Building Android Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript Review

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Building Android Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript ReviewI had bought an iPad when they were first announced. I had the expressed intention of creating some very specific apps; I did not need Wired Magazine to tell me that mobile apps are the future.
My plans were delayed by Apple's delay in releasing a new iPad OS. I didn't want to waste a lot of time struggling with things in the original OS that might become easier in the next.
I'd rather not struggle at all. As I have gotten older, the thrill of twisting C and C++ to my will is far less alluring than it used to be. Honestly, there is no allure left at all: I saw learning the Apple API as an onerous but necessary task. I was not looking forward to it.
Then this book arrived and opened my eyes. Yes, there is that "Android" in the title, but this is really about building device agnostic apps and I saw that long before the author off handedly mentioned iPhones in Chapter 7. Yeah, baby - if you think I was reluctant to learn Apple API's, well, that's nothing compared to how I feel about futzing around with Java to drive Android stuff. No thank you. But CSS and Javascript? That's different.
Not that I still don't have a learning curve. I have done very little with CSS or Javascript because of browser quirks. I realized that Jquery could smooth a lot of that out for me, but I just did not have enough of a need to invest any time learning that either. Mobile apps provides that incentive.
This book opened my eyes to a lot of possibilities I was just not aware of. For example, I did not know about the Web SQL Database abilities in HTML5. The author said that rocked his world; well, it rocked mine also.
I am looking forward to sitting down and playing with the ideas this book has exposed me to. This really changes my plans, and this is one case where I am very happy to veer off course. Jquery, here I come!Building Android Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript Overview
If you know HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, you already have the tools you need to develop Android applications. This hands-on book shows you how to use these open source web standards to design and build apps that can be adapted for any Android device -- without having to use Java.

You'll learn how to create an Android-friendly web app on the platform of your choice, and then convert it to a native Android app with the free PhoneGap framework. Discover why device-agnostic mobile apps are the wave of the future, and start building apps that offer greater flexibility and a broader reach.

Learn the basics for making a web page look great on the Android web browser
Convert a website into a web application, complete with progress indicators and more
Add animation with jQTouch to make your web app look and feel like a native Android app
Take advantage of client-side data storage with apps that run even when the Android device is offline
Use PhoneGap to hook into advanced Android features -- including the accelerometer, geolocation, and alerts
Test and debug your app on the Web under load with real users, and then submit the finished product to the Android Market
This book received valuable community input through O'Reilly's Open Feedback Publishing System (OFPS). Learn more at http://labs.oreilly.com/ofps.html.

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App Inventor for Android: Build Your Own Apps - No Experience Required Review

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App Inventor for Android: Build Your Own Apps - No Experience Required ReviewFor many people wrestling an idea for an app into an actual wokring app is daunting. There are issues of setting up a development environment, learning the way the device you are making an app for wants you to code for it, deciphering the vectors and hooks into the device's layers and then crafting your idea thru all those processes into something you can see and touch on the screen of your device. With this book as my guide I was able to get through these processes in a near painless manner.
Each process was laid out before me in easy to understand steps and many of the stumbles I made were addressed before I was about to make them. What problems I did come across where not as problematic thanks to the way the author organized his book. The pacing of the examples were perfect, I felt like I was getting a solid payoff after working thru each chapter. With the completion of each chapter I also felt a little more confident that I would be able to take my ideas for apps and make them actual working apps. After the twitter chapter I was near giddy with accomplishment; I played the proud parent as I showed off the app to those folks I was able to pin down. The bonus online chapter was the perfect reward for finishing up the book. What was even better was finding all the video tutorials on the authors web site, truly an amazing set of learning that just keeps on getting better over time.
The only downside to going thru the book, bonus chapters and web site is I now have more, and more complex, app project ideas that I want to find time to work on. This book was truly empowering as well as educational.
The other unforeseen outcome of going thru the author's works is that my 8 year old son now wants to work on some apps with me. He watched as I worked thru examples with the block editor and was quickly able to tell me what was going on as far as logic and flow was concerned. There is a long road to go before he puts his stamp on a first app but he is well and truly hooked as far as deving for the the Android is concerned.
Much thanks and congrats on a fantastic work.App Inventor for Android: Build Your Own Apps - No Experience Required OverviewCreate Android mobile apps, no programming required!
Even with limited programming experience, you can easily learn to create apps for the Android platform with this complete guide to App Inventor for Android. App Inventor for Android is a visual language that relies on simple programming blocks that users can drag and drop to create apps. This handy book gives you a series of fully worked-out apps, complete with their programming blocks, which you can customize for your own use or use as a starting point for creating the next killer app. And it's all without writing a single line of code. Don't miss the book's special section on Apps Inventor Design Patterns, which explains computer terms in simple terms and is an invaluable basic reference.
Teaches programmers and non-programmers alike how to use App Inventor for Android to create Android apps
Provides a series of fully worked-out apps that you can customize, download, and use on your Android phone or use as a starting point for building the next great app
Includes a valuable reference section on App Inventor Design Patterns and general computer science concepts
Shows you how to create apps that take advantage of the Android smartphone?s handy features, such as GPS, messaging, contacts, and more

