hi guys, i have a live app here https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/uk-theatres/id875279859?ls=1&mt=8 but it loads rely slow, is there a reason for that, ive tried both hosting the splash image on server and including it in the project, but it still starts slow, i think its looking to see if theirs any changes, is there a way of switching this off and maybe asking the user if they want to update

Just loaded the app. It does take a long time to launch. It even seems to hesitate when selecting a row. Are all of the images in the app hosted or included in the app? I'm going to guess hosted. I'm also going to guess that they are high resolution images. If that is the case, I'm guessing that it is taking awhile to load the high resolution images. Dave

there all held on my own server, the image size is quite low though , even when i remove the splash it still pauses to load, im thinking its because its looking for changes first. im just wondering if you can get it to not look for changes somehow

It might be a server issue. Regarding the app looking to refresh, check this out: https://www.buzztouch.com/files/howtos/Understanding_App_Refresh_and_Offline_Apps_v1.0.pdf

With running the app and only looking at the Appstore screens... A few questions Menu Images: I am assuming that the images for your menu rows are already local. If not, that would be the first change I would make. There is no reason that menu category art would need to change on the fly, and why spend any time downloading menu items. Photo Album: What plug-in do you use? Some attempt to load all images and resize for icon prior to screen display. (which come with cautions of image size as well as how many in an album.) although they should be cached for next use. When you say the image sizes are quite low, what is an example size (common width x height (KB-MB)?

It is probably slow because of your huge JSON data file. Having lots of screens will do that. :-) -- Niraj

will taking the check url out when the apps completely finished, speed it up

Remember that it is a computer. Processing all that JSON takes time upon startup of the app. It also consumes memory. Instead, break up the JSON into bite-sized pieces, on a menu screen basis. That way, the JSON gets loaded into memory on an as-needed basis while the User browses through the app. -- Niraj

how do you mean niraj, how would i breakup the json from the config file on here, i don't get what you mean, sorry for being a noob lol :)

Look on the bottom of this Plugin's description. Replace "theMenuItemData.php" with "ScreenTheaterGlobe.txt" as your JSON file for Screen for Shakespeare's Globe Theater. https://www.buzztouch.com/plugins/plugin.php?pid=334A4B840178A021CF61919 It starts with this text (in a much better format than this forum post): "If you provide menu item data from a remote file there is no childItems array in the screen definition in the BT_config.txt file. Instead, the menu items are pulled from a remote file." { "itemId":"1111", "itemType":"BT_screen_menuListSimple", "navBarTitleText":"My Simple Menu", "dataURL":"http://www.domain.com/theMenuItemData.php" } In this case the menu items would come from a backend script at the dataURL. Loading the dataURL in your browser would produce output like this.... { "childItems":[ { "itemId":"menu_1", "itemType":"BT_menuItem", "titleText":"This is row 1", "loadScreenWithItemId":"1234" }, { "itemId":"menu_2", "itemType":"BT_menuItem", "titleText":"This is row 2", "loadScreenWithItemId":"5678" }, { "itemId":"menu_3", "itemType":"BT_menuItem", "titleText":"This is row 3", "loadScreenWithItemId":"2948" } ] }

would the data url be an external database then, as i havnt created one for this app yet

would the data url be an external database then, as i havnt created one for this app yet

The dataURL does not have to be pointing to PHP that is connected to a database. The dataURL can be any source of data: text file, middleware, a web service, etc. In my note above, I said: Replace "theMenuItemData.php" with "ScreenTheaterGlobe.txt" as your JSON file for Screen for Shakespeare's Globe Theater. I suggest you do not use a database ... Initially. I suggest you take a baby step by splitting your childItems into JSON txt files. Then observe the performance of the app. It may not dramatically improve the performance until all child screens have their own JSON files. If the app performed better, then it is time to consider a database. After all, it will indeed get tedious to create and update that data. A database will also allow you to provide interesting search and filter possibilities. One step at a time :-) -- Niraj

thanks niraj that helps loads, i can try little bits at a time, cheers Sean