howdy, scottt

hello, who r u tonight?

?

ihow

how

doh!

ah

OK, though the hotel Internet is out, so I'm on a tether

how can I help you today?

well, i'm realizing i dont quite understand the implications and trade-offs of setting target and min sdk

OK

(btw, howdy, Julius)

i saw some confilicting things about what hey do

targetSdkVersion has minimal effect AFAIK until API level 11 (a.k.a. Honeycomb)

but it looks like minSdk is easy -- what's the lowest device version that will run your app

right

targetSdkVersion is "what version of Android was I thinking of when I wrote this code"

and, for Honeycomb, a targetSdkVersion of 11 will mean you want to enable the HC look and feel

Julius: do you have a question?

ok

i was considering the answers here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4568267…

howdy, Mike R

hi yes

Hi Mark

it appears theres the idea that it might effect compatibility mode or it might be so that you could not conditional code paths

jump in julious and mike

the floor is open?

"could not" = "could run"

scottt: there definitely is some forward-compatibility support that targetSdkVersion could affect

however, it should not affect conditional code paths

Mike: hold on one moment

Hi

ok, thx

Mike: go ahead

(howdy, Will)

ok. working on a new release of our app.

Want to test how the new release will function when existing users upgrade

but, can't just download existing release from Market and try to run the upgrade against it - different signatures.

is there a way to test how an app in the Market will upgrade?

different signatures?

you should be testing with the signature you're going to really use

ok. how do I sign with the production keystore and install on the device?

the same way you did it the first time

when I did it the first time, i used the debug keystore

not on the Market, you didn't

ok. I signed with the production key and uploaded the app to the Market.

Market will not accept debug keystores

right

so sign the new version with the production key

in terms of testing the upgrade, I'd download it from a Web site

ok. So now we're into Eclipse territory?

you can either use Eclipse or not use Eclipse for the signing, AFAIK

in terms of downloading the signed APK from a Web site, Eclipse would not be directly involved

ok. i know 2 ways to install an app on a device. First, download from Market. Second, build and run in Eclipse. Is there another way?

tons

download it from a Web site configured with the proper MIME type

copy it to external storage and install it using a file manager (e.g., Astro)

i suppose this is in your book

possibly in the Production chapter of the Advanced Android book, I forget

I'd go the download route

i'll check it out. That probably answers my question about distributing to beta testers.

but external storage, or an email attachment (with the right MIME type), are also valid options

thanks mark

a related easy solution is to toss it in a Dropbox

Dropbox and Amazon S3 are already pre-configured with the APK MIME type

Will: do you have a question?

I am having a problem getting a listview to display its items in a tabhost when I use an AsyncTask to load the data into the listview. I'm using TabHost.TabContentFactory. The onPostExecute method calls a handler in my TabActivity to refresh the underlying adapter. I'm doing something dumb but can't figure it out. What should I be watching out for?

i had too much time...:)

well, I don't really have any idea what you should be "watching out for"

what exactly are your symptoms?

"a problem" isn't much for me to go on

The splash screen shows and then the expected indeterminate progress dialog. Then my tabs show up but nothing displays in the list

oK

at startup..

have you used breakpoints or Log.d() calls to see what of your onPostExecute() logic is getting called?

onPostExecute is getting called and so is the handler it calls

the progress dialog does not go away after my last change, but that is a result of the last attempt

not sure why you're bothering with a Handler here, since onPostExecute() is being called on the main application thread

i've tried it both ways...

but regardless, there's not a lot I can tell you

At first the tabcontentfactory was in a separate class

either your data is not getting to the Adapter, or the Adapter is not attached to an AdapterView, or the AdapterView is not on the screen

is there a way for me to tell which of those might be the cause of my problem?

the latter you would determine via Hierarchy View

the first two by standard debugging

never used it...

I'm fairly sure the first two are good, according to my debugging...

(hi again)

Julius: want to try your question again?

Hi, yes, I'm having all sorts of trouble changing the style of tabs. I can change the text colour based on state (selector) and also the background of the tab, however I don't know how to change the bottom of the tabs. Do you know where I might find out about this?

if you mean that grey strip at the bottom, I haven't a clue

yeah it's driving me up the wall :)

I made a suggestion once regarding it on StackOverflow and was told it didn't work

I'm going to try making a view and putting an ImageView at the bottom I think

thank you

My suggestion was the android:tabStripEnabled attribute on TabWidget, IIRC

scottt: got another question?

not at the moment

OK

Will: do you have another question?

I'm playing with hierarchy viewer, may ask more later...

Thanks!

if anyone comes up with a question, chime in

what's the recommended way to determine min sdk req'd (other than trial-and-error)? is there a tool to assist?

scottt: not really

you can temporarily see where you are using newer APIs by dropping your build target to a lower level and seeing where you fail the compile

that will give you some idea of places that are more likely to need testing

ok thx

Is it ok if I post some code about my problem?

I would recommend you post it to a paste site like gist.github.com

then post the link here

The relevant pieces are about 20 lines...

code just sometimes gets messed up when pasted inline in the chat

looking at gist...

formatting got messed up but hopefully you get the gist...

pun intended? :-)

;)

anyway, is the MergeAdapter there my MergeAdapter (cwac-merge)?

yup

got a lot of stuff going in the viewmodel classes. that code has worked well for weeks

well, you could try temporarily pulling MergeAdapter out of there

to see if the problem is in my code

i tried BaseAdapter, no diff

what did Hierarchy Viewer tell you?

is there anything wrong with the general approach?

The creation of the view before async, etc?

I'm wondering if something is getting lost in translation

well, to be honest, it's a bit tough to follow

i need to play with it more

most of your code is referring to your own classes

yea

ignoring your real problem for the moment, I do not recommend attempting to reference Views in doInBackground()

(or anything else related to the Activity)

ok, how would you approach it?

you might be undergoing a configuration change (e.g., rotation)

ummm...I'd just not touch views or the activity in doInBackground() -- wait until onPostExecute()

see the Threads and Rotation section in the Threads(?) chapter of The BCG to Android Development

even if your adapter has a custom getView?

it doesn't matter

again, the problem is that if the user rotates the screen, your old activity is destroyed and the new one is created

so what would you return from the class that creates the listview?

i get that...

oh, well, you're probably going to have to rethink what the task is doing

the background stuff should be pure model

all view stuff should be in onPostExecute()

and the AsyncTask should be a static inner class or a separate class entirely

again, see the Threads and Rotation section in the Threads(?) chapter of The BCG to Android Development

relatively new material (probably added in the last six months)

pulling the book up now

anyway, I need to end the chat for the evening

thanks Mark! have a good one

thanks for the help!

and for the other stuff you do

next week's are 10am and 4pm Eastern

you're very welcome

have a pleasant evening!