Not possible to create ios-apps with å ä ö in the display name anymore

[Botilada]

I have created apps for app store using Animate and AIR before where the "display name" as Apple calls it contains å, ä, ö. In Animate it is called "app name" in the dialog box for AIR for ios settings. It's the word underneath the icon on the ipad/iphone.

Suddenly this is no longer possible and Apples error messages refers to "app thinning". Removing å, ä, ö makes the app end up in itunes connect. But I would like to be able to use å, ä, ö in  my app names. Any clues to what I can do? Or will AIR do this for me in the future?

[kglad]

you can manually edit your manifest, but if this is apple issue, that's not going to help.  if it's an animate issue, you should be able to work around it by manually editing your manifest and, if aniimate overwrites it, change its properties to read only.

[Colin Holgate]

The way I remember it (it's a few years since I needed to use an exotic name for the icon), if you edit the XML to change the app name, the AIR settings honor that, and leaves the name field as not editable.

[Colin Holgate · Accepted solution]

The display name can include odd characters, but you would need to use escape characters in the app descriptor XML. I think that it's the name of the application file that needs to be just roman characters.

In the XML there is a filename, that would be the English - non exotic character version. And there is a name section, where you give the string to appear under the icon. Here's an example where the English title was Lift & Haul (where even the ampersand is a problem), and the German title was to be "Thomas H&T":

    <filename>Lift & Haul</filename>

    <description></description>

    <name>

        <text xml:lang="en">Lift & Haul</text>

        <text xml:lang="de">Thomas H&T</text>

    </name>

My hope is that the filename value is what the app thinning is affected by, and the language specific strings should get through.

Watch out for the content tag too. That's the published name for the swf. Don't use any fancy characters there.

[Botilada]

The name I fill in the Animate field "app name" appears in the info-plist on four places, as:

- CFBundleExecutable

- CFBundleName

- CFBundleDisplayName

- CTInitialWindowTitle

According to your suggestions I have now changed the "name" in the xml-file. It now looks like this:

<filename>Vartecken</filename>

<name>V&#229;rtecken</name>

Any changes made in the xml is reflected in Animate when I open the dialog box there. So with V&#229;rtecken in the xml the word Vårtecken turns up in the app name in the dialog. And this in return ends upp in the xml so opening the dialog box makes the xml look like this:

<filename>Vårtecken</filename>

<name>Vårtecken</name>

So, therefore I made the xml-file read only (after correcting it back). And then created an ipa-file with the expected result in the xml.

In the info-plist it now says Vartecken in:

- CFBundleExecutable

And Vårtecken in:

- CFBundleName

- CFBundleDisplayName

- CTInitialWindowTitle

The new file was uploaded to Itunes Connect without the "thinning"-error message. And I could proceed with submitting the app. Problem most likely solved. I will just have to check if the sharp version turns out ok. It takes a few days for Apple to review it. Thank you both for your help.

[Colin Holgate]

One trick to avoid the read only stage, at least it used to work, is to use File/Publish. Don't reopen the iOS settings after fixing the XML, just go straight for File/Publish.