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AppStudio 5.0 released!

After several months of hard work, AppStudio 5.0 is ready. It has over 200 new features, enhancements and fixes.

Here are some of the major new features:

But there is much more than major new features. Our motivation for many of the minor changes in the release was to make everyday things easier to do. You’ll find many places where we simplified things, got rid of unnecessary steps and provided straightforward ways to get stuff done.

Complete details here: http://wiki.nsbasic.com/Version_5

Special thanks to the beta testers who patiently help us get it right!

Stay tuned to this blog. We’ll add posts about many of the new features in the coming days.

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Using the new Calculation control

The Calculation control lets you display the result of a calculation without doing any coding. As the input values of the formula are changed, the value displayed in the control is automatically updated.

Screen Shot 2015-01-16 at 11.15.43 AM

It’s much like a Label, in that it displays a simple text string. It has many of the same properties: font, alignment, etc. However, instead of a caption, it has a formula. Each time you enter a character on the screen, formula is reevaluated and the new result displayed.

Let’s have fun with some formulas:
Continue reading “Using the new Calculation control”

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Using the new Generic control

Note: This control was replaced by the Container control in AppStudio 5. It had the same features, plus lots more.

Recently, we added the new Generic control. It’s simply a wrapper to make it easy for you to create a custom control. To use it effectively, you need to know a little about HTML. The control, by default, creates a simple <div> element, with a number of standard properties.

By setting its HTMLTag, attribute and class properties, you can transform it into almost any kind of HTML element. It will position properly on the form and process all of its events.

Today, we are going to use it as a wrapper for a jQWidgets control. We have already implemented many of them in the Toolbox, but there are some which have not been done yet. Using a Generic control, we can wire them in.

We’ll pick a fairly simple one: the jqxDateTimeInput. It displays a nice looking calendar which can be used to pick dates.

Screen Shot 2015-01-21 at 2.43.24 PM
Continue reading “Using the new Generic control”

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AppStudio 4.2.9 Released!

AppStudio 4.2.9 is ready. This release has a number of improvements and a new control. It’s called Calculation, and lets you display the result of a constantly updating calculation, without doing any coding.

  1. Controls: new Calculation control
  2. Deploy: FireFox support improved.
  3. Deploy: Recommended size of iOS icon increased to 180×180 for iOS8.
  4. General: copyright changed to 2015.
  5. Runtime: new Number function converts strings to numbers.
  6. Samples: New Calculation sample.
  7. Samples: Several tidied up and improved
  8. Translator: a=”//*” now translates properly
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AppStudio 4.2.8 Released!

AppStudio 4.2.8 is ready. This release has a number of fixes and a new control. It’s called Generic, and lets you build your own control based on HTML tags.

  1. Language: Improved Format function
  2. Controls: Add missing images to jqmListBox
  3. Controls: Label and Button: clean up generated HTML
  4. Controls: New Generic control
  5. Controls: Bottom now works on jQW controls
  6. Controls: Chrome warning for blank bounds value fixed.
  7. Runtime: Fix registration of Education Version in KSA.
  8. Runtime: jQuery updated to 2.1.3.
  9. Samples: New Generic sample.
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AppStudio 4.2.7 Released!

AppStudio 4.2.7 is ready. This release has a number of fixes. If you use PhoneGap Build, you will need to update to it to stay current with the Build API.

  1. Button: add ‘.text’ to autocomplete
  2. Controls: jqWidget CheckBox check_black image added.
  3. Demo: Add nag screen.
  4. Deploy: Use ProjectID instead of Filename.
  5. PhoneGap: Start using new API key for Build.
  6. Runtime: make function return value a local var
  7. Select: Fix margins when mini=true
  8. Translator: fix a.add(“a”,”a a”)
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NS BASIC inks deal with Saudi Ministry of Education

All high school students to learn how to program mobile devices.

NS BASIC Corporation announced today that it has signed an agreement with Tatweer Education Holding Company, part of Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Education. NS BASIC will supply its NSB/AppStudio Education Edition for use in teaching high school students how to program.

saudiThe agreement allows Tatweer to install AppStudio in all high schools in Saudi Arabia. There are some 30,000 schools in the country.

Saudi High School students are required to take two terms in programming. The first term covers basic programming. The second term, using AppStudio, teaches programming for mobile devices. Approximately 450,000 students will be learning mobile device programming per year: over the 4 year life of the agreement, over 1.8 million students will learn how to program.

“Students learn best when they’re doing what they love.” said George Henne, President of NS BASIC Corporation. “Making their own apps for smartphones will engage them and, hopefully, hook them on programming.”

Training is already underway, with the first class scheduled to complete in January 2015. The Ministry developed its own curriculum in Arabic for the course. The AppStudio IDE was enhanced to provide Arabic language and right-to-left text support.

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In Saudi Arabia, everyone learns to program.

Mobile device programming is now a required part of the High School curriculum.

Saudi Arabia has added computer programming to its High School curriculum. Starting this year, all High School students will take a course in creating apps for mobile devices.

teacherAbout 450,000 students will learn programming each year. The vast majority of them have smart devices: iPhones, Android phones, tablet and iPods. Like everywhere, their devices are prized possessions, in use all the time.

The software package used is NSB/AppStudio, from NS BASIC Corporation. It allows students to easily create apps using a visual interface. Programming is in JavaScript or BASIC. Allowing the students to create apps for their own smart devices makes programming a much more relevant and interesting subject.

“The Saudi government has shown great foresight in teaching its students to program.” said George Henne, President of NS BASIC Corporation. “We strongly support education and believe that learning to program should be a core competency for all students. Saudi Arabia is now in the forefront of countries educating their students.”

Training is already underway, with the first class scheduled to complete in January 2015. The Ministry developed its own curriculum in Arabic for the course. The AppStudio IDE was enhanced to provide Arabic language and right-to-left text support.

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Locking screen orientation on Android

Chrome 28 and higher now supports setting the orientation in your app. Simply do the following:

 screen.orientation.lock("landscape")
 screen.orientation.lock("portrait")

The screen will then shift to the orientation you specify and ignore the actual orientation of the device.

This only works on Chrome. If you try to execute this code on an iPhone, it will get an error and the orientation will not be affected. To improve the code above so it runs without errors, do the following:

If screen.orientation <> undefined Then
  screen.orientation.lock("landscape")
End If

The screen orientation still won’t change on an iPhone, but at least there won’t be an error!