Archive for January, 2009
Waiting on Contract
UPDATE: I’ve since contacted Apple a couple times, and they’ve created a ticket for me. But there’s still no action on it. 
I really shou ld have checked the iTunes Connect website. Because it says that I need to have my contract complete before I can put even a free application up on the online store.
My contract isn’t complete.
Now I could argue that since I became an official iPhone developer almost half a year ago that Apple should have approved the contract by now. But that’s just shirking my responsibility. I should have checked to make sure that it was complete and approved.
So now, my application is approved, but it is awaiting the approval of the free applications contract.
Doh!
I sent an email to devcontracts@apple.com five days ago, but I’ve heard nothing so far. A friend tells me that they used to be quite responsive, but not so much anymore. Time to give them a nudge I guess.
Development Tips
Hey all. I thought I’d just give a shout out to all the newer developers out there with a couple of development tips that help me be more productive.
First of all, if you’re not using source code control, I suggest you do so. It’s invaluable to have a history of all the changes you’ve done to a project. If you can store the repository offsite, all the better. I use my webhost’s SubVersion abilities and it’s great to have an offsite backup. If you’re using SubVersion, get yourself a good client like Versions. It’s a lot better than Xcode’s integrated support.
Another great development tool you should use that’s free is TextWrangler. Tools like Versions allow you to specify what app it will use to do a diff, and TextWrangler is far superior to Merge, if only because it allows editing of the file right there.
Another great tool is Evernote. I use it to store things that I might need in the future, like code snips or how to other things. Like building your project from a command line (xcodebuild -configuration Debug -sdk iphonesimulator2.1) or how to disable the Undo Past Save warning (go to Terminal, enter this: “defaults write com.apple.Xcode XCShowUndoPastSaveWarning NO” and then restart Xcode).
Something else I like is GrowlCode. It gives you Growl notifications when a build is complete.
Reuploaded my App
So this morning I fixed the bug that Apple rejected my app for. It took all of 20 seconds. I have to make sure that this kind of bug doesn’t slip through the cracks next time!
I resubmitted my app to the AppStore this morning, hopefully I’ll get the same quick service I got last week!
Here’s hoping!
My App was Rejected
It only took a few days for Apple to get around to checking out my app. Which is a lot better than I’ve been led to believe.
They rejected it for a perfectly valid reason – they entered the app’s legend and found my UI didn’t meet their guidelines. The funny thing is, this is actually a bug, because if they had added a gamer to the app first, then this problem wouldn’t have occured. So Kudos to Apple for checking an edge case that I missed.
Now I need to go and squash another bug and resubmit. All part of the learning process.
I have to wonder, though, if Apple tested all of my application’s functionality, and this is the only thing they found. Or is this the first thing they found, and they stopped testing the app after that. I don’t want to go through this process several times if I could instead fix any problems all in one fell swoop.
Finally Submitted my App to the AppStore
After much ado about provisioning profiles, Entitlement files, icons, and setting values in the Target and not the Project, my app is finally in Apple’s queue for approval.
It was quite frustrating to have my app rejected over and over again as I tried different things. What made it even worse is that the message they give you as to why they can’t accept the app isn’t even accurate.
I don’t know if I misread the docs or what, but I was pretty sure you were supposed to “skip to step 12″, which would bypass the whole Entitlements thing. Plus I did have a 57 x 57 icon, but it wasn’t named “Icon.png”. I don’t know what I finally did to correct the problem I was getting (the message was saying that my app wasn’t signed correctly), but this morning I finally got my app through. Yay!
Now I just need to wait for Apple’s approval or disapproval.