Table of Contents
[hemmerling] Google Android 6/14 - App Protoyping
Related pages:
- Google Android:
MIT App Inventor ( for Android )
The Project
- The OpenSource MIT "MIT App Inventor", Appinventor.org for Internet browsers.
- To use App Inventor for Android, you must use a compatible browser. In 2016-04, the supported browsers are:
- Google Chrome 29+.
- Safari 5+.
- Firefox 23+.
- Opera 20+ works somehow too ( not 100% properly display ), while MSIE is not supported.
- For developers:
IDE, implemented as Online Service
- The discontinued service MIT "App Inventor 1" ( - 2015-07-15 ).
- The free online service MIT "App Inventor 2 Beta" #.
- The free online service MIT "App Inventor 2 Extention Test Server".
IDE, implemented as Android App
The "Runtime" implemented as Android App
- Google Play, MIT Center for Mobile Learning Education "MIT AI2 Companion" - The official runtime.
Online Cloud Services for Storage
General
Google Fusion Tables
- Google Drive - Login for “Google Fusion Tables”.
- Google Fusiontables "Import new table" to start your own application.
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TinyDB & The App Inventor Online Demo Service ( based on TinyDB )
- App Inventor for Android: Tiny WebDB Service - “This service is only a demo. The database will store at most 250 entries; adding entries beyond that will cause the oldest entries to be deleted. Also, individual data values are limited to at most 500 characters”.
- Your tags are visible to all other global users, so you have to define tags with unique application-specific name for your own application. I.e. don´t use “demo”, “test”,..
. - Derek Walter, Mark Sherman: “Any data tha you put in a TinyWebDB - even if you create your own service - can possibly be read by anyone... Additionally anyone can cal the erase command in TinyWebDB bcause that comamnd doues not require a passwod, either”.
Resources
The legacy discontinued App Inventor 1 for Windows, Linux and MacOSX
App Inventor 2 Setup on Windows, Linux and MacOSX
- There is a free client on the client computer, “aiStarter”, which enables the online service to upload applications to your local Android device or local Android simulator.
- “The local client server “aiStarter” which communicates with the Online Service & with the Android Simulator.
- The “ai2starter” webserver is running at 127.0.0.1:8004.
- The “App Inventor 2 Setup” is shipped with a complete ( slow ) Android device simulator.
- The Windows edition of Android device simulator is for Win32-bit and Win64-bit.
- If you got some other ( faster ) Android device simulator installed, and if such is running, e.g. permanently as background task like BlueStacks on Windows, or in the foreground as standard Windows application, it is used automatically instead of the shipped Android device simulator.
- Utilities and components of AI2 ( to be started separately, e.g. by supplied batch files ) are at “C:\Program Files (x86)\AppInventor\commands-for-appinventor”.
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- The “App Inventor Extras” were a former name for bundle of necessary USB drivers and software to make your computer aware of and connect to the smartphone. Don´t look for it, it's outdated and legacy.
Literature about "App Inventor 1"
- Book Lucas Jordan "Practical Android Projects", 2011.
- Jörg H. Kloss.
- Book Jorg H. Kloss "Android Apps with App Inventor: The Fast and Easy Way to Build Android Apps", 2012.
- Book Jorg H. Kloss "Android-Apps - Programmierung für Einsteiger: Mobile Anwendungen entwickeln mit App Inventor", 2012.
- The accompanying website Archive.org "Markt&Technik 'Android-Apps - Programmierung für Einsteiger'". No downloads anymore
. - Major apps:
- Twitter ( page 540ff ).
- BarcodeScanner ( page 541ff ).
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- The free Kindle E-Book Programmers Institute "Android Programming with MIT App Inventor", 2013.
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- Book Ralph Roberts "Google App Inventor", 2011.
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- Archive.org "J.W. Tyler Android Acccess" ( - 2014-02-11 ) - Video tutorials.
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- The accompanying website and blog David Wolber "App Inventor Blog. Learn it. Teach in. Build Apps".
- The accompanying website David Wolber "App Inventor API".
- The accompanying download website O’Reilly Media, Inc. "David Wolber, Hal Abelson, Ellen Spertus, Liz Looney - App Inventor 2".
Literature about "App Inventor 2"
- The Kindle E-Book Hossein Amerkashi "Absolute App Inventor 2: Android Programming for all ages", 2015.
- Book Paula Beer, Carl Simmons "Hello! App Inventor: Android programming for kids and the rest of us" for “App Inventor 2”, 2014 ( not available in TIB ).
- Tony Gaddis, Rebecca Halsey.
- Book Tony Gaddis, Rebecca Halsey "Starting Out with App Inventor for Android" for “App Inventor 2”, ISBN 0132955261, 671 pages, 2014-11.
- Book Tony Gaddis, Rebecca Halsey "Starting Out with App Inventor for Android" for “App Inventor 2”, ISBN 1292080329, 696 pages, Global Edition 2015.
- The accompanying website Pearson Higher Education Global Editions "Gaddis", Pearson Higher Education Global Editions "Gaddis" - “Your new textbook provides 12-month access to digital resources... This access code can only be used once... This prepaid subscription does not include acccess to MyProgrammingLab.
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- The accompanying website PACKT Publishing, Code Downloads & Errata "App Inventor 2 Essentials".
