Recently, I moved all of my Guild Wars content to a new website. I feel pretty good about the new content management system and the new direction of the website. But as I went to bed last night, I started thinking about 404 Errors – Page Not Found. I had forgotten to set up Apache Redirects. After having a dream about poor search engine ranking, I woke up and updated my .htaccess file. It was simple but important work. Without sending web traffic to the new location, I risked losing visitors. Fortunately, with Apache Redirects, I could point web visitors to the new locations. This should create a better experience for both Human and Robot visitors.
Continue reading “Apache Redirects – For When Your Web Pages Move”
When I would publish my Android Apps, the Google Developer Console would give me an unusual error. “The apk is not zipaligned. Please run the…” Blah, blah, blah… what’s Google complaining about now? Typically, I would just ignore this warning. Why should I care? Google didn’t prevent my app from being published, so I would just let it go. But recently, I decided to give this another look. How do I zipalign my apps? I went digging through the Android Developer documents and I was finally able to publish my apps properly. Although, as usual, it was a bit of a struggle. That’s because I hadn’t updated my Android software in a while. It seems that some things have changed in Android land.
Despite the grumpy feelings, I decided to give iPhone development another go. So far, I’m pleased that I did. While converting my Photics Forums app to the iPhone / iPod Touch, I learned some new tricks. For the longest time, I was struggling with getting my iPhone apps to match my Android apps. I was having problems with Reachability and Landscape mode. With the completion of my new app, that’s no longer an issue. While waiting for my app to be approved, I have some time for reflection on my progress.
Ahh… my article starts out with a hedge… a single word that could negate the value of this tutorial… theory! Apple has built a walled garden. It is their happy little nirvana, filled with thousands of apps and billions of downloads. Your apps are invited to this party, if you can get past the checklist. If you have an online app, there is one pesky requirement that could instantly thwart your dreams – reachability. Your app needs to test for Internet connectivity. If it doesn’t, it risks rejection!
Some of you might be wondering, “Hey Mike… where have you been? Where are the site updates?” My mind has been elsewhere, trapped in the iPhone SDK. A lot has happened during the last two weeks. After a decade of being grumpy with Apple, I bought a Mac. It was required for developing iPhone apps. After my success with Android, I decided to try iPhone development. Yet, owning a Mac was far from the most difficult requirement.