PhoneGap -> Blackberry ANT file name issues

[justind000]

This isn't so much a problem with jqmobile, but since it's aim is to be cross platform and good for phonegap I thought I'd throw this out.

Making a blackberry widget app requires a couple file name changes. ANT doesn't like - in file names so I had to rename all the files and go through the css to get it working. Not hard, just something that can be easily changed at the source.

It worked very well in the blackberry widget I made, by the way.

[ghost]

You should've mentioned that the problem is with the hyphens in the file names :)

[toddparker]

This will require changing the image file names and the final minifed js and css filenames. Anything else?

[justind000]

That was it. Rename the js CSS and image files. Then change the CSS to match the new image names and it works great.

[ghost]

Yeah if that can be done it'd definitely be an awesome time-saver.

[filmaj]

Just to clarify, this isn't a problem with PhoneGap so much as the BlackBerry Widget Packager that is part of the WebWorks project.

The Widget Packager "validates" names that are part of your application package, includes checking for reserved directory names as well as checking file names. Until RIM can fix this (or commit build instructions and tests for the WebWorks repo so we can fix it ourselves), you have to rename files before packaging.

[pfreitag]

Just some additional info it also does not allow underscores in file names (so if you are considering fixing it by using underscores instead of dashes that will not work either).

[pfreitag]

In addition I found that it doesn't allow more than one dot per file name, eg jquerymobile.js works but jquery.mobile.js does not.

[tomburger]

I know it should be primarily fixed by RIM, but can you please fix the file names in jQuery mobile, so we can move on with this?

[toddparker]

I just asked my contact at RIM about whether they can tweak this on their end or if we need to rename file in jQuery Mobile. We can do it, but it will be a potentially breaking change for people already using it so I'm shooting for the least disruptive fix. Stay tuned!

[mmeytin]

Just curious, if there are any updates on this. We're building a PhoneGap application for several platforms, and at this point we have to manually rename all the filenames and references to dashes in jQuery Mobile to get it working under BlackBerry. I don't know why did RIM decide to the use of basic characters like that, definitely not a smart move on their part. Thanks in advance for any updates!

[toddparker]

Not sure. I checked in with the PhoneGap guys a while back to see if they were going to tweak things on their end to support a later version of webworks but I didn't get a definitive answer. I'd prefer to have it get resolved upstream because, like you said, our naming is pretty standard. I totally understand that this is a hassle for devs though.

[mmeytin]

Todd, thanks for the update! But a question - wouldn't this be a problem even for non-PhoneGap BlackBerry users? Since with Beta 1 jQuery Mobile now supports BB 5, I guess this is not an issue for a straight, "off-the-web server" usage scenario?

[toddparker]

Nope. Our demos & docs work great on BB5 and 6 on the web. The issue as I understand it is in WebWorks that packages the files for BlackBerry. From what I heard, there is a newer version of WW that handles dashes in filenames but PhoneGap doesn't use/support that version of WW, only the one that chokes on these characters. That's why I'd rather this is resolved on that side of the house if possible.

[toddparker]

Closing this one as won't fix. Hoping that the newer version of WebWorks is added to PhoneGap since that should resolve this issue. It's too late for us to make this type of change.