WC2012Programming

Mobile Devices

Intermediate AppInventor

Impressions so far?

So What is AppInventor Good For?

Intro to programming concepts

Logical design/critical thinking

Intro to Object concepts, event handling and other common areas of difficulty

Intro to Mobile App development

Starting point on a migration through a whole class in App Development

Summer Camps for HS students

Other?

Some Interesting Resources

KATE Workshops https://docs.google.com/document/d/

1L7PEy_NdiiRTfIIEADHTBTMYO-ifHIPD-WkzgvabaEk/edit

Vocabulary Builder Classroom Management

Next Topic : User Response

So let’s talk about Quizzing

A very Simple Quiz app (1 question)

How could we improve this?

Local Storage

“In-App” Storage

We can use Lists for this and they can be static or dynamic Quiz with a Static List (QuizMe

Tutorial)

Assignment – Use this tutorial to make a quiz of your own….

Persistent Storage On The Phone using TinyDB

Persistent on your phone and tied to App

Can be cleared on phone Won’t be “persistent” while testing in

emulator once you close the emulator

“In the Cloud” using TinyWebDB Stored in a cloud DB using web

services By default, the TinyWebDB

component stores data on a test service provided by App Inventor, limited to 1000 entries

Can create your own web service as well on the appspot.com server provided by Google

Video Tutorials on Storage

http://android.jwtyler.com/?page_id=7 Other good tutorials here also

Another good tutorial source https://sites.google.com/site/stevozip

/

Other good resources http://www.tair.info/

Lets look at a complicated Quiz app

Actually a set of apps MakeQuiz and TakeQuiz In the AppInventor Tutorials

Using Communication Tools

Let’s look at a couple of texting applications

TextGroup Tutorial Uses a static list

TextGroup2 Tutorial Source available on Wiki

How do I get it and load it? Uses local persistent storage (i.e.

TinyDB)

Assignment – How could you maintain multiple groups? Try it!

Automatic Responses

Detect when a text message comes in and send an automatic response Like your email autoresponder No Text While Driving Tutorial

Source on Wiki Try a variation like

Custom responses for particular phone numbers

Custom responses based on location

Variations on a theme… No Texting While Driving 2

Reads the message to you so you don’t miss anything

Also on Wiki

Location Services

Where’s my Car? Source on Wiki Uses location services to record a

“remembered” spot and then help you get from current location to remembered spot.

Uses map services as well Assignment variations

Breadcrumb app that logs all location changes and can show route on map

Hike/Walk/Jog tracker that shows legs of a journey with approx distances and total distance

1 deg of latitude is approx 69.047 miles or 111.12 km

1 deg of longitude is 69.047 x Cos (current lat)

Free Play

Have an idea for an App you would like to try?

Want to catch up on some of the variations from earlier?

Have Questions?

Want to take on some challenges? Thanks to

https://sites.google.com/site/appinventoredu

For the challenges. You might also want to check out their section on Philosophy

Let’s use the rest of today to catch up on these things….

Some Advanced Resources

Code Snippets and Tutorials http://puravidaapps.com/

snippets.php

Want to distribute your app?

Local distribution Download Setup QR code Email Put on website

Preparing to Publish to marketplaces Google Play AndroidPit Amazon others

Conversion

http://amerkashi.wordpress.com/2011/02/14/automating-conversion-of-app-inventor-apk-to-google-market/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

udSvxbajS60

http://www.crucialthought.com/2011/05/15/publishing-an-app-inventor-app-to-the-android-market/

http://www.taiic.com/marketizer/