978204 - Submitting an app - icon frustrations

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Marketplace Graveyard :: Developer Pages, enhancement)

Description

[Andy McKay]

Submitted an app with this:

    "icons": {
        "64": "/static/img/feeds-64.png"
    },

Validator returns:

    An icon of at least 128x128 pixels must be provided.
    60x60px icon should be provided for Firefox OS.
    Suggested icon sizes not included.

Ok, I'll give a 128x128 and 60x60px icon.

    "icons": {
        "60": "/static/img/feeds-60.png"
        "128": "/static/img/feeds-128.png"
    },

Validator returns:

    90x90px icon should be provided for Firefox OS.

Thanks for that! 3rd try:

    "icons": {
        "60": "/static/img/feeds-60.png",
        "90": "/static/img/feeds-90.png",
        "128": "/static/img/feeds-128.png"
    },

Validator returns:

    120x120px icon should be provided for Firefox OS.

F***! 4th try:

    "icons": {
        "60": "/static/img/feeds-60.png",
        "90": "/static/img/feeds-90.png",
        "120": "/static/img/feeds-120.png",
        "128": "/static/img/feeds-128.png"
    },

Validator returns:

    Icon size does not match.
 
Thats because I accidentally had a 128x128 as my 120px icon. Didn't tell me that though. 5th try:

    "icons": {
        "60": "/static/img/feeds-60.png",
        "90": "/static/img/feeds-90.png",
        "120": "/static/img/feeds-120.png",
        "128": "/static/img/feeds-128.png"
    },

Validator returns:

    Suggested icon sizes not included.

What icon sizes? Where? What are you talking about? Ah you have to click on the full validation report. That says I need 32x32 and 256x256. Ok, lets get those. 6th try:

    "icons": {
        "32": "/static/img/feeds-32.png",
        "60": "/static/img/feeds-60.png",
        "90": "/static/img/feeds-90.png",
        "120": "/static/img/feeds-120.png",
        "128": "/static/img/feeds-128.png"
        "256": "/static/img/feeds-256.png"
    },

Validator returns:

    Your app passed validation with no errors and 1 message.
    App name may be truncated on Firefox OS devices.

Yay! Happy dance.

Can we:

* make "Icon size does not match." message tell us which icon it is.
* list *all* the icon sizes we are expecting right off the bat
* in the case of showing "Suggested icon sizes not included.", my first instinct is to assume its talking about the icon sizes mentioned in the report, not some other sizes. That message could be better worded as "Suggested icon sizes of 32 and 256" not included.

Perhaps its because I didn't click on the full validation report, this is all my fault. But I'd personally want lots and lots of information up front, instead of having to remember to click on full validation. I went back and looked at the full validation report for my first submission and it listed the following icon sizes I needed, 32, 60, 128, 256. But it still didn't mention 90 and 120.

Comment 1

[krupa raj[:krupa]]

can we not have the user give us one icon and then we resize it and just have them approve it?

Comment 2

[Christopher Van Wiemeersch [:cvan]]

(In reply to krupa raj[:krupa] from comment #1)
> can we not have the user give us one icon and then we resize it and just
> have them approve it?

These API pain points are nearly identical to the pain points experienced by a developer using a browser submitting an app.

To alleviate these pain points, at the Portland work week Kevin and Chuck made an auto image resizer for the submission flow.
There's an image cropper out there: http://deepliquid.com/content/Jcrop.html
And potch even made his own entirely client-side resizer+cropper which he should put on GitHub™.

This bug is for the API, yes, but we should figure out what our game plan is and do it on the front end too. -> Kevin and Chuck

Comment 3

[Andy McKay]

Note that after doing all this, B2G completely ignored all my icons and used a rocket ship.

Comment 4

[Andy McKay]

(In reply to Christopher Van Wiemeersch [:cvan] from comment #2)
> These API pain points are nearly identical to the pain points experienced by
> a developer using a browser submitting an app.

I didn't use the API to submit, I used a browser. I believe an easy first step is to improve the error messages and make them consistent and easy to understand.

Comment 5

[Chuck Harmston [:chuck]]

Related: this thread about a potential manifest-builder in the submission flow.

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/mozilla.dev.marketplace/RPdaSzpElSA

Comment 6

[Potch [:potch]]

Given that the platform *will* resize icons so long as a large (128px) size is provided, are these validator messages warnings or errors? If they are warnings, seems like it's not a big deal.

Comment 7

[Andy McKay]

My frustration was that the validator didn't give clear summary messages and it didn't tell you all the values at once. If you submitted it would tell you needed a 60px icon, but not 90px or 120px. When you submit a 60px icon, it tells you need a 90px icon and so on. The "Suggested icon sizes" is completely unrelated to those messages and so on.

I think this is much clearer and was just a few simple string changes.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/560jiu49a0qzgjq/Screenshot%202014-03-03%2010.07.48.png

https://github.com/mozilla/zamboni/commit/ad2cfeb83108a52b1a803200077e214cee28e4c3
https://github.com/mozilla/app-validator/commit/24b5e1a7a240c0d95611f124f7144676d8609f5f

I think bug 924629 covers the question of why we need all these icon sizes and what should be documented.

As for an automatic resize, manifest builder, I suspect that might be more than one bug.