Posted on by George Henne

AppStudio 8.5 released!

We’re pleased to announce that 8.5.0 has been released.

The major change is that AppStudio is now using the latest wxWidgets library for its UI. The whole environment looks subtly better.

There are also tons of minor improvements, updates and fixes.

One thing to look out for: there are changes to how SQLite works in native apps. Read "Breaking Changes" below.

Here is what is new and changed in 8.5:

  1. IDE: wxPython updated to 4.1.1. Uses wxWidgets 3.1. Tons of fixes and minor improvements, and it just looks better.
  2. BS4: Updated to 4.6
  3. BS4: Bootswatch themes updated to 4.6
  4. BS4: Input) password now has option to toggle plain text on or off.
  5. BS4: Navs) – fix .clear() and .addItem() functions
  6. BS4: Slider) – Add .hide() and .show() functions
  7. Code Window: Improve function list to catch more JavaScript function formats.
  8. Code Window: Improved function name find.
  9. IDE: MacOS: control keys for copy and paste work in dialog windows.
  10. Demo: Do not allow Cordova Build.
  11. Deploy: Allow wasm files to be deployed.
  12. Deploy: Some redundant code eliminated – may be quicker
  13. Design Screen: Change "Add Component" to "Add Control".
  14. Electron: Spaces are not allowed in Title
  15. Electron: Updated to 9.4.0. (electron-builder and npm also updated)
  16. IDE: Copyright is now 2021
  17. IDE: MacOS: control keys for copy and paste work in dialog windows.
  18. Installer: Windows signing certificate renewed.
  19. Navigo: Updated to 8.4.3. Used by BrowserArrows (see sample)
  20. Project Properties: Remove androidDname – replaced by VoltSigner
  21. Project Properties: Signing filenames default to VoltSigner's values.
  22. Run Menu: Add "Get Signing Certificate with VoltSigner" .
  23. Run Menu: Change "Volt" to "Volt Server".
  24. Samples: Change PhoneGap references to VoltBuilder.
  25. Samples: Volt Services is now called VoltServer.
  26. Samples: SQLSample1 updated.
  27. Samples: Some samples would not open due to a PWA_manifest problem.
  28. SQLite: SqlOpenDatabase now takes only 1 argument.
  29. SQLite: When running as a native app, the Cordova library is used instead of the browser's.
  30. VoltBuilder: Default key names to be same as VoltSigner defaults.
  31. VoltBuilder: Remove reference to xmlns:gap in default config.xml
  32. VoltBuilder/Cordova: Main() is now called on deviceready event.
  33. VoltSigner: added to Run menu.

Breaking change : When running as a native app, the Cordova library is used instead of the browser's. That means the database data will be saved in the file system and not in the browser's sandbox. Please check where your app is saving the data: you may have to consider a migration strategy if you are affected. Please contact support@appstudio.dev if you need help. The need for this changed comes from Safari changing support for WebSQL. This does NOT affect web apps.

You can download the new release from within AppStudio or from our site.