Hi everybody,


I am pleased to announce that my app English Study Quiz is available for the BlackBerry Playbook:

https://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/83620/

Initially the app was released for iOS and Android:

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/english-study-quiz/id438332682?mt=8

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.v1_4.BFC44D4AAD2E9D5CA502A230.com&hl=en


Again, many thanks to David and the Buzztouch team for creating a great product!

Regards,
Piotr

Piotr, several people are in the process of developing their BlackBerry PlayBook OS apps.

We would appreciate it if you could answer a few questions.

What BT version did you use?

How did you package the code?

Any tips & pointers?

Did you use the BlackBerry SDK?

Fred

Also, did you have any graphics or screen size issues?

Fred

Their converter is as bad as their software. Only one of my apps converted successfully, and thats the one I didn't use buzztouch to create. The rest editing has to be done, graphics need to be changed, etc. Too much work for a failed BB OS. :)

The blackberry seems a far and distant land and my means of traveling is a row boat.
Still struggling getting android on a mac
keep on getting
[2012-02-12 16:29:19 - BT_activity_root] Installation error: INSTALL_FAILED_MISSING_SHARED_LIBRARY
[2012-02-12 16:29:19 - BT_activity_root] Please check logcat output for more details.
[2012-02-12 16:29:19 - BT_activity_root] Launch canceled!

I think I see land.

Fred

The process of repackaging an Android app for BlackBerry tablet OS 2.0 is quite simple and well documented on BB developers' portal: https://bdsc.webapps.blackberry.com/android/

First of all there is an online tool for checking compatibility of an Android app, not all Android apps will work on the PlayBook: https://bdsc.webapps.blackberry.com/android/tool/

In case of BuzzTouch v 1.4 for Android the only problem shown by that tool was that the project referenced com.google.maps package. My app did not use this functionality, though, so I just needed to delete the two files from the project (Java classes) which were dealing with Google Maps and that was it. Perhaps there were some references to com.google.maps in other files (import com.google.maps), I'm not sure now, but they just needed to be deleted. The other minor problem was that app's icon was wrong size for the PlayBook (it needs to be 80x80 piksels if I remember correctly). So I replaced the existing icon in the Res folder with one of the correct size and the compatibility tool was happy.

Next I installed the BlackBerry plugin for Eclipse - the installation process is simple and very well documented - and requested the signing keys, which I then installed using the BB Eclipse plugin. It took around 2 hours to get the keys via email.

Then I downloaded and installed an evaluation copy of VMware Fusion on my mac to run the PlayBook Simulator. I've got Parallels Fusion on my macbook, but it wasn't good for running the Simulator, unfortunately. Then right-click on the Java project, Add BlackBerry nature (sth like this), and I was able to debug the app on the Simulator. It looked awful. First of all the simulator is not perfect, things were jumping, blinking and shaking, but I checked on BB forums and it turned out that people experienced the same with their apps on the Simulator and then everything was OK on real device.

Other problem was that the layout of Buzztouch v. 1.4 for Android was not optimised for big screens (tablets), so I changed it a bit. Few things needed to be changed in xml layout files. It still doesn't look amazing, but was good enough...

Good luck! Let me know if you have more questions, I'll try to help.

Cheers,
Piotr

I've downloaded the sdk last night, I'll try this I a moment. Thanks for the info.

Fred

Hi @ Fred, please let us know how it goes! Gracias!

Just requested my signing keys, took 5 seconds to receive confirmation of request with a notice that it should take 2 hours.

Fred

@Piotr, after you obtained the signing key and added the BlackBerry nature:

did you export the project?

Fred

Fred, no, I submitted to the AppWorld the same .bar file which Eclipse built for debugging on the simulator. I just checked and there is no option to export to BB format when you click File->Export in Eclipse.

When you right click on your project there is an option 'Sign for AppWorld' in the 'BlackBerry Tools' submenu, but, honestly, I don't remember whether I actually did it or it was already signed prior to debugging... Sorry, it was like 3 or 4 days ago and I managed to forget by now...

... just to clarify: to build the .bar file you first configure BB Eclipse plugin ( Eclipse -> Preferences -> BlackBerry -> Bar Signer -> Register ) and then right click on the project, 'BlackBerry Tools' -> 'Add BlackBerry nature to project', then again right click on the project, 'Debug as' (or, perhaps better, 'Run as') -> 'BlackBerry Android Launch'. After that you may need to do 'BB Tools' -> 'Sign for AppWorld' - but I'm not sure, sorry! - then you find the .bar file in the project and submit it to the AppWorld.