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- The accompanying website In Easy Steps Smart Learning with In Easy Steps.
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- “Building Android Apps in easy steps, 2nd edition,
- All code examples (batch 1).
- All code examples (batch 2)”.
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- The most interesting ( minimal ) Apps are:
- in chapter 7 “Embracing media”, page 117ff, sub-chapter “Animating Components”, “Detecting Collisions”.
- in chapter 8 “Sensing coditions”, page 137ff.
- Edward Mitchell.
- Book Derek Walter, Mark Sherman "Learning MIT App Inventor: A Hands-On Guide to Building Your Own Android Apps" for “App Inventor 2”, 2014.
- Blog theapplanet.
- The accompanying website theapplanet "Learning MIT App Inventor".
- Page 157, “Saving Location Data” → In the codesnippet “Recall Location”, read from TinyDB by setting the option “valueIfTagNotThere” to a value which is out of range for latitude & longitude ( “999” ).
- Notable Apps:
- The geolocation App “Pushpin” ( page 161 ff ).
- Book David Wolber, Hal Abelson, Ellen Spertus, Liz Looney "App Inventor 2", 2014 - “The officiall App Inventor tutorial book”.
- The accompanying website and blog David Wolber "App Inventor Blog. Learn it. Teach in. Build Apps".
- The accompanying website Appinventor.org - “Learn to build Android apps in hours. App building made easy. App Inventor is a visual, blocks language for building Android Apps”.
The Language
The App Inventor 2 Language
- Android Developers "Building Layouts with an Adapter" - “List View”, “Grid View”.
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- StackOverflow "List containing images in App Inventor" - “using additionally an embedded HTML file and some jQuery Mobile code”.
- Pura Vida Apps by “taifun”.
- Pura Vida Apps "How to successfully rename the package name of an App Inventor app" with “APK Studio Version 1.0.02”.
- The ( Java ) packagename of Android apps created by the IDE “Android Inventor 2” is “appinventor.ai_username.project_name”.
- The user name “username”, as part of “ai_username”, is defined by IDE “Android Inventor 2” at the menu item “emailaddress” ( = “Profile” ) at the right top, by “Edit your profile. Your display name”.
- “project_name” is the project name defined by the developer at “Android Inventor 2”. It may contain spaces.
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- SocialBuzz Videos.
- The search engine doesn't work properly, the pages below contain many links to AI2 videos. Maybe it helps sometimes to modify the URL “usabuzz.net/page/video/what-to-search-for” ?!
- Video SocialBuzz "App inventor".
- Video SocialBuzz "apptomarket".
- Using your own Manifest.
- How to link to a website:
-
- Open the browser to a Web page. Use these activity starter properties to open a specific web page:
- Action: “android.intent.action.VIEW”.
- DataUri: “http://news.google.com”.
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The App Inventor 2 Runtime
- Typechecking is performed at runtime. If you try to do the arithmetic ”+” operation with a list and a numeric operator, you get the runtime error
Runtime Error. The operation + cannot accept the arguments: [()][1]
My personal Experience with the App Inventor 2 Platform - Limits and Specials
- The project name can´t contain spaces, but just underscores. However, the name of the app, as visible in the appstore, is defined in the settings of “Screen 1” at “AppName”. This app name may contain spaces.
- According to my personal experience, what's missing with “App Inventor 2” or what can't be implemented?
- “ActionBar”.
- Dynamic loading of images in a GUI List component.
- Creating of Notifications which can be viewed by the status bar.
- With the discontinued “MIT Inventor 1”, it was possible to create Notifications, which can be viewed by pulling down the status bar. See MIT "AlertMe: Texting in the background, when app is not running".
- With “MIT Inventor 2”, you may just create Notifications, which are displayed immediately by modale windows. The alarm notification even only works on the screen where the notification is implemented. Exiting the app cancels the alarms .
- The “MIT Inventor 2” offers to build apps with “List View” only.
- Mostly there is some space put automatically between GUI components, both in the IDE and later at runtime.
- In opposite, with most GUI builders ( i.e. Visual Studio, QT Designer / QT Creator, Borland JBuilder, GUI builders for Python with Tkinter,.. ), you may create space-free GUI design. I.e. you must put a GUI label between 2 GUI components if you want to separate them by space.
- By the “Build” option, you may create executable Apps.
- The name of the App later in the App launcher & desktop is defined by the project name of “Android Inventor 2”, which can´t contain spaces. You need to apply the “AppToMarket” desktop application to transform the project name into a wanted name ( e.g. with campitalized letters and/or space (” ”) between parts of the name.
- However, the Android emulator is shipped with the “MIT Android Inventor 2” is running “Android 2.2” ( API Level: 8 ).
- I was told by experts, that for Google Play submission the “Version” must be a number higher than the previous APK.
- For preparing the publication of such generated Apps by Google Play Developer Console.
- There is the optimisation tip, marked red-crossed “Your Production APK needs to meet the following criteria “The minimum Android version and target Android version need to support tablets (check targetSdkVersion and minSdkVersion)”
- Android Developers "Android 2.2 APIs" - “API Level: 8”.
