But now I have found the right incantation:

 
$ cat source_file.xml | tidy -q -xml -i -w 300 > reformatted_file.xml

1. Update to 1.3.0:

$> sudo gem install rubygems-update -v 1.3.0
...
 
$> sudo update_rubygems
...

2. Update to the most recent release

$> sudo gem update --system
...

3. Check the version

$> gem --version
1.3.5

That’s it.

So here is another tutorial on how to get these things working together:

1. Download Growl from: http://growl.info/
2. Install the downloaded dmg
3. Install growlnotify from Extras/growlnotify folder in the dmg

Copy the folder to your desktop
Open the terminal and run following commands.

View Code BASH

$ cd Desktop/growlnotify $ sudo sh install.sh

4. Create

   ~/.autotest_images/

   folder.

5. Save following images into the folder.

Install following gems: ZenTest, redgreen:

$ [sudo] gem install ZenTest
$ [sudo] gem install redgreen

Download the script below and rename the file to .autotest and place it in your home folder user folder.

##!/usr/bin/ruby
require 'autotest/redgreen'
require 'autotest/timestamp'
 
class AutoTestNotifier
  IMAGEDIR = File.expand_path("~/.autotest_images")
  FAIL_IMG = IMAGEDIR + "/rails_fail.png"
  PASS_IMG = IMAGEDIR + "/rails_pass.png"
  PEND_IMG = IMAGEDIR + "/rails_pending.png"
 
  def self.growl(data)
    AutoTestNotifier.new(data).notify
  end
 
  def initialize(data)
    @priority = nil
    @result = {}
    if data.last =~ /examples/i
      parse_spec_message(data)
    else
      parse_unit_message(data)
    end
  end
 
  def parse_spec_message(data)
    @result[:type] = :spec
    output = data.last.strip.gsub(/\e\[\d+m/, '').split(',')
    output.map do |i| 
      val, lbl = i.strip.split(" ")
      @result[lbl.to_sym] = val.to_i
    end
  end
 
  def parse_unit_message(data)
    @result[:type] = :unit
    output = data.last.chop.split(',')
    output.map do |i| 
      val, lbl = i.strip.split(" ")
      @result[lbl.to_sym] = val.to_i
    end
  end
 
  def img
    return FAIL_IMG if @result[:errors].to_i > 0 || @result[:failures].to_i > 0 
    return PEND_IMG if @result[:pending].to_i > 0 
    return PASS_IMG
  end
 
  def title
    pre = @result[:type] == :spec ? "Spec Tests" : "Unit Tests"
    return "#{pre} Failed:" if @result[:errors].to_i > 0 || @result[:failures].to_i > 0 
    return "#{pre} Pending:" if @result[:pending].to_i > 0 
    return "#{pre} Passed:"
  end
 
  def to_s
    msg = ""
    msg << "Examples: #{@result[:examples]}     " if @result[:examples]
    msg << "Tests: #{@result[:tests]}     " if @result[:tests]
    msg << "Assertions: #{@result[:assertions]}     " if @result[:assertions]
    msg << "Pending: #{@result[:pending]}      " if @result[:pending]
    msg << "Failures: #{@result[:failures]}     "
    msg << "Errors: #{@result[:errors]}" if @result[:errors]
    msg
  end
 
  def priority
    return @priority || 0
  end
 
  def stick
    return ""
  end
 
  def notify
    cmd = "growlnotify -n autotest --image #{img} -p #{priority} -m '#{to_s}' #{title} #{stick}" 
    `#{cmd}`
  end
 
end
 
module Autotest::Growl
  Autotest.add_hook :ran_command do |at|
    AutoTestNotifier.growl(at.results)
  end
end

This should take care for both the UnitTest and RSpec messages.

Recently I have tried to update my gems and I have noticed that things just stopped to a grinding halt when it got to libxml-ruby. It appears that the 0.9.9 spectacularly barfed all over itself and it stopped other gems from being updated. Not good!

