May have blown my day in the sun - a tale of debug-flag woe!

General (non-technical) Off-Topic
#1

Well I had reached the holy grail of any app developer, a number #1 trivia/sports app in a number of European countries, and number 6 overall in the UK app store chart with ‘Football - Logos Quiz’.

Revmob and inneractive were monetising that position nicely, with IAP to follow in the next update.

Some reviews were a little disappointing though despite the high number of downloads so I rushed through an update to fix the issues mentioned, as it’s not just about the money, I want people to enjoy my apps too.

I successfully applied for an expedited review (there was a glitch in level 7 that made it impossible to complete the game…duh) and that was approved late last night - all going well.

Then in the middle of the night I sat bolt upright and saw these lines of code flash in front of my eyes:

[lua]local first = settings:retrieve(“first”)
first = nil – remember to comment out!!

if first == nil then
SET UP FIRST RUN STUFF
end[/lua]

I raced to my macbook, opened the main.lua file and there it was - I indeed had not commented out the ‘first = nil’ instruction. Every time a user opened the app, it would reset all progress to zero.

I had to immediately pull the app, as there would be a lot of angry users and it would get a flurry of 1-star reviews for that stupid mistake in no time. I’ve submitted an update, and requested another expedited review, but I’m not holding out much hope for that.

So I’ve basically lost all the momentum I’ve built up…I could well drop out of the charts altogether if I don’t get an expedited review. It’s the perils of being an indie developer I guess - a million and one things to sort out and remember, and I forget to do the one thing I really couldn’t afford not to.
[import]uid: 93133 topic_id: 29822 reply_id: 329822[/import]

#2

Tough luck Nick - I hope Apple sympathises with your situation and gives you an expedited request.

I guess you’ve got to take some solace from the success you’ve achieved with this app and use that to spur you on in the future - learn form any mistakes and make sure they never happen again.

Sorry I know that’s little more than a token attempt to uplift your spirits - but try not to dwell on it too much. [import]uid: 33275 topic_id: 29822 reply_id: 119587[/import]

#3

Thanks…I will definitely learn from this mistake!

The sensible thing to have done of course would be:

[lua]first = nil; native.showAlert(“DEBUG”,“Remove this before you build for store, dumbass!!!”, {“OK”})[/lua]

[import]uid: 93133 topic_id: 29822 reply_id: 119588[/import]

#4

I have been watching your app climb the charts in the UK, hope this doesn’t effect it too much.

Also noticed a lot of reviews complaining about the keyboard and yet when I tried it, I had no problems with the keyboard side of things.

Noticed a massive bug with my app recently as well, asked for a expedited review and was declined, shame as it only got released last Friday :frowning:

Dave [import]uid: 117617 topic_id: 29822 reply_id: 119589[/import]

#5

Sorry to hear that, although comforting to know I’m not the only one. Sounds like I will be very lucky to get another expedited review - I hope not too many people updated or grabbed the new version before I was able to pull it :-/

Yeah, I think the reviews had a point if you were trying to type really fast.

I have vastly improved it now by spreading the keys out, using event.phase began instead of ended, moving the 26 alphabet keys to their own touch function away from the submit button, and ditching lunar ads which were dragging the whole app down.

If I still get complaints I’ll switch back to the native keyboard I guess.

[import]uid: 93133 topic_id: 29822 reply_id: 119592[/import]

#6

The most frustrating thing is how long things take on the app store. You get a couple of bad reviews, so fix the problem instantly, but have to wait 10 days and suffer more criticism until the update gets approved.

If this happened on google play I could replace the apk in 30 seconds and the problem is solved. But on the other hand it’s really difficult to make any money on android in my experience. [import]uid: 93133 topic_id: 29822 reply_id: 119594[/import]

#7

Actually, I only try to do that in the simulator.

Besides that you should have a global “environment” which is set to: development, test or release.

Unfortunately, it’s still impossible to do continuous integration because of lacking CLI builds. That would never happen if it was possible to have a proper CI / build.

Sorry to hear that man. :confused:

I guess the only thing you can do is quickly release an update, and write a personal message to all the people who lost their progress… and maybe give them a refund. [import]uid: 5942 topic_id: 29822 reply_id: 119595[/import]

#8

Well it is a free app - and hopefully not too many people were affected as it was only live for a few hours late at night. It’s more the length of time my app will be out of the store which means it will plummet down the charts, at least if I get an expedited review I might be able to stem the freefall!

[import]uid: 93133 topic_id: 29822 reply_id: 119598[/import]

#9

Sorry to hear that. I guess it’s exacerbated by Apple’s lengthy review times. Have you thought of putting your app on Android as well?

I think the lesson here is always test your app in all phases: first run, resume from suspended, restart after exit. The last is more difficult on iOS since there is no way to “force close” an app I think?

But yes, it’s really impossible for one guy to do everything: coding, promotional materials, drawing the icons, website, testing. You really need someone to test independently.

Best of luck with the new release!
[import]uid: 84768 topic_id: 29822 reply_id: 119612[/import]

#10

You can kill an app by doubletapping the home button, then press and hold the app in the task bar, and then close it

We use testflight for internal testing, and I’ve recently signed up in thebetafamily.com where people can sign up to test. [import]uid: 5942 topic_id: 29822 reply_id: 119614[/import]

#11

The trouble with testing on a device is unless the problem is visual, it’s hard to track down.

For instance if I was testing the build Nick submitted to the App Store, I probable wouldn’t have found that bug.

