New Open Signed Online Anguish
There are some serious usability issues for developers using the new Symbian Open Signed Online.
I have just gone from working on a project that has Publisher ID to a new project where the company has just applied for one. Hence, I have to work without a publisher ID until it is granted. This can take weeks dependent on the company I am working for and TC Trust center.
The main change for me, while I don’t have a Publisher ID, is that I can no longer create a certificate for use with the command line and IDE. Instead I have to sign applications via a web page.
The first challenge is that Open Signed Online doesn’t seem to work on Firefox. More importantly, it doesn’t give any useful error…
If you get "Network communication failure’ then use Internet Explorer!
The signing Workflow involves…
- Creating sis with normal tools (command line or IDE)
- Going to Open Symbian Signed and filling in a form
- Deciphering a captcha
(Email must match email with which you registered with Symbian Signed) - Receive email - click on link to confirm
- Wait a few minutes
- Receive email with download for signed application
- Download the signed application
I have to do this every time I need to test a new iteration of the application on the phone. I also have to do this multiple times for multiple IMEIs because I release often during development and several people are testing my application.
For developers on other platforms, here is an analogy. Imagine if you had to link an application via some time consuming web based mechanism. The affect would be the same. I hope you can see the problem.
Finally, even the signing process seems a bit amateurish..
Incidentally, you can’t use the same email address to register with Symbian signed again. It doesn’t say you have already registered and instead you just get a ‘Lost Password’ screen that can be confusing. Not being able to re-use an email address is useless for me where I work for lots of companies and need separate accounts for each. I have resorted to creating a new email alias on my email server for each company.
The arduous workflow is a temporary problem for me because the company I am working for will hopefully get a Publisher Id within a few weeks. I will then be able to sign from the command line. However, for hobbyists and others experimenting with the Symbian, this is a long term problem that only contributes to discourage them from using the platform.
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