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- “8. Target Android Versions Properly. To ensure the broadest possible distribution to tablets, make sure that your app properly targets the Android versions that support tablets. Initial support for tablets was added in Android 3.0 (API level 11). Unified UI framework support for tablets, phones, and other devices was introduced in Android 4.0”.
- “At a minimum, check the <uses-sdk> element to make sure that:
- “targetSdkVersion is declared with value 11 or higher (14 or higher is recommended), OR”.
- “minSdkVersion is declared with value 11 or higher”.
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- “I've had a user complain that privacy settings are an issue in my app, and it generally is a result of default settings on android:minSdkVersion = 1.0 if not specified by the .apk file. I need to set minSdkVersion to 4 in order to avoid the privacy issue I am seeing”.
- Suggestions #1 to get listet as tablet-ready app at “Google Play” and to be compatible with Google AdMob:
- minSDK = 9 ( AdMob ).
- targetSDK = 11 ( tablet ).
- Suggestions #1 to get listet as tablet-ready app at “Google Play”:
- minSDK = 11 ( tablet & AdMob).
- targetSDK = 0 ( legacy setting for compatibility, according to “AppToMarket” ).
- There is the optimisation tip, marked red-crossed “Your APK should support common tablet screen sizes (LARGE and XLARGE)”.
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- “Google Play will still not see your apps as being tablet ready until you use fragments to build the UI. App Inventor doesn't currently support them”.
- “I did make some headway on this. I was able to publish my app yesterday to both Google Play and to Amazon and SUPPORT tablets. I have included a copy of the manifest to show how I did it”. “After adding the xLargeScreens, bumping the minSdkVersion to 9, I also needed to add the android uses-feature to enable tablets” → So it is important to disable non-existing features on tablets by ”<use-feature>” to convince Google Play that an app is tablet-ready
<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.telephony" android:required="false" /> <uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.wifi" android:required="false" /> <uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.location" android:required="false" /> <uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.location.network" android:required="false" /> <uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.location.gps" android:required="false" /> <supports-screens android:smallScreens="true" android:normalScreens="true" android:largeScreens="true" android:xlargeScreens="true" android:anyDensity="false" />
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- There is the optimisation tip, marked red-crossed “Your APK should include customised drawable assets for common tablet screen densities”.
- Android Developers "Tablet App Quality" - “4. Use Assets Designed for Tablet Screens”.
- Anywhere Software "Google Play: 'Designed for tablet screens'" - “add a folder \Objects\res\drawable-hdpi to your project and place the icon.png (minimum size 72×72) of your app inside”.
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- “Open your apk file and in the RES folder add all drawable folders that you need”.
- “drawable-hdpi”.
- “drawable-lhdpi”.
- “drawable-xhdpi”.
- “In every drawable folder, add your new assets.xml”.
- Where to store developer keys ( e.g. Twitter developer key and password “Consumer Key”, “Consumer Secret” )?
- You shouldn´t store it in the “Android Inventor 2” project as visible data, when you update the project by the “Gallery Update” function.
- You might have work during development with 2 copies of the software, one with development key and one without?
- You might offer an app compiled of a “Android Inventor 2” project, with or without encryption.
- You might store the developer key in a file of the file system.
- You might store the developer key in a TinyDB database.
- You might get the key from your own remote server, like toe communications service Twillo.
- But of course you must identify yourself at the server... e.g. by your phone number, or the user must register at the website so that this username & password is stored at runtime on your smartphone ( in the TInyDB database, in a file, or temporary in a global list / global variable ).
- And the developer key communication than runs by the server, not by the smartphone app...
The App Inventor 1 Language
- MIT "Reference Documentation" for “App Inventor 1”.
Live Development, Testing and Debugging
MIT App Inventor 1
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- “Watching variables: If you click Do It on a block that shows the value of a variable, you'll get a result balloon showing that value of the variable at the time you clicked. But sometimes, especially in debugging, what you really want to see is how the value changes as your program runs. Clicking “Watch” opens a baloon whose result constantly monitors the value of the variable, so you can see if your program is changing it as anticipated”.
MIT App Inventor 2
- As of 2016-05, “Watch” is not implemented with “MIT App Inventor 2”.
Projects
Gallery
Gallery for "MIT App Inventor 1"
- MIT App Inventor Community Gallery,
MIT "App Inventor Community Gallery"- “MIT plans to retire the old Classic Gallery before September 1, 2015”.
Gallery for "MIT App Inventor 2"
- The Gallery is just accessable from inside the “MIT App Inventor 2” IDE ( MIT "App Inventor 2 Beta" ).
- Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International — CC BY 4.0 is the proper license to publish “MIT App Inventor 2” projects to the Gallery!
- Some published applications:
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- At the “MIT App Inventor 2”, search the Gallery for the project. On the resulting project page, click on the “SHARE” link at the bottom, next to ” DECRIPTION SHARE REPORT”. A message is displayed “Copy and share link: http://ai2.appinventor.mit.edu/?galleryId=5841532695609344”.
- You may not derive this URL from your local project URL displayed by “MIT App Inventor 2” browser application ( e.g. ”ai2.appinventor.mit.edu/#6230609622204416” ). The unique Gallery hash value “5841532695609344” is not identical to the local project hash value “6230609622204416”.
