Has anyone else noticed significant bugginess with Buzztouch apps on ICS & JB? My app crashes every few seconds and just behaves oddly on my Galaxy Nexus (menu images don't display at all). Has anyone created any apps that run smoothly & stable on the newer versions of Android? I'd love some help. Thank you all! -MJM

Gee, I don't have issues. I test on my Galaxy Tab II (ICS 4.0.4 when I started, 4.1.1) I do have issues with screen layouts... All the time. But I've gotten most of that reigned in as well. Is this with 'all' apps, or just one? Cheers! -- Smug

Thanks for responding. Just 1 app so it certainly could be something I'm doing wrong. It's a very simple app with a few layers of menus with images & some html text articles. Nothing really fancy which is even more surprising why it's buggy.

I'd check settings then... for the most part, I've never seen anything 'dramatic' in the behavior of my apps, unless 'I' did something... Sometimes it might be a dataURL entry as well as a local resource, or things like that... 'disconnect' a few of the screens, and try and isolate the issue by connecting them one at a time, and see if you can locate the aberration. Good Luck! Cheers! -- Smug

I test on ICS and Froyo, I have to say, there are often big differences between the two, but it's usually just visual, @Smug knows from my testing ;) It's rare to come across something that'll destroy one and not the other and if it does happen it's always ICS that's ok and Froyo that's destroyed. Later OS's have far better error handling than older devices. If you can hook your device up to eclipse you can check the logcat output. It might be something obvious, but if not, post the logcat here and we may be able to help. Or test it on an api level 16 emulator, in theory it should replicate the problems you're having.

I have some problems with the button menu that only affect the 4x Android. They work fine on my 2.3 devices. I need to give it some attention. The Menu with Image plugin has a similar problem, and I am working on a more efficient release of it. In the meantime, reduce your image sizes and it will work better.

Thanks so much for the ideas, you guys are great. I'll play with shrinking the image sizes. How large should my image files be? One thing that is puzzling is that the menu images do not show up at all on my galaxy nexus. I've tried running it from eclipse, exporting as an apk & installing, downloading from the play store etc... This is so annoying. The images show up on 2 other devices I've tested on (GS3 & Bionic), but not on the galaxy nexus. Any ideas?

Good spot @Susan, I'd forgotten all about the potential menu image issue! I found the recommended menu header image size to be far too big for Android, to the extent of out of memory errors which is maybe what @mjmccreary is experiencing? My solution was to keep the aspect ratio, but size the width down to something like 512px and they're fine. *edit* 512x240px

Ok I'll give it try and report back. You all are too kind for helping out. Thanks again!

On my apps, I typically use 256 x 256 icons in Susan's 'Menu_with_image' plugin. On small devices, the icon cuts into the text, so I have to modify line 702 of "src > com.yourapp > WB_screen_menuimage.java and change the 'lp:leftMargin to 85. I cut my header image in half, making it 1536 x 360, which is a great little banner size that doesn't eat up too much small device menu space. The way to accommodate the new size in your Android code is to modify line 13 of the "res > layout > screen_wb_menuimage.xml file and change the android:layout_height to "75" versus "150". Hope this cleans up a bit of stuff for you! Cheers! -- Smug

There is a website to make your images smaller at tinypng.org. Also, I just got a Nexus 7, and the image doesn't stretch like it should across the top. It still looks ok, but should fill the space.

I hijack my wifes Nexus from time to time, primarily I'm using my Galaxy Tab II 7". My partner in crime (my sales guy) uses a Galaxy something (not an S2/3) and he's happy to point out all my deficiencies, lol! But overall I've aimed at the 'lowest common denominator' and subsequently the appearance on the better devices is 'reasonable'. Without writing custom layouts for every device under the sun, I'm happy with the results. But that's me. Cheers! -- Smug

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I think this is why you don't see more attempts at Android plug-ins. Too many devices to test on..... I've has maybe 5 issues/questions with the ios side of the at53 video plug-in since release. I get 5-10 questions/issues a week with the Android version! I doubt I'll dabble in the Android side of plug-in dev going forward because I don't have all those devices to test on. Can't support the questions if I can't test/simulate the enviroment. I have modded my menu with image in similar ways to work for some apps. it's a great piece of code Susan, really just what i needed to keep building android stuff for clients at the time. Ready to take it up a notch tho on the Android side, have some interesting projects in the works. but I mostly wanted to jump in here because IIRC ravey made a great post recently discussing how far behind BT is in terms of the Android SDK and the API level we use. I still want to build apps that run on at least 2.3.5, but how do these look on the new devices.... @ravey can you dig up that post or revisit what you pointed out? I recall it was something I wanted to discuss more, just too busy at the time.

One more thought....I have been adjusting the small vs. large size. I am away from my computer, but I believe this can be adjusted in BT_devices.java. Some of the phone like devices end up in the large screen format, when they would look better as a phone.

Ok you guys are amazing! I used Susan's suggestion of shrinking the file sizes at tinypng.org as well as raveyd's idea of cutting the resolution to 512x240 dpi and it's running perfectly on my galaxy nexus! This is the first time my android app has been stable. Thank you all for your help.

Excellent!

delete damn double posts!

Hi, ATRAIN. I think we were posting at the same time. Anyway, I think the problems are resolvable with Android, but it will take some work. I am having the same issues with the Menu with Image plugin--I have way more issues with Android than iOS. And the issues are very hard to solve. I do think embracing Android is key to the future of buzztouch. How we get there, I am not sure. But we do have some real Android talent in the community. I can help with testing....I have several devices although no 3x tablet. Just send your apk files to Susan @ Buzztouch.com.