thread/893772)
For example, if you are doing a debug-build, and you didn't select the project option: copy non-embeded files to the output folder. And debug-build needs some files such as icons files under the debug-bin folder, and it couldn't find it.
Solution: select project compiling option: the copy non-embeded file to the output folder.
Try again, if still not you will need to try the ADT build to get more details http://help.adobe.com/en_US/air/build/WS901d38e593cd1bac35eb7b4e12cddc5fbbb-8000.html
I suggest compiling from command line. I'd ported an AIR app to iOS and compiled using adt dirrectly (without FB or whatever), and there were more meanful messages then yours. Take a look at the manual on how to build ipa wit adt. The other advise is to check your iPhone node in app.xml (take a look here) and icons.
The "error" was thrown because the certificate wasn't valid yet. It became valid on the date shown above.
You could also fix the manifest file in the iOS developers center.
This problem does come up more often than needed. The error reporting is lacking distinctions but is also difficult to asses since there can be many factors causing this error. If it was one factor or even just a few then it would most likely let you know.
A great way to ensure that the error reporting can do its job and tell you where the problem is is to check your error log. It will tell you at least a few of the places that threw the block.
If you are unable to read those strange glyphs then just ensure that all your resources are being packaged. This does mean a little time of list checking but it is well worth it, for the errors and to get rid of development junk.
The first step in the asset list check is to go through each part of your Assets class (flash builder reference). If you do not have a direct Assets class then you may want to make one and move all of your asset calls to that one class - since it will save you time if this happens again.
Your Assets class is not the same as your Assets folder. Your folder is where the files are stored - i.e. images, bitmaps, sounds, etc. Your Assets class is what categorizes and assigns references to each individual file.
Go through your Assets class to ensure that each of those files exist in the folder as well. Then go to the Project menu (top near Navigate and Search) and select Clean. Either clean all your projects or check the current one. Once this is done you need to click on your Assets Folder (right click or highlight and hit edit or whatever), and select Refresh. This will check that all the files are still there and get rid of/update them.
If none of this throws an error -red X- or other errors then you need to check your project .xml file. This may take you some time to ensure that all of your add on packages and details are correct. Make sure you have the correct:
at the top and it matches your current air release.
Make sure all the filenames, names, ids, version numbers, aspect ratios, fullscreen, visible, icons, extensionIDs, and everything else are not only correct but actually there. Most of these statements should have something written and not be blank. If they are blank find out what to put in.
Ensure that you have the proper icon file extension. If it says assets/icon48.png and the icon48.png is actually in assets/pictures/images/icons/toomanyfilesextensions/whatever/icon48.png
you need to fix that link.
The last thing that you will need to check is when you want to either Release Build or Debug. You need to make sure that all assets are checked and selected.
Go to Project - Properties.
then select ActionScript Build Path.
Click the Native Extensions tab and see if there are any red X's. If there are tap the little arrow beside them and see what the matter it. Add the correct ANE or get rid of it or whatever you need to do.
Then in the same menu go to the left and select ActionScript Build Packaging. A little arrow should be beside that one too. Tap the arrow and it will open to Apple iOS, BlackBerry, Gooogle and whatever else you have (probably nothing more). Select the OS your want to use, lets say Apple, and you will have 4 tabs pop up. Make sure you have the correct certificates selected. If you have none or are confused about this you need to spend some time on Google.
The biggest one for this error is under the Package Contents tab. Most people miss this!
Open the tab and see if anything is not checked. There will 99.99% be something or many of them not checked if you are getting this error. Just check them all and you can figure out what you need and don't need later. Some of them will be listed because you just threw in a bunch of ANEs and .SWFs to have some awesome app. Those add on packages will throw in unnecessary contents into this package. That is fine and don't worry until you want to be picky. Just make sure they are all selected and hit Apply and Ok.
That's it. You should have a working Release Build if you did everything else correct and this error should be easy from now on (but time wasting).
You may get a 'slip' error now, but that is another story. But that is a great sign because you are getting closer to that stupid mistake that we all make: the elusive spelling mistake.
Ive had some svn woes with an Xcode project and now using an older version from another user (we've taken it out of svn now).
Trouble is it looks like images have been lost on the way. Or more correctly, they load in the app when testing locally, but when I Archive the app and add to Testflight the images arent complied with the .ipa
There are alot of images and its really hard to tell what has been copied to the project and what is being taken locally. Is there a method of finding out how to do this more easily than deleting the image out of the app's file system, then from inside xcode then re-adding them from a local copy?
Answer was to go into the Build Rules, delete all the image from the Copy Bundle Resources section and re add them to the project - fun!
Go to SCM from Left hand side project explorer.
Expand SCM -> you will find images in red color which are in SCM but not on your local.
You have to right click-> Update it
Then open you project in Finder and find your image and just create relative path in your project.
