Punctuation in App Title during build gets replaced with underscore in both filename and app name

Solar2D General Questions/Discussion
#1

So one of my apps has a question mark “?” in the title.  I’ve built the app (for Android) before on Windows and it has appeared in the title correctly.

Just tried building with 2482 and it replaces the question mark with a different character, but one that is a question mark, instead.  It even shows up in the filename on Windows, which it would not do before since a question mark cannot be in a Windows filename.

The problem with this is that the character has weird spacing on Android devices, so it looks odd in the title on the user’s Apps page.

How can I get a normal chracter question mark to appear when I enter it in the Application Name field in the Build screen?

#2

I thought someone posted that this got fixed, but I just tried building this app again in the Corona Simulator on Windows with the latest daily build (2511) and the problem has just gotten worse.

Now, the strange graphical question mark does not appear; it is replaced with an underscore in both the filename and the app title.

As well, now if there is a plain apostrophe " ’ " in the App Title field, it too is replaced with an underscore in both the filename and the app title.  This did not happen in build 2482 or previous builds.

Already had to rename the app title once.  Really don’t want to have to do it again.  This is keeping me from being able to release an update.   :frowning:

#3

It also occurs on daily build 2014.2522.

I logged a bug for it: Case 37808

#4

On a positive note, it isn’t broken with exclamation points.  Yet.  :slight_smile:

#5

I don’t know about the app title, but we made changes specifically to replace non-filename safe characters with underscores.  Characters like *, ? and . are operating system wild card characters.  Both types of quotes " and ’ are used by the operating system and when these characters are in the file name it breaks scripts that are trying to automate process which leads to build errors.   We also filter out non ASCII characters. 

Rob

#6

I totally understand replacing characters in the filename.  That’s not an issue.  It’s the replacing of those same characters in the App Title that is a problem.

#7

I thought someone posted that this got fixed, but I just tried building this app again in the Corona Simulator on Windows with the latest daily build (2511) and the problem has just gotten worse.

Now, the strange graphical question mark does not appear; it is replaced with an underscore in both the filename and the app title.

As well, now if there is a plain apostrophe " ’ " in the App Title field, it too is replaced with an underscore in both the filename and the app title.  This did not happen in build 2482 or previous builds.

Already had to rename the app title once.  Really don’t want to have to do it again.  This is keeping me from being able to release an update.   :frowning:

#8

It also occurs on daily build 2014.2522.

I logged a bug for it: Case 37808

#9

On a positive note, it isn’t broken with exclamation points.  Yet.  :slight_smile:

#10

I don’t know about the app title, but we made changes specifically to replace non-filename safe characters with underscores.  Characters like *, ? and . are operating system wild card characters.  Both types of quotes " and ’ are used by the operating system and when these characters are in the file name it breaks scripts that are trying to automate process which leads to build errors.   We also filter out non ASCII characters. 

Rob

#11

I totally understand replacing characters in the filename.  That’s not an issue.  It’s the replacing of those same characters in the App Title that is a problem.

#12

I’m tripping over this also.  My app name is Dad’s Prayers.  When I do a build it gives me a file named Dad_s Prayers.apk.  When I put it on my device it stays Dad_s Prayers.  How do I get it to show the name as Dad’s Prayers?

#13

You don’t.  Corona isn’t interested in fixing it apparently.

From what was mentioned on another thread about this, if you build your APKs on an OS X machine, it will be fine since they don’t mess with the App Title on a Mac. They only do it on Windows.

#14

We “cannot” have file names with Unix shell meta characters in them.  That ’ opens a string and it never gets closed. This causes a problem. So you can have a broken build or we fix the file name.

This shouldn’t be an issue when installing the app. It should use the name you provided. I suspect this may be an artifact of sideloading your app. Can you try uploading the APK to Google as an Alpha build and then download it from Google Play and see if it installs correctly?

#15

Thanks for the tip thegdog, I’ll try building an Android APK on my Mac.

And thanks for the info, Rob.  I’ve put my app on the Amazon app store and when I download it from there I get a name of Dad_s Prayers rather than Dad’s Prayers.  That’s what kicked off my post.  I’ll have to try Google Play.

#16

Also another idea, why not simply rename the APK after we are done with it?

Rob

#17

Rob, again, (and I think I speak for @berrygp here), it is not the APK name that is important or the real issue here. It is that it changes the name of the App Title itself which means that on a user’s device, the title of the app under the icon is changed and that is awful.

#18

I was going to suggest someone file a bug report on this, but I just did a test. I created an app named “Rob’s App”.  I’m including a screen shot of my Build dialog so you can see how it’s name. I created the app as a default project and made no changes to build.settings and there is nothing in the build.settings that would effect name.

I built it. It output Rob_s App.apk. I installed it via “adb install -r Rob_s\ App.apk” (the \ escaped the space). On my Google Nexus 7 running Android 5.1 I see:  “Rob’s App” as the name on the device.

I’m using the latest daily build (2702).

For those having this problem, what version of Corona SDK are you using?

Are you on Windows or OS-X?

What version of Android are you trying to install to?

How are you trying to install?

#19

Rob, thanks for your testing.

I began collecting the parameters you asked for and noticed I was on build 2511.  I downloaded build 2702 and installed my app again and this time the app name displayed correctly on the device.

I should have noticed I was on an older build quicker.  Thanks for working with me on this.

#20

I’m tripping over this also.  My app name is Dad’s Prayers.  When I do a build it gives me a file named Dad_s Prayers.apk.  When I put it on my device it stays Dad_s Prayers.  How do I get it to show the name as Dad’s Prayers?