Alpha Software Mobile Development Tools:   Alpha Anywhere    |   Alpha TransForm subscribe to our YouTube Channel  Follow Us on LinkedIn  Follow Us on Twitter  Follow Us on Facebook
Devcon 2020 Goes Virtual! LEARN MORE >

Announcement

Collapse

The Alpha Software Forum Participation Guidelines

The Alpha Software Forum is a free forum created for Alpha Software Developer Community to ask for help, exchange ideas, and share solutions. Alpha Software strives to create an environment where all members of the community can feel safe to participate. In order to ensure the Alpha Software Forum is a place where all feel welcome, forum participants are expected to behave as follows:
  • Be professional in your conduct
  • Be kind to others
  • Be constructive when giving feedback
  • Be open to new ideas and suggestions
  • Stay on topic


Be sure all comments and threads you post are respectful. Posts that contain any of the following content will be considered a violation of your agreement as a member of the Alpha Software Forum Community and will be moderated:
  • Spam.
  • Vulgar language.
  • Quotes from private conversations without permission, including pricing and other sales related discussions.
  • Personal attacks, insults, or subtle put-downs.
  • Harassment, bullying, threatening, mocking, shaming, or deriding anyone.
  • Sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, or otherwise discriminatory jokes and language.
  • Sexually explicit or violent material, links, or language.
  • Pirated, hacked, or copyright-infringing material.
  • Encouraging of others to engage in the above behaviors.


If a thread or post is found to contain any of the content outlined above, a moderator may choose to take one of the following actions:
  • Remove the Post or Thread - the content is removed from the forum.
  • Place the User in Moderation - all posts and new threads must be approved by a moderator before they are posted.
  • Temporarily Ban the User - user is banned from forum for a period of time.
  • Permanently Ban the User - user is permanently banned from the forum.


Moderators may also rename posts and threads if they are too generic or do not property reflect the content.

Moderators may move threads if they have been posted in the incorrect forum.

Threads/Posts questioning specific moderator decisions or actions (such as "why was a user banned?") are not allowed and will be removed.

The owners of Alpha Software Corporation (Forum Owner) reserve the right to remove, edit, move, or close any thread for any reason; or ban any forum member without notice, reason, or explanation.

Community members are encouraged to click the "Report Post" icon in the lower left of a given post if they feel the post is in violation of the rules. This will alert the Moderators to take a look.

Alpha Software Corporation may amend the guidelines from time to time and may also vary the procedures it sets out where appropriate in a particular case. Your agreement to comply with the guidelines will be deemed agreement to any changes to it.



Bonus TIPS for Successful Posting

Try a Search First
It is highly recommended that a Search be done on your topic before posting, as many questions have been answered in prior posts. As with any search engine, the shorter the search term, the more "hits" will be returned, but the more specific the search term is, the greater the relevance of those "hits". Searching for "table" might well return every message on the board while "tablesum" would greatly restrict the number of messages returned.

When you do post
First, make sure you are posting your question in the correct forum. For example, if you post an issue regarding Desktop applications on the Mobile & Browser Applications board , not only will your question not be seen by the appropriate audience, it may also be removed or relocated.

The more detail you provide about your problem or question, the more likely someone is to understand your request and be able to help. A sample database with a minimum of records (and its support files, zipped together) will make it much easier to diagnose issues with your application. Screen shots of error messages are especially helpful.

When explaining how to reproduce your problem, please be as detailed as possible. Describe every step, click-by-click and keypress-by-keypress. Otherwise when others try to duplicate your problem, they may do something slightly different and end up with different results.

A note about attachments
You may only attach one file to each message. Attachment file size is limited to 2MB. If you need to include several files, you may do so by zipping them into a single archive.

If you forgot to attach your files to your post, please do NOT create a new thread. Instead, reply to your original message and attach the file there.

When attaching screen shots, it is best to attach an image file (.BMP, .JPG, .GIF, .PNG, etc.) or a zip file of several images, as opposed to a Word document containing the screen shots. Because Word documents are prone to viruses, many message board users will not open your Word file, therefore limiting their ability to help you.

