Tag Archives: app inventor

Documentation, STEM Education, Uncategorized

App Inventor 2: Databases and Files – available shortly

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Volume 3 – focusing on TinyDB, TinyWebDB, Fusion Tables and text files – is now Available.

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App Inventor 2: Databases and Files is a step-by-step guide to writing apps that use TinyDB, TinyWebDB, Fusion Tables and data files for information storage and retrieval. Includes detailed explanations, examples, and a link to download sample code. This is the first tutorial to cover all of these App Inventor database and file features.

If your apps need to work with data or files – you need this book!

TinyDB stores data on your smart phone or tablet and is a primary way for App Inventor apps to save data, even when the app is no longer running or if the device is turned off.

TinyWebDB is similar to TinyDB, but stores your data on a remote server in the network cloud.

Multiple apps can share a TinyWebDB database, plus you can update the content of your TinyWebDB using just a web browser. This means you can distribute an app whose content can change over time – just by changing the values in TinyWebDB.

A big challenge is the need to set up a TinyWebDB server – this book shows how to do that through free services offered by Google.

Fusion Tables provide a powerful, cloud-based database system for App Inventor apps. Creating, retrieving, updating and deleting data is done using the industry standard Structured Query Language or SQL. Fusion Tables reside in the Google network cloud – this book shows you how to set up and configure Fusion Tables for you own apps using free services of Google. As your app requirements grow, Google’s cloud can provide low cost servers and bandwidth for your needs.

Underneath the Android OS user interface, there is a file system, similar to the file system found on Windows or Mac OS X. With App Inventor your apps can write and read data from files, and if using the special “CSV” format, App Inventor data can be shared with many spreadsheet programs. This book shows you how to create, use and access data files, and how to convert data to and from the CSV format.

Over 28,000 words. Amazon’s page count is 322 pages. Over 250 screen shots and illustrations. Numerous sample programs and code.

App Inventor 2: Databases and Files – Table of Contents
1 – Introduction
2 – Using the TinyDB database
3 – Implementing Records Using Lists in TinyDB
4 – Simulating Multiple TinyDB Databases
5 – How to Use Multiple Tags in TinyDB
6 – Introduction and Setup: TinyWebDB
7 – Managing TinyWebDB in the Cloud
8 – Programming for TinyWebDB – Demo 1
9 – Adding a Tags List to TinyWebDB – Demo 2
10 – Handling Multiple Users with TinyWebDB – Demo 3
11 – Implementing a Student Quiz Application using TinyWebDB
12 – Introduction to Fusion Tables
13 – Developing Your Fusion Table App
14 – Using Text Files in App Inventor

Android Development, App Inventor News, Products, Programming Method, Software, Uncategorized

New Linux OS version designed for Android & App Inventor app development

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The Appril release of Quirky Linux includes the Android SDK (Software Development Kit), Android Studio, App Inventor, Oracle JDK (Java Development Kit), and LiveCode tools, as well as all of their dependencies, together with the JWM (Joe’s Window Manager) and ROX, providing one of the lightest environments for Android app developers.

“The intention is to have out-of-the-box, just-click-and-get-going Android app development, catering for total non-programmers with App Inventor, through intermediate with LiveCode, to hard-core coders with Android Studio,” says Barry Kauler, Puppy Linux creator.

Source: Puppy Linux’s Sister Quirky 7.1 Distro Arrives with Tools for Android App Developers

It actually runs the App Inventor system on the computer – does not require access to appinventor.mit.edu.

Download here (its free, of course). I have not tried this yet but would be interested to hear reports from users!

 

Documentation, General, Products, STEM Education, Uncategorized

Pre-Announcing: App Inventor 2: Databases and Files-new e-book

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Available now: App Inventor 2: Databases and Files

I have finished writing App Inventor 2: Databases and Files, a new e-book providing step-by-step guides to using TinyDB, TinyWebDB, Fusion Tables and Data Files in Android App Inventor programs, including sharing data with spreadsheets.