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Stories
Tutorials
Tutorials for "MIT App Inventor 1"
- MIT "Making Mobile Apps with App Inventor" - Beginner Tutorials.
- TalkToMe Text-to-Speech App.
- Extended TalkToMe App: Shake.
- MIT "Tutorials" - You may filter the Apps suitable for:
- App Inventor 1.
- App Inventor 2.
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Tutorials for "MIT App Inventor 2"
Android Apps with Tutorials
- Google Play "App Inventor ActivityStarter" - “This app is for all developers who are developing a app using App Inventor and want to learn more about the activity starter component. App Inventor ActivityStarter lets you play with intent activities and has more than 150 example demo activities. This app is actually a kind of Activity Starter component. You can make your own activity with all the fields you have in the Activity Starter component in App Inventor and execute the activity”.
Resources
Android Inventor 1 only
- Google Sites "AppInventor Extender" - “An application for Android-based devices that allows apps created in Google AppInventor access to additional features. The app can be thought of as a library that can be called using the Activity Starter block in the AppInventor block editor”.
- Archive.org "tAIR - The App Inventor Repository" ( - 2014-09-01 ).
General & Android Inventor 2
- SD Cards.
- Jörg H. Kloss “Android Apps with App Inventor: The Fast and Easy Way to Build Android Apps”, 2012, page 37: “SD Card: A Requirement for App Inventor. To use your smartphone with the current AI development environment, the device must have an SD memory card in it”.
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- “Saves text to a file. If the filename begins with a slash (/) the file is written to the sdcard (for example, writing to /myFile.txt will write the file to /sdcard/myFile.txt). If the filename does not start with a slash, it will be written in the program's private data directory where it will not be accessible to other programs on the phone. There is a special exception for the AI Companion where these files are written to /sdcard/AppInventor/data to facilitate debugging. Note that this block will overwrite a file if it already exists. If you want to add content to a file use the append block”.
- “MIT Inventor 2” stores photos at ”/root/sdcard/Pictures/” or ”/root/sdcard0/Pictures/” ( if there is an SD card in the smartphone, so the path is not 100% the same on different smartphones ), with the file format “app_inventor_1234567890123.jpg”. The hash value number has 13 digits.
- Reference from an Android file manager:
/root/sdcard/Pictures/app_inventor_1234567890123.jpg /root/sdcard0/Pictures/app_inventor_1234567890123.jpg
- Reference from within MIT Android Inventor 2, for use as filepath for the “Image” component:
file:///storage/sdcard/Pictures/app_inventor_1234567890123.jpg file:///storage/sdcard0/Pictures/app_inventor_1234567890123.jpg file:///mnt/sdcard/Pictures/app_inventor_1234567890123.jpg
- History:
- Google Research "App Inventor for Android", 2009-07-31.
- Official Google Blog "App Inventor for Android", 2010-07-12.
- i-programmer "Easy Android Apps", 2010-07-15.
- Create Your Own Android Apps. No Coding Required - Commercial online App Inventor courses ( “Android App Training”, “Android App Courses” ).
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- StackOverflow.
- StackOverflow "How can I make my app display a notification in the window shade using MIT App Inventor 2?" - “Push messaging is only available in the Punya framework”.
App Inventor 2 Ultimate, based on MIT App Inventor
The Tool
- The free offline server SourceForge "App Inventor 2 Ultimate", SourceForge "App Inventor 2 Ultimate".
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The local Web Servers
- The “Ai2 Starter Portable, App Inventor 2 Ultimate Edition” webserver is running at 127.0.0.1:8004.
- The “App Inventor 2 Ultimate” web server is running e.g. at 192.168.178.130:9990.
- The web application - the HTML GUI interface - is available at localhost:8888.
Resources
- Experts claim that the software is a 1:1 copy of the MIT version without additional features. The main advantage is, that you do not need internet connection and you can build larger projects (> 5 MB ).
- Google Groups "New AI2 personal server! AI2U (App Inventor 2 Ultimate)", with some tips and installation instructions.
Apk Modder ( formerly: TabletSolution )
The just-commercial but affordable Tool
- Download.
- The just-commercial but affordable Google Drive "ApkModder2 setup.zip" of 2016-03-12.
- Google Drive "update.zip" of 2016-06-25.
- Pledgie "Apk Modder for App Inventor 2 (was Tablet Solution)" by Gabriele Cozzolino.
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- Apps maybe processed with “APK Modder”?!
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- There is no real project homepage. Therefore, support only by:
- Google Groups “gwayapps”.
- Facebook “G-way Android Apps”.
Resources
- Setup
- You must load the keystore file created by “Android Inventor 2” or “AppToMarket”, naming the key alias ( “Certificate Alias” ) and the password.
- “WARNING! On the first use, after you selected your keystore file, you better verify if the .ks file has been copied under the installation path (default 'C:\Program Files (x86)\G-Way Android Apps\Apk Modder'). If the file there isn't just manually copy it in there”.
- You have to create and name 3 directories:
- Decompile dir.
- Apk output dir.
- Manifest Backup dir.
- “APK options”
- ”[x] This APK was made with AI v. nb149 or greater”.
- You may change the default package name given by “MIT Android Inventor 2” to your own name, e.g. “mycompanydomain.com”.
