Is there any undo/redo button in App Inventor 2? Surprisingly I haven't found any. Did I miss something?
App Inventor 1 used to have such buttons for the block editor:
Edit: this feature is available again in more recent versions, please see answers below.
Surprisingly UNDO / REDO buttons have been removed in App Inventor 2.
If I can remember correctly they were causing some issues when blocks were undone after removing. Here is the issue which you can star, if you want more advanced tools you should take a look at Java as App Inventor is only the very basics of coding.
It's available in the new blockly version in latest update. (there was some issues with undo in MIT app inventor 2 previously).
Check this link and explore the new features:
http://ai2-test.appinventor.mit.edu
They are no UNDO/REDO buttons in App Inventor 2, unfortunately.
Related
I have a legacy safari extension which I need to convert into Safari App Extension to submit into Extension Gallery. I am new to Xcode therefore, not familiar with it's build and run process. I tried looking into official documentation from developer.apple.com but it is so abstract.
Why do we need to create a parent app in Xcode before creating a
safari extension target?
If so what parent app template should I
choose? Cocoa App?
Where I can find starter tutorials on Xcode?
What is the submission process to Extension Gallery?
How can add the extension under development to my safari through xcode for testing?
I heard they need the URL for extension to approval, when we are submitting extension through developer account why to host it on URL?
Any documentation or answers to the above questions would be very helpful. Thank you.
On 2. and 3, I had the same struggles - I wrote up a tutorial on basic style sheet injection in Safari App Extensions here: https://ulyngs.github.io/blog/posts/2018-11-02-how-to-build-safari-app-extensions/
I'm converting the legacy safari extension to safari app extension too and have some answers for your questions:
Because app extension is more as functional extension then safari browser extension and could bring more features to you. And as per Apple says: safari app extension gives more communication and data exchange between Safari and your native app, docs.
But I have no more ideas if you only want an extension for safari why this is only way to do extensions.
Yes, you should use the Cocoa App template. If you don't need the window for your app, you can remove it simply in Main.storyboard or make app as a "service".
A lot of docs from Apple I've read but understood a bit then expected. So I found some youtube channels (they are 2 or more years old but some things seems don't changed) Some vieos here and the Osx Dev Daily playlist on this channel. And of course official swift docs if you select swift for your app as PL.
I haven't read about this, but think it must be submitted with your Cocoa App.
First of all you should to run your app target and only after this you should run your extension target and choose "Safari" in showed window to run in. If you have no the signing at the moment so ensure to enable "Allow unsigned extensions" in Development > Allow unsigned extensions in Safari app.
Don't meet this info, could you share it, pls? (sry, don't have enough knowledges)
Hope, it helps to you!
P.S. also recomend to see the converting docs, but it may be insufficient for converting :)
EDIT: it's seems to be incorrect to remove app window or change the default menus created by Cocoa App template for app submit for App Store. Some people got negative decision of app submit because of menus changes of redundant items or app have poor functionality or has not it at all. So consider to read the submit docs.
Please, share your experience when you'll have success app submit!
EDIT 2: Today I found template in Xcode 10.1 that can be used for Safari Extensions directly. It is as previous workflow (template Cocoa App + add extension target) but there is safari extension target already included
The app window and menu is simplified for developers:
So you don't need work with your app and you can concentrate on extension only.
Multiple third-party macOS apps now have a feature to edit photos, and the UI looks exactly the same as in Preview. How do we implement this functionality? Has a new framework been released?
Including links to screenshots for comparison. Some buttons are not included in the third-party app, but the UI and the behaviour is exactly the same in both apps.
Shotty (3rd party app) image editing controls
Apple Preview image editing controls
Your help would be greatly appreciated, a link to Apple documentation would already be helpful.
macOS apps, e.g. Photos.app, provide a help panel to the user
Is there a way to author such a Help Book in your own macOS app?
Is there a way to at least provide a toolbar to be used for a table of contents?
I am asking specifically about the UI and all the user interactions. Not how to generally create and register a helpbook.
Update
Here is what I’ve been able to find/gather/learn from others. A Help Book appears to run on a separate app/process called “HelpViewer”. Any Apple macOS app displaying a help makes use of a DDMViewerController that isn’t public.
There is an “app.css” and an “app.js” being used by the Apple macOS app “index.html” of the Apple Help Book. The Javascript one manipulates the DOM to create the “show-hide” link that toggles the Sidebar. Haven’t been able to find how to instruct HelpViewer to use a sidebar.
There is a WWDC talk from back in 2014, “Introducing the Modern WebKit API” that talks about “User Scripts” and “Script Messages” which allow communication between a Webview and Cocoa. https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2014/206/
AFAICS, there is no way to have HelpViewer display a custom view or have a sidebar. My guess is that you would have to implement everything yourself. That is an NSSplitViewController, NSToolbar, NSOutlineView, any Javascript alongside the “app.css” to get the look and feel.
Currently it's not possible to implement the sidebar as shown in the Maps and other built-in macOS applications from 10.13 onward.
Versions of macOS from 10.10 (built-in applications) implement sidebar navigation with HTML and JavaScript, and Apple Help Viewer itself offers a window.HelpViewer object with some hooks that enable/disable the Help Viewer's table of contents button. Once enabled, it will callback into your own JavaScript where you can show/hide TOC via CSS or JS.
From approximately 10.10, Apple's non-built-in applications have also been using this technique. For example, iTunes and Xcode help both do this.
From 10.13, macOS has a newer version of Help Viewer that provides an actual Cocoa-native table of contents and windows splitter, as well as some new properties on window.HelpViewer; presumably these can be used to enable/disable the Cocoa sidebar and populate the TOC, but these are undocumented and I'm not sure anyone outside of Apple has been able to reverse-engineer this functionality yet.