I started Googling for some answers but since the release has only 2 days I guess not that many people have run into it just yet.

I have found a repo with a patch:

http://github.com/tadman/libxml-ruby/tree/master

If you not paranoid you may do:

$ git clone git://github.com/tadman/libxml-ruby.git 
$ cd libxml-ruby
$ ruby setup.rb
$ rake gem
$ sudo gem install admin/pkg/libxml-ruby-0.9.9.gem

If you are paranoid then you would go to the install directory where the original gem broke:

$ cd /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/libxml-ruby-0.9.9
$ cd ext/libxml

Edit:

ruby_xml_html_parser_context.c
ruby_xml_parser_context.c
by inserting “extern” before “ID IO_ATTR;” statement.

After these files are updated

$ cd ../..
$ ruby setup.rb
$ rake gem
$ sudo gem install admin/pkg/libxml-ruby-0.9.9.gem

I know a few developers who write apps for the AppStore. They aren’t millionaires. Some of them barely make enough money to cover their bills. Others, work second jobs because the income from the AppStore is just not enough to pay for their necessities.

Yes, there are few people who were lucky enough to make good money but, if you think for a second, how many of those have you heard about? 3, 5, 20? And how many apps are in the AppStore? The last number was around 18′000. So who do you think you are stealing from? You may as well go to the poorest part of town you live in, find a woman who is working 2 jobs to support her and two children and then rob her. That’s pretty much an real life equivalent of you cracking an app from the AppStore.

Now that you know how it feels from the other side of the AppStore let me tell you a little bit of what happens when the third party developers can’t make enough money. People like I and my friends have two choices.

First, is just to say “fuck it!” and do something else where we can make some money. The second option is to develop ad supported apps. Both of these options aren’t very good for you.

See, unlike artists (musicians, actors, producers) we developers can do other things. We can work for companies and write business apps for them. We can create subscription web apps for which you will shell out way more money then a simple app on your phone. We can work for big companies Apple, Adobe, Microsoft and create apps that are locked
so tight that you will need a blood sample to authenticate yourself as a user. It’s not the most attractive work but it does pay the bills. We can do that but then you will not get the cool apps on your phone.

Honestly, most of the indy developers would rather create apps for you. Find out what you need and help you out with the solution. All we ask is for you to help us pay our bills.

Now the second option. Adware! Sounds almost like a curse word and it really is. When someone develops adware they are no longer working for you. The are working for the people who peddle their products through the software. You will never have as good experience with adware as with software that is developed for you. You loose the control of what features are added to the program because you aren’t paying for it. This is why most adware software are pieces of garbage.

Take for example the shows you get on TV stations supported by commercials and the ones that are not. Most of the shows on commercials supported channels are designed to sell you stuff. The plot is created to build the suspense up and stop for a commercial break. They will always leave you hanging and show you the stuff they want to sell to you.

On the other hand when you watch shows from stations which do not have to rely on sponsors you will get the whole story. They don’t have to worry about placing the ads and creating the shows with ads in mind. They just want to give YOU the best experience. The best show.

Similar things you will find in software. Either you pay for the best experience there is or you are going to get junk that sells you other junk. Your choice.

The last thing I would like to bring to your attention is the word “honor.” Where is their honor? I realize that some people might have forgotten the word. Others, may be confused by the myriad of definitions.

I am talking about this one:

honor
- noun
“honesty, fairness, or integrity in one’s beliefs and actions”

Is cracking $0.99 app worth giving up your integrity?

Please comment and let me know what you think.

If you are impatient and just want the script jump to the bottom of the post and download image_processor.rb but if you want to know how it works then read on.

This script scales the images for the post.


First we take the original image and scale it by 50% –

source = original.scale(0.5)

Next we strip out the status bar with crop method:

source = source.crop(0, 10, 160, 240)

We create a transparent canvas that is 10px wider and 10px longer and another identical canvas that we are going to use for the shadow. On the image_shadow canvas we draw a rectangle with the same dimensions as the original image. In the source file the rectangle is created by the “drop_shadow_rectangle” function.

