Success: 1st mobile app published via LiveCode

[donryan]

This was encouraging -- my first iPhone app built using LiveCode was published the first time through -- no issues whatsoever. I used LiveCode, data grid objects, sqlite database, tmControls and native iOS text fields. I was pleasantly surprised when the app passed the review process on the first time. This is great -- on to the next one! The app can be seen here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ground- ... ?ls=1&mt=8

[Klaus]

Very cool, Don, congratulation!

[dave_probertGA6e24]

Definitely Congratulations. Nicely done.

Lets hope there are many sales and many more apps for you.

It's a great feeling when the App appears after the review and the sales start coming in.

Cheers,
Dave

[donryan]

Thanks Klaus and Dave. Yeah, didn't know what to expect, but the LiveCode team did a great job with the IDE to ensure that the complied apps pass all the Apple checks! Very cool.

[Neurox66]

Congratulations, your app looks interesting.

I've a question:
How did you approach the problem of the various resolutions? Multiple cards?

Paolo

[donryan]

Paolo:

Good question: tmControls objects scale to the screen resolution. Some objects (such as Delete buttons that I built), I actually created 2 buttons for both screen widths. I then tested the screen width, then show and position the correctly sized button. In the sample below, lblDeleteLoc is a tmContol label field that I have sized and placed where I want it, but it automatically scales itself for Retina. Also, the gbRetina is a global variable I set on the preopenStack script.

Code: Select all

put the rect of group "lblDeleteLoc" into tRect
      if gbRetina is true then
         set the visible of group "cmdDelete" to false
         set the visible of group "cmdDelete2x" to true
         set the rect of group "cmdDelete2x" to tRect
      else
         set the visible of group "cmdDelete2x" to false
         set the visible of group "cmdDelete" to true
         set the rect of group "cmdDelete" to tRect
      end if

The data grid was a lot trickier, but basically did the same thing: I created two sets of identical data grid "custom forms" which are actually cards. On the openCard event, I then determined which form to use. To prevent duplicating code (and make my life a lot easier), I kept all the code with the standard resolution stack and changed the "behavior" of the form template on the high resolution card to point to the control on the standard resolution card.

Code: Select all

-------------------------------------------------------
 ---|  Change the DataGrid Template based on the display width  |---
 -------------------------------------------------------
   if the environment is "mobile" then
      get item 1 of iPhoneDeviceResolution()  --> 320,480 -- 640,960 -- 640,1136
      If it is 320 then
         put false into gbRetina
      else
         put true into gbRetina
      end if
      if gbRetina is true then
         --     Scale the "Lesson List" template if using Retina display
         set the dgProps["row template"] of group "Lesson List" to the long id of group "Row Template" of card id 1201 of stack "Data Grid Templates 1344607172114"
      else
         set the dgProps["row template"] of group "Lesson List" to the long id of group "Row Template" of card id 1060 of stack "Data Grid Templates 1344607172114"
      end if
      dispatch "ResetList" to group "Lesson List" 
   end if 

That's a brief overview of how I did it -- however, all my cards (with the exception of the data grid objects) are all built using the standard resolution display. I took advantage of the ability of tmControls to handle most of the scaling for me and those objects that didn't scale on their own, I wrote code for (which were basically manually created buttons and graphics). I used the tmControls label object as invisible "placeholders" for my own objects to make placement a lot easier. Now I know there may be easier ways to accomplish some of this, but what I did worked for me.

[Neurox66]

Very clear and usefull.
Thank you very much.

Paolo

[codemonster]

Thanks for posting, the app looks great. I'm looking to create apps vs. games and was wondering what was out there.