- “APK Modder” requires a license to generated a modifed APK. It isn't Shareware nor Crippleware: “Apk Modder requires a lot of effort and time spend on programming it... To help me improving and focussing on this project, please consider to donate something to the cause. Anything will do... but: you will receive the activation key with a minimum donation of 5EUR/$”.
- Google Groups messages:
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- YouTube "Tutorial - MIT App inventor 2 Designing android apps for tablets" - “How to desgin for tablets MIT appinventor 2. Using APPTOMARKET 4.0 and TabletSolution”.
AppyBuilder / aiLive / AiLiveComplete!, based on MIT App Inventor 2
The Project
IDE, implemented as Online Service
- The commercial online service Appy Builder Silver.
- The free online service Appy Builder Free.
Offline Tools ( IDE, AppToMarket ) & "Runtime" implemented as Android App
AiLiveComplete!
- README.txt: “Interested in Full Version of AiLiveComplete?”- So somehow the downloadable version must be limited, not-extended or even crippled?!.
- Experts claim that the software is a 1:1 copy of the MIT version without additional features?!
- The main advantage is, that you do not need internet connection and you can build larger projects (> 5 MB ).
- Installation tips:
- “Make sure you are using Java 7.
- To connect to your device via WiFi, you will need to install the provided companion .apk in the root folder onto your device.
- You may need to uninstall the MIT Companion first”.
AppToMarket
The Tool
- “AppToMarket” for Windows is a Java application.
- GoogleDrive "AppToMarket" - Download of the current “AppToMarket 4.0” and “AppToMarket 4.1 Update” version.
- Google Code "AppToMarket" ( empty ), Archive.org "Google Code - AppToMarket" ( - 2015-02-23 ).
- AppToMarket & sdkBridger - App Inventor Java Bridge
- AppToMarket
- One-Click Feature to convert your AI ”.apk” to Android Market Compatible ”.apk”.
- Fully automated and allows you to convert your AI app to Andorid Market Compatible app.
- Generates certificates for signing your ”.apk”.
- Auto sign your app using your certificate.
- Generate Zip Align file for ultimate performance.
- sdkBridger - App Inventor Java Bridge library.
- A Java Bridge between App Inventor and Android SDK.
- Simplifies creating Android apps.
- Uses App Inventor components.
- Stand-alone library that eliminates use of Kawa library.
- For details, see wiki here: Archive.org "Google Code - sdkBridgerIntro. sdkBridger - Introduction".
- APIs:
- The API for the sdkBridger can be found here: Archive.org "3N Portal LLC - BridgeAPI".
- The API for Original App Inventor bridge can be found here 3N Portal LLC "AIBridge/API".
- Tutorials / Examples:
- Google Groups "AppToMarket", Thread "AppToMarket version 4.1", 2016-06-24 - “Please note that it should be unzipped into your existing AppToMarket root folder”.
Keystore file
- The default “Keystore file” filepath of “AppToMarket v4.1” is set to “C:\tools\AppToMarket_v32\myKeystores\myks.ks”, even if the software is installed at a different place ( e.g. C:\Program Files\AppToMarket\” ).
- You may set the filepath to a keystore file exported from “Android Inventor 2”, though it has a different file extension, e.g. “C:\tools\AppToMarket_v32\myKeystores\android.keystore”
Key Alias & Keystore Password
- At “1> Certificate Details”, set:
- Key Size: “2048”.
- Alias: “androidkey”.
- Key pwd: “android”.
- If you fail, you get the error message:
BUTTON CLICKED: 4> Sign Signing the application... jarsigner error: java.lang.RuntimeException: keystore load: Keystore was tampered with, or password was incorrect ERROR: There was error in signing your app
- Resources:
- Google Groups "AppToMarket", Thread "keystore problem", 2012-06-02 - “You have to use the below password and alias. Copy the AI keystore into a known folder, then in tab1 of AppToMarket, point to that path and put in the below password and alias. Then goto tab 2 and follow from there”.
- Alias: ”
androiddebugkey”. - Key pwd: “android”.
- Google Groups "AppToMarket workaround", 2016-05-31 - “Nun müsst ihr noch euren alias eintragen (meiner lautet 'androidkey' und diesen müsst ihr ersetzen)”.
- Alias: “androidkey”.
The Language
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- New components:
- AdMob.
- AdAmazon.
- SQL Lite.
- Near Field Communication (NFC).
- File Manager.
- Gallery View.
- Spinner Picker (drop-down).
- Toggle Button.
- Light Sensor.
- Pressure Sensor.
- Temperature Sensor.
- Proximity Sensor.
- Pedometer.
- Date Picker.
- Time Picker.
- Chronometer.
- PhoneStatus.
- Pedometer.
- XY Chart.
- Kitchen Sink - adhoc utility blocks (e.g. KeepScreenOn, Hide/Show notification bar, check to see if device has network signal or is a GPS enabled device).
- @ Dynamic Custom Menus.
- Hmmm... Experts claim that the software is a 1:1 copy of the MIT version without additional features?!
FTC App Inventor, based on MIT App Inventor 2
MIT Punya, based on MIT App Inventor 2
The Project
- The OpenSource Punya - Mobile innovation for humanitarian relief, GitHub "mit-dig/punya".
