App Inventor 2 Databases and Files, Volume 3

VERY IMPORTANT

In 2019, Google has dropped support for Fusion Tables (database) and has dropped the cloud services necessary for self hosted TinyWebDB databases.  As a result several chapters in this book on databases can no longer be used. I have not found a suitable alternative for Fusion Tables or TinyWebDB for providing database support in MIT App Inventor.

• The link to download the source code for Volume 3 app examples is in the e-book on page 2 (the “Copyrights” page).
• In Volume 3, First edition “A” (see page 2 of the e-book for the version),  incorrect images of blocks code were inadvertently inserted for the ListItem blocks in Chapter 3. The last two blocks code images in chapter 3 and should be replaced with.
• Since Volume 3 was written, Google has made significant changes such that TinyWebDB no longer runs in the Google Cloud. While Google still supports Fusion Tables, the user interface for creating and managing the Google cloud has completely changed and the book is not up to date with those change (the book notes in several places that due to the possibility of Google or MIT App Inventor making future changes, the information may no longer be correct. As of the spring of 2018, I am working to put together a new tutorial on Fusion Tables that will reflect the significant changes made by Google.
• While TinyWebDB services can still be implemented on a privately owned server, that solution is not practical for most people. Also as of the spring of 2018, I am looking at a way to simulate the TinyWebDB using Fusion Tables. This would enable us to use the easy TinyWebDB-like database interface, but use the supported Fusion Tables as the database. More on this, hopefully, soon.

Replacement Blocks for ListItem in Chapter 3:

• Also in chapter 3, at the end of the “Blocks Code: Delete” section, there was a 2^nd code sample image that is not needed. This code sample may be ignored.