Dev Tip: Customize Your App's Splash Screen 34
The webOS 1.4 update brought many new and welcomed features. One such feature was the new app loading system. It brought immediate app launch feedback and gave a pleasant splash screen to make it seem as though apps were loading a lot faster.
The splash screen system has been generally quite well received, with only a small number of people not liking it.
Keen-eyed users may have noticed several webOS apps seemed to have customized splash screen. Apps like the web browser, tasks, and the calculator (as shown in the screenshot to the right) have customized splash screens.
Metaview is one such keen observer. On his blog, he explains how easy it is to add custom splash screens to any app. In fact, all developers need to do is create a 320x480px PNG background image and a 256x256px PNG icon image then add then to your app's appinfo.json file like:
"splashicon": "icon-256×256.png",
"splashBackground":"images/splash-screenshot-default.png",
Some might wonder why this neat new option is mysteriously absent from Palm's appinfo.json breakdown. Well, put simply, that page is a bit out of date. In fact, it still refers to "miniicon", when that was officially changed to "smallicon" a while ago. It's very doubtful that using a custom splash screen in your app you cause any app submission guideline issues.
This is a neat bit of customization allowed on Palm's part. It'll certainly be interesting to see how creative developers can get in the future with their own splash graphics.
34 Comments
16th
Nice, but won't that further slow the startup of the app?
By only a fraction of a second. You'd probably only notice if you have the metabolism of a hummingbird.
I'd already snuck around the calc app to see how it was done. For Wobble Words 2 (in review), I'm using the same company splash logo I already use as the background. Now when the app loads I immediately swap the company logo out (instead of having it hang around an extra second). In a sense, it's about the same time if not a touch faster to launch because it allowed me to use the "load time" to take care of branding business.
Branding is an excellent use of the splash icon. I always thought it was just the regular icon. Are there any examples of apps that use a different splash icon? Are we able to change the glowing behind the icon?
I'd love to get rid of the glow entirely. My solution was to use a blank.png as the loading card icon, so I end up with a glowy effect around my logo while it loads. Not a bad tradeoff for now.
I'm of the opinion that it feels longer to load...
Same time or faster in my case, because I'm using an image I'd be loading and displaying in any case.
I really like knowing that when I selected the app I wanted, it actually started opening (some apps made you wonder). And as far as taking more time to open, an extra 1-2 seconds is a fair trade-off.
It seems that most preinstalled apps have their own splash background. The only Palm-controlled apps that didn't were Video, Photos, Clock and the Prefernces apps. Clock, for example, can't have one because Palm doesn't know which theme you're using.
I've noticed that a few splash icons shift before the page comes full screen. Is that because of image misalignment?
My Dialer comes up with a Blank "ghost" card and a glowing telephone over that. I think it looks pretty classy and elegant.
I want to make the "splash card" to be clear, so only the icon "glows"
Can that be done?
these are the things I want to see on this site. I want more posts on how to make the PRE better and all the good about this phone.
i also think it seems slower
I want it so that a splash card is shown full screen instead of card view cough*patch please*cough
+1
I've been thinking like you, that the opening would feel even more responsive in most cases if the card just zoomed out to full size instead of sitting as a medium card until the app is almost ready. the Icon could then just pulse as the app loads
if you tap the preload card it will maximize and load alot faster you can also close the app ( flick the card up) before it loads or select another card you already have open and the newly opened app will continue to load in the background which I have found in my case saves time in the long run and makes multitasking easier.
You are so right! Just checked it out with several apps. They really DO load faster! Thanks for the tip!
I had noticed this in the 1.4 sdk sample code, but when I updated mine, it didn't display because the old one was cached. I just assumed it didn't work - guess I will try again.
I have two themes up with modified splash screens.
Maybe an illusion but I've been tweaking updates for the theme changing individual files and it does appear that a transparent launcher background does slow the start time of the app.
Do not flick a launcher screen away as it WILL load in the background and apps, the phone most notably, will start and work but not be able to be closed until you launch it again.
There's one default launcher background that used unless, presumably, an app has it's own, like the calculator example.
I don't believe this is true I've seen no performance issues or lag to suggest that flicking the preload away will cause it to load in the background. Though without a task manager there is no way to tell for sure maybe the jstop app will tell us something.
I hate the new load cards !!!
I love them!
is it true that flicking off an app during it's splash screen will cause it to open up in the background and not close until opened and closed again? (Or when rebooted I assume...)
http://www.prethemer.com/Blue_Metal_Glass_Orb-theme2063.html
I could be wrong, but my theory on why icons jump on the splash screen is that the background image is the wrong size.
For example, If your app is not a full screen app, I think the background image should be 320 x 452 (excluding the time/date stuff at the top). If your app is full screen, you should use 320x480px for the background image.
I noticed this on apps that are full screen and using the default card. Once the app was ready to run the card would resize from a non-full screen to a full screen ratio and the icon would appear to "jump" (Icon stays in center of card as it is resized from 320x452 to 320x480).
Good to read it.
But anyway, you could be my guests at Freelance Writing Jobm at any time.
just used jstop app to confirm that flicking away a preload card will cancel that app from loading and didn't even show up in the log for a second so it doesn't continue to load in the background if you flick it up before the app has loaded.
how about just installing the 800 mhz patch? I have it on my 1.3.5.1 doctored Pre and it's freaking FAST. Virtually no lag at all. Games load as fast as an iphone now. Minor heat issues when watching videos, but negligable.
how about just installing the 800 mhz patch? I have it on my 1.3.5.1 doctored Pre and it's freaking FAST. Virtually no lag at all. Games load as fast as an iphone now. Minor heat issues when watching videos, but negligable.
Thanks zechzz for clarifying the "flicking away the loading-up-app" question.
I don't like how when a app starts to open the quick launch icons hide. Sometimes, I want to open like 3 apps one right after the other and that makes it more difficult. With every update there are good and bad changes I suppose.
easy tap your wallpaper & the quick launch reappears.