We use the image_shadow canvas to create two shadows, first is the actual shadow, the second we use as a mask to soften the shadow itself.

We apply the first shadow to the original canvas with “OverCompositeOp” option and then we apply the mask on top of that with “CopyOpacityCompositeOp” option.



We apply the scaled and cropped image on top of the shadow and draw a white border. The white border is only necessary when the screen shot is dark to distinguish the shadow from the image.

Finally we write the image to a file with “canvas.write” method.

Source Code

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require 'rubygems'
require 'rmagick'
 
include Magick
 
img_filename = "example.png"
 
 
# Helper function to create new name
def new_name(img_filename, modifier = "_shadow")
  chunks = img_filename.split(".")
  chunks[0..-2].join(".") + modifier + ".#{chunks[-1]}"  
end
 
# Creates drop show rectangle
def drop_shadow_rectangle(x,y,width,height)
  gc = Draw.new
  gc.fill_color("black")
  gc.rectangle(x,y,width,height)
end
 
# creates frame draw object
def white_frame(x,y,width, height)
  frame = Draw.new
  frame.fill_opacity(0)
  frame.stroke_color("white")
  frame.rectangle(x,y,width,height)
end
 
 
def add_shadow(img_filename)  
  original = ImageList.new(img_filename)
 
  source = original.scale(0.5)
  source.write(new_name(source.filename, "_scaled"))
  source = source.crop(0, 10, 160, 240)
 
  canvas = Image.new(source.columns + 10, source.rows + 10) do
    self.background_color = "transparent"
  end
 
  # Generates intermediate images
  #source.write(new_name(source.filename, "_stripped"))
  #canvas.write(new_name(source.filename, "_raw_canvas"))
 
  image_shadow = Image.new(canvas.columns, canvas.rows) do
    self.background_color = "transparent"
  end
 
  drop_shadow_rectangle(0, 0, source.columns, source.rows).draw(image_shadow)
 
  blur = 1
  x, y = 1, 1
 
  image_shadow = image_shadow.shadow(x, y, blur, 1)
  shadow_mask = image_shadow.shadow(x, y, blur, 1)
 
  # Place the shadow
  canvas.composite!(image_shadow, 0, 0, OverCompositeOp)
 
  # Place the mask to soften the shadow
  canvas.composite!(shadow_mask, 0, 0, CopyOpacityCompositeOp)
 
  # Intermediate image  
  # canvas.write(new_name(source.filename, "_canvas_with_shadow"))
 
  # Now place the image on the canvas
  canvas.composite!(source, 1, 1, OverCompositeOp)
 
  # And draw the white border on top of the image
  white_frame(0, 0, source.columns, source.rows).draw canvas
 
  # save the final image
  canvas.write(new_name(source.filename, "_canvas_with_image"))
end
 
add_shadow(img_filename)

Taking the screenshots is not a big deal.

1. On your device Hold the sleep/wake button and click the “home” button.
2. Connect the device to your mac and import your images to iPhoto
3. Select the imported images in iPhoto and drag them to a desired folder.

Unfortunately you can’t use these raw images. Apple requires you convert them to JPEG format and recommends you crop out the iPhone status bar. This task for many people mean opening each screenshot in Photoshop, cropping the image to “320 x 460″ and saving it as a JPG.

One may say: “It’s only a few images” but if you often update to your applications UI updating screenshots becomes one more thing you have to do. Additionally, if your website requires screenshots of different size or thumbnails, your screenshot updating task will take more and more time.

There is a better way of dealing with screenshots. You can automate the whole process with a few simple lines of ruby code using rmagick gem.

To use rmagick you will need to install the gem. You can find a link to installation instructions at the end of the post in the references section.

After you have rmagick successfully installed you can start processing your images.

I keep all my marketing material in <project_root>/marketing folder to keep it together in a single source code repository (git), however you are welcome to keep it anywhere you like.

