Author: George Henne

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AppStudio 6.3.1 released!

We’re pleased to announce AppStudio 6.3.1 is ready.

It incorporates all the fixes to 6.3 which have been released to date.

  1. Deploy: ContentSecurityPolicy is only used on PhoneGap apps.
  2. Design Screen: Was blank in some projects due to file name encoding.
  3. Design Screen: Fix problem with screen not showing controls if Grid present.
  4. Forms: All forms were displaying briefly at startup.
  5. Forms: Fix problem with modal forms.
  6. PhoneGap: Add base64 images to ContentSecurityPolicy
  7. Properties: New viewFrameFit property for iOS 11.
  8. Samples: Change copyright date on ABD fake company.
  9. Samples: Use specific camera library (2.4.1) on camera plugin.
  10. Samples: Samples open properly on Mac OS.
  11. Samples: Get rid of obsolete background style.

Download the latest version from ‘Check for Updates’ under then AppStudio Help menu. It is a free upgrade for AppStudio 6 users.

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iOS 11: The top of the screen

iOS 11 brought a change to the way your app gets positioned on the screen. A reason for this is the new iPhone X, with its ‘notch’ at the top. However, this change affects all iOS devices, not just the iPhone X.

Apple introduced a new parameter for web pages called viewport-fit. iOS devices have a ‘Safe Area’, which is screen space the app can safely use. viewport-fit defines how your app uses the Safe Area. If set to contain (the default) your app will be confined to the Safe Area. If set to cover, it will use the entire screen.

In AppStudio 6.3.0.3 (released today), we have added a new viewportFit project property you can use for your app. It works together with the StatusBar property to define what is on top of the screen.

Let’s look at the various combinations:

StatusBar: black-transluscent viewportFit: contain

This is how many apps will look running iOS 11 with AppStudio before 6.3.0.3. Notice the empty space above the Header? It actually takes the color of your app’s background. The status bar info is there, but invisible since it is white on white.

StatusBar: black-transluscent viewportFit: cover

By changing viewportFit to cover, the app now fills the whole screen. But now the status bar info is showing IN our Header. If you want to use this combination, add 20 pixels on top of the Header for the status bar.

StatusBar: black viewportFit: contain

Making the status bar black means that your app gets positioned below it. No problems here!

StatusBar: black viewportFit: contain

If the status bar is black, it doesn’t seem to matter if you use cover or contain.

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AppStudio 6.3.0.2 released!

We’re pleased to announce AppStudio 6.3.0.2 is ready.

We found a few more items which needed to be fixed.

  1. Design Screen: Fix problem with screen not showing controls if Grid present.
  2. Forms: All forms were displaying briefly at startup.
  3. Samples: Get rid of obsolete background style.

Download the latest version from ‘Check for Updates’ under then AppStudio Help menu. It is a free upgrade for AppStudio 6 users.

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AppStudio 6.3.0.1 released!

We’re pleased to announce AppStudio 6.3.0.1 is ready.

No matter how much testing is done, releasing the code is the only real way to find all the problems.

  1. Forms: Fix problem with modal forms.
  2. PhoneGap: Add base64 images to ContentSecurityPolicy
  3. Samples: Change copyright date on ABD fake company.
  4. Samples: Use specific camera library (2.4.1) on camera plugin.

Download the latest version from ‘Check for Updates’ under then AppStudio Help menu. It is a free upgrade for AppStudio 6 users.

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AppStudio 6.3.0 released!

We’re pleased to announce AppStudio 6.3.0 is ready.

This release brings a bunch of useful fixes and some enhancements.

New and improved stuff includes:

  1. Bootstrap: ‘spellcheck’ property added to input controls.
  2. Bootstrap: Hamburger.addItem can now add ‘divider’ lines.
  3. Bootstrap: DataTable now has initComplete property.
  4. Bootstrap: Icon image in Project Explorer fixed.
  5. Code Window: Files in HTML format are now lexed properly.
  6. Code Window: JavaScript format now uses indent as specified in Preferences.
  7. Code Window: Clicking in the Functions window improved.
  8. Controls: Google Maps: Use apiKey when initializing.
  9. Deploy: Filenames in the manifest are now URL encoded. Spaces work in file names.
  10. Design Screen: Right clicking a control with existing event does not create a new JavaScript function.
  11. Forms: New ‘attribute` property.
  12. Forms: New ‘class’ property.
  13. Forms: screenMode has new ‘noStyle’ setting: Only user styling is applied.
  14. jQM Collapsible now supports html in Header.
  15. MacOS: Support added for 10.13 High Sierra
  16. MakeEXE: Mismatched files for Windows 7,8 fixed.
  17. PhoneGap: Improve Content Security Policy for iOS 11.
  18. PhoneGap: ‘gap:’ no longer required in config.xml tokens.
  19. Preferences: Full list of languages appears again on Mac.
  20. Project Properties: Add favicon.
  21. Runtime: Improve ‘stopOnError’ runtime error message display.
  22. Runtime: NSB.MsgBox no longer spills text outside the box.
  23. Runtime: NSB.MsgBox now scrolls long messages.
  24. Samples: PhoneGapFileSystem “LocalFileSystem not defined” fixed.
  25. Samples: PhoneGapFileSystem Barcode plugin fixed.
  26. Updated copyright dates to 2018.