Hope it helps....
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).
So in my XCode project I have a handful of XIB files that for one reason or another are physically in the Classes folder on the filesystem, but show in the Resources folder in XCode. Is there any problem with that? Should I bother trying to move them?
The code is working fine, runs on simulator and device, so my main concern is whether it will cause any problems when I submit to Apple, or anywhere else down the road.
It's absolutely meaningless - the only thing that affects your final product (and therefore what you submit to Apple) is which stage of your Target the different files appear under, and in my experience those rarely end up wrong.
However, for tidiness' sake if nothing else, it might be worth fixing the problem. Move the files to the right place*, which will turn the filename red in XCode. Choose Get Info on each red file and click the "Choose" button to locate it.
(* if you're using Subversion, use the svn move command for this, not the Finder)
All the resource files are stored in a flat directory in app bundle. You can control click on .app file and see the flat directory by selecting reveal in finder. It really does not matter where the file is physically present in source. If you don't have any problem with the management of the code by placing some resource files in class directory, then there will be no problem. That means Apple will not mind.
However if you are planning to maintain the project for a long time with multiple people then I think it is better to have well organized source.
Can't seem change the name of my iPhone app 100%.
I followed multiple threads and performed the outlined methods below, but the old name keeps popping back up in Console. I'm concerned that on some deeper level the app's name has not really been changed 100%.
My concern is with the fact that I've made a "Lite" version by starting with a copy of the "Full" version. So I don't want the device to get confused if my customers upgrade and download the full version and the device see two apps with the same "CORE or ROOT" name.
Console continues to output:
2010-07-03 10:56:35.129 *OldAppName* [45672.207] Test Message
I have changed the Product_name, ".app" name, Bundle name, etc... - Where does "Console" get this name, so I can truly change the app's name 100%? I don't want an conflicts with the full version down the road as the apps grown independently in complexity. (i.e. Push Notifications, iAds, and other "APP" specific items)
I have performed the following, but still not getting 100% name change:
I. I have used Xcode, Project, Rename.
II. I have used the suggested answer on stackoverflow thread, Changing iPhone App's Name, to
Go to Targets in Xcode,
"Get Info" on your project's target (your current silly development name),
Search for "Product Name" under "Packaging". Change the value of that what you want the new program name is going to be.
My "Product_Name" field was blank for all builds, I changed it to the new name, but I continue to get the console output referencing the OldAppName.
III. I'm not trying to change the "Bundle Name", those are the same, as this is a Lite Version. And changing this does not change the Console reference name anyway, I tried.
IV. I have deleted the entire "Build" folder several times to assure no legacy issues, but the name still does not change.
I'm currently working on a large copy/paste migration over to a new project to try and fix this completely with a new project, because I would like to get app uploaded to the AppStore asap, but there must be a better way of achieving this.
Where does the "Console" get this name? Does this mean that if my customers' download the full version that on some deeper level the device will get confused-(i.e. NSUserDefaults with the same names, running issue, sandbox issues, etc...)?
The names are not stored in the info.plist, they appear to just be referenced from the target, but when I search through the target, I don't even find the OldAppName, is their an additional storage file for this core information?
I would like to stay in Xcode if possible. I have seen suggestions about using other programs or trying to change the XML directly through text editor, but I don't want to accidentally leave a "Third-Party" application marker or trial that might get rejected by Apple Reviewer's as they seem to be coming down hard on this issue.
Any detailed suggestions??
I had the same problem about a year ago.
I've got really nice & easy solution for your needs. You need to click on the "superview" of blue icon (Project/Targets) and then hit enter to change the name of the project. You can also double click on that field, but you need to do it with quite a long delay between clicks.
This method will change magically name of the project in all important places.
http://i.stack.imgur.com/3f1RD.png
Only Solution that Worked, and it was the one that feared the most and was trying to avoid.
I had to start a new project and painstakingly move all 96 class files (about 27mb of text) over one by one, because dragging the classes over kept giving me an error. I tried dragging over the classes as one large group, but that would not work. A little "re-factoring", rebuilding the .plist info, and setting up the new targets, and it I got it working again. I think that there was some sort of legacy issues that Xcode was getting caught up on.
It is working now under a new project, but there must be a better way.
Have you tried opening all files in your project in a text editor and searching for the old name?
Have you tried creating a new empty project and merely adding your content and code files to this empty project?
I have done these in the past and found they work fine:
http://drjunker.org/2008/04/10/xcode-rename-project-and-application-change-copyright-and-version-number/
http://homepage.mac.com/kelleherk/iblog/C1216817469/E1454445171/index.html
I also Clean All Targets/Builds and rename the Executable after.
I had a problem when there was a localized strings (infoPlist.strings) file in project with "CFBundleDisplayName"="MyOldAppName" in it. Removing this file and renaming target to my NewAppName worked for me.