To use my script you will need to prepare a few things:

1. Create your working folder (in my project – “marketing”)
2. In the working folder create three folders “raw_images”, “itunesconnect” and “web_images”
3. Copy the script to the working folder
4. Copy your raw ‘png’ screenshots to raw_images
5. If you are copying the files from iPhoto you may want to rename them to something human readable like “main_view.png”
6. Open your favorite terminal app and run the script

The script does 4 things.

1. Crops the status bar and saves screenshots for itunesconnect in the itunesconnect folder
2. Saves the cropped screenshots in the web_images folder
3. Reduces the image by 50% and saves it in web_images folder with new name <filename>_50.jpg
4. Creates a thumbnail by reducing the original image to 25% of it’s original size and saves it in web_images folder with new name following schema <filename>_thumb.jpg

require 'rubygems'
require 'rmagick'
 
Dir.glob('raw_images/*').each do |original|
  path = original.split('/')
  name = path[1].split('.').first
 
  itunes_img_path = "itunesconnect/#{name}.jpg"
 
  web_img_path = "web_images/#{name}.jpg"
  web_img_scaled_path = "web_images/#{name}_50.jpg"
  web_img_thumb_path = "web_images/#{name}_thumb.jpg"
 
  original = Magick::ImageList.new(original)
  cropped = original.crop(0,20, 320, 460)
  cropped.write(itunes_img_path)
  cropped.write(web_img_path)
 
  scaled = cropped.scale(0.5)
  scaled.write(web_img_scaled_path)
 
  thumb = cropped.scale(0.25)
  scaled.write(web_img_thumb_path)
end

References

Rmagick installation instructions
iTunes Connect Developer Guide can be found on the itunesconnect website in Manage Your Applications Section.

1. Update iphone sdk to 2.2
2. Write some more functionality for my FitTimer app.

Unfortunately the second part of my plan was never started because updating the SDK took most of my Saturday and Sunday.

The official update was not very difficult but after I have installed SDK 2.2 and updated my test devices I no longer was able to install my apps. I have gotten this nasty CodeSign error:

"CodeSign error: a valid provisioning profile is required for product
type 'Application' in SDK 'Device - iPhone OS 2.2"

I have done everything from adjusting project settings to regenerating certificates and provisioning profiles. I have not gotten much traction with any of my efforts. The solution came after I have found a post claiming there is a bug in SDK2.2 that causes for the project files to get corrupted.

So I have pulled out my trusty (MacVim) editor and opened up the: ProjectName.xcodeproj/project.pbxproj file and started snooping around.

I have found that I had multiple Build Configuration sections and my

"PROVISIONING_PROFILE[sdk=iphoneos*]" =
   "xxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx";

entry had a different number then my installed provisioning profiles.

So here are the steps to get it working again:

1. SAVE YOUR WORK JUST IN CASE THIS SOLUTION DOES NOT WORK FOR YOUR PROBLEM
2. Save your old project file.
3. Go to ~/Library/MobileDevices/Provisioning Profiles
4. Figure out which profile is the one relating to your project. Sometimes the profiles are saved with UUID as the file name so you may have to run grep with your project’s name to figure out which one it is.

$ grep myAppName *
Binary file xxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx.mobileprovision matches

5. Copy the xxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx number.
6. Save your current work and close XCode
7. Go to yourProjectDirectory/ProjectName.xcodeproj/ and using a text editor (MacVim for me) open the project.pbxproj file
8. Find all "PROVISIONING_PROFILE[sdk=iphoneos*]" entries and replace the assignment value with the number you have copied in step 4.
9. Save the project.pbxproj file
10. Reopen Xcode and recompile your projects. The CodeSign error should be gone.

I hope this helps and saves you a lot of time.

Good luck and if you have some time please check out my app: FitTimer

Updated: [important]
Please read Big3’s post https://devforums.apple.com/message/15497 and file bug report with apple. Send them your saved project file so they can figure out why XCode projects are getting corrupted.