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

Appendix B. Last-Minute Update

This book was—so I thought—completed on August 3, 2011. Naturally, on August 5, a new update was released. To make this book as absolutely complete as possible, here it is:

Features:

  • Allow Player component to work with streaming URLs on Android 1.6 or greater

  • Added GetPixelColor, GetBackgroundPixelColor, and SetBackgroundPixelColor to Canvas. (issue #485)

  • Added make color and split color blocks to the Built-In/Color drawer

Bug Fixes:

  • Fixed issue #1750 - Web.HtmlTextDecode caused runtime error on phones older than Gingerbread

  • Fixed issue #1756 - App crashes when phone turned to landscape

  • Fixed bug where Canvas.save fails on a very large canvas

Of the previous changes, the one I find most exciting is the new make color block in the Built-In/Color drawer. Instead of those long negatives numbers we've used to set colors throughout the book, it's now possible to use standard RGB (Red, Green, Blue) designations (0-255) for each of the three.

In addition to this standard color nomenclature, an alpha channel was also added for controlling transparency. It is now possible, for example, to (using delays) fade labels in and out. Transitions! Something I've wanted a lot. I am really looking forward to playing with that.

Status of App Inventor

Finally—also on August 3, just as I finished this book, Google announced it was discontinuing support of App Inventor (part of its general discontinuation of Google Labs) and releasing it to open source. You can imagine my initial reaction after all this work.

However, as seen previously, support has continued with the release of another upgrade, and App Inventor continues to progress.

So, the news is good, and I look forward to clicking blocks and creating apps for years to come.

I hope this book helps you as much as it has me in mastering App Inventor.

— Ralph Roberts, August 6, 2011