Application Filtering

The Tizen platform provides a wide range of features across a variety of hardware and software components. Among the features, there are some that can be selectively supported by the Tizen device manufacturer. For application stores to correctly select your application for installation on an appropriate device, the feature and profile information must be correctly declared in your application.

Feature-based filter

Some features can be selectively supported by the Tizen device manufacturer. To prevent problems when the user is trying to run your application on a device that does not support all the features your application is using, do one of the following:

• When the application is running, check whether the device supports the needed features. If not, the application can use other features, which are supported by the device, as a workaround.

  For example, if an application wants to use location information, it can check the device capability by using the getCapability() method of the SystemInfo interface (in mobile, wearable, and TV applications). If the device supports GPS, the application uses GPS information, and if the device supports WPS only, the application uses WPS information instead of GPS.

• Use feature-based filtering to prevent your application from being shown in the application list on the official site for Tizen applications, if the user’s device does not support all the features of your application. This way you can prevent the application from being installed on an unsupported device in the first place.

  Be careful when defining the feature list for feature-based filtering. The feature list can dramatically reduce your chances of getting the application downloaded by reducing the number of devices which can support the application.

If the config.xml file of the application package includes a feature list, the store compares the capabilities of the device with the required feature conditions of the application. The store only lists the applications whose conditions match the capabilities of the device, and thus prevents incompatible applications from being installed.

Figure: Feature-based filtering

When multiple features are defined in the feature list for feature-based filtering, the store creates the filtering condition for all using the “AND” operation. For example, if there are http://tizen.org/feature/network.nfc and http://tizen.org/feature/network.bluetooth features in the feature list of the application package, only a device that has both those features can show the application on the store application list for downloading.

Screen size feature

The screen size feature is the only exception to the normal feature handling process described above. When the screen size is defined in the feature list, the store creates the filtering condition with the “OR” operation. For example, if the http://tizen.org/feature/screen.size.normal.480.800 and http://tizen.org/feature/screen.size.normal.720.1280 features are defined in your application feature list, a device that supports one or the other of those features can show the application on the store application list.

If you do not specify a proper screen size in the config.xml file, your application can be rejected from the store.

The following tables list the available screen size features.

Table: Available screen size features for mobile applications

Table: Available screen size features for wearable applications

Feature hierarchy

The feature keys have a hierarchy. For example, consider the http://tizen.org/feature/location, http://tizen.org/feature/location.gps, and http://tizen.org/feature/location.wps features:

• If the feature list includes the http://tizen.org/feature/location.gps feature, only a device which has the http://tizen.org/feature/location.gps feature can show the application on the store application list.

• If the feature list includes the http://tizen.org/feature/location feature, a device which has the http://tizen.org/feature/location.gps, http://tizen.org/feature/location.wps, or http://tizen.org/feature/location feature can show the application on the store application list.

  This means that the store considers the http://tizen.org/feature/location feature as the http://tizen.org/feature/location.gps OR http://tizen.org/feature/location.wps feature. (If the feature list includes the http://tizen.org/feature/location.gps and http://tizen.org/feature/location.wps features together, only a device which supports both those features can show the application.)

Add the feature list

To enable filtering for your Web application, add the feature list for the application config.xml file, follow these steps:

1. To open the Web application configuration editor in Tizen Studio, double-click the config.xml file in the Project Explorer view.
2. In the Features tab, click +.
3. Select the features you need.
4. Click OK.

After setting the feature information with the Web application configuration editor, you can see the added code in the Source tab.

The following example shows the setting in the config.xml file code:

<tizen:feature name="http://tizen.org/feature/network.nfc"/>

The following tables show the available requirements for Tizen Web application package.

Table: Available requirements for mobile Web Device APIs

* This key has been available for checking device capabilities since Tizen 2.3. It is recommended for application filtering purposes since Tizen 4.0.

Table: Available requirements for mobile Web W3C/HTML5 APIs

Table: Available requirements for mobile Web Runtime

Table: Available requirements for wearable Web Device APIs

* This key has been available for checking device capabilities since Tizen 2.3. It is recommended for application filtering purposes since Tizen 4.0.

Table: Available requirements for wearable Web W3C/HTML5 APIs

Table: Available requirements for wearable Web Supplementary APIs

Table: Available requirements for wearable Web Runtime

Table: Available requirements for TV Web Device APIs

Table: Available requirements for TV Web W3C/HTML5 APIs

Profile-based filter

A Tizen profile describes the requirements for a category of Tizen devices that have a common application execution environment. Applications are created for a single specific target profile, such as mobile, wearable, or TV, and can run on devices compliant with that profile.

Use profile-based filtering to ensure that your application is only downloaded on the appropriate device profile. To ensure this, declare the intended profile by adding the profile name element in the config.xml file.

The following table lists the Tizen profiles and related profile name attributes.

Table: Tizen profiles and profile name attributes

In a Web application, the profile name element can be added to the config.xml file as follows:

<widget xmlns="http://www.w3.org/ns/widgets" xmlns:tizen="http://tizen.org/ns/widgets" ... >
   <tizen:profile name="mobile"/>

The official site for Tizen applications compares the device profile and the profile name element in an application. The store only shows the applications with a profile name matching the device profile to prevent unsupported applications from being installed.

Single Web application for multiple profiles

Applications are created for a single specific target profile and can only run on devices compliant to that profile. However, it is easily possible to develop a Web application on one profile and make it work on another profile if you use Web APIs that are common to both the profiles. You simply modify the <tizen:profile> tag to switch profiles. You may also have to make other changes, like adapting your application to different screen sizes and input events. It is recommended that you test this modified application to ensure it performs as desired.