Assets tab

The Assets tab lets you manage the assets packaged in the application's.bar file. Assets can be configuration-specific, meaning that each different build configuration (Device-Debug, Device-Release, Device-Profile, Simulator-Debug) can use a unique set of assets. Using the Assets tab to manage assets is not as flexible as the Source editor because:

The primary purpose of build configurations is the packaging of different variants of the application code and data assets, such as for debugging or for different target architectures. Other application metadata, such as the name, icon, window characteristics, permissions, and other entry-point attributes, are configuration-independent.
If you require specific configuration details, the Source tab provides full access to the bar-descriptor.xml file. The Assets tab might not include configuration-specific data; in this case the page displays warning annotations.

Note: You can change the assets by updating your bar-descriptor.xml file, or you can update assets by using a command-line option when you package an application using the blackberry-nativepackager tool. If you specify assets in both the bar-descriptor.xml file and by using the blackberry-nativepackager tool, the assets packaged using the blackberry-nativepackager tool are used.

Screen showing the Assets tab of the bar-descriptor.xml file in the Momentics IDE.

Add assets for the application to use at runtime

Note:

Select and expand a project in the Project Explorer view, and then double-click bar-descriptor.xml in your project.
In the bar-descriptor.xml, click Assets then click (All Configurations).
In the Assets section, click Add.
In the dialog box, click Workspace and select the file you want to the application to use.
Click OK and then Save.

Copy files from your device or simulator to your project

Note:

Establish a connection to your device or simulator.
Open the QNX System Perspective (select Window > Open Perspective > Other, and then select QNX System Information). Or open the Target File System Navigator view directly (select Window > Show View > Other, and then type Target File System Navigator to select it from the list).
On the left in the Target File System Navigator view, select and expand the target device or simulator you want to use.
Note: If the selected target for your device or simulator indicates that it is not currently connected, from the Target Navigator view, right-click on your target and select Connect.
Navigate to the folder that you want to copy files from.
Drag and drop any required assets from the target to a location on your computer. Or use the Copy To command to copy assets (In the Target File System Navigator view, right-click a file, then select Copy To > File System, and the use the Browse For Folder dialog box to specify the location to copy to.)
Note: For information about the folders (such as Sandbox, Shared, Developer, and System), see Accessing the file system.

Explore Asset tab specifications

Note:

Build Configurations (<configuration>)

Select the build configuration to specify assets for.

(All Configurations) — All configurations
Device-Debug — Create a debug version of your application for the device for debugging purposes.
Device-Release — Create a release version of your application for the device; as small an executable as possible, without any debug code. You must use this configuration when you are preparing your app for distribution in BlackBerry World.
Device-Profile — Create a version of your application for the device for profiling purposes.
Simulator-Debug — Create a version of your application to use on the simulator.

To create a build configuration, click Add. Normally, build configurations are created for you when you select a launch mode and a launch Configuration and click Launch on the toolbar.

To create a duplicate build configuration based on the configuration type selected from the Build Configurations list, click Duplicate. The new configuration is created as <configuration name="New_Configuration_Name">.

To remove the selected build configuration from the list, click Remove.

To open a dialog box that allows you to create, remove, or rename build configurations, click Edit.

Note:

Assets (<asset>)

Update the table of assets by selecting assets from anywhere inside and outside of the workspace, and then assign types to indicate their runtime and packaging semantics. Additionally, where appropriate, you can move or copy selected assets from the workspace or your computer's filesystem by using drag-and-drop.

The asset is created as: <asset path="Asset_Location">.

Source Path — the source location and source file name used for an asset.
Target Path — the target file name to be used for an asset.
Type — the corresponding type for an asset, such as Entry-point or Other.

An asset that can't be resolved to a file on disk is annotated with a warning icon and a tooltip gives an overview of the problem. A problem marker in the Problems view also reports the error, with the text marker attributes that link to the particular <asset> element in the Source view of the XML file.

To add an asset to the project, click Add Files or Add Folders.

To delete an asset from the project, click Remove.

Note:

Hide assets common to all configurations

Hides the display of assets from the Assets list that are common to and included in all of the configurations listed in the (All Configurations) list.

Note:

Related Settings

Provides a direct link to the C/C++ Build Settings, which are critical to the generation of the assets included in the package.