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- Punya suggests to become familar with the tutorials of “MIT App Inventor 2”, so that we may assum that it it built on that code of “MIT App Inventor 2”, and not the code of “MIT App Inventor 1”.
- Sample “The number of potholes in Boston”.
- 2 Android apps.
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IDE, implemented as Online Service
- The free online service Punya Framework Beta
The Language
- Punya Tutorials - “We have extended the MIT App Inventor framework to enable rapid mobile application development in the humanitarian domain using Linked Data Technologies”.
Projects
Resources
- Linked Data, especially the tutorials of “linkeddata.org” → See Linked Data & Linked Open Data ( LOD ).”
- ICRC Blog "How to Enable the Development of Apps by Field Teams", 2014 - “What are the key advantages of using the new PUNYA framework?”.
The Mad Robots, based on MIT App Inventor 2
The Project
IDE, implemented as Online Service
- The free online service Mad Robots AI 0.2 alpha - “If you have any projects you want to keep please make sure you download them by 25th July 2015 as a change not in my control means they may be deleted. Just be aware Mad Robots AI is still in development and can be used but may change without warning causing previously made project not to load. Please note: At the moment you can't build a final APK”.
Resources
Thunkable, based on MIT App Inventor 2 ( for Android, soon for iOS too )
The Project
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- “Drag and Drop to Create Native, Fast, Reliable Apps. Anyone can build powerful native apps with Thunkable. Simple to design. Simple to code”.
- “iOS (Coming Soon) We're working hard to support iOS (including iPhones and iPads). Start building for Android today, and migrate when Thunkable for iOS launches”.
IDE, implemented as Online Service
- The free online service Thunkable.
Resources
- i-programmer "Thunkable Forks MIT App Inventor", 2016-03-06.
Market Research "Online App Generators"
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- Sascha Fahl "The Rise of the Citizen Developer: Assessing the Security Impact of Online App Generators" ( PDF ), 2018.
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- Commercial plans “Silver”, “Gold”, “Platinum”, “White Label Program - Become a White Label Developer and begin selling apps accounts”. No “Free” plan.
-
- Commercial plans “Starter” and “Professional”. No “Free” plan.
-
- “Free apps that earn you money”.
- Apps Geyser "Create App" - Templates.
- Apps Geyser "Apps Showcase" - Sample binary applications, available e.g. at Google-Play.
- Ticket system ZenDesk "Apps Geyser" - “AppsGeyser Support Portal. Select below to Submit a New Request or Check your Existing Requests”.
- Blog Apps Geyser Blog.
-
- “The #1 App Builder for Small Business. Create your own app or become a reseller and build apps for others”.
- Commercial plans “Single App Plan”, “Reseller Partner Program”.
- There is no permanent free account, just a free 3-days trial account, without app publication option.
- Blog Biznessapps Blog.
-
- Free “Lite” account, commercial “Pro” account.
Como- ? No Apps builder ?.-
- “chayns macht Digitalisierung zum Kinderspiel!”
- “chaynsnet ist die perfekte Basis, um alle und alles zu verbinden! Wie kein anderes System bietet sie alles, was es braucht: Eine perfekte Website für Desktop, Tablet und Smartphones, eine native App, ein offenes Content Management System mit umfangreichen Schnittstellen, eine vollständiges User Account Management, ein hochmodernes Messaging-System und ein komplettes eCommerce-System mit Finetrading! Dazu eine leistungsfähige API, mit der buchstäblich einfach alles möglich ist”.
- “chaynsnet ist eine Plattform von Tobit.Software und ist und bleibt kostenlos. Warum eigentlich?”.
- This service is provided by a hostet website. There is no generation of a smartphone app.
-
-
- “Create your app for FREE. No coding required”.
- Commercial plans S, M, L, Xl, XXL.
- “As a welcome gift, we'd love to offer you our best deal ever: the new Unlimited-XXL plan for just $299/year (equivalent to $25/month). This plan offers more than our highest premium plan, which costs $1200/year ($99/month). The Unlimited-XXL plan includes all the features offered by the XXL plan and doesn't limit the number of active users of your apps. So, no matter how big your apps grow, you won't pay extra fees for those extra users. This offer expires 7 days after the day you've signed up in Mobincube”.
-
- Appy Pie, Appy Pie ( used for E-Mail communications ) - “App Builder to Make an App Without Coding. Learn how to create an app for free in 3 easy steps with Appy Pie’s App Builder”.
- Alok Kumar, LinkedIn "Alok Kumar" - “Chief Business officer at Appy Pie Inc.”.
- Appy Pie "Help Desk" - “Appy Pie Help”.
- Appy Pie "FAQs (Knowledge Base)" # - “Support, Frequently Asked Questions”. This FAQ is very large and by this a good learning resource.
-
- Blog Appy Pie Blog.
- Plans “Free”, “Basic”, “Gold”, “Platinum”.
- “Publish on Google Play”.
- Features / Functions:
- Social Network, CRM, Loyalty Program, Dating, Messenger, GPS Navigation, App Analytics.
- Push Notification, VIdeo Streaming, In App Purchase, Location Based Directory, Ecommerce, AR & VR, CMS.
- Taxi Food Order, Coupon, Hyper Local, Demand Delivery, Real Estate, Room Reservation.
