Mobile App Development Using App Inventor

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1 Mobile App Development Using App Inventor October 2013 Mahsa Mohaghegh and Mobile Development Unitec

2 The Post-PC Era 2007: Apple releases ios on the iphone 2008: Google releases Android on the HTC Dream Both platforms featured an accessible and intuitive graphical user interface Popularity of the platforms gave rise to numerous smartphone and tablet devices

3 Mobile Apps Games Productivity Social Connectivity

4 iosvsandroid Which is the better platform? ios Advantages Features a simplified user interface that is accessible for all users Tight integration with a limited range of hardware ensures speed and responsiveness Regularly updated with new features Largest app ecosystem of all platforms Most profitable platform for developers Android Advantages Features a fully customisable home Screen with support for widgets Can be found on a wide selection of devices in various form factors. Fastest growing mobile platform Apps can be distributed openly without being published onto an App Store Support for a diverse range of app development tools

5 Mobile App Development Tools Traditional tools available for developers: Xcode for ios Eclipse, AIDE and others for Android Online App Builders: App La Carte Apps Geyser YapperApp Drag & Drop development tools: App Inventor

6 What is App Inventor? A tool that makes it possible to write Android apps without being a software developer. The quickest and easiest way to build a mobile app for Android. App Inventor is unique in that there are no other tools like it for mobile app development Essentially an advanced version of Scratch with a focus on making smartphone apps.

7 What is Scratch and Why do we care? Simple visual development environment used to make cartoons, stories and games. Scratch is FREE! Large library of functions. Great way to teach basic concepts of programming to students. Most popular educational programming language.

8 Scratch vs App Inventor - Similarities Similarly structured user interface using panels interface design, block editor, presenter or stage The use of a drag and drop block interface for defining actions and setting parameters for objects. Easy to share and distribute projects with other users.

9 Scratch vs App Inventor - Differences Scratch is a programming language and online community where you can create your own interactive stories, games and 2D animations. Variables and object attributes are referred to as actors, which the user directs by placing the blocks under scripts. Scratch has a vibrant online community Simply hit the share button and you can upload Scratch games and play them with other people Scratch features an offline editor, allowing users to work on their projects without requiring a web browser or an internet connection.

10 Scratch vs App Inventor - Differences Programming blocks and scripts are assigned to each object or sprite individually. Scratch utilises Loops and Repetition the same way as games and animations use them when working with frames. This is different to conventional programming where the use of infinite loops is strongly discouraged. Instead of using methods or functions, Scratch allows users to send broadcasts which can activate other scripts who are listening for a particular broadcast. Scratch has a limited ability to create non-gaming based applications (such as a calculator).

11 Scratch vs App Inventor - Differences App Inventor allows you to develop applications for Android phones on a web browser using a visual drag-and-drop interface. It features a large library of functions which allows the creation of a wide range of smartphone apps such as communication, finance, media, tools and simple games. It allows users the ability to integrate various smartphone hardware features, such as speech recognition, camera, accelerometer, and GPS. You can save your App Inventor projects as APK files, allowing you to run them on any android smartphone or distribute it on the Google Play Store.

12 Scratch vs App Inventor - Differences The programming blocks structure closely resembles that of common programming languages, so it is a great educational tool for introducing programming to students. Teachers can use App Inventor to write educational apps tailored specifically to their school s curriculum. Features full support and integration of Google Fusion Tables. Fusion Tables let you store, share, query and visualise database tables which can be accessed by multiple apps. App Inventor supports integration with social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.

13 Scratch vs App Inventor - Differences Scratch Media oriented Games, Animated stories Interactive art Ability to create your own art and customise Sound from within Scratch User interface has been iterated over the Past 6 years Very polished and easy to use Can distribute creation online in the Scratch community 100,000+ active weekly users App Inventor Can develop a wide range of apps Communication, Finance, Media, Tools etc Ability to integrate various smartphone features (Speech, Gyroscope, Google Maps) Block structure more closely resembles that of programming languages. Can export the project as an android App that can be used on a smartphone 30,000 active weekly users

14 App Inventor Overview

15 Summary App Inventor is a powerful tool that allows users to quickly learn how to develop their own apps. It helps you learn the basic concepts of Programming without you having to learn or use a programming language Plenty of resources available on the App Inventor website for more practice apps