It's official - I'm having a harder time with my first Android app than I had with my first iOS app over a year ago. Here are the issues I need to overcome, in order: 1) This is likely the easiest step, just had a difficult time finding any concrete answers on the matter - how do I go about changing the app display name on Android? 2) PDFs, PDFs, PDFs... My app contains 200 PDF documents and I want to avoid having to open them with 3rd party apps. I found the following "Android-PDF-Viewer-Library" where one would be able to read PDFs within the app itself. However, I don't understand steps 4-6. The following 2 questions are equally important, but has to do more with graphical elements: 3) Splash screen - what sizes do I need and where do I place them? 4) Screenshots - once more, any specifics in terms of size, number allowed, and which devices to take these screenshots from? Also, can the screenshots submitted to Google be altered with (i.e. text added, etc.). At this point, I am ready to hire someone for an hour of your time to assist in passing a couple of road blocks. The big one is the PDF viewer. I really do appreciate any help on the manner and if you're interested in taking on this project for an hour, feel free to quote me with your asking price at this point! Thanks again. :) -Nicholas

Hi Nicholas, 1. You can change the app name in the strings.xml file, which is found in the res > values folder of your project download. Look for the following (it should be the first item): <string name="app_name"> 2. I'd have to check into that library....I've never seen it before. 3. If the splash screen is an image, it should go in res > drawable with the rest of your images. I "think" that it would be resized for the screen it gets presented on, but I'm not 100% sure. 4. Here's what the Google Play Developers console says for the Graphical Assets of one of my apps. If you feel you need 8, go for it. I'd stick with just enough to show off your app and get them intrigued. I've seen people alter their screen shots with text, etc. Screenshots Default – English (United States) – en-US JPEG or 24-bit PNG (no alpha). Min length for any side: 320px. Max length for any side: 3840px. At least 2 screenshots are required overall. Max 8 screenshots per type. Drag to reorder or to move between types. Hope this helps! Mark

Hey Mark! Thanks for the assistance. To summarize: 1) I've made the change in app name! I could still choose the longer version of the app name when submitting to Google Play, correct? 2) Yeah, the PDF documents are the biggest concern for the app. 3) Any recommended size for the splash screen? And should it be named anything in particular? 4) Thanks for that, I got it - crystal clear! Thanks again! -Nicholas

The PDF issue is a tough one. The Kindle is the best PDF reader....the only free one I could find that doesn't just scroll through the docs. It pops up as a choice if you have installed it. If there is only one page to a PDF, could you put it in a blank screen background? The PDF situation seems awkward to iOS users, but Android users seemed to be used to it. I rarely get questions on it. For images, you really need to put appropriately sized images in the four drawable folders. It is the only way the high res looks good. Android devices have a lot of pixels.

I agree with Susan about the PDF situation. Android users seems to be accustomed to having to go out of app to read PDFs. But the Back button lets you go right back into the app, so it doesn't seem to be that bad. I also just noticed that my developer console has the option to include screen shots for 7" and 10" tablets, if you want it to be designated "Designed for Tablets." For the splash screen, as long as it follows the a_z0_9 convention (no caps, spaces or special characters), you should be good! Rock on! Mark

Thanks you two! I feel much more comfortable knowing that Android users are used to using third party PDF readers for PDF documents. Going back to the splash screen, are there any recommended sizes? Should they be in the 4 drawable folders? How does the app know where the splash screen is located? And as for screenshots, is there an easy way to take them via the emulator? Sorry for the multitude of questions, just want to make sure I get my first submission right! Thank you! :) -Nicholas

Thanks you two! I feel much more comfortable knowing that Android users are used to using third party PDF readers for PDF documents. Going back to the splash screen, are there any recommended sizes? Should they be in the 4 drawable folders? How does the app know where the splash screen is located? And as for screenshots, is there an easy way to take them via the emulator? Sorry for the multitude of questions, just want to make sure I get my first submission right! Thank you! :) -Nicholas

