Problem with Bloom comic books in RAB on older Androids

We recently imported books from the book, Messiah cartoon book from bloomlibrary into bloom and then the bloomd files to RAB - and it works great in the latest Android versions while viewing using Bloom player option. The font (Nirmala UI) worked well.

However, on lower versions using Android 5.1.1 and 8.1.0, the characters get shifted from the bubbles and the pictures are not displayed well.

Any ideas why this is so?

On the other hand, if we try to use the option to convert into bloom book - convert to picture story book, the pictures do not show up at all in the story pages in RAB.

The other option finally that we have is just a workaround to convert all these into images which might increase the app size.

Any suggestions on this issue will be greatly helpful.

Thank you.

Thanks Anita for bringing this problem to our attention. We’ll look into it.

In the meantime, here’s what you can do to help us in our investigation:

  1. If you aren’t already using the latest version of RAB, please rebuild your app using the latest version.
  2. Install also the latest version of Bloom Reader on your various Android “problem” devices and send the books directly to Bloom Reader.
  3. Compare the books when viewed within Bloom Reader versus what you see in the latest RAB.
  4. Let us know if the results are the same or different.

If the books display correctly in Bloom Reader, but not in RAB, the problem will eventually be resolved through an RAB update (RAB uses a component called “Bloom Player” and is usually a few version behind our own development).

If the books display incorrectly in Bloom Reader, then please submit one example of a book which isn’t displaying correctly. From Bloom, click the ? mark, then choose “report a problem”. Describe the problem and we’ll take a look.

Thanks!

I am wondering what the resolution to this was, if any?

Also, I am wondering what the lowest Android version is that would be compatible with Bloom Player in apps made with RAB/SAB?
Thanks.

Hi,

I am wondering what the resolution to this was, if any?

We didn’t pursue this further since we didn’t hear back from the user.

I am wondering what the lowest Android version is that would be compatible with Bloom Player in apps made with RAB/SAB?

Bloom Player requires Android 5 or higher.

I should add that we recently scheduled some RAB/SAB testing of Bloom books. If there are any specific issues that you are finding, please let us know.

By way of follow-up to this thread.

Bloom Player (a component used by both Bloom Reader and RAB/SAB), relies on an Android app called “Android System WebView” and that app needs to be kept up to date, otherwise, unexpected things can happen.

We are looking into providing a pop-up warning message when WebView needs updating, hopefully, from Bloom Player itself, which will help both Bloom Reader and SAB/RAB.

A bit more on this: old Android phones that are never connected to the internet may have a WebView that is old enough to cause problems for Bloom Reader and Reading App Builder apps.

Starting with Android 5.0, Android automatically updates your WebView, but only if the phone connects to the internet for long enough. To prompt it to update right now, you can go to the Play Store and tell it to update WebView.

For reference, the current Android is version 12.