App updates & the quagmire of iPhone App development

I’ve been meaning to update my first iPhone app FIB-U-LATOR now for a while, and have been consistently distracted by many a thing; not the least of which is developing a new app which. Since I originally posted FIB-U-LATOR to the App Store, a lot of things have changed on my end as far as equipment, and that has made things quite tricky. This is that story.

Developing iPhone Apps is a tricky thing. Getting the Provisioning and Distribution certificates and code signing can be a Lovecraftian experience, as evidenced by a few simple Google searches on the subject. The first snag I ran into this time was not having a valid developer certificate, and the certificate I had was not registering properly in my keychain. I followed the directions on the dev portal, but still no dice. The catch is your certificate must either be generating for that specific machine, or copied out of Keychain Access, and imported into a new computer. That was my issue. I had rebuilt my laptop, and moved everything to my new iMac and had NOT backed up the key from my laptop.

If you move your development to a new machine you need to use the same key. Export and save your keys from Keychain Access when you are issued them to save yourself a lot of hassle. Read more of the Apple Developer Portal about managing your digital identities.

Crap! The fix was pretty simple though, I revoked my certificate and requested a new one, and poof! I could get my apps back onto my devices. I also needed a whole new set of provisioning profiles too, once that was done I was back in testing business.

So after that hurtle, I was back into the development groove and needed to hit the next step of building and submitting the new version through Connect. I kept running into the Project Settings recognizing the Distribution Profile, but the Target Info would not find a matching certificate, and I received code signing errors. This part is one of the bits a lot of people miss, there are two settings windows where you have to set the Code Signing Identity. My issue with FIB-U-LATOR turned out to be something I wouldn’t have guessed, and something I didn’t know about until today. When you update your App, you have to use the same App ID you used when you first uploaded it.

Be sure to keep your AppIDs in the developer portal so you can update your apps. I don’t know of any way you can re-create an App ID if it’s deleted. It seems to be a common conception to use a wild card App ID for distribution, rather than a unique one for every app. The only caveat here is in-app purchase will not work with wild card IDs.

Good thing I didn’t delete it while I was screwing around trying to get my keys and certificates working. Once I had that down, I opened the Organizer Window and removed all of the other distribution profiles, and loaded up the correct one. Cleaned all targets, restarted Xcode and made a new build. This time it uploaded without error.

I’m still working on getting my newest app ready for AdHoc distribution so I can send out for some friends to test for me, I ran a build off last night but I’m suspect it isn’t going to work.

I’m convinced the reason that Apple has made this so unbelievably convoluted is so that in the end, when you finally get it right, there is this huge rush of euphoric relief. In essence, they’re just trying to spread happiness and joy…..

Someone at Geico is using their noodle

I saw this commercial for the first time last night, and the first thing I did was stop it, and tell the little lady that I damn well better be able to go to Geico.com and download that ringtone. I’m sure there was trailing’s off as I finished watching it and rewound it to listen to the ringtone again, but the gist is just that.

Since I had some free time today sitting and waiting around for an appointment, I decided to head out the on my venerable iPhone, and see if I could get it. And you know what? You can. Honestly, I am kind of shocked. Shocked in the way that I can actually go and do something so makes so much perfect sense that most people wouldn’t even think twice about it being available. Unfortunately, too often companies miss the boat, and someone along the way makes a bad decision to not do finish the implementation. That’s what this is too, it’s just another step in the whole campaign, not another extra, or silly download that most people don’t care about. Fact is, most people don’t care until you don’t give them the option that they expect to have -- then they get all seven kinds of bent.

+1 internets to Geico. Great JJEEEOOORRRGGGHHHBBB!!!!

Cannondale’s Simon – Electronic Suspension System at CES

It probably never really crossed your mind unless you ride a lot, and I mean a lot (or hang out with a bunch of spandex junkies), but there are total bike geeks too. Just like folks get all wiggly over computer and new high-tech coolness, the same can be said for those of the bike persuasion. I’m both, and the new Simon suspension system from Cannondale is awesome on both sides of the geekiness fence.

This single pillar, left-sided suspension dispenses with all of the usual components you would expect to find in a suspension fork, and creates the perfect ride a electro-mechanical system that can be infinitely adjusted all from the little cyclometer looking device on the handle bars.

There isn’t a lot of information to be had on Cannondale’s website about Simon, but there is a good article over at Engadget from their coverage of CES with more information from last years Interbike show.

