Posts

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Creating Icons for iPhone apps

As the number of devices support by iOS grows, the list of icons needed when submitting an iPhone app grows. Here’s a list of the icons and the default filenames that you’ll need:

Size Name Description
512×512 Whatever Used on app store
57×57 Icon.png Default icon for pre-iPhone4 devices (non-retina displays)
114×114 Icon@2x.png Icon for retina display devices
29×29 Icon-Small.png Small icon for use on non-retina displays
58×58 Icon-Small@2x.png Small icon for retina displays
72×72 Icon-72.png iPad icon
50×50 Icon-Small-50.png Icon displayed in search window

Note that the default filenames can be overridden with the info.plist icon-files entry.

The official list is on the Apple developer site: Technical Q&A QA1686.

An easy way to create all of these icons is to start with a 512×512 image, and then export it in each of the smaller sizes. I’m a Photoshop user, so I use ‘Save for Web & Devices’ in the File menu, but just about any image editor should have the ability to do this.

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Xcode 4 Released

Woohoo! This week Xcode 4 was officially released. It took me several days to get it to downloaded since it is over 4 gigs, but once I did I really like what I see. It installed without problems, and I was able to open and update the Celestino app without problems.

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Android Development

As part of my work at FanTrail, I am responsible for testing and creating the test automation for web services, iPhone applications, and soon Android applications.

So to prepare for Android testing, I’ve downloaded and begun playing with the Android SDK. Wow, guess what? It is also Eclipse based. So I simply added the Android Eclipse plug-in to my existing Zend Studio/Eclipse installation, and I was up and building test code in almost no time (Well, actually the download itself took the most time).

Now I’m having to brush off my Java skills, and I’m ready to dive in. I had initially resisted getting involved with Android for fear that it would interfere with my iPhone skills, but I’m rethinking that now. So maybe there are Celestino and/or Leander KOA Android apps in my future…

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FLEXing my muscles

I’ve finished revamping the Celestino Couture website. This will be the second revision. I had originally redone their website using Flash Pro. This was a great learning exercise, but I wanted something that fit my programmer experience better.

So when Rusty contacted me about updating the website with their new press articles and collection, I decided to take things to the next level and convert the Flash site to Flex.

This turned out to be much easier than I thought. Adobe’s Flex Builder is built on top of Eclipse. I’m a long time Eclipse user, and use Zend Studio (also built on top of Eclipse) for most of my web development. Since I am already familiar with both ActionScript and Eclipse, it was just a matter of learning Flex and MXML.

I’m really delighted with the results. Appearance-wise not much has changed, but under the covers this is a very maintainable website. All code has been tracked from the beginning with Subversion, and the code is easily organized into components.

Now I’m integrating FlexMonkey testing which will bring this website up to my normal, professional standards.

Rusty has been very patient with me in doing all of this, but I expect that the next updates will happen in the order of hours instead of weeks.

The site should be online this week, after I get the go-ahead from Rusty and Sergio. Until then the release candidate website can be viewed on my test site. Once it is online at the official Celestino website I will remove it from the test site.

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Using JavascriptMVC in WordPress

I’m working on a project which is going to involve some pretty extensive JavaScript coding. From experience, I know that any moderately sized or larger coding project needs to be well planned out and organized. But JavaScript typically isn’t.

So I did a lot of researching, and I’ve found a framework that appears to be fairly industrial strength. By this I mean that it is fairly well documented, provides examples, and has internal support for testing and automatic documentation generation.

I’m talking about JavascriptMVC. It is a little intimidating at first, mainly because it does provide all the things listed above. But having done some quick prototyping in my environment (PHP, Zend, WordPress), it appears to fit nicely and provide just the MVC+Test+Doc environment that I need.

I’m going to be merging JMVC into my existing WordPress installation. It appears that I’ll need to deal with the jQuery.noconflict issue which I plan on doing by redefining “var $ = jQuery;”. I’ll then be embedding the JMVC steal.js code using my custom child template (in functions.php).

This is really exciting. I’ll post more as I go. If anyone else has tried this before, please leave me a comment.

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Test Song Post

I’m currently updating the Chords and Lyrics WordPress plugin.
This is just a copy of the test-song page used for testing it.

Song Title

This is text before chordsandlyrics.


C 
This is the  
F 
first 
 
line.
C 
This is the  
G 
second 
 
line.
Amaj7 
And 
 
 
Bmin 
this 
 
 
C 
is 
 
 
Dsus 
a 
 
 
Eaug 
line 
 
 
Fdim 
with 
 
 
G#/B 
lots 
 
 
Amaj7/C 
of 
 
 
B 
chords.
C 
And this is a line with only three chords but a lot of words packed into it.  
F 
It should have probably been split into two lines.  
G 
It seems to just keep running on and on.

Ending

 
G 
The 
 
 
C 
end.

This section specifies size=”small”:


C 
This is the  
F 
first 
 
line.
C 
This is the  
G 
second 
 
line.
Amaj7 
And 
 
 
Bmin 
this 
 
 
C 
is 
 
 
Dsus 
a 
 
 
Eaug 
line 
 
 
Fdim 
with 
 
 
G#/B 
lots 
 
 
Amaj7/C 
of 
 
 
B 
chords.
C 
And this is a line with only three chords but a lot of words packed into it.  
F 
It should have probably been split into two lines.  
G 
It seems to just keep running on and on.

Ending

 
G 
The 
 
 
C 
end.

This is text following chordsandlyrics.
(C)Copyright 2008-2010, Ron Lisle. All rights reserved.

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KOA iPhone App is finished

I’ve completed the KOA iPhone app. I will be finishing testing and submit to the App Store by the end of the week.

Leander KOA iPhone App

Now I am going to create a matching website that will provide the same functionality for those poor souls that do not own an iPhone. From my experience, about 90% of all KOA campers have computers. We currently hand out a local attraction pamphlet which lists local restaurants, stores, and services. But the space on the pamphlet is limited. Providing a website/iPhone app allows providing dynamic searching and sorting, allowing a larger list to be provided.

One really cool thing about the iPhone for this sort of application is the built-in location services (GPS). Not only can I provide a list of items sorted alphabetically or by location, but I can sort the list dynamically based on the users current location, not just the distance from the KOA.

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Leander KOA iPhone App in the works

Having completed and submitted the Celestino iPhone App last week, I’ve embarked on a new iPhone app. This app will provide information about the Leander KOA where I live and work part-time. It will utilize the GPS capability of the iPhone to display maps to get to the campground, local restaurants, shops, and attractions.

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Celestino iPhone Application

Celestino Couture iPhone Application

I’ve just completed porting the Celestino website to an iPhone application.

I had been looking for an idea for an application to refresh my iPhone skills, and this fit the bill nicely.

This application is essentially the Celestino website deployed as an actual iPhone application. It is not just a web viewer or shortcut to the site.

It is available on the Apple iTunes App Store.