Dave
[import]uid: 117617 topic_id: 29822 reply_id: 119615[/import]

#12

I don’t suppose Apple would let you revert to an older version?
[import]uid: 84768 topic_id: 29822 reply_id: 119618[/import]

#13

@jfb - I did think of this while in panic mode last night. I certainly don’t think there’s a way to do it ourselves, I don’t know if it’s possible to phone them up and speak to someone about it?

Obviously I should have tested the update more thoroughly, but with bad reviews coming due to UI issues you feel the pressure to do something about it quickly. Commenting out that flag is something I do automatically upon building for store so I’ve no idea why I neglected to this time - definitely putting in the native alert on that line in all my apps now!

My app was on Android - I got maybe 2,000 downloads in the first week compared to 100,000+ on the app store, plus a load of compatibility problems with certain devices (i.e. simple touch listeners not responding on HTC desires, but working perfectly on my three android phones). Not worth the hassle. [import]uid: 93133 topic_id: 29822 reply_id: 119625[/import]

#14

I was thinking of buying Corona to develop for Android but what you say makes me think twice. If Corona touch listeners are not working on some Android devices then it’s game over (pun intended). I know all Android devs suffer from fragmentation but working on a high level system like Corona gives you very little chance of recovery if something as basic as touch listeners fail.

I’d like to develop for iOS but don’t own a Mac and I don’t think my app would make enough money to pay back investment on buying one.Android would be easy to develop for on my PC but the fragmentation issues you mention are very worrying. Did you complain on the forums? I’d be angry if I paid $199 for Corona on Android and it wouldn’t work!

(sorry for going off topic here!)
[import]uid: 84768 topic_id: 29822 reply_id: 119628[/import]

#15

I wouldn’t want to put you off developing for android, maybe other developers have found strategies that work. There just doesn’t seem to be any mechanism for users to discover new apps, so if you have zero advertising budget it’s hard to get an android app noticed.

Regarding the touch listeners, I never really got to the bottom of that. There are so many devices that testing on all of them is difficult, and it’s hard to think of a genuine reason why the app should function perfectly on an iPhone, iPad, HTC desire Z, Samsung Galaxy S2, but not on HTC desire HD. I decided to focus on iOS until I had some spare time to investigate.

I hear you regarding buying a mac. I was working with Mac OSX in a VMware session on a windows machine for 4-5 months, but the update to Lion put paid to that. I really didn’t want to buy an apple product as I think they’re vastly overpriced. But I bit the bullet and never expected to make my money back, thinking if I didn’t I could always sell it again in a year’s time as they hold their value well. I bought my macbook air refurbished so it wasn’t quite such a painful investment.

As it happens I’ve more than made my money back, so if I can do it working a few hours an evening, anyone can. A lot of it is down to sheer blind luck - my pretty basic entry to the Techority 48-hour challenge took off for some unknown reason in Saudi Arabia and made me a heap of cash and is still racking up $20-30 a day.

[import]uid: 93133 topic_id: 29822 reply_id: 119635[/import]

#16

Well Android is the wild west for certain. I remember reading a blog by Imangi regarding converting Temple Run and they’d tested on 700 devices and were still getting errors from the other 700 in existence! And hard to monetise as well I’m sure. But I’d be willing to take a punt on Android if it was cheap to do so (the Google fee $25 is obviously trivial). The question is whether its worth paying $199 for a Corona Indie license for Android? I intended to get an Android only licence first then buy a Mac if the app made enough money. But several posts, including yours, make me think that Corona is not so mature on Android yet. As a Pro Developer, you have paid for Android as well but are not using it, which (potentially) speaks volumes! Of course you could argue the problems are down to Android and nothing to do with Corona. But even if its good-old Android fragmentation, shouldn’t Corona be protecting devs from these problems by making sure their product works on every phone? Isn’t that exactly what these cross-platforms solutions are for?

So my other option is Gideros. It’s also Lua and free. Learning curve is slightly steeper and I’ve already written an app with Corona. Arghh! I’m 50/50 split on this!
[import]uid: 84768 topic_id: 29822 reply_id: 119642[/import]

#17

Luckily apple have given me a second expedited review - fingers crossed I can get it back in the store very soon.

Yeah, I’m certainly in two minds whether to drop the Android portion from my corona license when I’m up for renewal in a few months. I think I’ll leave it and if I somehow get a hit on my hands and the demand is there, upgrade again.

You could always team up with a developer who has a mac licence just to get it out there.

I can’t believe I am recommending an apple product but the macbook air is a nice bit of kit. Shame the iPod, iPhone and iPad screens are made of sugar glass and butterfly wings really!

[import]uid: 93133 topic_id: 29822 reply_id: 119644[/import]

#18

Well done! Kudos to Apple for being reasonable.

Is your app currently on Google Play or did you remove it after the problems you had?
[import]uid: 84768 topic_id: 29822 reply_id: 119646[/import]

#19

Yeah, I was pleasantly surprised as most of the stories I’ve heard about the review team say how inflexible they can be.

No I removed it until I have a chance to see if I can fix it, once I’ve got this app back online and my next one (similar idea, but with band logos instead) off to apple, I might re-visit it. [import]uid: 93133 topic_id: 29822 reply_id: 119648[/import]

#20

One last question if you don’t mind: when you pay for Corona do you get any more support other than is offered in these forums? Do you get an email to write to for help? Or is this it?
[import]uid: 84768 topic_id: 29822 reply_id: 119882[/import]