- Login
- Pocket Tool Feature, including:
- Weather ( Temperature ).
- Camera / Scanner.
- “Codepage” function to execute customer-specific application-specific Javascript code.
- I got a product demonstration for developers, by Alok Kumar, on the CEBIT 2018 - it was great and impressive.
- Most app functions require Internet access to the servers of the service providers, e.g. a state of the app is stored on the server. By this REST API communications with other online services may be implemented.
- It is possible to publish the app on the “PWA Store”, without having a Google developer account.
-
- “Build your own ap for iOS or Android”.
- Appmachine "Dashboard" - “My apps”, “Demos”.
- Commercial plans “Plus App”, “Pro App”, “Reseller Bundle”, “Reseller Bundle XL” - “Single apps and app bundles. Building is free, you pay when you publish”. No “Free” plan.
-
- “Progressive Web Apps einvent Native Apps and Websites”. I.e. there is no generation of a smartphone app.
- “Free 30-day trial” - No “Free” plan.
- Shoutem
-
- Commercial plans “Basic” ( HTML5 ), “Advanced” ( Apps, HTML5 ), “Unlimited” ( Apps, HTML5 ). No “Free” plan.
-
- Commercial plans “Android only”, “Standard”, “Professional”. No “Free” plan.
-
-
- Blog AppYourself Blog.
- Plans “Starter”, “Business”, “Premium”, “Enterprise”. No “Free” plan.
-
- Archive.org "Mippin App Factory" ( - 2017-02-03 ).
- Appsme mobile app maker ( - 2017-05-21 ).
-
- Plans “AppBuilder” ( HTML5 ), “AppBuilder Pro” ( HTML5, Android ), “AppBuilder Pro+” ( HTML5, Android, iPhone ), “Reseller”. No “Free” plan.
-
- Blog AppsBuilder Blog.
-
- AppsBuilder "Resources / eBooks" # - Free eBooks.
- Commercial plans “Bronze” ( HTML5 ), “Silver” ( Apps, HTML5 ), “Gold” ( Apps, HTML5 ), “Reseller”. No “Free” plan.
-
- Plans “Mobile Website FREE” ( HTML5 ), “App Basics” ( HTML5, Android App ), “App Pro” ( HTML5, Android App, iPhone App ), “Reseller 10-Pack”.
-
- Blog appery.io Blog.
- Commercial plans “Pro”, “Team, “Enterprise”. No “Free” plan.
-
- “Free Online Mobile App Builder”.
- Blog AppsBar Blog.
-
- No plans, no ( trial ) accounts.
-
- App Gyver Community ( appgyver.com ) - Development plattform.
- No free plan, just “Business”, “Scale” and “Enterprise” plans.
- Appconfector, Germany.
- 20 day free trial.
- Just commercial plans ( Premium, Enterprise, Maximus ).
-
- Plans “Free”, “Silver”, “Gold”.
- Online IDE RhoStudio.
- “Add your SSH public key”.
-
- Some other app generator services.
- The commercial App building service Appmaker.merq.org - Your own app for free, with free plan.
-
- “The best iOS and Android app maker”, “FREE iOS and Android App Maker”.
- “You're welcome to look around, use BtCentral to create an app, download some source code and participate in the forums until your trial subscription expires”.
- The just-commercial App building service smapOne AG, Hannover - “Business Apps erstellen in 30 Minuten. Das digitale Spielzimmer für erfolgreiche Unternehmen. Mit smapOne digitalisieren Unternehmen spielerisch ihre Prozesse. Umtriebige Mitarbeiter bauen, lernen, probieren aus – und am Ende des Tages sind es echte Experten, die Ideen in eigene Apps umsetzen”.
- smapOne AG "Endlich mehr Zeit für alle komplexen IT- & Low-Code-Prozesse", 2022-12 - “Microsoft setzt auf No-Code als neue Technologie in der Partnerschaft mit smapOne”.
- Heise Download "Software aus Deutschland: smapOne"- “Der App-Baukasten für Unternehmen”.
- From Hannover, with software development in Dresden. Jobs in in Hannover, Dresden, Ulm or homeoffice.
- “BlueStacks” simulator with Android OS 4.4.2 is not suitable for this app: “Your device isn't compatible with this version”.
-
- Free “Personal” and free (?) “BASIC” account.
- With the “BASIC” account, you may create up to 10 products.
- You may create Android apps ( “OEM App” ).
- App icon - Size ≥ 1024*1024px png format, not exceeding 3Mb.
- App launch image - Size ≥ 1242*2208px png format, not exceeding 3Mb.
- I was introduced to Tuya on the IFA2018.
Some other Tools
Resources
Activity Starter
Google Maps
- Archive.org "Google Mapki ( - 2011-09-03 ).
- Archive.org "Google Mapki: Google Map Parameters" ( - 2011-09-03 ).
- AI2 configuration:
- Action “android.intent.action.VIEW”.
- ActivityClass “com.google.android.maps.MapsActivity”.
- ActivityPackage “com.google.android.apps.maps”.
Common Intents
GPS
- Experts told me, that smartphones built for the German market might supply GPS coordinates with decimal comma ( ”,” ) as separator, while a smartphone built for the USA market might supply a dot ( ”.” ).
