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

Time for action our very own barcode scanner


  1. 1. In Design, you need a button and a label. Format them using horizontal arrangements just for practice.

  2. 2. Drop in a Barcode Scanner component from the Other Stuff drawer.

  3. 3. Switch over to the Blocks Editor and drag out your button's click framework (as shown in the following illustration). Pull the BarcodeScanner1.DoScan into the framework.

  4. 4. Get a BarcodeScanner1.AfterScan block and add the Label1.Text into it, and click the BarcodeScannerResult1 block into that.

Now, find some barcodes and scan them so you can see the results. Here's what I got when I scanned one of my books from the bookshelf (Rebol for Dummies). The result is the ISBN number (how books are tracked in bookstore inventories).

What just happened?

We now—with a very little work—have an app that scans barcodes.

Speaking of barcodes, here's an example of a QR barcode (which can contain up to 250 characters). Scanning this one on your phone will also give you the link to the mobile...