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(Reposted from Maxa Blog)

If you have have done native mobile app development on Android or iPhone (iOS) then you probably know that testing native apps is not that simple. On the other hand, testing traditional Web applications is pretty straightforward: Launch a Web browser, and you see exactly how the application works and how it looks. Read on and I will show how to test a native app in a similarly straightforward fashion after considering various alternatives.

Option 1: Installing the app on the mobile device

This option is great in that you can test the app on the actual device. However, getting the app on the device can be very time consuming. And, for each testing iteration, the app would have to be built, sent (or copied) to the phone, installed, and launched on the device. While you get to test on the actual device, the process is very slow. Just imagine if you need to make just a small change in the app.

Option 2: Using device emulators/simulators

Getting the app on a device emulator is simpler than getting the app on the actual device. However, now the app is not tested on the actual device, so you may not be getting exactly the same behavior or look-and-feel that you would get on the actual device. Now, this is more of an Android problem than an iOS problem. The Android emulator runs a bare-bones Android version. Most Android phones from HTC, Motorola, and Samsung have their own, slightly modified builds of Android (even the same browser can be slightly different on different devices). Another problems with emulators (mostly Android) is that they are usually much slower than the actual devices, for obvious reasons. While the iOS simulator is pretty fast, the Android emulator is notoriously slow.

The Best Option: Launching the app on the device without installing

I consider this final approach the fastest and most straightforward. It doesn’t require installing the app on the device each time, but you still get to test on the device. This approach uses the Appery.io Mobile Tester app on the device while the mobile apps themselves are developed using Appery.io Mobile Apps Builder.

This tester app only needs to be installed once. The Android version is here and the iOS version is available as an open source version. The app is rather simple. After signing in to your Appery.io Mobile Apps Builder account, it will show a list of all mobile apps (native and Web) created in your Appery.io account. Here is how it looks:

The most interesting part? Clicking (or tapping) on any project will launch the app. Make any changes to the app in Appery.io? Save the changes, and click the app in Appery.io Mobile Tester. You now get the new version, with all the changes. With this approach we get the best of everything. We don’t need to install the app each time, the app is tested on the actual device and last but not least, it’s very fast.

Still not convinced? Then sign up for Appery.io, create your first mobile app, install Appery.io Mobile Tester (Android or iOS) and test the app.

In trying to figure out the best way to keep our com­mu­nity in­formed, we’ve de­cided to try some­thing dif­ferent. We try to put on webinars that span about an hour, but that’s a big chunk in someone’s day. We wanted to shoot for some­thing that would need less of a com­mit­ment — more like the length of a break. For us, this length of time would allow more focus and be easier to produce.

So, we’ve started a weekly se­ries of “Appery.io Bites” to zoom in on dif­ferent as­pects of Appery.io as it con­tinues to evolve. Each one will last for no longer than 20 min­utes. Here’s what we’ve done so far and what’s on the schedule:

This is only the be­gin­ning. We’ll be adding more topics in the next few months.

Twitter Search built with Mobile Apps Builder

After a short private beta we are happy to announced that Appery.io Mobile Apps Builder is now open to everyone. Now, the app is still beta and we have tons of features we are planning to add. So, just go to https://appery.io and click on Sign Up Now for Mobile Apps Builder. Then try one of our getting started guides but first read this (we are adding more tutorials). It’s a 6-step guide on how to approach building mobile apps in Appery.io.

Need a particular feature, service or component? Tell us here: http://getsatisfaction.com/apperyio.

Today, we’ll be having a briefing for our beta users of Appery.io Mobile Apps Builder. Becoming a beta user and par­tic­i­pating in our com­mu­nity brief­ings is a great way to in­flu­ence and guide the de­vel­op­ment of a useful product and make it even more useful.

It’s easy to be­come a beta user. Here are three ways:

1. If you don’t al­ready have a Appery.io ac­count, you can sign up right from the home page using the button in this block:
   
2. When you sign up for any Appery.io Prototypes Builder plan and click on the ac­ti­va­tion link, you’ll be pre­sented this first time with a pop-​​up giving you an op­por­tu­nity to join the beta:
3. If you al­ready have an ex­isting Appery.io ac­count, you can be­come a beta user by going to My Account and clicking on the sign-​​up button:
   

You’ll have a “pending” status at first, but you should only have to wait a few hours be­fore you be­come activated.

On June 15, Appery.io left beta and be­came an of­fi­cial re­lease. As part of this re­lease there is now a scheme of dif­ferent plans for how you can use Appery.io. Although the terms are cov­ered in the Appery.io ap­pli­ca­tion and Web site, I thought I’d go over the plans as a blog entry.

The thing to keep in mind is that Appery.io is struc­tured as ac­counts tied to single pri­mary users. The ac­count has one work­space owned by the pri­mary user that con­tains projects that each con­tain screens (or pages). The work­space owner and ad­di­tional users up to a set limit have ac­cess to the workspace.

With the user man­age­ment fea­ture, the work­space owner can specify ac­cess rights on a user-​​by-​​user and project-​​by-​​project basis. With this fea­ture, the ac­count owner can add other users up to the limit for their plan or delete other users – freeing up a slot. (Remember, deleting a user only re­moves their ac­cess to your work­space. It doesn’t af­fect an ac­count owned by the user or the user’s ac­cess to other workspaces.)

One of the neat features in Appery.io prototypes is dynamic widgets. Let me explain. Let’s say you have a tab panel with three tabs. Different content goes into the three tabs. When you design mockups or wireframes, there is probably no simple way to show what content/widgets go inside the tabs which are now shown. With Appery.io, it’s very simple because the tab widget is dynamic. In other words, you can click on the tab and switch between them. This way you can place different content into the tabs during design as in real application. When you do Web Preview and generate prototpy HTML/JS/CSS, you can switch between the tabs as well.

First tab:

Second tab:

Third tab:

To edit tab label, just double-click on the text. And, to add/remove tabs, click on the tab and invoke the context-menu as shown:

A few weeks ago we launched a new address for Appery.io: https://appery.io. Today we are also launching a new blog https://blog.appery.io. This blog will cover Appery.io, web and mobile application prototyping, design and everything related. It will also cover new features, tips and articles. Come back often.

Some latest features in Appery.io:

• Appery.io: sharing feature [in pictures]
• Appery.io: Web Preview feature [in pictures]
• Enterprise application prototyping and wireframes now with Web Preview (HTML/JavaScript/CSS generation)