Download the latest version from ‘Check for Updates’ under then AppStudio Help menu. It is a free upgrade for AppStudio 6 users.

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A Merry VR Christmas from Achim Girnth

(contributed by Achim Girnth in Switzerland)

Hello AppStudio users,

The Christmas Countdown is running, it’s time to wish you happy holidays,
a happy new year and all the best for the future.
What about a scary Virtual Reality experience for Christmas? Dare to watch it at:

http://www.agvr.ch/xmas/

It is programmed in APPSTUDIO!
And if your PC, MAC or Smartphone doesn’t like my late night JavaScript Code,
here is a light version:

http://www.agvr.ch/xmasweb/

Best Regards,
Achim Girnth
achim.girnth@medienfront.ch

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Net Neutrality

While our company is based in Canada, about half of our customers (and some of our developers) are based in the US.

The FCC is proposing to hand control of the internet to the big cable monopolies. They’ll be allowed to charge different rates or throttle network throughput for sites as they please. With little or no meaningful competition, users will have no choice but to pay.

The internet (and ARPANET before it) was designed to be free and open. This is the most serious assault on it so far. If you’re in the US, please contact your congressman to let him know your feelings.

I’ve always kept NSB out of politics – but this proposal can only hurt our customers. It’s important to speak up.

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Accessing Volt from a PhoneGap app

A couple of days ago, one of our users asked a good question on our discussion board: Can Volt’s services be used from a PhoneGap app?

It sounds like a reasonable request. PhoneGap apps are compiled web apps which run as native apps. AppStudio is very good at making these. Volt is a collection of services, including features such as serverStorage, which lets users of your apps easily save or share data on a server.

It turns out it is easy to do and works nicely. You need to do two things:
1. In Project Properties, set the Volt Domain to the location of your app on Volt. For example,
storage-introduces-owlishly.volt.live.
2. In Project Properties, add the path of the Volt library to extraheaders. For example:
<script src='https://storage-introduces-owlishly.volt.live/api/client/volt.js'>

(Replace storage-introduces-owlishly with whatever your app’s domain name is. Custom domains will work fine too.)

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AppStudio 6.2.7 Released!

We’re pleased to announce AppStudio 6.2.7 is ready.

This release brings a bunch of useful fixes and some enhancements.

New and improved stuff includes:

  1. Deploy: Error message shows if a DB cannot be exported due to invalid column type.
  2. Controls: Bootstrap controls with images work properly.
  3. Controls: Bootstrap Tabs color property fixed.
  4. Controls: jQM Collapsible can now display HTML.
  5. Controls: jQM List’s hidden property now works.
  6. Controls: Common Grid has new .init(rows, cols) function.
  7. Controls: Signature now renders properly if size of control changes. (Thanks, Buck!)
  8. Controls: New Signature.clear() function.
  9. Library: Navigo updated to latest version.
  10. MakeEXE: Bug in links fixed.
  11. Samples: New BrowserArrows sample shows use of Navigo.

Download the latest version from ‘Check for Updates’ under then AppStudio Help menu. It is a free upgrade for AppStudio 6 users.

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AppStudio 6.2.6 released!

We’re pleased to announce AppStudio 6.2.6 is ready.

This release brings a bunch of changes under the covers, with new versions of libraries. These fix a number of issues, some of them longstanding – like QRCodes displaying on Mac OS.

New and improved stuff includes:

  1. Controls: Fix jqWidgets Input placeholder.
  2. Controls: jQM Select now checks for bad value on .setIndex.
  3. Forms: Fix error in centering forms.
  4. IDE: Add web board to Help menu.
  5. IDE: QRCodes now appear on Mac.
  6. Installer: Use pyInstaller 3.2.1.
  7. Installer: Use Python 2.8.13.
  8. Installer: Use wxPython 3.0.2
  9. Runtime: Use FontAwesome 4.7. Over 40 new icons!
  10. Runtime: FontAwesome now works properly offline.
  11. Runtime: EXE.pythonEval() can now accept longer command strings (240)
  12. makeEXE: Updated with the latest libraries.
  13. makeEXE: New streamlined development technique.
  14. Samples: execPython has some new snippets.
  15. Samples: Facebook sample deprecated due to changes in Facebook authentication.
  16. Volt: Documentation moved into main Wiki.

Download the latest version from ‘Check for Updates’ under then AppStudio Help menu. It is a free upgrade for AppStudio 6 users.