Using MyEclipse has some great advantages, it also has a few pretty big pit falls. One being app design. It has a HTML visual designer, but its not the best. So, I have been looking into other designers that I can use to design the app, then bring the design into MyEclipse for further development and compiling. As I don’t want to spend any more on development tools I will only be looking at free options. While this does limit what I will be looking at the price point is pretty good.
General
Unhappy with the default game look
I have decided that I am not very happy with how the game is looking using the plain phone gap, so I am trying something new. Looking at Ratchet and Topcoat I have decided to go with Topcoat (http://topcoat.io).
I’ll be honest, Topcoat was not my first choice, it was actually Ratchet. But, after a few minutes of testing it seems either my system or the MyEclipse IDE does not like the Ratchet components. It would freeze up and not display correctly (the IDE, not the components). The Topcoat seems to play nice and has a good look to it. So, after downloading it I added it to the folder in the IDE. It seems a bit easier to use that Ratchet at first try as well. I added the code to the top of the page and after grabbing some code from their demo page was able to quickly change the look of the game screen:
The title bar is the default navigation bar from the demo, the button is the mobile call to action button with my added default graphic and a Start Game text. I also placed the button inside a div tag to get it centered, I think it works out pretty well.
Here is the button code I used:
<div style=”text-align: center;”>
<button class=“topcoat-button–cta” onclick=“javascript:getUsername();”>Start Game<br> <img src=“icon.png” ></img></button>
</div>
You can see the call to my getUsername function I added the other day. As I am pretty happy with the intro screen I will move on to the game screen and try to get that looking a bit better.
Map game – more
Last night I worked on the map game and its coming along nicely. I have the main intro screen and then the game screen. I only have a couple questions. I think tracking down and logging the question and answer parts is the most tedious aspects. I’m thinking for the first test to use the states capitals. Not just the cities, but the actual building locations, the cities lat and lng can be very sporadic locations.
To get some basic gameplay into it I really just need the locations and probably and end screen when they are done that gives them a result. Maybe keep track of how many times they try without having it in the view. As I want to keep it a learning game I don’t want to use a ‘failed’ reasoning. I want to keep it upbeat and positive.
Adding Share Buttons to your App
OK, a much requested feature is a simple share button for Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social networks. So, while not the best solution, here is a way to incorporate them without having to deal with their, sometimes difficult, APIs.
These are simple URLs you can add to your buttons and use the gotoURL, or even into your Javascript if you want to do more advanced links.
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=http://cincyplanet.com
As you can see, the URL on the end is what is going to be shared.
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=http://cincyplanet.com&text=Cincy Planet Development&hashtags=web,development, mobile apps
Twitter offers a bit more with Text and even Hashtags.
Google+
https://plus.google.com/share?url=http://cincyplanet.com
LinkedIn
http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=http://cincyplanet.com&title=CincyPlanet Mobile Development
LinkedIn you have to set mini=true, the rest is yours to add.
New mobile app / game prototype
I have decided to recreate a prototype game did in MobiOne in MyEclipse 2015 using the phone gap application project. It’s a game where you have to find specific locations on the map. Once the target is in the maps view the player can press check map and, if the location is in view, and get points. The points will increase depending on how far the player has zoomed in on the target.
I’m going to try to focus on using PhoneGap and avoid the Jquery mobile. This means Ill be forced to do some better graphics for it.
GapDebug is just cool
As I use the MyEclipse IDE for a lot of my development now it appears they have just released a new tool called GapDebug. This tool allows you to test and debug on the device in real time. Once setup, which was really easy, you just run a phoneap app and it shows up in the debugger ( which is Chrome based so you need that installed, one of the fees steps). Your device is connected though the USB cable. Once in debugging mode you can see the entire layout of the app, click on the and view the files and even edit in real time much of it, for example to test a new code or attribute.
I will be writing more on this, but since I just installed it this morning I want to play around with it more.
However it is a free tool so you can grab yours and play around as well!
Oh, make sure to disable sleep mode, or it disconnects, but even if you don’t just wake it back up and it reconnects fine.
Why I started this blog
Well, this isn’t my first blog, not even my first development blog. However, it will be the first one where I am more open to what I am doing with my projects, code and trials/tribulations. I use several tools depending on the task at hand. I do prefer to use the MyEclipse IDE with Ionic and AngularJS.
MyEclipse is a great IDE but can be very intimidating if you are not a programmer. While not as user friendly it certainly has the power and ability to handle the majority of tasks. My Phantom Helper app was created in it and, while the app needs a real visual overhaul, was more than capable to handle the task. MyEclipse 2014 mobile tools use the Jquery Mobile framework, the latest version, MyEclipse 2015, will offer the ability to use the Phonegap/Cordova platform. This will also allow people to add in many of the available plugins and do local builds. A feature not currently available in the 2014 version.
MyEclipse is not for the people who want to create an app with little or no programming, but that’s where MobiOne comes into play. It has an easy to use drag and drop interface with many useful widgets. These are added to the app and the app can be built using the Mobile App Build Center. The best part about this is that it allows Windows users to create iOS apps, for both iPhone and iPads. While the interface and program is pretty easy to use it does have limitations. Being very much built for drag and drop functionality, and even though its uses the PhoneGap platform, it offers no customization by the way of plugins. But certainly don’t let that stop you from trying it, it is a great program that I still keep in my tool drawer.
Since I’ve already published several apps this blog will focus more on new apps I make as well as updates and tests. Mostly using the MyEclipse tools and PhoneGap, Ionic, AngularJS, but also on the other tools I both use and play around with.
Cincyplanet 