Had to remove the two java map files for the BB verify tool to work.
Still waiting for it to finish.
Fred

Hi Piotr,

Do you know off the top of your head what changes you had to make for your quiz app to look half decent? I've got a quiz app in 1.4 that I'd like to launch.

Thanks,

Submitted two apps- hopefully even if further changes are necessary I've still submitted in time for the offer.

Does anyone know what changes should be made to the layout xmls as mentioned above?

OK, I'll paste in the XML files from the layout directory which I changed, I hope that will help. The visual editor of layout files in Eclipse is quite useful, btw. Click on the XML file in Eclipse and in the layout editor you will see how the corresponding screen will look like, just chose the device size similar to the target device - Playbook (7 inches) (I don't have Eclipse installed at work so I can't tell you exactly how to do it, but it's easy to find it). Choose an element of the layout in the layout editor and you will be able to edit properties of the element using menus. Experiment, find something satisfactory. What I've done is far, far from perfect, but, anyway, here are the files, I hope this helps... Cheers, Piotr

---------------------- res/layout/act_home.xml ------------------------
<?xml version=1.0 encoding=utf-8?>
<RelativeLayout android:id=@+id/header
xmlns:android=http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android
android:layout_height=fill_parent
android:layout_width=fill_parent
android:layout_gravity=center_vertical|center_horizontal>

<include layout=@layout/global_title_dark />

<ImageView
android:id=@+id/appImageView
android:layout_width=wrap_content
android:layout_height=wrap_content
android:layout_alignParentTop=true
android:layout_marginTop=47dip
android:scaleType=centerInside
android:src=@drawable/app_default android:layout_centerHorizontal=true android:layout_centerVertical=true/>

<LinearLayout
android:id=@+id/layoutMain
android:layout_width=fill_parent
android:layout_height=wrap_content
android:layout_marginTop=205dip
android:gravity=center
xmlns:android=http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android
>

<ListView android:id=@+id/myListView
android:layout_width=fill_parent
android:layout_height=wrap_content
android:layout_weight=1
android:background=#000000
android:cacheColorHint=#000000
android:choiceMode=singleChoice
android:scrollbars=none
android:layout_gravity=center_vertical|center_horizontal/>

</LinearLayout>



------------------------------------- act_global_list.xml -------------------------------------
<?xml version=1.0 encoding=utf-8?>
<RelativeLayout android:id=@+id/header
xmlns:android=http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android
android:layout_height=wrap_content
android:layout_width=fill_parent
android:background=#000000
>

<include layout=@layout/global_title_light />

<LinearLayout android:id=@+id/myContent
android:layout_height=fill_parent
android:layout_width=fill_parent
android:layout_marginTop=47dip
android:orientation=vertical
>

<ListView
android:id=@+id/myList
android:layout_width=fill_parent
android:layout_height=fill_parent
android:layout_gravity=center
android:background=#000000
android:cacheColorHint=#000000
android:choiceMode=singleChoice
android:scrollbars=none />

</LinearLayout>


</RelativeLayout>


------------------------------------- screen_locationmap.xml --------------------

<?xml version=1.0 encoding=utf-8?>
<RelativeLayout android:id=@+id/header
xmlns:android=http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android
android:layout_height=fill_parent
android:layout_width=fill_parent
android:background=#FFFFFF
>

<include layout=@layout/global_title_dark />


<LinearLayout android:id=@+id/myContent
android:layout_height=fill_parent
android:layout_width=fill_parent
android:layout_marginTop=47dip
android:orientation=vertical
>
<!--
<com.google.android.maps.MapView
android:id=@+id/mapView
android:layout_width=fill_parent
android:layout_height=fill_parent
android:clickable=true
android:apiKey=@string/googleMapsAPIKeyDebug
/>
-->

</LinearLayout>


</RelativeLayout>



-------------------------------- screen_quizmultiplechoice.xml -------------------------------
<?xml version=1.0 encoding=utf-8?>
<RelativeLayout android:id=@+id/header
xmlns:android=http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android
android:layout_height=fill_parent
android:layout_width=fill_parent
>

<include layout=@layout/global_title_dark />

<RelativeLayout
xmlns:android=http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android
android:id=@+id/layoutMain
android:layout_width=fill_parent
android:layout_height=fill_parent
android:layout_marginTop=47dip
android:gravity=center_horizontal
android:orientation=vertical >

<ImageView
android:id=@+id/imgBackground
android:layout_width=fill_parent
android:layout_height=150dip
android:layout_alignParentTop=true
android:scaleType=centerCrop
android:src=@drawable/app_default />