Continue reading Pre-Announcing: App Inventor 2: Databases and Files-new e-book →

Components, Programming Method, Uncategorized

Example of the new App Inventor “Responsive Design” Feature

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MIT App Inventor introduced today their new “responsive design” features so that apps can work “better” on different sized screens. Using these new features, you can create a single app that should run on both a smart phone and a tablet, yet still display proportional user interface controls. Prior to this, your nicely designed smart phone app could end up having very small buttons or text boxes when run on a tablet; now, these components will resize as needed.

The name “responsive” comes from the ability of the app to “respond” to the size of the device and to change the size of controls so they maintain a similar size on each device. The terminology “responsive web design” also refers to web sites that are designed to work with different sized mobile device screens – here is a link to a great article about responsive web site design, passed to us by reader David – thanks!

Continue reading Example of the new App Inventor “Responsive Design” Feature →

App Inventor News, Components, Documentation, Uncategorized

App Inventor to add “Responsive Design” features next week

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MIT App Inventor upgrade coming next Monday – the upgrade will support apps running on devices with different size screens, such as a smart phone versus a tablet.

There’s one important rule when using App Inventor to create apps with responsive design:

Specify widths and heights of components as percentages of the screen width and height, rather than as fixed numbers of pixels.

For example, to make a button whose width is half the screen width, set the button’s width to be 50 percent rather than setting it to a specific number of pixels.

See Responsive Design in App Inventor

Please see the link for details on this upcoming change.

Apps written in Java and the Android SDK have access to additional methods of creating flexible design layouts, or even multiple layouts, for different screen sizes.

App Inventor News, Components, Uncategorized

MIT begins testing “App Inventor Extension Components”

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MIT has begun testing a new App Inventor feature that will enable developers to create their own “extension components”. Extension components are written in Java. Once created and tested, these new components may be shared with other App Inventor developers for use in programs.

What this means: if App Inventor lacks a feature or capability, then a Java developer familiar with App Inventor and its components software development kit will be able to add new features to App Inventor. Over time, the capabilities and power of App Inventor are likely to grow enormously – and rapidly. The ability to extend App Inventor’s features/components is an exciting and tremendously important development for the future of App Inventor!

For now, this feature is in “test mode”.

Source: App Inventor Extension Components available for testing | Explore MIT App Inventor

Android Development, Uncategorized

Google to end support of Eclipse for Android s/w development

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I posted the following on my App Inventor Facebook page – only a fraction of readers use the FB page so I am cross posting back over this blog. Usually I post items on the blog first, and then those end up on FB.

If you would like to follow the Facebook page, click here and then click on Like and also select “Get Notifications”.

Google will end support for Android Software development using the Eclipse Integrated Development Environment as they migrate development over to Google’s own Android Studio.

See here for details: http://www.androidcentral.com/google-stop-development-and-support-android-developer-tools-eclipse

This does NOT impact MIT App Inventor coders!

Eclipse and Android Studio are used for developing Android apps written in the Java programming language, and relying on the Android Software Development Kit of libraries of code. These tools are used to develop most Android apps as they are capable of using all of the features provided by Android, while MIT App Inventor limits us to a subset.

I just spent several days getting Android Studio up and running and reconfiguring an old project so that it now builds entirely in Android Studio. That Eclipse will be going away was sort of obvious.

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I have completed all of the text for my next App Inventor e-book. However, once I finished, I decided to add even more! I am hard at work on one more chapter! I think a lot of people are going to love Volume 3 and I cannot wait to share it with you! However, its the middle of summer and my wife would like us to take an actual vacation so I need to work hard on my vacation skills for a few days before I can wrap up the book!

I hope to share a lot more with you in very early August.