Here's a good article from Google that might help you with the splash screen question: http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/screens_support.html They would go in the various folders Susan mentioned...same filename, different folders with different image size. Then you note the image name (the common image name) in the Splash Screen plugin. Don't sweat Android too much...they won't reject your app. I'm not even sure a human looks at it. I've NEVER heard of an Android app being rejected. And you can make changes anytime you want, with the changes taking effect within the hour of submitting them. As for screen shots...when you have your app running in the emulator, go to the Devices tab (you may have to add it via adding Views from the menu bar). There's an icon on that tab that allows you to take screen shots. Mark

Thanks, Mark! In regards to the splash screen question, how would it work for landscape splash screens? I found the sizes on a StackOverflow topic, but not sure how the "naming" would work in this case... Thanks again, it's almost there, I see the light! -Nicholas

Unfortunately I don't have the answer to that question! I don't use splash screens in my apps, so I haven't spent much time researching that. I'll see what I can find out tomorrow. But my thought is that the vast majority of people start an app in portrait mode, so maybe you don't need a landscape splash screen? Mark

Hey Mark, Thanks for the quick response, I was thinking the same! Thanks again for your efforts - going to get on incorporating the splash screen & taking those screenshots! Publishing - to be continued. -Nicholas

@GraciousWolf_PE You are just sweating it too much. Google is no Apple, they accept practically everything, from anybody. Your app won't be rejected unless it is some kind of malware. You may have a look at one of my new apps, called Pray for Abundance and Wealth. It consists of three or four HTML screens plus the regular items in my apps, which are Share This App, App Policies, and Download Our Other Apps. So, technically, it is very easy to make it with Buzztouch, but the users do not care about your technical difficulties, they are only concerned with what the app means to them. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.prayforabundanceandwealth If a four screens app looks too tiny as opposed to your 200 PDFs, don't worry. I've seen Android apps with exactly one HTML page, no more, no less, and it is still called an app and is still in the Play store. As for splash screens, I used to use them in my app, but do not that any more. Somehow, in Buzztouch it is quite difficult to make them. You have to go to several plugins to set things up and frankly, it annoys me to have to wait for the splash screen of any kind, especilly while testing. If you have problems with something, then try making an app without it. Believe, people will want to read your 200 PDFs without waiting too much!

Nicholas, Before you do anything drastic I might have an easy solution for your perceived PDF problem. I only say perceived because if your Android were to instantly open the pdf without another button push to pick the viewer, that would make it essentially work like an iOS device, would it not? This is easy to do. If you want a free example of this my RCEMS Field Guide app is on Google Play and has this feature (thanks to a little workaround from master David). You choose which viewer to use only once, after that it works like any iOS app, seems like it's integrated even though it's not. If you want it I'll certainly share the code, sure David wouldn't mind. Tim

Hey Tim! That would be rather sweet! I would be very grateful for the sharing of the code and I'm sure others would benefit as well. Is it just the code that needs modification or do any files needed to be added as well? Thanks in advance for sharing, I'm looking forward to implementing it. You're a savior! -Nicholas

Thanks, Dusko! I guess I was really overthinking it. :P I got the splash screen to work and I've managed to test my PDFs on Adobe Reader and it works like a charm. Hoping to implement Tim's code to incorporate PDF reading within the app. Thanks again! -Nicholas

It's a few lines of code in the BT_fragment file. I'll send it later today. Tim

Ok, this is for the new Android code, straight from the horses mouth (no offense David); DD THIS CODE IN BT_fragment.java... exiting..... //text us / share text (SMS)... if(nextScreenType.equalsIgnoreCase("BT_screen_sms") || nextScreenType.equalsIgnoreCase("BT_shareSms") || nextScreenType.equalsIgnoreCase("BT_sendSms") || nextScreenType.equalsIgnoreCase("BT_shareSms")){ BT_debugger.showIt(fragmentName + ":launching SMS / Text Message compose sheet..."); sendSMSWithScreenData(theScreenData); return; } under that, copy and paste this... if(nextScreenType.equalsIgnoreCase("BT_screen_pdfDoc")){ BT_debugger.showIt(fragmentName + ":launching PDF in native app..."); //get dataURL from screen's data.... String pdfURL = BT_strings.getJsonPropertyValue(theScreenData.getJsonObject(), "dataURL", ""); if(pdfURL.length() > 1){

