Book Image

Google App Inventor

By : Ralph Roberts
Book Image

Google App Inventor

By: Ralph Roberts

Overview of this book

<center><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/UgRhYG_bvW8" width="500" height="315" frameborder="0"></iframe></center> <p>The number of mobile apps has grown exponentially in the last two years. If you want to join the crowd, Google’s App Inventor is the easiest and best tool for you to get started with. It is a tool to create Android phone apps and uses a graphical user interface, and drag and drop methods to create apps. It’s so simple that anyone can build an app.<br /><br />Learn how Google App Inventor eliminates the mystery around programming. It is a visual language, where we simply drag and drop blocks (graphic elements representing blocks of code) in various combinations to give us applications that run on our phones or other Android-based devices. No programming background is required. Playing with blocks has never been more fun!<br /><br />The emphasis is on creating apps that work and that you understand fully. The first part of the book gives you a sound foundation in the basics, and lots of tips on how to use App Inventor. The second part is all about creating complete apps ready for real world use. The book includes apps that communicate, use databases to remember, surf the Web and other networks, use GPS and various sensors on your phone, and let you write or play games.</p>
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
Google App Inventor
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface

Animation components


There are only two animation components currently available—Ball and ImageSprite.

Ball

We met the Ball component earlier in this chapter when exploring the Canvas component. We use Canvas for drawing and to do animations on and to control the area where they happen.

Balls and ImageSprites are ideal for use in arcade-style games, for example, because they can react to touches and to collisions with each other and with the edges of the Canvas.

I guarantee you we'll have fun with both these elements, especially in the chapter on games.

ImageSprite

The ImageSpite component works exactly as the Ball component except we use an image instead of an automatically generated ball graphic. I like using PNG to get the transparent background, like in the game I wrote below, but more about all that as we progress through the book.