PhoneGap + XCode4

There’s been a bit of confusion surrounding changes to XCode4 and PhoneGap. Right now the big ones are 1) Where did my PhoneGap user templates go!? and 2) How do I submit my PhoneGap-based app to Apple? Let me help you.

1) You want to create a new PG project, but you’re not seeing the XCode templates when you go through the new project menus. Check out Shazron’s blog @ Nitobi for a command-line script to get you a new project up and running. It’s not as sexy as the XCode template, but it will do.

2) You can’t compile your app for submission to Apple? That was a little more tricky to track down. See this thread on the Apple Dev Forums for a bit of an abstract view of what’s going on. I’ll save you the details. Follow these steps to XCode bliss.

1. Select the PhoneGapLib.xcodeproj entry in your files list:
2. Make sure the “All” tab is selected:
   
3. Look for the “Deployment” section and scroll down until you see the “Skip Install” parameter. Set Skip Install to YES:
   
4. EDIT: Make sure to verify your target device…
   Make sure you have the “iOS Device” option selected in the schemes drop-down:
   
5. Go over to the “Product > Archive” menu. XCode will do its compile magic. Open the Organizer to see the app and the listed archives when the compile is complete. At this point, make sure you are ready to upload the app to iTunes Connect. Bonus: we get to skip the Application Loader app from now on!
6. Select the archive and click the “Submit” button. XCode will ask for your credentials. Log in and select the appropriate app and distribution profile from the list. Submit. If all goes to plan, you’ll get a message of approval. Finished.

That was easy. Now you can navigate the XCode4 waters with PhoneGap.

PhoneGap Up To Speed

I recently ran across some major performance problems with a jQTouch app running in PhoneGap. Some of the symptoms included long pauses on touch events, non-responsiveness, and laggy transitions.

Brian LeRoux (Nitobi/PhoneGap), Jesse McFayden (Nitobi/PhoneGap), and David Kaneda (jQTouch) were the stars looking into this issue. Ends up Jesse found where the Accelerometer was taking a 40Hz sample rate and sending the data to a callback. The solution is to just disable Accelerometer use – either in the plist or, as I did, comment-out all the accelerometer bits. Likewise, I removed location functionality, as this app in particular doesn’t need it.

You can read Jesse McFayden’s post here. And if you’ll excuse me, I have an app to finish…