Java Console for AI2 Application Debugging
Projects
Sprites
Tips & Tricks
- Sometimes during editing with MIT Inventor e.g. at the block “When <Screen1> .initialize”, there is an error message. Solution: Reload the HTML page of the MIT Android Inventor IDE ( by pressing the browser's reload button):
Error from Companion: java.lang.RuntimeException: invalid syntax in eval form:<string>:1:142: call to 'set-and-coerce-property!' has too few arguments (3; must be 4)
- Though the “MIT Inventor 2” is a simple web page to be loaded by an Internet browser, and though the “MIT AI2 Companion” properly installs and runs on Win-32bit systems, the whole system just works properly on Win64-bit.
- On Win-32bit with 2GB RAM, there is no display of the visualisation of the app prototype. On Win-32bit with 3GB RAM, the visualisation of the app prototype is displayed properly.
- On Win-32bit with 2GB RAM, there are often error messages by the browser about time delays. On Win-32bit with 3GB RAM this doesn´t happen.
- With “App Inventor 2 Ultimate” on Win-32bit with 2GB RAM, there is even the Windows error message
Error message: Close programs to prevent information loss. Your computer is low on memory. Save your files and close these programs: Java(TM) Platform SE binary
- But even on On Win-32bit with 3GB RAM, where the Android device simulator properly loads, the Android device simulator and especially the transfer process of the created app, is too slow for practical work. I even didn´t manage to transfer and start a simple Android app , even after accepting many time delays.
Webservices, URI & URL
General
- Blog AI2 Inventor Forum News.
AI2 on 32-bit Windows
2GB RAM
Android Inventor 2 ( online )
1. Modale window
Warning: Unresponsive script. A script on this page may be busy, or it may have stopped responding. You can stop the script now, open the script in the debugger, or let the script continue. Script: http://ai2.appinventor.mit.edu/:99
2. Modale window
An internal error has occurred. Report a bug?
3. Popup window
http://ai2.appinventor.mit.edu/ode/feedback.
Ooops! We tripped on a Bug! Please help us by telling us what you were doing at the time this happend. We have already included some technical data with this report. If you do not submit this report, nothing will be reported to us. If you do submit a report, your comments along with the technical data will be sent to us. Thank you for your help in making MIT App Inventor better! Technical Data to be Submitted: notes = Browser: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; rv:36.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/36.0 foundIn = nb149 faultData = com.google.gwt.core.client.JavaScriptException: (TypeError) : a is null projectId = -1
AiLiveComplete!
1. Modale window
Warning: Unresponsive script. A script on this page may be busy, or it may have stopped responding. You can stop the script now, open the script in the debugger, or let the script continue. Script: http://localhost:8888/ode/F43EF693BA67AA296555432EDEB184F3.cache.js:3444
2. Modale window
An internal error has occurred. Report a bug?
3. Popup window
http://localhost:8888/ode/feedback.
Ooops! We tripped on a Bug! Please help us by telling us what you were doing at the time this happend. We have already included some technical data with this report. If you do not submit this report, nothing will be reported to us. If you do submit a report, your comments along with the technical data will be sent to us. Thank you for your help in making MIT App Inventor better! Technical Data to be Submitted: notes = Browser: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; rv:36.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/36.0 foundIn = nls-883-g581d9c9 faultData = com.google.gwt.core.client.JavaScriptException: (TypeError) : this$static is null projectId = -1
3GB RAM
Forums, Newsgroups
- Appspot.
- The read-only AppYet Support Community Forum, user registration is disabled by “reCAPTCHA verification is loading. Please refresh the page if it does not load”.
- The read-only forum FTC Forum "FTC Technology / MIT App Inventor". Accounts require a “FTC team number”.
- Facebook.
- Google.
- Google Groups "App Inventor Coffee Shop" ( - 2014-05-28 ) & Google Groups Forum "Programming with App Inventor" ( - 2014-05-28 ) & Google Groups "MIT App Inventor Forum".
- Google Groups "MIT App Inventor Forum", Thread "AI2 vs AI2Livecomplete vs Punya Framework", 2015-06-14.
- “I know AI2 and AI2Livecomplete but just found out about Punya Framework in another post. How do they all relate to each other? Is Punya Framework up to date with AI2? Punya Framework has a lot of sensors and other stuff that AI2 doesn't have. Is more better? Does Punya Framework use the latest AI2 source?”.
- “Once you create a project using another server, which uses other blocks, you will not be able to import your project back in MIT App Inventor anymore”.
- Google Groups "MIT App Inventor Forum", Thread "How to set a device-independant path to an image file on SDCard, for the Image?" - > Use the generic path:
file:///storage/sdcard/Pictures/app_inventor_1234567890123.jpg file:///storage/sdcard0/Pictures/app_inventor_1234567890123.jpg file:///mnt/sdcard/Pictures/app_inventor_1234567890123.jpg
-
- Google Groups "AppToMarket" - “Use this forum to discuss App Inventor, AppToMarket and sdkBridger”.
- Archive.org "tAIR Forums" ( - 2014-08-12 ).
- windroye Forum, Archive.org "bbs.windroye.com" in Chinese language only - “Discuz! Database Error” .
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