FruitBat 1.5 Update Available
It has been a while since the last FruitBat update was made available and since then, a lot has changed. BlackBerry 10 is on the way and Tablet OS updated to 2.0 with 2.1 in beta. WebWorks also continues to evolve in the BlackBerry github repository. With all of the activity around BlackBerry development, FruitBat needed some attention to keep up as well as improve some of its basic functionality.
For instance, while working on a new, exciting WebWorks project, I discovered WebWorks support at a place it needed to be for any serious use. It was severely broken for all but the most basic apps, so I rewrote it from scratch, squashed every bug I could find, and now it is working beautifully and completely as intended. Packaging raw HTML, CSS and JavaScript files into a fully working app and installing directly to a PlayBook simulator or tablet is a one-click affair; it couldn’t be easier. Of course, there’s a lot more including a brand new Console window; check the Change Log for details.
Download links for the previous version will remain active for the time being if you need to downgrade for some reason. Please do send in any bugs you encounter so that I can work on fixing them, and if you’ve found FruitBat to be helpful, please consider donating to keep the project going.
If you already have FruitBat installed, updates are enabled and accessible through the Help menu (Help > Check for Updates) on both Mac OS and Windows. If it isn’t already installed, Mac users may need to download and install/update to AIR 3.3 before installing FruitBat. Windows should automatically update to AIR 3.3 if an earlier version is installed.
Change Log
FruitBat 1.5 includes the following changes:
- CHANGE: Updated to use Adobe AIR 3.3.
- BUGFIX: WebWorks packaging automatic ZIP file creation could create a ZIP file with a name considered invalid by the WebWorks packager. ZIP files are now simply called “app.zip” for WebWorks packaging purposes. The final BAR file is renamed after your application.
- BUGFIX: WebWorks ZIP files did not maintain the original directory structure of your app’s source folder as intended. This would cause 404 errors in your final app when resource URLs pointed to the original directory structure. ZIP files are now formatted properly and directory structure is maintained.
- BUGFIX:When creating a ZIP file for the WebWorks packager or packaging an AIR application for Tablet OS, Git-specific files were included by mistake. ‘.gitignore’ and ‘.gitattributes’ have been added to the exclusion list and will not be added to your app’s final archive. For those using Dreamweaver to build WebWorks apps, the _notes folder is now excluded as well if Design Notes are enabled for your Dreamweaver site. Final ZIP files should be 100% clean. The total exclusion list now consists of:
- hidden files
- symbolic links
- .gitignore
- .gitattributes
- thumbs.db
- _notes
- __MacOSX
- .trash
- .ds_store
- any files with names beginning with “._”
- all of the following file extensions: EXE, MSI, BAR, BAT, INI, COM, VB, VBS, DMG, APP, SEA, AIR, TMP, DEB, RPM, SCRIPT
- any files that are 0 bytes in size
- empty directories
- BUGFIX: WebWorks app icons were sometimes not shown in the FruitBat app panel, even when properly specified in the loaded config.xml file due to XML parsing errors. FruitBat now uses more lenient matching to find the icon and should always display it properly.
- BUGFIX: Version 1.4 required the WebWorks SDK folder chosen to be the “bbwp” folder inside of the WebWorks SDK’s main directory. Now, you may choose either and Fruitbat will not complain or throw another folder select dialog in your face. “bbwp” is automatically appended if the main directory is chosen and it truly exists.
- CHANGE: Slightly modified the process for requesting a debug token from RIM. The setting for Debug Token Location is now a directory instead of a file. FruitBat will create the debug token inside of the specified directory and the final token will simply be called “debug_token.bar”. If a directory is specified already, a token will be automatically generated without asking you to select a file location.
- CHANGE: Settings/Preferences window content updated to use HTML and JavaScript instead of Flash components.
- CHANGE: Console window updated to use HTML and JavaScript instead of Flash components.
- NEW: When choosing files and folders from the Settings/Preferences window, the console will show error messages if incorrect files are chosen from the file/folder browse dialogs based on the current browsing requirements.
- NEW: Console messages are now color-coded and styled for readability. Messages with the FruitBat icon to the left are from the FruitBat app, green messages are from the command line interface of your operating system and error messages are red.
- NEW: Console themes for accessibility that change the red and green color scheme to blue and gold to maintain a difference between normal and error messages for those with color blindness. To change the theme, choose a different option from the select menu labeled “Console Color Assist” in the new Accessibility section of the Preferences window.
- NEW: Copy and paste from the Console window (thanks HTML).
- NEW: Clear function added to the Console window.
- NEW: More messages added to the console to show what FruitBat is doing or any errors it may encounter.
- BUGFIX: Browse buttons in the Settings/Preferences window did not always correctly open a file browsing dialog when clicked. Fixed July 4, 2012, but doesn’t need an entirely new post.
- BUGFIX: Changed app panel to look for bar-descriptor.xml as well as blackberry-tablet.xml to support both 1.0 and 2.0 versions of the PlayBook AIR SDK. Fixed July 5, 2012.