publishing

Getting Started Newbie Questions
#1

im done with my app, but now i want to publish it

is there any universal code that i can use for ads, ipa, config.lua and build settings in conrona sdk,

the most wanted features are the hardest to understand.

thanks

#2

Ads are code-wise relatively easy:

  1. Sign up with  your ad provider, set up your app and get an ID number needed to identify your app/ad account combo.
  2. require the ad module (local ads=require(“ads”)
  3. call ads.init() with the right parameters to pass in your appID and a call back handler if you want to know if the ad showed or not.
  4. call ads.show() with the proper parameters for what you’re trying to show.
  5. call ads.hide() to unshow the ads were relevant.
  6. If your ad provider is plugin based, pretty much copy/paste the plugin code into your build.settings from the docs page.

Now there are tons of philosophical decisions that have to be made:  When to show the ads?  Where to show them?  Use Banners or Interstitial ads?  Do you want to support multiple ad providers? etc.  All of that scales up the complexity of adding ads.

For IAP you will either have to be a Basic, Pro or Enterprise account.  Starter accounts cannot use IAP.  The code complexity scales up for IAP as does the vendor requirements and setup and testing.  Each vendor has different rules and methods of testing.  Some providers give you more information and others not as much.   Luckily if you plan well enough, you can name each of your purchasable items the same (with the exception of Fortumo)  which helps on the code side.   You really should spend time reading this blog post:

http://www.coronalabs.com/blog/2013/09/03/tutorial-understanding-in-app-purchases/

and study this guide:

 

http://docs.coronalabs.com/guide/monetization/IAP/index.html

before venturing into IAP world.   Now your build.settings may need some updating.  Clearly if you’re going to use any plugins, which several of the IAP and most of the Ad providers are based on, you’re going to have to add that support.  But in general, if your building for iOS, you need a core set of Icons and at least one Default.png image (specifically named Default-568h@2x.png that is 1136 high and 640 wide) that Apple is going to require.   The build.settings and all of their options are documented here:

http://docs.coronalabs.com/guide/distribution/buildSettings/index.html

besides the icons, which you can see our recommendations here:  

http://www.coronalabs.com/blog/2013/09/17/tutorial-getting-started-with-ios-7/

your build.settings will have to be based on what you want your app to be.  You can look at our sample apps and base your build.settings off of that.

I would hope at this point, you would have the config.lua you need for your app.  But it’s possible you’re using a pretty simple one that doesn’t handle multiple devices very well.  You probably should consider reading these two tutorials in order (the 2nd one assumes you’re using the first one or understand the concepts in the first one)

http://www.coronalabs.com/blog/2012/12/04/the-ultimate-config-lua-file/

http://www.coronalabs.com/blog/2013/09/10/modernizing-the-config-lua/

There is advice in the 2nd part of the second one about changing your content area to 800x1200 instead of 320x480.  I would not change your content area at this point because you’ve worked out all of your artwork and positioning.  Those two posts are recommendations, not requirements.

#3

Ads are code-wise relatively easy:

  1. Sign up with  your ad provider, set up your app and get an ID number needed to identify your app/ad account combo.
  2. require the ad module (local ads=require(“ads”)
  3. call ads.init() with the right parameters to pass in your appID and a call back handler if you want to know if the ad showed or not.
  4. call ads.show() with the proper parameters for what you’re trying to show.
  5. call ads.hide() to unshow the ads were relevant.
  6. If your ad provider is plugin based, pretty much copy/paste the plugin code into your build.settings from the docs page.

Now there are tons of philosophical decisions that have to be made:  When to show the ads?  Where to show them?  Use Banners or Interstitial ads?  Do you want to support multiple ad providers? etc.  All of that scales up the complexity of adding ads.

For IAP you will either have to be a Basic, Pro or Enterprise account.  Starter accounts cannot use IAP.  The code complexity scales up for IAP as does the vendor requirements and setup and testing.  Each vendor has different rules and methods of testing.  Some providers give you more information and others not as much.   Luckily if you plan well enough, you can name each of your purchasable items the same (with the exception of Fortumo)  which helps on the code side.   You really should spend time reading this blog post:

http://www.coronalabs.com/blog/2013/09/03/tutorial-understanding-in-app-purchases/

and study this guide:

 

http://docs.coronalabs.com/guide/monetization/IAP/index.html

before venturing into IAP world.   Now your build.settings may need some updating.  Clearly if you’re going to use any plugins, which several of the IAP and most of the Ad providers are based on, you’re going to have to add that support.  But in general, if your building for iOS, you need a core set of Icons and at least one Default.png image (specifically named Default-568h@2x.png that is 1136 high and 640 wide) that Apple is going to require.   The build.settings and all of their options are documented here:

http://docs.coronalabs.com/guide/distribution/buildSettings/index.html

besides the icons, which you can see our recommendations here:  

http://www.coronalabs.com/blog/2013/09/17/tutorial-getting-started-with-ios-7/

your build.settings will have to be based on what you want your app to be.  You can look at our sample apps and base your build.settings off of that.

I would hope at this point, you would have the config.lua you need for your app.  But it’s possible you’re using a pretty simple one that doesn’t handle multiple devices very well.  You probably should consider reading these two tutorials in order (the 2nd one assumes you’re using the first one or understand the concepts in the first one)

http://www.coronalabs.com/blog/2012/12/04/the-ultimate-config-lua-file/

http://www.coronalabs.com/blog/2013/09/10/modernizing-the-config-lua/

There is advice in the 2nd part of the second one about changing your content area to 800x1200 instead of 320x480.  I would not change your content area at this point because you’ve worked out all of your artwork and positioning.  Those two posts are recommendations, not requirements.