Phonegap Built App not showing for Nexus 7

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  • Updated 8 years ago
I've created an app using Phonegap and app is available at

https://play.google.com/store/apps/de...

I'm not sure why the app is not showing up for Nexus 7 tablet. My config.xml looks like as shown at http://pastebin.com/tFdG4bzM.

Also, it shows the PhoneGap version as 1.7.0 although I haven't specified the version. Shouldn't it be using PhoneGap 2.0? Can we have a sample config.xml that works for across devices?
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Durlabh Jain

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Posted 8 years ago

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ryan, Developer

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I think this is an issue on PG Build. It looks like we aren't including the xlargeScreens attribute in the supports-screens elements, which may be how the play store is filtering for tablets.

We should be able to get this in soon, but in the meantime if time is of the essence, you may want to consider building your PhoneGap Android application locally and adding this to your AndroidManifest.xml file.
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John Saya

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I'm unable to get an app to show up in the market for the Nexus 7 also. Any update on this?
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Durlabh Jain

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With the latest build.phonegap.com build using my config.xml, we were able to publish the app for Nexus 7.
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John Saya

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Thanks for the reply, Durlabh Jain.

I added icon support exactly the way your config.xml shows, uploaded the app to the market again, and when I check the "supported devices" section it says "Unsupported devices due to your manifest settings: Nexus 7 (grouper)".

I attached a screen shot. I'm assuming it must be a PG Build issue.

John
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Durlabh Jain

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That's surprising. Our app is at https://play.google.com/store/apps/de....
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Yi Ming Kuan

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Hi John,

What's your Build ID? Going to check this one out.

-yiming
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John Saya

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Hi Yiming,

It's 100415

Thanks

John
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Yi Ming Kuan

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Hi John,

Are you using the camera in your app?

-yiming
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John Saya

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Hi Yiming,

Yes, I am.

John
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Alan Neveu, Champion

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I'm using PhoneGapBuild 1.9 and our app is not appearing in Google Play on Samsung's Galaxy Tab. I have not tried on Nexus 7. It *does* appear on an Acer tablet, though. We use a camera in our app, so perhaps this is because the Samsung does not have a rear facing camera?

Another idea - I see people on the web talking about the telephony permission being used by the Samsung Galaxy Tab to filter out apps. We are not using that permission or feature, but does PhoneGapBuild enable it by default? If that is the case then perhaps the Samsung is saying, "Hey, I'm not a phone, I'm a TABLET, so don't show any apps that required this thing called 'telephony'..." Thoughts there?

Our app ID is 84234.
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John Saya

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Hi Alan,

I'm suspecting it has something to do with no rear camera, as the Nexus 7 also lacks one. Of course, this is only a guess. If anyone else can shed some light on the issue would be great.

John
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Alan Neveu, Champion

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I have a Nexus 7 in my possession now, so I am going to see if I can get our app to appear in Google Play for it. I will post my findings here.

Hey you people who have your app working on the Nexus 7 or the Samsung Galaxy Tab, can you answer these questions:

1) Do you use the camera in your app?

2) Can you post a scrubbed version of your config.xml?

Many thanks!
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John Saya

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Hi Alan,

Our app uses a camera, and does not appear in the Google Play store when using a Nexus 7. However I can confirm it PG Build version runs perfectly fine installed on it. Makes no sense.

Below is how the config.xml looks:


<gap:splash src="splash.png"/>
<gap:splash src="splash.png" width="320" height="480" />
<gap:splash src="splash640x960.png" width="640" height="960" />
<gap:splash src="splash768x1024.png" width="768" height="1024" />

<gap:platforms>
<gap:platform name="ios" minVersion="3.0" />
<gap:platform name="android" minVersion="2.2" />
</gap:platforms>

<icon src="icon.png" />

<icon src="icons/ios/icon_57.png" gap:platform="ios" width="57" height="57"/>
<icon src="icons/ios/icon_72.png" gap:platform="ios" width="72" height="72"/>

<icon src="icons/android/icon_36.png" gap:platform="android" gap:density="ldpi" width="36" height="36" />
<icon src="icons/android/icon_48.png" gap:platform="android" gap:density="mdpi" width="48" height="48" />
<icon src="icons/android/icon_72.png" gap:platform="android" gap:density="hdpi" width="72" height="72" />
<icon src="icons/android/icon_96.png" gap:platform="android" gap:density="xhdpi" width="96" height="96" />

<feature name="http://api.phonegap.com/1.0/geolocation"/>
<feature name="http://api.phonegap.com/1.0/network"/>
<feature name="http://api.phonegap.com/1.0/camera"/>
<feature name="http://api.phonegap.com/1.0/contacts"/>
<feature name="http://api.phonegap.com/1.0/file"/>
<feature name="http://api.phonegap.com/1.0/notification"/>