For now though, it’s still just another high-tech cool toy that you can’t get, and I’m not sure anyone would even buy it at this point. It’s a pig! The thing weighs in at 4.5 lbs, which can be twice as much as it’s high-end brothers, but they’re not as cool. Nevertheless, Cannondale’s Engineer Stanley Song expects that Simon will start to show up on bike soon. Check out the video clips at Engadget for more information from Song.

Hopefully this will get more traction, and actually find it’s way into a bike shop near you, unlike some of the other cool ideas that have come and gone. Remember the AWD Mountain bikes? No? Either do I.

3 years ago today – or something like that

It was just 3 years ago that right about now I would be getting out of surgery, and heading to ICU for the beginning of my journey with my new liver. To me it still seems like it was yesterday, while to some of my friends it seems like it was a long time ago; it’s funny how time wanders at different perceptual rates for folks. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about it, and that’s not because I have this absolutely ginormous scar altering the landscape of that train wreck I call my stomach. It’s because of how amazingly lucky and blessed I am to have been able to have been transplanted while so many still have not.

“Live this day as if it will be your last. Remember that you will only find ”tomorrow” on the calendars of fools. Forget yesterday’s defeats and ignore the problems of tomorrow. This is it. Doomsday. All you have. Make it the best day of your year. The saddest words you can ever utter are, ”If I had my life to live over again. ”Take the baton, now. Run with it! This is your day! Beginning today, treat everyone you meet, friend or foe, loved one or stranger, as if they were going to be dead at midnight. Extend to each person, no matter how trivial the contact, all the care and kindness and understanding and love that you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.”
~ Og Mandino

It’s been a pretty good 3 years, I have to admit. The last several months have seen me starting to lose weight again, ride my bike again, and ride with purpose and finally gain ground again rebuilding muscle and endurance. I think I can finally say that I am more on the recovered end of the scale, than the recovering end now; and I like that.

JavaScript libraries – jQuery or Scriptaculous. What’s your flavor?

I didn’t really intend to start my week by ultimately working up a simple comparison of JavaScript libraries, but like many things, the end result is not always what the initial outcome was planned on becoming. My latest project at work is building a small music site which will be a content managed portal for smaller bands to be able to be featured, rotating out every 30 days. It’s a cool project, and one that I am deriving quite a bit of enjoyment from both technically and creatively.

After building out the framework, and basic page templates, I dropped in Nick Stakenburg’s Lightview modal window code using Script.aculo.us. I have to say I really like Nick’s code, and Lightview is easily one of the best modal window projects I have found. I’ve used about four others in production, and this is super easy, and very customizable. The only downside is that it uses Scriptaculous, well that and the fact that it’s not free, but I don’t have a problem paying for high quality work. Scriptaculous turns out to be a downside because (for my purposes) there are a lot more available examples, plug-ins, and open-source projects available for jQuery. Faced with either a lot of extra work to not use jQuery, or to give in and make the switch, I set out to find a better modal window than Thickbox. If you’re a Thickbox fan, I’m sorry, but I really don’t like it. It’s not pretty and just a pain in the butt in general. I have used Thickbox for a number of years, but for this project I have switched over to ColorBox. I briefly tried Topup before going with ColorBox, but it conflicted with another plug-in I want to use, Juitter, so it wasn’t an option. Topup is a nice option though, and I have no other reason to not use it than it just didn’t play nice with Juitter.

Combined with a nice little snippet for toggling a div, I have a good collection of plug-ins and bits assembled to create the look and feel I want within my new site – I just have to go and get them implemented and styled to match. Even though I had almost all of the functionality completed using Scriptaculous, including a nice accordion menu for the band’s bio page, it didn’t take me much more than an hour to pull out all of the Scriptaculous bits, and replace them with jQuery. With the switch completed, overall I am pretty happy with the results, although I have to say that Nick’s Lightview is still superior to the modal window I am using now, but I can live with it.

I haven’t really formed any opinions on which library is better, but I can say that if you are looking for existing code to modify and use in a project that jQuery seems like it would be the way to go. On the surface there seem to be more people using it, and sharing their work. This for me is the deal breaker. I’m a designer first, code monkey second, so I would prefer to find/buy the pieces I want to use than write them by hand myself.

If you are interested in taking a look at an awesome site using jQuery integrating Social Media, look at Crispin Porter + Bogusky.

And here are a few other resources I found helpful:

• 45+ New jQuery Techniques For Good User Experience
• jQuery and JavaScript Coding: Examples and Best Practices
• Most Useful Modal Window Plugins for jQuery
• The Best jQuery Plugins of 2009
• Most useful protoype/script.aculo.us plugins