And in any case, it wouldn't work if you offer Help Books to pre-10.13 users, and the use of undocumented API's restricts applications from the App Store (although, I'm not certain that Apple scans Help Book JavaScripts for API usage as part of their review).
(There are also a lot of other changes to how Apple's built-in application Help works now, too, but that's another topic entirely.)
Thus the answer for now is we can't, or shouldn't, or just don't know how. Alternatives include using something like using jekyll-apple-help (no affiliation) or Middlemac 3 (my project), or just rolling your own.
For those interested in knowing how Apple does it, I've documented a lot of it here (disclosure: link to my own website).
I'm not sure whether Apple's current applications still use it, but there is a very old API on macOS for Help Books. Apple has documentation on how to create them and some introduction. In short: Help books are standard HTML files with additional proprietary anchors. Those anchors are accessible via the class NSHelpManager, e.g. to open the help book at a specific page.
See also this question.
I just started using xamarin in visual studio for building cross-platform apps, and i was searching on the internet for some tutorial etc, and i ran into a website "material.io" and i found this amazing bottom navigation
So i searched on google for a tutorial to make that bottom navigation in xamarin.forms cross-platform environment.
But i didn,'t find anything, so i hoped that someone here at stackoverflow knew how to or could provide me with code or a tutorial.
thanks in advance
As Jason already mentioned, something like this requires a custom renderer. However, you're lucky since someone has already done the hard work for you.
There's a Xamarin.Android control called BottomNavigationBar which has been ported to Xamarin.Forms in the project BottomNavigationBarXF. You'll also find an example of how to get started on the latter repository. On iOS, the control defaults to the standard page with tabs on the bottom.
I'm new to Xamarin development and feel a little bit strange about how to design the UI interface in Xamarin.Forms (portable/shared).
If I just design the Xamarin Android or the Xamarin iOS, I can get the GUI with drag and drop to finish my UI (like in Windows Forms application) and the code for the UI is automatically generated. But in Xamarin.Forms, this one is not supported (we must use code or xaml). I understand that if we use Xamarin.Forms, the same code apply for both Android or iOS.
However it's a long approach to create the UI. Is it possible in Xamarin to create the UI in Xamarin Android / iOS project and then only do the functionality code in Xamarin.Forms (portable or shared)?
I know this is a common question but it can help many new developers either to choose using Xamarin or not...
There is the Xamarin.Forms XAML Preview for when you are coding in XAML:
But in the end, yes, you are coding events, and data converters, etc... and even with tools like the Interface Builder for iOS, you still have to do all the coding to tie the UI together.
On a personal note: Almost ALL the groups that I have worked with do not use the GUI design tools for any apps that are larger then a screen or two. On iOS we avoid .xib & .storyboard like they are the cause of the black plague.
I understood perfectly your situation. A good start is a Xamarin book that you can download for free for this page https://developer.xamarin.com/guides/xamarin-forms/creating-mobile-apps-xamarin-forms/
If you have been developed with WPF, in Xamarin you have the same concept. A good start is trying example in working apps to understand the structure and the app lifecycle. You can find a collection of examples and code at this link. You can create a form or with XAML or in the code. There are two ways. I advice you to start with XAML and C#.
I advice you to use Portable project and in this way you can share that not just across Xamarin project but with other kind of projects (such as a ASP.NET project).
You can think design Xamarin Forms UI like design Website.
Design website
You knowledge HTML
You need web browser to review
Design Xamarin Forms.
You knowledge XAML
You need Xamarin Previewer to review (Gorilla player, xamarin live player, LiveXaml)
Xamarin.Forms is great, for better understanding of XAML I encourage you to take the time and watch this video (https://evolve.xamarin.com/session/56e201d2bad314273ca4d813) where Charles Petzold goes into detail of how XAML works.
Before Xamarin Studio o Visual Studio had a XAML previewer for Xamarin.Forms I used GorillaPlayer (http://gorillaplayer.com/) is free and works well.
Also take a look in the Xamarin University and Examples.
James Montemagno is a name you must research when talking about Xamarin, he did some really cool and helpfull Xamarin Nuget Packages.
Hope I had pointed you in the right direction.
I understand that you are new to Xamarin.Forms. What I did when I was new to the framework was following a few courses on https://www.xamarin.com/university it is free for 30 days if I'm right (that must be enough to understand the basics). About the previewers I don't have good expierence with them. They are often slow or not working. For me it was often faster to just debug on the phone. Hopefully this will help you a bit.
Even if a nice designor was available, I would still argue that coding by hand is much more efficient : no bad code generated (exemple with constraint : no padding /margin set at the wrong place. No hardcoded size when it's not required etc).
You will have a better understanding and the learning curve is fast.
Back in the days, I started XAML with Silverlight with the amazing Microsoft UI designor : Blend. After few months, I ended up with an architecture that broke the designor (because of dependencies injected in constructor or because the designor struggled to discover controls in external assemblies). It was really painful and I lost a lot of productivity. Few months later, I was fluent with XAML and was even more productive than with a designor.
Nowadays, Visual Studio is snippet friendly for XAML control. I've created a few of them (like a grid with several column row auto, a snippet to generate the ContentPage.Resource with a style, etc).
It's a pain that is worth it.
Moreover you will learn a lot a things and will be more confident in your skills.
Give it a try for few months : you won't regret it !
Last but not least, as other suggest, when building a big app, even in iOS, most developpers I know don't use designor but code everything by hand because of snippet, helpers, extension methods etc.