GUI Builder for Titanium Developer [closed] - user-interface

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Is there any gui builder available for titanium desktop/mobile applications?
I have been using javascript to write that buttons/labels code.
Is there any drag and drop facility available in titanium?

Checkout ForgedUI http://www.forgedui.com/ ForgedUI is a Drag and Drop UI builder for Titanium.
It costs $99, but you can test it out for free (you only can save 10 times). Here is the link in the Titanium Marketplace.

I use codiqa.com and its awesome.. Probably the best till date. I am looking for something better than this... and good if that's free ! :-)

BTW, I found a tool called Visual UI:
http://visual-ui.com/
It is a paid eclipse plugin, but it has a free trial unlike ForgeUI. It works only with Alloy AFAIK. Alloy is the xml gui creation api in Titanium 3.0.
I haven't investigated thoroughly, so if someone has used this, please comment.
From what I see there is no syncing between xml and the gui perspective, but again don't take my word for it - my experience is far too limited.
It costs $20/yr which is less than ForgeUI.

I have gone through with many Ui thing i found this interesting http://visual-ui.com/
VisualUI for Titanium Studio is a plugin that allows WYSIWYG creation of user interfaces for the Titanium Appcelerator platform using drag and drop with an internal editor and external designers using the target device simulators.
Works as a pluging on all platforms supported by Titanium Studio. Native Alloy development or standard Appcelerator SDK supported.

Yes there is one drag and drop tool... TUB Titanium UI Builder http://titaniumui.com
its cool.

Check out TiSmithy, it is easy to use and in the Mac App Store.
The way it works is very simple. You add the elements you would like into your layout, then edit the attributes and finally hit "generate code". It will output both alloy and classic code that's ready to use.
The only thing you'll need to change is the image paths to reference the folder locations within your project itself.
In the latest version Fluid elements were added. These appear on all screens, while the fixed elements appear only on the screen you add them. There's a trial on the site if you want to see how it works.

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Understanding Xamarin [closed]

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As a complete beginner to Xamarin and new entrant to mobile app development, I have some questions about Xamarin and about the way it works which I was not able to find on the internet
How does Xamarin Cross-platform actually work? Is it any use? I was told Xamarin told Xamarin is a cross-platform mobile development solution, but when I Start off, I see it actually encourages you to create separate projects for iOS and Android. I understand that is to give us more power and there is always Xamarin Forms if we want cross-platform UI. In that case, however, I would expect the Portable Class libraries to handle all the backend logic while the native projects are used only for the UI. But when I started out, the most basic library for accessing mobile functionality (Xamarin.Mobile), is not compatible with PCL. What is the use of PCL even in that case?
How are cross-platform apps generally made in Xamarin? What is the role of the PCL and how do we get it to do cross-platform stuff?
Is there no pre-built Xamarin API which allows to do most mobile-related stuff platform independently? Seems we have to download new libraries from nuGet for every little thing we want to do which is quite painful
I hate to ask this. But is the only real advantage of Xamarin the fact that we can code in C# instead of native languages? What I was expecting is actual cross-platform shared code-base. If unity can do it, why can Xamarin not do it?
As someone who's worked with Xamarin (certified) for more than 2 years I will try to answer your questions:
1) Xamarin is a .NET framework that compiles to native code for both platforms. 2 years ago you'd create projects for every 'type' of app you built (Android, iOS, etcetera). In practise this meant you writing Activities for android (in the .NET way of doing things, but with the exact same native android types) and UIViewControllers for iOS. Xamarin.Forms has been out for a while and is a solution that will allow you to share UI Code as well as Business logic.
2) Depending on the app, one chooses either Xamarin.Forms or the native route. In case of the native route you'd create views for every platform (Android AXML and iOS Storyboarding). Additionally a PCL would be added containing all the business logic. This way you can call
var authResult = AuthService.Login(username,password);
var settings = SettingsService.GetUserLocalDbSettings();
from both iOS and Android, and the business logic for logging someone in - only has to be written once. Xamarin.Forms allows you to also share UI, by building XAML-layouts in the Xamarin.Forms project. These get transformed to the right screen type in either OS. Note: This only works properly with simple layouts (think lists, tabs etcetera). Complex layouts take way more time in forms to the point you switch to native.
3) Xamarin is only the framework allowing you to write .NET for these platforms. There's a lot of plugins available (e.g. Connectivity check) that are available. Install them in your native projects AND the PCL, and you'll be able to check whether the app has connectivity from within the PCL, or not). Xamarin is the hammer, Nuget offers the nails.
4) You can share a lot of code (PCL). My honest experience though is that most of the time you'll be building layouts (views) for both platforms. The business logic (signing in, saving items to a SQLite database) costs the least time to build. UI / design however,....requires a lot more patience. So YES you can share all business logic (as far as the used libraries respect the PCL profile).
5) Protip: Xamarin offers some free university training since they have been part of Microsoft.
I agree with the comment made by Lex Li above that you seems to be quite new not only in Xamarin space but also in C# development space, but will still try to add to the points mentioned by Eric J which I think he has missed in his answers.
Answer to Question 1:
How does Xamarin Cross-platform actually work? Is it any use?
Already answered by people before me.
What is the use of PCL even in that case?
You didn't found the use of PCL because you didn't tried to use it correct way. It's not for accessing mobile feature from common code, It's used for writing code which is common for all the platforms example for such type of code can be 'Web Service call', 'Business Logic' etc.
Answer to Question 2:
This is a very generic question whose answer is given many times, by many people. The best place to know more about Xamarin is by following the Xamarin Developer Guide
Answers to Question 3:
As mentioned by Lex Li Nuget is core of .Net package distribution and you should use it not only because of this reason but also because it makes development and deployment more easy.
Like :
1) You need not to worry about where to store DLLs (GAC/Local)
2) No need to store a particular version of DLL in fear of loosing it, all the versions are stored on Nuget Servers and Visual Studio automatically downloads the one which is mentioned in you Package config.
3) You can choose to use pre-release version of any DLL in one project and Stable version in other with out worrying about any clash.
Answers to Question 4:
I think all the advantages are already mentioned in above answers, I would request you to first try working with Xamarin sincerely and then start ranting about it.
Unless you learn Xamarin as part of the larger C# ecosystem, the questions and answers will be hard for you to digest.
1 and 2: Kind of the worst questions. So many use Xamarin. PCL is dying if you really know how C# and .NET ecosystem go. .NET Standard and Standard Library will be the future, and have already been supported by the latest beta builds from Xamarin.
3: NuGet is the core of .NET package distribution (like npm for JavaScript) and every C# programmers should use it. If you cannot get used to that, well, nobody forces you to start your own tool chain.
4: Then why not use Unity? What are you waiting for then? Xamarin has its own target user groups, and those guys do appreciate that only the meaningful code should be shared. People do love platform dependent UI, as that can blend perfectly into native platforms.