With App Inventor for Android and this complete guide, you'll soon be creating apps that incorporate all of the Android smartphone's fun features, such as the accelerometer, GPS, messaging, and more. From the Author: Getting Data In and Out of App Inventor Apps In today's mobile world, applications are expected to not only provide functionality locally but also have up to date content and external awareness."How do I get all this data into App Inventor?" is one of the most frequently asked questions by new developers.Initially getting rows and columns of data into App Inventor was a kind of linear equation. You used the TinyWebDB or you turned to some of the third party hacks that are available. The TinyWebDB component is still a possibility for volatile data that needs to be pulled from the internet and placed into App Inventor. It has the added benefit of being quick and allowing write to the web database. For getting rows and columns of data into App Inventor the algorithm would follow these steps: 1. Pull data from WebService and place in temporary variable. 2. Parse data into psuedo-array3. Write data to a local TinyDBThis is still an option for getting tabular data into App Inventor.It has the advantage of being fast and stable. It has the disadvantage of needing the TinyWebDB service installed and running on a web server. Setting up and installing the TinyWebDB service can be complex and frustrating.There is the added complexity of needing a separate application to actually pre-populate TinyWebDB with data. The App Inventor team recently released an update to App Inventor that includes functionality to allow access to the Google Fusion Tables. Google Fusion Tables is an online database solution that allows simple SQL like commands to be sent via HTTP to stored data. There is a nice back-end management solution that allows a user to pre-build and pre-populate data into created tables.All of the data lives in Google's "cloud" service. The back-end management system will be very familiar to users of Google Docs or other Google cloud products. The algorithm for getting tabular data into an App Inventor app using Fusion Tables will follow these steps: 1. Create the desired Fusion Table and populate the table with data using the Web backend. 2. The app will be "initialized" by pulling the data from a Fusion Table.3. The app will store the returned Lists in a local TinyDBThe advantage of Fusion Tables is the ability to easily pre-populate the online data by hand entering or importing a spreadsheet of values. This will allow the developer to maintain the data that all the deployed apps consume. Thereby, fresh content and data could be added to applications by changing the data in the Fusion Table. The disadvantage of Fusion Tables is the data retrieval method. When the data is pulled from the Fusion Table the application stops while displaying a notification that it is pulling data from a Fusion Table. Which appears a little bit hokey on a professional level application. It is also linear and fairly slow. In otherwords you will not likely be repeatedly and frequently pulling data from a Fusion table in the same App session. Instead, an application would likely pull data once when the application starts and then only when specifically refreshed. The options and power that are given to developers with the new Fusion Table has yet to be fully explored and I look forward to some exciting uses of Fusion Tables. (Hint: Someone should use this for a text based MMORPG ... the possibilities are endless. ) The newest version of App Inventor released by the incredible rock stars on the Google App Inventor developer team includes the long awaited Holy Grail. I am, of course, talking about the "WebComponent". Now the web component as it currently exists is a little bit limited and not easy to implement. However, it is REALLY powerful even in its current iteration. It has the power to send HTTP formatted requests to existing web services and web sites and then store and manipulate the returned data.It combines the speed of the TinyWebDB service requests and the flexibility of using existing data like with the Fusion Tables.The web component brings the ability to use HTTP POST and GET commands which are the foundation of most simple web services.The algorithm for using the WebComponent would (or at least could) follow these steps: 1. Establish (or use existing) web service that will respond to GET/POST. 2. Use the WebComponent to send a GET request to the service. 3. Use the Text parsing blocks to parse out the tabular data sent by the web service. The advantage of using GET/POST commands is the speed with which they can be used inline with programmatic functions in an application. Another advantage is the flexibility of using existing data and or maintaining external data in a database behind your webservice.The WebComponent opens up App Inventor to REAL web service and interactive internet services development. I am excited about the direction the App Inventor team is taking this awesome product and look forward to an even more mature Rapid Application Development framework.

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