<!-- sample preference specification -->
<!-- <preference name="autorotate" value="false" readonly="true"/> -->

<preference name="android-minSdkVersion" value="7" />
<preference name="show-splash-screen-spinner" value="false" />
<preference name="exit-on-suspend" value="false" />
<preference name="orientation" value="portrait" />
<preference name="webviewbounce" value="false" />
<!-- <preference name="fullscreen" value="true" /> -->

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Alan Neveu, Champion

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What happens if you just leave out the camera feature from the config.xml? Does the app really lose all camera functionality? It would be worth making a test app with only that change and publishing it to Google Play for a day, just to see if it appears for the Nexus 7 that way.
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John Saya

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I suppose it couldn't hurt to publish a new app and test it that way. If I get some time I'll certainly give it a shot.

John
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Durlabh Jain

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I have the camera feature enabled...
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John Saya

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Well at least we know it's not the camera now
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Alan Neveu, Champion

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Durlabh Jain, are you saying you have the camera feature enabled in your app and that it appears in Google Play when using a Nexus 7 to search for it? And can you please share your Config.xml with us?

I just verified that our app is working perfectly on the Nexus 7 when I install it directly from PhoneGapBuild. Any progress on this for you jsaya123?
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Durlabh Jain

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My configuration is at http://pastebin.com/tFdG4bzM. As far as I know and I can look, the app shows available for Nexus 7. Let me know if you don't see it.
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John Saya

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Alan,

I have not had any luck getting our app to show up under the Nexus 7. I don't have one with me at the moment, but I'd be happy to check if your app shows up, Durlabh Jain when I do.

I can definitely confirm that each time I upload the app to Google Play, it automatically excludes the Nexus 7. I just don't know what in the manifest is telling it to do so.

John
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Alan Neveu, Champion

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Durlabh Jain, thanks for the config.xml. I'll go through it with a fine toothed comb! I tested on my Nexus 7 and Tailgater shows up just fine and installs just fine too. I did not test any functionality, though. I'll report back if I figure this out.
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Alan Neveu, Champion

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Is there anybody out there whose app uses the camera and the app appears in Google Play for either Nexus 7 or Samsung Galaxy Tab? I just looked at the config.xml that Durlabh provided and it has the camera feature commented out. So it could be that camera is the problem. But is there anyone who can tell us their app uses the camera and is available on either of these devices?

I just tested my app on the Nexus 7 and it works great, just that the front facing camera is used but that is all it has is a front facing camera. It's strange for using our app because the app lets you take photos of receipts, not your face. So you have to hold the device in a weird way so you can put a receipt up to it, the receipt shows in reverse (mirror mode) and then tap the shutter button. The image is pretty grainy, but it does work.

So I'll ask the question one more time, anyone using a camera and their app is shipping properly for either Nexus 7 or Samsung Galaxy Tab?
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Alan Neveu, Champion

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Okay, I found more information and this seems to be in the right direction. This post:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11...

Contains the following comments:

..........
When you use instead of , your application won't be filtered out by Market but expects you handle devices not supporting that feature on code level.

For any of the permissions in that page above, you can disable filtering based on the implied feature by explicitly declaring the implied feature explicitly, in a element, with an android:required="false" attribute. For example, to disable any filtering based on the CAMERA permission, you would add this declaration to the manifest file:

However, when you specify , all devices who do not have access to that feature are filtered.
..........

So the question is, can someone there at PhoneGapBuild consider this? It seems that just adding "android:required='false'" to the uses-feature nodes of the manifest would work around this issue. But I don't believe that we have the ability to modify that using just the config.xml file. We could try adding this attribute to the node but I'm doubtful that will work since it seems that the node gets mapped to the node when the Android build is made.

Does anyone have any further thoughts after learning this info?
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Alan Neveu, Champion

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Also, that post talks about the Nexus 7 screen size and how the manifest file needs to reference it explicitly. Again, when using PhoneGapBuild we don't have access to that manifest file, but here is the copy/paste from what the post is saying about this. Note the "special case for Nexus 7" after the other screen sizes:

<!--no small size screens -->

<!--Only hdpi and xhdpi for normal size screens -->

<!-- all large size screens -->

<!-- all xlarge size screens -->

<!-- Special case for Nexus 7 -->

Is this something that we can work around in some way while still using PhoneGapBuild?
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Alan Neveu, Champion

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Hmm, looks like my copy/paste of XML did not work. Please click this link to see what I am talking about:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11...