How to code/run Ruby on Chromebook [closed]

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On the desktop, I can use a text editor with the ruby interpreter to run everything, but there isn't an interpreter available for Chromebook. Is there any online software/program/webapp that would let me run Ruby code or emulate it? Kind of like Codeacademy where you put your stuff into the one section and it displays the results in another 'console' section.
I found something called OpenShift, and I'm wondering if it would let me upload a .rb file and have it run or something so I can see what I'm making.
Install linux with Crouton and you can run/install libs etc as you need to
Just found another way...run Servers Ultimate from your Android phone or tablet and access through the hotpoint wifi
Here are some web IDEs that support Ruby.
Cloud9 IDE
Cloud IDE
Koding.com
Codeanywhere
There's also a Chrome extension called SourceKit, which is a bit like TextMate, but saves files directly on Dropbox. However, that alone will not be enough to actually run the code...
One great online code editor to keep in mind is Github. You can create and edit files right in the browser. You could then sign up for a free Heroku account or the free tier of Amazon EC2. Heroku can pull directly from your Github project. EC2 can give you a complete environment to work in, though you'll have to set it up yourself just like you would on your own machine.
Yes there is, Try here tutorialspoint.
Click Try it
Nitrous has a powerful chrome application with native keyboard shortcuts for the IDE, and a number of popular starter templates, including ruby. The first container is 100% free, you can check out the chrome application here:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/nitrous-pro/efdcneeepllhjlbejkfnaolelbpdacai
A friend of mine is a Chromebook user / software engineer and I'm thinking of following him.
He knows VIM and does all of his development on a linux instance that costs $10/mo at linode.com. I think the Chromebook paradigm is that you keep your activities inside of Chrome.
You can lose a lot of time keeping a development environment on your laptop, regardless of its OS.
Meanwhile the VPS can be used from anywhere, even when your laptop dies or you forgot your power cable at home.
If you're new to software development then I bet Cloud9 is a better place to start, even though I haven't tried it yet.
It's also very easy to install linux on a Chromebook these days. See, for example, the Arch wiki explaining the process:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Chrome_OS_devices
First install anaconda.
Then conda install -c ruby-lang ruby
Source: https://anaconda.org/ruby-lang/ruby

How reliable is Advanced Installer? [closed]

