Web and WebWorks Development

[djpip27]

This is just a post to raise awareness of a potential problem regarding the automatic porting of existing PlayBook Webworks applications to BlackBerry 10. Perhaps I'm in the minority here or I'm genuinely doing something wrong, but I am concerned about how the automatic porting of applications may affect the BlackBerry 10 end-user and developer experience.

I received an email like other developers informing me that 3 of my existing applications could be automatically made to work on BlackBerry 10. I decided to accept this to allow me to focus my development efforts on making other great BlackBerry 10 apps and subsequently received an email confirming the automatic process was complete.

The 3 applications in question are from my vendor account JustPip.com:

• Canadian Hot 50 Chart
• UK Top 40 Chart
• US Hot 100 Chart

I have a Dev Alpha device and therefore was able to see my automatically ported apps appear in AppWorld to download on a real device. Obviously I realise that because this process is automatic the end results may vary. I've attached the end result below for comparison (PlayBook left - Dev Alpha right). Obviously the font size makes each of these 3 applications unusable on the phone. This has been fixed in subsequent versions of the BBUI.js toolkit (0.94+ onwards) according to my own tests.

I have actually repacked all 3 applications myself using a newer version of the BBUI.js toolkit, and ensured that the applications look great on PlayBook and the DevAlpha however I am now seemingly unable to upload a new corrected BB10 release with the following error:

"File bundle (cahot50.bar) has been rejected. Package ID is required for all .bar file. If this is an upgrade, Package ID must match Package ID in original file bundle."

This error seems to apply to all 3 of these products now for which I have raised a support ticket INC000025913956.

• Is this because you 'BlackBerry' created the first BB10 release and now I and other developers will be unable to update it as the various packaging settings/signing keys do not match?

• Am I right in assuming the automatic porting only occurs once? Should future webworks platform updates be released before BB10 launch, will automatically ported apps continue to receive platform updates and be recompiled or is this down to us developers?
  

Secondly as a more general statement to other developers I'd just like to suggest that if you have an application that was automatically ported you do try download and install it onto a BB10 simulator or real device because clearly you don't want to have your image tarnished by an incident like this on launch day, especially if you are selling a paid for app and the automatic porting clearly has affected the end-user experience. Perhaps if automatic porting is used again, there should be some more 'manual' intervation to check the quality of the final result, I'd be surprised if any of these 3 apps would have passed given the screenshot I've posted above?

Thanks for your time - if someone could clarify the points I've raised and help me upload my 3 fixed versions of these apps then that'd be great.

[ldholman]

I received the email twice, with only the "Rewards" being changed to no longer include the $50 gift certificate in the second email. However, my app still hasn't been ported automatically so I've yet to see how it has turned out. My app was originally an Android app ported to Playbook, this may be the reason it has taken so much longer...

[ldholman]

My issue was finally addressed, at least for the most part. My app now appears to be supporting BB10 through AppWorld. I haven't yet had a chance to check it out to see how it looks. I've been told I'd receive the badge of "Porting to BlackBerry 10", but I have yet to receive it.

[ldholman]

Badge has been received.

[djpip27 · Accepted solution]

Just thought I'd update people, despite this being an old thread. BlackBerry did reach out to me and resolved the issue and thanked me for bringing this potential problem to their attention. I also recieved the various points that were on offer for taking part in this program. Thanks BlackBerry!