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

Summary


In this chapter, we signed up for the free Google App Inventor account and logged on to the App Inventor website.

We viewed the requirements for installing App Inventor on Windows, Mac, and Linux computers and (if we did not already have it) obtained and installed Java.

We then downloaded and installed the part of App Inventor that runs on our local computers and checked out the emulator software (a cute but fake smartphone on your local computer for testing apps).

Next, we found (if they were not already present) the device drivers (for our phone or other Android device and configured our device) to work with App Inventor.

So, we now have a Google App Inventor account and the underlying Java environment needed to run App Inventor's blocks screen on our computer and to create apps on our phone or other device, as well as package them for use.

Time to learn the basics so that we can design and create all those powerful apps we'll explore in the course of this book. The next three chapters cover those basics. First is the chapter on components.