Similarly, if you are uploading a zipped archive, you should simply create a .ZIP file and not a self-extracting .EXE as many users will not run your EXE file.
See more
See less

Launching Mobile Apps

Collapse
X
Collapse
 
  • Page of 2
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
Previous 1 2 template Next
    #1

    Launching Mobile Apps

    It's unclear to me exactly how to launch a mobile app...in my case I'm on an Android phone (Samsung Note II). Is it simply a case of using the phone's web browser to go to your URL, or does v12 provide a way to actually create an "app icon" to press to start the app? I've seen something called the AppLauncher in the list of web components, but I've not seen any information about it's use except on its initial screen. Thanks.
    Tags: None
    #2
    Re: Launching Mobile Apps

    Hi Tom,

    Yes, you can simply use the phone's browser and go to your V12 mobile web site. On the iPhone and possibly the Android you can create a desktop shortcut or link to your mobile web site. When you click on the link, it brings up your browser and goes to your URL. You can optionally integrate your V12 project with PhoneGap (Cordova) and access most of the phone's hardware (e.g., camera, speaker, mic). These are things any native app can access, but a web app cannot. V12 has some Action Javascript integration with some areas of Cordova, but you can do anything you want with Cordova if you use their Javascript API directly. You can take it one step further and create a "PhoneGap Build" which is basically a native app and it appears on the phone's desktop like any other app. Your customers can also download it from a mobile store (e.g., AppStore) like any other native app.

    Comment

      #3
      Re: Launching Mobile Apps

      Thanks Dave,

      I did some more playing around on my Android and did determine that a shortcut/bookmark can be created for normal "app like access", although is sounds like PhoneGap integration produces a more professional experience. In thinking about going from web to mobile, I realize I have a bunch of basic questions which probably needs a new thread.

      Comment

        #4
        Re: Launching Mobile Apps

        That's good to know the Android does allow for creating bookmark shortcuts on the desktop. The V12 mobile web experience is very good. Most of the people I demo my app to think it's a native iPhone app. Even after I tell them it's a web app, they later forget and refer to it as a native app again. lt's kind of funny.

        BTW, you don't have to use Cordova unless you need access to the smartphone's hardware. You don't have to create a "PhoneGap Build" unless you want to create a true native app. Cordova/PhoneGap support all of the popular smartphone OS's including iOS, Android, Blackberry and Windows Phone.

        Comment

          #5
          Re: Launching Mobile Apps

          Originally posted by DaveF View Post
          ...Your customers can also download it from a mobile store (e.g., AppStore) like any other native app.
          Dave, I'm not a developer for third parties, but I am curious about your comment that customers could download an Alpha app from a mobile store, like Apple's App Store. Are you just saying it's feasible, or that it's a likely future scenario? I guess my question has more to do with pricing feasibility than technical feasibility...given Alpha's pricing structure, as we think we currently know it, could a simple $1.99 app be developed with Alpha for the general market? Under whose WAS license would they be running the app?

          Comment

            #6
            Re: Launching Mobile Apps

            I'm saying that building a native smartphone app that you download from Apple's app store is possible today using "PhoneGap Build". I have no idea what Alpha's plans are for native app licensing. The last I heard, Alpha Anywhere licensing was still up in the air - at least for current subscription customers.

            Comment

              #7
              Re: Launching Mobile Apps

              Originally posted by TPeterson View Post
              Dave, I'm not a developer for third parties, but I am curious about your comment that customers could download an Alpha app from a mobile store, like Apple's App Store. Are you just saying it's feasible, or that it's a likely future scenario? I guess my question has more to do with pricing feasibility than technical feasibility...given Alpha's pricing structure, as we think we currently know it, could a simple $1.99 app be developed with Alpha for the general market? Under whose WAS license would they be running the app?
              It would be running under your WAS license. PhoneGap Build lets you package together PhoneGap and some startup files that will make PhoneGap connect to your WAS application (on your WAS server). It makes it appear as a standalone program (which you could sell on an app store, etc. etc.). A cool thing about PhoneGap Build is that it will create packages for all the major mobile smart phone operating systems.

