Category: news

Upgrading to AppStudio 4.0 should be straightforward. Here’s the information you need.

Ordering the Upgrade

• Upgrades are free for anyone who bought AppStudio 3 (or the upgrade to it) after January 1, 2014.
• If you bought before Jan 1, the upgrade costs $49.95.
• You can download the demo to give it a try.
• You can buy the full version in the demo using PayPal or use our order form.
• After you buy, restart the IDE and you will have the full licensed version.

Some technical stuff you should know

• Keep a backup of your critical projects. (Always!)
• jQuery Mobile 1.3 has been deprecated. While it will still work with AppStudio 4, support will be removed in a future AppStudio release. jQuery Mobile 1.4 has a much more modern look and feel, as well as many new features.
• iWebKit has been deprecated. While it will still work with AppStudio 4, support will be removed in a future AppStudio release. When we first launched AppStudio, it was a great framework. However, it has been abandoned by its author: it has not been updated in years. Time to move on!
• When you first load a project in AppStudio 4, it will ask if you want to update to jQuery 1.4. AppStudio will update all your jQuery Mobile controls.
• It will also update most of your iWebKit controls. Some, like menus, will need to be redone.
• Read about the rest of the breaking changes.

We’re pleased to announce that AppStudio 4.0 has been released.

There’s a lot of new stuff in it, but the first thing you notice is the whole new look and feel.

The old design looked like something from the last century, when a design by programmers was good enough. It worked, wasn’t pretty and was cluttered.

Software design these days has been strongly influenced by mobile devices. Nothing is put on the screen unless it needs to be. Colors are flat and harmonious, fonts are sans-serif. We enlisted Tomo Arakawa, a software designer and professional architect, to come up with a new design.

The comments so far have overwhelmingly positive:

“Excellent Job…”
“I think this is a great new look.”
“Very nice… Good, and Clean and Fresh, and very responsive.”
“George nicer look!”
“I like it. A lot. Nice, specially the listing of all the functions ({..}), really nice.”
“Sieht super aus.” (Looks super.)
“It’s look very good”
“Wow! New design is the bomb! Speechless…”

but also, inevitably, one comment of “Go back to the original it was far better.”

Continue reading “AppStudio 4.0 released!”

We have just added an AppStudio course to the Wiki:

http://wiki.nsbasic.com/AppStudio_Course

It assumes the trainees have a programming background. You can follow through the course notes and lab sessions on your own: if you would like on site training please contact us for details.

It includes samples, lab sessions and solutions.

Since it is in the Wiki, this is a living document. We will expand and update it as AppStudio progresses.

Have a look at let us know what you think!

AppStudio 3.3 has been released.

It has a number of nice new features. You can drag and drop to the Code Window, the new ChangeForms property makes it much easier to navigate between forms, PhoneGap has been updated and the offline docs have been improved.
Continue reading “AppStudio 3.3 released!”

AppStudio 3.2.9.0 has been released.

It has an important new feature: External Files. It makes it much easier to add, edit and deploy files which you want to include in your app.

Fixes and Enhancements

1. Code Modules: External code modules are now supported. (Thanks, Tony!)
2. IDE: External files can be added to an app by dragging and dropping them into the Project Explorer.
3. IDE: About Screen scrollable again.
4. Code Window: Some autocomplete items added.
5. Code Window: Equal (=) now autocompletes.
6. Controls: New .setting() function on FlipToggle returns True/False.
7. Deploy: Icons on Chrome Packaged App improved.
8. Deploy: Error in Italian translation which broke deploy to nsbapp fixed.
9. IDE: Design screen was becoming unresponsive after switching forms. (Thanks, Teo!)
10. Runtime: NSB.Print wasn’t working after being dismissed.
11. Runtime: Warning in Chrome about event.returnValue eliminated.
12. Samples: New ChromeAPI sample shows how to use Android FileSystem object.

You can now put a path in the src property of a Code Module. This will be treated as an external file and only copied into your project on deploy. Files can be in JavaScript (.js), BASIC (.bas), PHP (.php) or Other (.css, etc.). This allows you to have code modules which are shared by multiple apps. Use Add New Module to add a new external file to your project, or drag the files and drop them in the Project Explorer.

AppStudio 3.2.8.8 has been released. It has a number of stability improvements and fixes.

1. Deploy: Chrome Packaged Apps now use proper icons.
2. Find/Replace: Will not affect the background window (Mac)
3. IDE: Problem with Edit menu item disabling with Code Window fixed.
4. IDE: Ctrl V will not paste to the wrong place (Mac)
5. Script Window: range check on size added..

The complete list of changes is here.

AppStudio 3.2.8.7 has been released. It has a number of stability improvements and fixes.

1. Design Screen: jQM Button images display in Design Screen.
2. Design Screen: Positioning lines now cancel after right click as well.
3. IDE: Problem with Edit menu item disabling fixed.
4. Properties: Can now be edited again after changing.

The complete list of changes is here.

AppStudio 3.2.8.6 has been released. It has a number of enhancements and fixes.

1. Code Window: fix false negative syntax error on “Finally”
2. Code Window: Problem with code folding fixed. (Thanks, Helen!)
3. Controls: AdSense no longer affects subsequent controls.
4. Controls: Double quotes are now allowed on jQM Buttons.
5. Controls: Images can now be placed on jQM Buttons.
6. Deploy: Build Status screen can now show the status of PhoneGap’s servers.
7. Deploy: chromeIcon project property is now 192×192: Google updated their docs. If you are using this feature, you need to update the icon to the new size. This allows full screen Android apps if you are using Chome 31 or higher.
8. Find Window: Type through problem fixed.
9. IDE: Forms losing their order fixed. (Thanks, Jimmy!)
10. IDE: Several new languages added as well as new material for existing ones.
11. Libraries: Metro theme deprecated. Developer was not keeping up to date with JQM.
12. Runtime: browserWarningMessage is now a function you can replace in your code.
13. Runtime: If you have a Sub browserWarningMessageAfterScript(), it will be called after browserwarning is displayed.
14. Runtime: Messages.js moved into nsb
15. Runtime: Revert change to width calculation on NSB.MsgBox on some Samsung devices.
16. Samples: Google Maps and Twitter updated to use their latest APIs.

The complete list of changes is here.

AppStudio 3.2.8.5 has been released. It has an important bug fix.

Yesterday, we received a video from Jimmy Imossi in Gibralter, showing how to reproduce an issue we have been chasing all week. If a certain sequence of operations was followed, code could be saved to the wrong spot in the project. It’s a fairly complex sequence and was difficult to describe how to reproduce. Jimmy’s video nailed it and the issue is now fixed. Thanks, Jimmy – we owe you big time!

1. Code Window: Fix code loss issue. (Thanks, Jimmy!)
2. IDE: Fix jitter problem on “Menu” when fullscreen.
3. NSB.MsgBox: revert change to width calculation
4. Runtime: Improve how CStr and CDate handle undefined values

The complete list of changes is here.

AppStudio 3.2.8.4 has been released. It has a number of enhancements and stability improvements.

1. Code Window: Positioning lines now appear when mouse down on a control.
2. Code Window: Fix problem with code folding.
3. Documentation: Wiki and Locale files updated.
4. Design Screen: Changes to contextual menus on Mac OS. Fixes Copy/Paste issue.
5. IDE: Do not allow positioning above the top of the screen after disconnecting external monitor.
6. Properties Grid: Save problem caused by multiple Script Windows fixed.
7. Runtime: NSB.MsgBox can now display false as a prompt.

The complete list of changes is here.