Web and WebWorks Development

[Thogek]

Is it just me, or are the BAR files generated by the WebWorks SDK for Tablet v2.1 [significantly?] larger than they were under v2.0?

I have a fairly simple app that, under v2.0, compiled to an 84 kB BAR file.  Under v2.1, the same source code/assets compiles to a 280 kB BAR file.  Both compiled apps seem to function completely equivalently.

This difference is small on the scale of a 16 GB PlayBook, but seems rather large for a simple little app like this one.

Is this known/intentional?

[interfaSys]

I've witnessed the same problem. One of our apps more than doubled in size.

[tneil]

The only thing that changed that I know of that would affect this is that we picked up a newer version of the Tablet OS SDK.

I can ask internally if they know of any reasons.

[interfaSys]

In my case, it was partially due to the fact that the new build I was using for comparison was a debug one and contained uncompressed javascript, but I've noticed that the swf is 5 times larger than before and that might explain the difference in size for smaller apps.

[tneil]

We have the team looking into it

[Thogek]

Thanks, Tim.

I'm admittedly a little wary of submitting an update for my app in the meantime, given the unexplained tripling of its compiled file-size, so any insight into what happened and why (and whether it's an issue that'll be corrected) would be appreciated.

[tneil]

I talked with the developers and testers running things through their paces.  It appears as though there is "something" that we are doing in the 2.1 SDK that is making the archive bigger.  The new Tablet OS SDK that we bundled is ruled out because when we plug in an older Tablet OS SDK we are still seeing the increase in size.

I can assure you that your application will be fine being built with the 2.1 SDK, our testing team put applications through their paces with this SDK.

Our developers are looking to see what is causing the "bloat" and correct it for the next update.

[Thogek]

The apps do seem to function just fine when compiled under v2.1, but I still find the bloated BAR file-size to be concerning.  Maybe it's just me.

For data points:

My 84 kB app (up to WebWorks v2.0) compiles to a 240 kB app under WebWorks 2.1.

My 114 kB app (up to WebWorks v2.0) compiles to a 310 kB app under WebWorks 2.1.

Again, on a device with the PlayBook's storage, this may not be much of a user-concern, but it still bothers me.

I have not tested the v2.1 update of the WebWorks SDK for phones to see if anything similar is going on there.  Given the phones' much more (frustratingly) limited application-storage space, this would be of greater and immediate concern thereon, if so.

Thanks.

[tneil]

I can understand your concern.

This does not happen in the Smartphone SDK.. it is an entirely different underlying technology.  The issue is specifically with packaging a Tablet OS WebWorks application.

[Thogek]

I'm hoping that this bloat gets corrected in a future Tablet WebWorks SDK release.

In the meantime, since I don't currently need any of the APIs added to v2.1, I'm reverting to compiling my tablet-app updates in WebWorks v2.0 for the while.

Thanks.