Hey Tim! Thanks for that. However, when I incorporate the code as instructed, I get the following 4 errors related to the same line: Line = 644 }//allowNextScreen... Errors: Syntax error, insert "}" to complete Statement Syntax error, insert "}" to complete Statement Syntax error, insert "else Statement" to complete ifStatement Syntax error, insert "else Statement" to complete ifStatement Am I missing something? (seems to be either a "}" or "else statement" in the PDF code, I'm guessing?) Follow-up thanks! -Nicholas

Oh, and just to mention, my PDF files are found within the Android project itself, is this alright?

yikes, missed a few lines in the copy / paste.... ADD THIS CODE IN BT_fragment.java... exiting..... //text us / share text (SMS)... if(nextScreenType.equalsIgnoreCase("BT_screen_sms") || nextScreenType.equalsIgnoreCase("BT_shareSms") || nextScreenType.equalsIgnoreCase("BT_sendSms") || nextScreenType.equalsIgnoreCase("BT_shareSms")){ BT_debugger.showIt(fragmentName + ":launching SMS / Text Message compose sheet..."); sendSMSWithScreenData(theScreenData); return; } under that, copy and paste this... if(nextScreenType.equalsIgnoreCase("BT_screen_pdfDoc")){ BT_debugger.showIt(fragmentName + ":launching PDF in native app..."); //get dataURL from screen's data.... String pdfURL = BT_strings.getJsonPropertyValue(theScreenData.getJsonObject(), "dataURL", ""); if(pdfURL.length() > 1){ //intent... Intent intent = new Intent(android.content.Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse(pdfURL)); //ask user for the best app to use... startActivity(Intent.createChooser(intent, getString(R.string.openWithWhatApp))); //return.... return; } }

Well crap. I guess I just realized I didn't test this code snippet David sent me, all my previous apps including the one I mentioned earlier used the pre-3.0 Android code and a bit of different modification to make them perform as I explained earlier. I just assumed this one would work as the other he wrote did, guess I didn't get to test it. This isn't working for me either. I'll send a not to David, we'll get it cleared up. Sorry for the wild goose chase. Tim

Hey Tim! Out of curiosity, when you tried implementing that code in your pre-3.0 Android code applications, were you able to see the results in the emulator? Or did you have to test it out on an actual device to see the PDFs being implemented? For me, opening a PDF document from my app has never worked with or without the code. I've had to access the Adobe PDF app to open my PDF documents. I'm just wondering if this is normal behavior on the emulator and not necessarily what happens on the actual device? Thanks, Tim, for your help! -Nicholas

Nicholas, I really don't use the Android emulator much. It's so damn slow, I just leave a Galaxy S3 wired up and use it as a test device. If you don't have a real device it'll be hard to see one of my apps that has the modification to it, to see if that's even what you are trying to achieve. I guess you could actually install one from Google Play on your emulator since it's free. I just sent this whole saga to David along with a test app, hopefully he'll have a minute to look at it. It's probably something easy. Tim

Hey Tim! 1) Out of curiosity, do you store your PDF files internally or are they accessed via URL? Seems like the code above is catered towards the latter. 2) Also, the code as it stands currently does seem to still have its use. For example, all my PDF documents are accessible via their respective menu item (i.e. Buzztouch menu would lead to Buzztouch pdf). Point being, without the code you pasted, it opens up the menu item and I then have to tap Open Document or Download from URL. With the code, those two options appear without the need of "entering" passed the menu item. I hope that makes sense. 3) However, going back to point #1, it doesn't seem to have any effect on PDF documents stored internally. That being said, I can't even open a PDF document inside my app. After I choose "open document" and choose "Adobe Reader", I get an "error: the document path is not valid". Is it possible that the PDF documents are not being compiled within the app? Thanks again, Tim, you've been a great help! -Nicholas