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Question : Can't Find a Good Visual Studio Code Guide on Publishing a Beta to IQ Store. Pictures included.

VirtualStar
over 2 years ago

Is there a step by step publish to IQ guide from Visual Studio Code? If anyone wanted to give some tips or show me a link where I can get better information in 2023- that would be great!

A lot of links over the years on the forum discussions no longer work , and it seems that everyone used Eclipse in the past ,and then(( I am guessing )) had to migrate over to Visual Studio Code at some point- so I keep finding old tutorials and discussions that don't really apply anymore in 2023 and are all for Eclipse.  

Questions: 

#1 Is using a .prg dragged into your device APP folder an okay practice to test watch faces on deal devices? Why do people use Beta Versions on the store instead? I feel like both processes are equally tedious. I am not sure if there are any advantages. I guess you really have to do 99% of the testing on a simulator. 

 I dragged a .prg of it into my Venu S2 device - not really knowing how you are supposed to test on device. I looked online and it said to upload an IQ Beta Version - But on a blog, someone said you could just click "Build for Device" then it creates a .prg file, and you just drag the .prg into your connected Garmin Watch's APP folder with the other .PRG, and it pops right up with all your other .prg files.

#2 When building a Beta for IQ from Visual Studio Code - is there any good guides that are more detailed on a step by step process? Do I have to build a .prg for each device? Does it do this automatically? I'm bouncing between https://developer.garmin.com/connect-iq/reference-guides/visual-studio-code-extension/ and Online Discussions to try to figure it out. When I dragged my .prg into the submit page for a beta test run - it did not accept it and wanted an "IQ Format". 

Thanks!!!!

**Watchface Information**

Watch Design above

Using Bitmap to draw progress bar currently

Program loads Animated Star Bitmap

 

Program loads Moon Phase Bitmaps for each moon phase

Also Din Condensed BM font .fnt is in there too for all the icons and text. 

I am only developing for Venu 2, Venu 2s, and Venu 2 Plus - These are the more powerful to run graphics and memory, but I am trying to optimize better.

So far my watch has a 44.1 kb/123.9kb memory usage, as everything is just in the view.mc and pretty much running a lot of it in onUpdate(). It hasn't had any issues in the simulator. 

My file size of the .prg is about 900KB I believe - and there is still plenty of space left on my watch. The average size of the .prg files that I downloaded online are about 200-300KB, and it is obviously bigger than average due to a lot of bitmaps.

I am trying to follow some of these guidelines for optimizing, and I am still going over it to make the memory better handled- still a work in progress:

(forums.garmin.com/.../performances-dos-and-donts)

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  • 0 over 2 years ago

    1. People use beta apps primarily so they can test app settings, because app settings don't work for sideloaded apps (i.e. apps which are "installed" by copying the PRG to the APPS folder). This is because Connect IQ (the phone app) and Garmin Express (the PC/Mac application) require metadata that's uploaded to the store in order to view and change app settings.

    2. It's the same process for building a beta app and a non-beta: use "Monkey C: Export Project" which generates an .IQ file (which is a zip file containing multiple PRGs), and upload the IQ file to the store. You just have to use different UUIDs for the beta version and the non-beta version of the same app, as they will count as different apps in the store. (There's no way to convert a beta app into a non-beta.)

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to FlowState

    Thank you so much! Okay - Yeah the .prg file worked on my watch- so I was wondering why it didn't work for the Beta IQ. Should I delete all the .prg debug stuff out of it before I Export the project?

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to VirtualStar

    Basic publishing to the store: https://developer.garmin.com/connect-iq/core-topics/publishing-to-the-store/

    on the first page where you specify the iq file, there is a checkbox for a beta app.  With a beta app, only you can install it.

    Beta apps: https://developer.garmin.com/connect-iq/core-topics/beta-apps/

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to VirtualStar
    VirtualStar said:
    Should I delete all the .prg debug stuff out of it before I Export the project?

    No, Export Project automatically builds every .PRG for every device (that's configured for your app) in a temporary folder, then assembles the .IQ package from those PRGs. It's unaffected by any files left over from a single device build.

    EDIT: Above I assumed you were just talking about deleting the built PRG (and other build artifacts). If you meant deleting debug code from your app, it's up to you, since the beta app will only be available to you.

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to VirtualStar
    VirtualStar said:
    Yeah the .prg file worked on my watch- so I was wondering why it didn't work for the Beta IQ.

    Just to clarify further:

    .PRG = app file for single device. suitable for sideloading to a device and testing in the sim

    .IQ = app package containing PRGs for all configured devices, plus metadata for things like app settings and display of recorded FIT data. suitable for uploading to the store (beta or non-beta)

    So basically the watch doesn't need the IQ file bc it contains way too much information (there are dozens of possible devices to build for), and the store can't use the PRG bc it doesn't have enough information (it needs the PRGs for all supported devices plus the metadata)

  • 0 over 2 years ago

    Thanks for the help @FlowState and @Jim_m_58 . I successfully published my first watch! Woohoo.