Creating custom viewer apps for Android and Amazon devices

Provide a viewer name that appears below the App icon. As a general rule, use 13 characters or fewer to avoid truncating the name.

Specify the most recent viewer.

The DPS App Builder includes a previous version for backup purposes.

Specify the viewer type (see Types of custom viewer apps). The availability of some options depends on the type of account.

Choose an option to determine where your app can be submitted: Google Play Store or Amazon Appstore for Android. You can also choose None to create an app that you don’t intend to submit to a store.

Indicate whether you want the library to display in Grid View only, Cover View only, or both. In the library, Grid View displays eight folios per page. Cover View displays only one folio per page. For smaller devices, some publishers prefer displaying the Cover View only.

Provide the title that will appear at the top of the Viewer library. For best results, use no more than 35 characters. At this time, use only alphanumeric or numeric characters. Do not use special characters such as apostrophes (‘), or unexpected results may occur on Android devices.

Provide the appropriate Adobe ID and password for your app. Specify the same Adobe ID used for publishing the folios for this app. Make sure that the Adobe ID is assigned the Application role in the Account Administration tool.

By default, viewers on Android devices display folios of any size. To ensure that the viewer displays only folios that match the device size, you can select an option in DPS App Builder. At this time, strict rendition logic applies only to 7" devices. This option is primarily useful for preventing unwanted iOS folio renditions from appearing on 7" Kindle Fire devices. If you have created Android renditions such as 1232x752 folios, do not turn on strict renditions when you create the viewer for the Google App Store.

Select this option to allow your users to bookmark their favorite articles in the app. If enabled, a Bookmarks icon appears on the upper right area of the viewer nav bar. Bookmarks are not yet available in the iPhone viewer.

By default, a 6-pixel scrollbar area appears on the right side of articles in a folio. If you select this option, the scrollbar appears only when the user is scrolling in the article.

If you select this option, invisible hot zones appear on the left and right sides of every article (or page if the article scrolls only horizontally). Tapping a hot zone jumps to the next or previous article. Hot zones are especially useful for full-screen overlays, such as slideshows. Hot zones are not available for iPhone viewers.

If a button appears in the hot zone area, tapping the area triggers the button. For any other overlay that appears in the hot zone area, tapping the area triggers the hot zone.

If you select this option, tapping in the hot zone area at both the top and bottom of the page displays the navigation bars (also called the “HUD”). Tapping anywhere outside the hot zones does not display the navigation bars.

Buttons take precedence over the folio-view hot zones, the folio-view hot zones take precedence over the left and right hot zones, and the folio-view hot zones take precedence over all non-button overlays.

If you select this option, your customers can opt out of data tracking. They can use the library settings in the viewer app to opt in at any time. This option is especially useful for regions in which you are obligated to allow users to opt out of data tracking.

You can customize all strings stored in the viewer in all supported languages. For example, you can customize button text in the library and text in dialog boxes. Select this option, and then click Generate Template to download an XML template to your Documents folder. You can then edit this XML file and specify it in DPS App Builder.

Adobe provides the Integrator ID when your entitlement account is provisioned within our servers. This option is available only to DPS Enterprise customers. Contact your Adobe representative for information about the Integrator ID.

Specify the URL where customers can sign up for a subscription through the publisher. This URL is used when users tap a “Subscribe Now” button in your Viewer.

Specify the URL where customers can retrieve their forgotten password.

This option allows the Viewer app’s ID and Version strings to be sent in entitlement API calls.

Select this option to display a full-width subscription banner in the viewer library. For Android viewers, the entitlement banner appears above the subscription tile.

Specify the URL containing content that appears in the upper section of the viewer library.

Select the .zip file containing the assets to be used as the banner if the user is not connected to the web. The .zip file should include a single HTML file, one or more image files, and no CSS files. The .zip file should not contain subfolders; all content should be on the same level.

Specify the height of the banner displayed in the viewer library.

Specify a 467x120-pixel (recommended) button image with a .png extension. This image appears in the library when the device is sideways.

Specify a 255x145-pixel (recommended) button image with a .png extension. This image appears in the library when the device is upright.

Specify the default subscription SKU for your Amazon subscription. This SKU can contain as many as 150 characters. Use the subscription SKU that you specify in the Amazon Appstore Developer Portal (https://developer.amazon.com). You can specify either the parent SKU or one of the child SKUs that identifies the term, or duration, of the subscription. If you specify a child SKU, it becomes the default selection.

Specify a URL that is displayed in an in-app browser window when the customer taps the subscription tile. This webpage can include messaging that is not necessarily related to subscriptions. Indicate whether this dialog box should be displayed before or after the customer purchases the subscription.

The icons that you specify will be used on the Android home screen when installed, and in the app store. Provide 36x36, 48x48, and 72x72 pixel icons in PNG format. Do not scale up smaller artwork. Use 72ppi, RGB, flattened, high-quality PNG files.

When the Viewer is started, a splash screen appears for approximately three seconds. Specify a 1280x800, 1920x1200, or 2048x1536 72-ppi 8-bit PNG file.

Use the same splash screen for all Android devices. Make sure that the core design fits within the smaller target device region, such as 800x600. Treat the outer area as a bleed. When the splash screen appears on smaller devices, the outside areas of the image are cropped.

For best results, make your splash screen image different from your cover. If the cover and the splash screen are identical, users may think the app is frozen when they first start it.

Specify an 800x1280, 1200x1920, or 1536x2048 72-ppi 8-bit PNG file.

If you apply fonts to text in your HTML stacks or web view overlays, you can include them in either the folio or the viewer. If you choose to include them in the viewer, compress the fonts in a .zip folder. The .zip file should not contain subfolders; all content should be on the same level.

Specify an application ID unique to the application. If possible, use the reverse domain syntax, such as “com.publisher.publication.” Use only periods, hyphens, and basic alphanumeric characters (a-z, A-Z, 0-9).

Download the .apk build, add it to one or more Android devices, and test the app. Follow the instructions in Publishing Process for Android Mobile Devices.

If your developer app works as designed, submit the app (.apk file) to the Google Play Store or Amazon Appstore. Follow the instructions in Publishing Process for Android Mobile Devices.

If you need to create different icons or make other changes, select the viewer app on the main page, and click Edit. Your information and selections remain intact. Make the necessary changes, and then submit the build again. Your app will be updated.

If you no longer need the developer and distribution apps, select the viewer app on the main page, and click Delete.