<TextView
android:id=@+id/txtQuestion
android:layout_width=fill_parent
android:layout_height=150dip
android:layout_alignParentTop=true
android:gravity=center_vertical|center_horizontal
android:text=
android:textColor=#FFFFFF
android:textSize=26dip />

<ImageView
android:id=@+id/imgRight
android:layout_width=85dip
android:layout_height=85dip
android:scaleType=centerCrop
android:src=@drawable/quiz_star
android:layout_alignParentTop=true
android:layout_alignParentLeft=true
android:layout_marginTop=125dip
/>

<ImageView
android:id=@+id/imgWrong
android:layout_width=85dip
android:layout_height=85dip
android:scaleType=centerCrop
android:src=@drawable/quiz_wrong
android:layout_alignParentTop=true
android:layout_alignParentRight=true
android:layout_marginTop=125dip
/>

<TextView
android:id=@+id/txtScore
android:layout_width=fill_parent
android:layout_height=55dip
android:textSize=26dip
android:textColor=#FFFFFF
android:text=
android:layout_below=@+id/imgBackground
android:gravity=center_vertical|center_horizontal
/>

<ImageView
android:id=@+id/imgBonus
android:layout_width=85dip
android:layout_height=85dip
android:scaleType=centerCrop
android:src=@drawable/app_blank
android:layout_alignParentTop=true
android:layout_alignParentLeft=true
android:layout_marginTop=125dip
/>

<RelativeLayout
android:id=@+id/layoutButtons
android:layout_width=wrap_content
android:layout_height=wrap_content
android:layout_below=@+id/imgBackground
android:orientation=vertical
android:gravity=center_horizontal
android:layout_marginTop=53dip
xmlns:android=http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android
>


<Button android:id=@+id/btnQuestion_1
android:layout_width=fill_parent
android:layout_height=58dip
android:gravity=center_vertical|center_horizontal
android:layout_marginLeft=5dip
android:layout_marginRight=5dip
android:background=@drawable/quiz_btn_gray
android:text=
android:textSize=18dip
android:layout_below=@+id/txtScore
/>

<Button android:id=@+id/btnQuestion_2
android:layout_width=fill_parent
android:layout_height=58dip
android:gravity=center_vertical|center_horizontal
android:layout_marginLeft=5dip
android:layout_marginRight=5dip
android:background=@drawable/quiz_btn_gray
android:textSize=18dip
android:text=
android:layout_below=@+id/btnQuestion_1
/>

<Button android:id=@+id/btnQuestion_3
android:layout_width=fill_parent
android:layout_height=58dip
android:gravity=center_vertical|center_horizontal
android:layout_marginLeft=5dip
android:layout_marginRight=5dip
android:background=@drawable/quiz_btn_gray
android:textSize=18dip
android:text=
android:layout_below=@+id/btnQuestion_2
/>

<Button android:id=@+id/btnQuestion_4
android:layout_width=fill_parent
android:layout_height=58dip
android:gravity=center_vertical|center_horizontal
android:layout_marginLeft=5dip
android:layout_marginRight=5dip
android:background=@drawable/quiz_btn_gray
android:textSize=18dip
android:text=
android:layout_below=@+id/btnQuestion_3
/>
</RelativeLayout>


<TextView
android:id=@+id/txtTimer
android:layout_width=fill_parent
android:layout_height=35dip
android:textSize=18dip
android:textColor=#FFFFFF
android:text=
android:layout_below=@+id/layoutButtons
android:gravity=center_vertical|center_horizontal
/>


</RelativeLayout>


</RelativeLayout>

Did the app look OK before the changes? I've already submitted the app without altering anything, and was hoping to fix up the UI after I actually get a PB.
Now I'm wondering if it'll even be accepted of the layout is funky lol...

It didn't look very well without the changes to layouts, the worst thing was that the quiz question's background image had fixed width of 320 (I changed it to fill-parent), also the orientation was fixed for portrait, etc., but... I think you made the right decision to submit it as it was before the end of the promotion - I've read on their website that if you submit an app on time and they want you to fix/improve something after the deadline, it's still all right, and - fingers crossed - you can qualify for the free Playbook ;)

Good luck!

Cheers for pasting the files above- if they were the only major issues, hopefully I've done alright, as my quiz image is transpernt so shouldn't matter if is oversized.

I should note that I used the online packager as outlined in one of the other threads- do you reckon that would make a difference?

No, I don't think it makes any difference.

**does a dance**

My 1.4 Quiz just got accepted, without any UI changes.