App Inventor News, Components, Uncategorized

New App Inventor 2 “Companion” app released today; new features

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Changes between nb143i and nb144 (June 30, 2015)

  • When a component is renamed in the designer, any related collapsed blocks will be properly renamed now.
  • Screen1 now has properties that permit you to hide both the top “Status” and “Title” Bars
  • The selected item in a ListView is now highlighted
  • Activity Starter component now has a “Activity Canceled” event
  • Fix to the Player Component so it doesn’t spontaneously start playing after a phone call or other interruption
  • Bugfix to Image Sprite rotation which had left screen artifacts on some devices
  • Add Math blocks to convert between decimal, Hexidecimal and Binary representation
  • Clock Component now permits you to format a date or time arbitrarily. You provide a “format string”
  • You can now have both a Background Image and a Background Color and the “right thing” happens
  • TextToSpeech: The designer now uses dropdown menus to select Country and Language. Added blocks to fetch the supports countries and languages on a given device

Source: Release Notes for MIT App Inventor 2 (Beta)

Documentation, General, Products, STEM Education, Uncategorized

App Inventor 2 Tutorial Volume 2 is now available at Amazon

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Volume 2 of the App Inventor 2 Tutorial is now available at Amazon as an e-book via this link: App Inventor 2 Tutorial Volume 2: Step-by-step: Advanced features including TinyDB.  The e-book will also be available from Google Play shortly.

Description

MIT App Inventor 2 is a fast and simple way to create custom Android apps for smart phones or tablets. Volume 2 in the series introduces debugging methods, explains additional controls not covered in Volume 1, introduces “agile” methods for developing a real world app, and provides sample code for using the TinyDB database.

The App Inventor 2 Tutorial series is targeted at adult learners (high school and up). App Inventor 2 provides a simplified “drag and drop” interface to layout your app’s screen design. Then implement the app’s behavior with “drag and drop” programming blocks to quickly assemble a program in a graphical interface.

Volume 1 of this series covered the basics of the App Inventor user interface Designer and the Blocks programming editor, plus basic “blocks” programming concepts and tools for arithmetic, text processing, event handling, lists and other features. Volume 2 builds upon Volume 1 to provide tips on debugging programs when the apps work incorrectly, how to use hidden editing features, and how to install your own apps on to your phone or tablet for general use. Code samples are provided for using the Notifier component for general use or for debugging, for user interface control tricks such as buttons that change color continuously or implementing the missing “radio buttons” component, using ListPicker and Spinner for list selections, and using the WebViewer to display web pages in your app. The book includes a large section on designing and building a sample real world application and finishes with a chapter on using the TinyDB database.

For readers of the blog, Chapters 4–8 are based on the tutorial already presented here. Chapter 2 and Chapter 9 on TinyDB are all new material.

Chapters

  • Introduction
  • Chapter 1 – App Inventor Tips
  • Chapter 2 – Debugging App Inventor Programs
  • Chapter 3 – User Interface Control Tricks
  • Chapter 4 – Designing and Building a Real World Application
  • Chapter 5 – Tip Calculator Version 2
  • Chapter 6 – Tip Calculator Version 3
  • Chapter 7 – Tip Calculator Version 4
  • Chapter 8 – Tip Calculator Version 5
  • Chapter 9 – Using the TinyDB database

(Volume 3 is now available – App Inventor 2 Databases and Files adds substantially more information on TinyDB, plus TinyWebDB and Fusion Tables and includes the full introduction to TinyDB).

AppInventor_Volume2Cover

Products, Programming Method, Software, STEM Education, Uncategorized

“Visual Development” system for Arduino

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As you know, MIT App Inventor is a graphical-based programming system, or a “visual development” system where programs are constructed by dragging and dropping “blocks” onto a Blocks editor.

Arduino, which we mentioned in conjunction with our Bluetooth interface code, is a microcontroller system that is normally programmed in a language similar to the C++ programming language – which is text-based.

Mitov Softwware has introduced a new visual programming system for Arduino. I have not yet had a chance to try this out – the software is in “Beta” test phase and is not yet generally available.

The simplicity of an App Inventor type programming environment might then be available for Arduino applications. This is very exciting. It may be helpful for enabling more kinds of people, with different types of backgrounds than software developers(!) to write code for Arduino boards.

Program Arduino boards visually, fast and easy with Visuino #Visuino #Arduino

Source: Visuino – Visual Development for Arduino by Mitov Software

I have used this screen shot from their web site to illustrate the general idea – really looking forward to trying this out!

screenshot-03