              Take a look here for the demo.
              Last edited by Lenny Forziati; 09-01-2016, 05:20 PM. Reason: link updated

              Comment

                #8
                Re: Launching Mobile Apps

                I'm not an expert on this, but you can't build a native mobile app with Alpha Five. You can build native-like mobile-friendly web apps that run in the user's browser. You can create shortcuts on mobile devices by bookmarking the site and creating a shortcut from it (various device operating systems handle this differently). But things like PhoneGap, the App Store, and Google Play are for native apps, not web apps.

                Comment

                  #9
                  Re: Launching Mobile Apps

                  Chris,

                  Phonegap does in fact build a truly native app that provides transparent access to Alpha5 web apps using an embedded browser. The user really cannot tell the difference. My understanding is that there are many existing mobile apps built using this approach. The real kicker is paying the fee for an Apple developer license and the app is available to the world through the app store. For controlled release to a single corporate community, an even more expensive Apple license is required. I do not know what the situation is with Android.

                  Terry

                  Comment

                    #10
                    Re: Launching Mobile Apps

                    Have you done this or seen it demonstrated? I'm just really surprised since it sounded like you had to upload your HTML, CSS, etc for PhoneGap to make it seem native, and it doesn't seem like PhoneGap would accept A5 code...

                    Comment

                      #11
                      Re: Launching Mobile Apps

                      As I recall, I did this for an existing application and took it all the way through simulation in xcode (this was several weeks ago). The process is shown in the following video [URL="http://youtu.be/GiL6ljY3hrI"]. This is the simplest of approaches for transforming an A5 web app into a native mobile device app and is A5 version independent. Phonegap includes a library of functions for accessing the mobile device features such as camera, compass, etc, but these are accessible only from A5 V12. Note that xcode on a Mac is required to convert the phonegap output into an Apple mobile device app that can be submitted to the App Store.

                      Terry

                      Comment

                        #12
                        Re: Launching Mobile Apps

                        I'm not sure exactly how the submission process works, but I know you do have to install the IDE for each native platform and compile your PhoneGap application. I already had Xcode installed and have successfully downloaded and installed the supporting PhoneGap files and sample project. I have not installed Eclipse yet for the Android platform.

                        As far as the iOS submission process goes, you do still have to get your app approved by Apple before it can be made available on the AppStore. This means that your app must pass all of Apple's user interface guidelines. This is a link to some native PhoneGap apps available on AppStore and other smartphone mobile stores:

                        http://phonegap.com/app/

                        Comment

                          #13
                          Re: Launching Mobile Apps

                          We are adding support for PhoneGap Build which will allow you to build native apps for all of the PhoneGap supported devices with Alpha Anywhere without having to install all of the target SDK's.

                          If you want to deploy to the Apple App Store, you will still need a Mac with XCode installed to setup your Apple developer account and distribution profile to submit your app to the app store but PhoneGap Build can easily generate the ipa file which is what you upload to the app store.

                          Here is a list of videos that should help you out.

                          2013 Alpha Dev Conference Video, PhoneGap Overview : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbcZwr2TqE0
                          2013 PhoneGap Build Overview : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xp6qQkeUJSc
                          2013 PhoneGap App from PhoneGap Build on Samsung Galaxy Note 8: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdorpQMuUQQ

                          2013 Building a native iOS Cordova/PhoneGap app from scratch : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiL6ljY3hrI
                          2013 Building a native Android Cordova/PhoneGap app from scratch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnKrAc2p6XQ

                          More info and sample files coming soon.
                          Bob Moore


                          Comment

                            #14
                            Re: Launching Mobile Apps

                            Thanks for the info Bob.

                            Comment

                              #15
                              Re: Launching Mobile Apps

                              So, to make clear - I absolutely must use a mac to create the cert chains, etc to submit to PG build to even TEST an app on iOS correct? Can someone do this for me? Criminy...
                              NWCOPRO: Nuisance Wildlife Control Software My Application: http://www.nwcopro.com "Without forgetting, we would have no memory at all...now what was I saying?"

                              Comment

                              Previous 1 2 template Next
                              Working...
                              X