Phonegap Build died! Moving on to Cordova CLI…

And don’t forget to read the official documentation as well.

MIGRATING TO THE CORDOVA CLI

With PhoneGap Build shutting down, many developers are now left trying to find options to continue building their Cordova-based applications. While several new services like Ionic’s Appflow and Monaca Cloud have entered the market as replacements. Their cost might be too much for the independent developer. One of the things that attracted many to use PhoneGap Build was it was included as part of your Creative Cloud subscription. There was even a free version for open-source projects. For those developers who are either resource constrained or want complete control over their build system, they should migrate to using the Cordova CLI and building locally.

There are four general steps we need to take to accomplish this:

Install the Cordova CLI
Install the native build environments
Migrate our existing PhoneGap Build App to use Cordova
Build and Test!

Google AdMob policy violation ADS AND CONTENT OVERLAP

It starts with a warning, which I seem to receive several times a year: Google stops displaying the ads in my App. Even though there is no violation, they just do this. I will copy some e-mail content below, so you can see the steps and know what to expect and how to react. Also of course for my own reference, since I have written this response several times now, but the reaction is always the same.

Remove an App from the App-stores

It’s a sad time; end-of-life for your cherished App, where you have to stop users from being able to find your App in the AppStores from Google Play and Apple App Store.

Unfortunately; you have to struggle and find the option where you can actually remove your binary and your Store Listings.
Here is how to do it:

Mini-Games is underrated

Read this nice article here!

Puzzle games used to be a simple genre, most of us played them to kill time but puzzle games have become extremely popular on cell phones. Infact, Puzzle games are one of the most played games on cell phones. There are some high quality puzzle games out there but at the same time, there are alot of puzzle games that are of low quality. We have curated a list of high quality puzzle games that are underrated, these puzzle games are very addictive.

Or even better, just play Mini-Games yourself !!!
If you believe the reviews, you will either love it or hate it:

Have fun!

Phonegap again

iOS apps now need to be 64-bit, so 1 old app, created in 2014 and never updated since, needs to be updated… latest version will be Phonegap 7.0.1

So:
change the config.xml to the new compiler-version
upload to Phonegap Build to compile and ERROR Continue reading Phonegap again

Software Development

Software-Development-CARS-ayd9jRb_700b_v2

Phonegap Build changes

dislike Nice. The ever-developing world of IT… or, “how to create more work for each other”.

My Brain develops Apps using a framework called Phonegap. Quick development, easy coding, simple configuration. Until you need to update an exisiting app and you are suddenly faced with the changes that were implemented since the last build…
This time the App did not want to access the Internet anymore… at all! So, Google to the rescue, finding this document with some good clues. I needed #10, which starts out perfectly phrased: “This is sooo new and obnoxious, one can only have pitty on returning developers.” …
bloemetje

Being a developer you have to love puzzles!

Continue reading Phonegap Build changes

App Approvals…

dislike I would like to have an App. Sure. Development time depends on the complexity of the App, could be weeks, could be months. And after going over several versions and improvements, it’s finally time to submit the final App to the various App Stores.

“So that’s it? Good, so my App will be live tomorrow. What? Not tomorrow… So how long does it take? Really?”

Yes, check it yourself… this is the time Apple takes from the moment of submitting, to when the App is live in the App Store. See: http://appreviewtimes.com/

Damn!

Google Play and Windows Phone Store usually take a day for approval.
But all these periods are of course excluding the extra time/rounds it takes when the App gets denied at first. Could be incorrect screenshots, bad App descriptions, the App functionality, anything!
Apple, Google and Microsoft all made up their own rules for approving Apps. My Flappy Cows App for example is still not live on Windows Phone, because “it doesn’t offer any additional or unique functionality”… Thank you, Microsoft. Your loss, you’re missing out on my freakin’ cute cow game.

Mobile Apps? Endless resizing of icons, splashscreens and screenshots!

As you may know, I develop Apps for iOS, Android and Windows Phone using Phonegap. One of the most awful tasks is creating all the images needed for the icons, splashscreens and screenshots to create the App and get it listed on the Apple iTunes, Google Play and Windows Phone App-stores. Nothing bad about it, but creating the same image, resizing, scaling and stretching, 118 different times in various resolutions is simply a pain.

So I searched for, and found, a script to create these variations of the same image with a push of a button. My Brain did what it does best and adapted the script for my own needs, so all I have to do now is the following steps: Continue reading Mobile Apps? Endless resizing of icons, splashscreens and screenshots!