The e-book is now online and available. More information here including links to e-reader software for your Windows or Mac OS X computer.

• App Inventor 2 Graphics, Animation and Charts (Volume 4 e-book and printed book)
  Step-by-step guide to graphics, animation and charts
  Buy e-book from: Amazon, Google Books, Kobo Books
  Price: US$5.99, 227 pages

The e-book includes access to video tutorials that supplement the text. A big thank you to all of you that have found this web site and its tutorials helpful to you and your projects!

UPDATE: Sales of the print version of Volume 4 are being discontinued as of October 18, 2016, due to rampant copyright theft. There are more used copies for sale than the total number of printed books actually sold. Based on sales, readers prefer the e-book version – therefore I am in process of discontinuing sales of the print version. The e-book continues to be available.

Volume 4 of my App Inventor guide books series is now available in e-book and print format. The book also includes video-based tutorials to supplement the text.

Back Cover Description

MIT App Inventor is the fast and simple way to develop Android apps. Using a programming system that runs in your Internet browser, just drag and drop user interface components and link together program functions on screen, and then run your app directly on your Android phone or tablet.

Learn to create apps using simplified interactive image sprites and to control movement using a finger on the screen or by tilting the phone or tablet. Learn how to use the “Canvas” features for drawing, including a unique way to implement traditional animation features.

Includes numerous sample apps, detailed explanations, illustrations, app source code downloads and links to video tutorials.

Volume 4 introduces the use of graphics drawing features, including general graphics features, image sprites, animation and charting. Charting refers to the creation of line, column, scatter plot, and strip recorder charts commonly used in business and finance.

This is volume 4 of a 4 volume set. Volume 1 introduces App Inventor programming, Volume 2 introduces advanced features and Volume 3 covers databases and files.

Visit the web site at appinventor.pevest.com to learn more about App Inventor and find more tutorials, resources, links to App Inventor books and other App Inventor web sites.

Edward Mitchell is an experienced software developer, having worked in Silicon Valley, for Microsoft and other high tech firms. He has taught college and university courses in programming and information systems. He is the author or co-author of a dozen books on software development. He has a B.S. in information and computer science, an M.S. in software engineering, and an M.B.A. degree.

Target Audience

The text is an introduction to the graphics features of MIT App Inventor covering basic graphics and basic animation methods provided by MIT App Inventor, plus creating traditional animation effects using programming methods, and business/science oriented charting. This is not a text about writing games but a book about the graphics features and how to put them to use for practical applications programs.

Table of Contents

Continue reading Announcing App Inventor 2 Graphics, Animation and Charts book →

App Inventor Elsa Consulting passes this along on Facebook:

Tip: Right click for download blocks as png Image!

Source: App Inventor Elsa Consulting

In case the link does not work, here’s an example – right click on a blank space in the Blocks editor view and get this pop up menu:

Select “Download Blocks as Image” and it downloads a graphic image of all of your blocks – which you can then print out if you want – finally!!!!!!

(FYI – my posting here on this blog is sparse for a little while longer. Been remodeling our kitchen which means lots of time and living in a mess. But I have gotten a lot of work done on Volume 4 of the App Inventor guide. Hope to introduce Volume 4 in about one month – with many neat features coming!)

Tip – Using Projects | Checkpoint

As we develop our app code, we occassionally make changes that do not work. Sometimes our programming breaks a working app! When that occurs, we wish we had saved an copy of the file so that we can return to the original code before we messed it up.

There are several ways to save a copy:

• save a backup to your computer’s hard drive,
• use the Projects | Save project as … option to save the project into a newly named project file,
• use the Projects | Checkpoint method.

Continue reading Use Projects | Checkpoint to save a “Snap shot” of your App Inventor project →

Volume 1 of App Inventor 2: Tutorial is available at Amazon.com.

Volume 2 is in development and will cover a lot of the Android features – like camera and database usage – key elements to create real-world applications.

Volume 2 is completely outlined. But before I start writing, I am creating a moderately large sample application to be used for the examples in the text. Design of the sample application is under way.

I am also working on video tutorials for learning App Inventor 2 – these will end up on Youtube as they get completed.

“App Inventor 2: Tutorial – the Fast and Easy way to create Android apps” e-book is available for $2.99 at Amazon.com