Components, Programming Method, Uncategorized

Aligning the text that appears in ListPicker

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Readers post questions on the FB page or the blog. Sometimes I can answer them but sometimes I cannot answer them right away. For those that I cannot answer, I add the question to a list of future tutorial ideas. If someone is not sure how to solve a problem, chances are that there are others who may need help with the same issue!

I am beginning to go through my list – watch for more tutorials based on reader questions. Note – I do not have time to solve specific or custom applications. I try to abstract the basic elements of the problem and create a generic solution that can apply to a wide variety of use cases.

ListPicker Text Alignment

A reader asked how to align the text that appears in the ListPicker box. The ListPicker displays a set of items on screen so that the user may select an item from the list. When the list appears on screen, all the items are “left justified” which means they appear on the left side of the screen.

To demonstrate, our ListPicker, below, displays a list of auto manufacturers:

Screenshot_20160502-115325Is there a way to center or right justify the items that appear in the ListPicker list like this? The first 4 items in this list are right justified and the last two are centered:

Screenshot_20160502-114442The answer to that question is basically “yes”, but it may not be perfect – as we will see.

Continue reading Aligning the text that appears in ListPicker →

General

Anti-spam feature added to this web site blog

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Spammers are starting to hit this web site pretty hard – registering fake accounts, attempting to post comment spam and more. I have just paid for a software plug-in that appears to prevent the fake accounts and comment spam.

I hope this does not impact the ability of readers to post their questions and comments and I will be checking on this over the next week to adjust settings, if needed. So far today, the plugin has successfully blocked 100% of the spammers.

With volume 4 done and rain in the forecast soon, I should have a moment to resume work on new tutorials and examples!

Uncategorized

App Inventor 2 Graphics, Animation and Charts, e-book available now

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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!

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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.

Uncategorized

Announcing App Inventor 2 Graphics, Animation and Charts book

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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 →

General

appinventor.pevest.com is back online!

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On 28 March 2016 you may have received a “Bandwidth Limit Exceeded” error message when trying to access appinventor.pevest.com.

This occurred because interest in tutorials on coding in MIT App Inventor is high! And the web server had exceeded the total bandwidth permitted for the month of March. I should have paid attention to the bandwidth logs and noticed sooner that I was closing in the bandwidth limit.

As soon as I learned about the problem, my Internet host (Tierpoint/webiness.com) responded very quickly to increase my bandwidth to six times more than it was previously. Hopefully this will hold us for a few months! It costs me a bit more but I want to ensure you have access to the current content and more to come!

Ed

P.S. Tierpoint/Webiness.com has been a great hosting provider for this and other web sites I have run for years, with excellent customer service. I am glad to put in a plug for them!

Android Development, Tips

Using droid-at-screen to see your phone’s display on your computer

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droid-at-screen is a free Java-based app that displays the content of your phone’s display to your computer’s display, when the phone is connected via a USB cable.

Below is a screen snap shot taken from my computer display. At the upper left is the Droid@Screen application running.  Droid@Screen is connected to my Nexus 5 phone.

At right is the display showing on my phone, which has been transferred from the phone to my computer over a USB connection. I’ve circled two user interface items – the magnifying glass icon is used to adjust the display size of the phone’s screen. Since the phone has a 1920×1080 display, the initial image is quite large!

Below that is a camera icon. Click on that to take a snapshot of what is on the screen, and then save the screen image to a local file.

Capture

At the lower left is the DroidAtScreen .jar file. This is the Java executable program file. Assuming Java is installed on your system, double click the .jar file to begin running Droid@Screen.

Continue reading Using droid-at-screen to see your phone’s display on your computer →

Learn to program with App Inventor