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Build Settings overview

Twixl Support Team Updated: - Created :

    The Build Settings for your apps are managed and stored on the Twixl platform. This article explains how to create a Build Setting and what the available settings exactly mean.

    What is a Build Setting?

    Before you can actually build your app in Twixl Publisher, Twixl needs some information in order to be able to build an app. This information has to be entered in the Build Settings on the Twixl platform.

    A Build Setting consists of a number of configuration options that determine the type of app that you will be creating, and which features will be enabled.

    E.g. a build setting can contain the following info: which user interface languages are supported, the artwork (app icon, etc…), code signing information, etc.

    Once a build setting has been saved, creating a build of the app only requires a few mouse clicks. A build setting can also be exported so it can be imported in another Twixl account.

    How to create a new build setting

    1. Go to the Twixl platform
    2. Login
    3. Select the app you need to create a build setting for
    4. From the App Menu, select Build Settings
    Build Settings

    Start from scratch

    If you want to create a new build setting, select one of the following:

    1. Add Build Setting
    2. Add your first build setting
    Build Setting
    Add Build Setting

    1. General

    • Name: The name of your build setting.
    • Home Screen Name: The name of your app, visible on the home screen of your mobile device
    • Build for: Which types of devices are supported? Phone, tablets or both?

    2. UI Languages

    Here you can select the user interface languages your app will support. This is related to Twixl-specific messages that may be shown to the user/reader. Either you can check only the languages that are relevant for your market, but there's no harm in just checking all the languages.

    3. Artwork

    • App Icon: You can choose a different icon for iOS and Android
    • Launch Image: The launch image of your app - see also this article.
    • Launch screen Text Style: Text will be displayed on top of the launch image. Select the text color that works best with your image.

    Especially for Android devices, creating an App icon can be confusing as the result might show something different than intended. This is because a lot of manufacturers of mobile Android devices create their own UI on top of the Android UI. If you want to be certain your design fits most devices, check your icon with Android Studio! Read all about it on this Android helppage.

    Code Signing

    4. Code Signing

    Account - Apple Developer
    • Apple Team ID: Required to code sign and build your app. Navigate to https://developer.apple.com/account and click on Membership in the left column, copy the Team ID, a 10-character code, and paste it in the Team ID field.
    • OTA Deployment URL: Only applies to Ad Hoc and Enterprise builds. Should be a https URL. See this KB-article for more info.
    • google-services.json: Used for setting up Push Notifications on Android devices. See this KB-article for more info.

    5. Bundle Identifiers

    • A bundle ID or bundle identifier uniquely identifies an app. This means that no two applications can have the same bundle identifier. To avoid conflicts, Apple encourages developers to use reverse domain name notation for choosing an application's bundle identifier, like com.twixlmedia.appname . If the value for an App Type is empty, that App Type can't be built.  We recommend to use the same identifier for all app types.

    6. Apple App Tracking Transparency

    Apple introduced App Tracking Transparency in iOS 14.5. If you want to ask permission to your users to track them, you can enable this option in the build settings for your app, and you can enter the correct usage description of why you are asking permission in all relevant languages.

    What happens when users select 'Do not track' ?

    Please note that Twixl doesn't change anything to the way cookies are handled in online web content. In order to allow you to handle cookies properly when a user asks not to be tracked, you can read the trackingAuthorizationStatus custom variable from within your web page to determine whether or not the user has allowed to be tracked. This variable can be read by using the tp-get-custom-vars:// URL scheme from within JavaScript.

    How to import an existing 'legacy' build setting

    If you have previously built Twixl apps using a release before Twixl Publisher 12, it's good to know that you can easily upload your existing build settings to the Twixl platform:

    1. Open the Twixl macOS App.
    2. Select the Tools menu.
    3. Select Show Legacy Build Settings...
    4. Finder will open the folder where your legacy build settings are located.
    5. Select the relevant build setting and compress it  (.zip).
    6. Go to the Builds Settings of your app on the Twixl platform.
    7. Select 'import' to upload your build setting.
    8. Upload it to the Twixl platform.
    9. All done!

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