Get your application Symbian Signed

Get your application Symbian Signed

Application can never close abnormally ("panic")
Application should not panic during start-up under low memory conditions
Memory leaks should be limited to a minimum
User defined file and directory names must not contain special characters
Privacy statement (Symbian OS 9)
According to Symbian Signed Test Criteria(CON-02), a Privacy Statement has to be displayed when first starting application after installation warning the user the application can connect via bluetooth, send SMS/MMS, connect to internet, reading or editing contacts,...

There are two display modes for Privacy Statement as following and either of them can meet the Symbian Signed criteria:

Mode 1: Privacy Statement is displayed at the first ever launch of the
application and after user confirmed the statement, it will not prompt again for subsequent runs.

Mode 2: A checkbox can be made available in Privacy Statement to enable the user to disable the prompt for subsequent runs. Or a query dialog text can be used instead of the checkbox.

Best practice for CON-02:

TITLE: For your information

BODY: This application will make use of the following features of your
phone. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us at :

. Bluetooth to connect to other Bluetooth-enabled devices

. Sending SMS messages

. Sending MMS messages

. Making phone calls

. Making a connection to the Internet

. Allowing you to add or edit contacts

. Reading existing information from your contacts database

. Recording sounds using your phone's microphone

TICKBOX: Do not show me this information again.

Make the names of .exe-files and resource files unique by adding UID (Symbian OS 9)
The file system has been completely reworked. The big change is that all installation files now live in common, shared directories with a much bigger risk of conflicts between applications. Alle executables .exe live in \sys\bin , resource files live in \resource\ apps. Only private files such as settings, registration or image files have their own private application directory \private\UID.

As a consequence of this increased risk of conflict, some Symbian Test houses urge developers to rename their application .exe files appending the unique UID (application_name _ version_ UIS.exe) as to exclude any risk:

“The .exe files in \sys\bin are named as application_name.exe instead of application_name_ 0×200043B4.exe. In Symbian OS v9, all binaries (.DLLs and .EXEs alike) now live in \sys\bin\ only. The potential for name-clashes is therefore greater. It is imperative that this is avoided – the software installer will not install your binary if one of the same names exists already but was put in place from a .sis file with a different UID to your own. Thus it is recommended that rename the application_name.exe to application_ name_ 0×200043B4.exe.”

When the same resource files e.g. .mif icon files with the same name are used in different applications, the application installer will fail (” error updating”). So the advice is indeed to use unique names. It remains a mistery why Symbain did introduce this issue in the 3d edition. In the 2nd edition all files were living in an application-specific directory.