Preparing The Application For Site Testing; Educational And Professional Developers - Texas Instruments TI-89 Developer's Manual

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18.4.6.

Preparing the Application for Site Testing

In normal calculator usage, an application is installed in a calculator by
downloading it from a PC or another calculator via the link cable. When the app
is received, it is examined for a valid TI digital signature by the Operating System
loader. All Flash apps to be distributed must be digitally signed by TI before they
will be accepted by the Operating System. Since all apps must be signed, an app
build must go through TI before it can be loaded in the normal way. Since signing
is 1) an external process for developers, 2) is limited, and 3) has turnaround time
associated with it, a single calculator debugging technique is available to
facilitate code development.
The debugging technique used with the TI FLASH Studio circumvents this
restriction, but it only works on the simulator, not a real calculator. Once an
application has become well developed, some developers may need to perform
testing on their calculator. The Educational and Professional tools allow the
developer to download an application to their developer calculator. To support
this need, TI may issue certificate for the testing calculator and set the developer
up so that they can sign the app instead of TI. In this situation, the app will only
run on the selected calculator.
18.4.6.1.

Educational and Professional Developers

TI will assign the developer a Developer ID, generate a digital key and create a
unit certificate for the calculator. The key is contained in one file: <filename>.key.
The unit certificate file will be named: <filename>.89q or <filename>.9xq
depending on whether it is for a TI-89 or TI-92 Plus calculator. Typically all this
information can be emailed to the developer.
After receiving the key file and the unit certificate, you are ready to sign your
apps for site testing. The procedure is as follows:
1. Make sure the <filename>.key file is in the same directory as the
TI FLASH Studio executable (TI Flash Studio.exe). Default directory is
C:/Programs/TI Flash Studio.
2. When you load and build the app, a directory with the same name as your
key file is created in the C:/Programs/TI Flash Studio/Projects/<Project
Name>/<filename> directory. This directory has the signed application (.9xk
file). Please note that an unsigned app is also created in the
C:/Programs/TI Flash Studio/Projects/<Project Name> directory.
TI-89 / TI-92 Plus Developer Guide Not for Distribution
Chapter 18: TI FLASH Studio
Beta Version January 26, 2001