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I am trying to use Advanced Installer as an application installer and auto-updater. Most of the resources is available on Advanced Installer website only.
Have any one used it before? I would like to hear more about bugs / stability issues if there are, especially auto-update feature
Regarding the bug/stability issues, you can see from the release history the frequency on auto-updater bug fixes (six this year - four in v9.2 and one each in v9.1.1, v9.0.1 and v9.0).
What I've noticed is that occurring issues are promptly solved.
I posted earlier the following:
I have used the free version of Advanced Installer, including its auto-update feature, and I have not experienced any problems with it.
Please note that I was talking about the ability of Advanced Installer MSI scripts to automatically remove older files when upgrading to a newer version of a program. I was not talking about the ability of the application to check for an update automatically. That's probably not in the free feature-set.
I have used advanced Installer It is really good.I would recommend to use it if you are developing a msi setup file for web applications.It is even integrated
with several other tools used for developing such as wix,inno setuo etc
I have not used Advanced Installer, however, just wanted to refer InstallJammer which is a multiplatform installer http://www.installjammer.com/, which I have been using to create application installer and easy to use and configure.
I am using the Advanced Installer daily for my work . I can say that their manuals are not helpful enough, especially for people who do not have any experience with those tools
. However if you pay for support , they can help you almost immediately .
For sure there are some limits about this tools especially if you want your build to be MSI the UI will not respond as well as the exe - but i know they are trying to fix this issue .
If you learn how to use it FOR sure you are going to like it.
The nice part about advanced installer is that they collect analytics (you have to pay for this feature ) and they can show you how many downloads per day , or how many users chose option 1 rather than option 2.
Or you can send those statistics to your webserver and with POST can manipulate however you want - which is free!

Markdown Preview Application for Windows [closed]

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I have been using nvALT © Brett Terpstra 2010 which has the Markdown preview option for all the notes.
Is there any application on Windows end which has similar preview functionality. I understand that lot converters available but for the ease of use sake I am looking for an application with the similar preview option.
I created a full-featured Markdown editor for Windows called MarkdownPad (http://markdownpad.com), and it supports full live HTML preview:
MarkdownPad is lightweight (only 1.5 MB, not including the .NET 4 Framework), and offers several great features:
Everything is customizable. Fonts, colors, sizes, and even the CSS stylesheet of the rendered HTML. The default CSS is beautiful and minimal, and will make your HTML documents look great.
Easy HTML export. You can export the full document as HTML, or just selected text.
Distraction-free Mode. This full-screen mode turns your whole monitor into a blank canvas for you to get some serious work done.
Frequent updates. I'm always improving MarkdownPad, and love hearing feedback from users.
Built natively for Windows. MarkdownPad was built from the ground up exclusively for Windows. It uses the latest Microsoft .NET 4 and Windows Presentation 4 Frameworks (translation: it's all kinds of shiny on the inside).
And I even wrote this post in MarkdownPad :)
I use MarkPad. It's free. It's open source. It looks great. And, it's written in WPF (which I love).
If you use Visual Studio, the Markdown Mode extension is pretty handy for both Markdown syntax highlighting as well as displaying a live preview.
ResophNotes supports Markdown with preview.
ReText is a Python app that supports Markdown Preview, but Windows doesn't appear to be the main target platform. I got it to work in Windows, but I had to download the icons separately and copy then into one of the app directories in order to get it to work properly.
WriteMonkey also has Markdown support.
I've written a editor called Markdown Editor.
You can read more about it at http://mike-ward.net/markdownedit.
MarkdownPad does not support images.
EDIT: that should read that it did not support local images. But as of the latest version it does!
I can now fully recommend it. It is easily the best Markdown editor, and the developer is a pretty good guy too.

New desktop GUI developer; can choose any platform [closed]

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I'm planning a client-server product for a tiny, low-volume, high-cost vertical market. One of the components of the product will be a desktop application, simple to moderate in complexity, for data entry and uploading to a central server from remote PCs and/or Macs via SOAP. The server is a Java web app.
Customers will be choosing their platform (Windows or Mac) based on what the client app runs on, so my options are wide-open here. However, I will be developing on a Mac and have a strong allergy to MS-specific technologies (sorry). The app will not need to run on any non-desktop-computer devices and I have total freedom to say it will support X but not Y or Z without any negative consequences (quite the luxury, to be sure).
I have a lot of experience in server-side development but very little in desktop GUI stuff, and am evaluating my options on the client - basically what do I want to commit to learning over the next 6+ months. I have server-side Java experience as well as a brief dabble in iPhone development, which went OK.
Overall I'm looking for:
Ease of learning & development
IDE support
Healthy surrounding ecosystem (libraries, tools, help, etc.)
Quality documentation
My options as I see them, in rough order of how I'm currently mentally ranking them:
Java Swing
Cocoa
Java SWT
JavaFX
Adobe AIR
XULRunner
Am I leaving anything out?
If your application has to support both Windows and Macs, I would suggest you avoid using languages which need compilation. In that case, Java, Python, and CS4 will be your candidates. Personally, I would go for Java Swing since it's proven to work on a number of platforms (not flawlessly tho') without the need of extra libraries. Some people complain about Swing, but my experience with it isn't that terrible. Well, maybe it was because I don't use it for huge and complex interfaces. If you choose to go with Swing, try to see if you can hand-code the interface yourself, it isn't that terrible, but it does have a learning curve. Good luck!
If you are an experienced web developer, you can try Electron, which allows you to develop desktop apps using HTML, CSS and JS. Electron apps are cross-platform and will run on Windows, Mac and Linux.

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