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As many of you know, last month Apple announced that as of February 1 it will require the use of xCode 5 for all submissions to the App Store.  We are working hard on an update that will not only update our platform to support Xcode 5 but also to jQuery Mobile 1.4.  This version of jQuery Mobile comes with major upgrades and performance improvements but also requires more testing than we originally anticipated.  We estimate that this upgrade will be completed on February 11*.   Until that time, any app exported as an iOS binary may be rejected by Apple.  This does not impact apps that are distributed via enterprise app stores, of course.

Temporary workaround:  if you must submit an app to the Apple App Store before we release this update, you can always export the source code as an Xcode project rather than as an .ipa binary and create the binary on your own computer using Xcode 5.   The option to export the source code is available via the Export pull down menu within our App Builder.

If you have questions about this, please contact our Tech Support team as usual.

*Updated this post on February 3rd:  changed the estimated completing of this upgrade from “mid February” to “February 11”

Push notifications. It is a great way to inform app users about cool offers, important events or any updates. It’s an important feature for enterprise mobile apps. For instance, a sales manager can be instantly notified when an existing customer upgrades his/her plan.  Push notifications are a powerful tool to ensure your message is received and read by the user, even when they are not using your app.

Appery.io provides fast and easy way to send the push notifications for both platforms – iOS and Android. Sending can be done in just a few steps:

1. Enable push notifications in the application settings.
2. Register the application with Apple or Google services.
3. Install the app on the device. When it’s done, device information will be automatically added to your predefined devices collection.
4. Send notifications from the console. That it!

You can send these alerts:

1. Instantly
2. Schedule
3. Deliver in device’s time zone

The first two options, all the users will receive the message simultaneously. For instance, for some users it could be 8 AM, and for other users it could be 1 PM.

In the third case of the device time zone sending, users will receive the notifications in a different time – someone later and someone sooner.

Having all three options — is what makes Appery.io push easy to use, yet very powerful, and customizable.

You are not limited to sending push notifications from the push console. With push REST API, you can enable sending messages from any app.

Want to learn more? Head to our push docs or try the quick start push tutorial.

Update: Webinar on Wednesday, Jan. 29, to cover new features.

This past weekend we released a number of new features. This is a list of what’s new. We will be posting a lot more information on each feature later this week. This is a short list of all the new and awesome stuff:

• Weinre remote debugging
• Secure REST
• Server code integration from inside the app builder — generate REST services for server code scripts
• More information why the binary build might fail
• Database batch operations
• New UI components
  • Panel
  • Youtube
  • Vimeo
  • HTML component now supports ‘form’ tag
• iOS 7 theme and icons for binary build
• Launch (splash screen) images for iOS and Android apps
• Change account email address
• Many bug fixes..

Stay tuned for a more detailed post coming later this week.

Our team is looking to add a few more tutorials and sample code to our catalog.  We’re looking for a few use cases that include Appery.io Backend Services such as the Cloud Database, Push Notifications, and Server Code.

Which examples would be most helpful for you?

Can you please give us your input via this quick survey?

Please note that we will be upgrading Appery.io with new features on Saturday January 18, starting at 12:00 AM PST (midnight on Friday night).  The following services will be temporarily unavailable:

• The development environment will be unavailable for about 6 hours, from 12:00 AM until about 6 AM PST.
• The Backend Services (Cloud Database, Push Notifications, Server Code) service will be unavailable for about 3 hours, from 3:00 AM until about 6:00 AM PST)

We apologize for the inconvenience.  If you have questions, please contact us at support@appery.io

Title: All about Appery.io – learn how to build mobile apps with Appery.io.

When: Wednesday, January 15, 2014 from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM

What: Max Katz introduces Appery.io in this comprehensive webinar. There will be plenty of time for questions, so bring lots of them! We will show you how to build the app UI, add database, add custom logic with server code and add send push messages.

Register here.

2013 was a stellar year for the Appery.io platform!

The biggest event happened in April when we launched the Appery.io platform a (pronounced “Appery dot io”), as we transitioned from the Tiggzi app UI builder to a completely cloud-based mobile app platform for creating enterprise HTML5 and native mobile apps. The Appery.io platform provides both an app UI builder and integrated backend services (MBaaS)  including a cloud database, push notifications, and a server code facility.
Read the rest of this entry »

One of the best ways to test your mobile app is on the device. This is a must if your app uses native (PhoneGap) API such as the Camera or the Barcode scanner. Installing the app on the device after every small update is very time consuming. That’s exactly why we built the Appery.io Tester app. It’s a very simple app that allows you to launch your native app and test any native APIs without needing to install it each time. We had the Android version for some time now and now we have also launched the iOS version.

Install the app on your device:

Install the iOS version.
Install the Android version

Once the app is installed, sign in with the same credentials as you use for https://appery.io and you will see a list of all your apps. Simply select the app you want to launch and start testing! This allows you quicly to test any native APIs used in the app. If you make any changes to the app (in Appery.io builder), simply relaunch the app to get the latest version. It’s that simple.

For more information about testing your app, please visit Testing your app in documentation.

Mashable recently compiled a list of the best mobile app builders, and Appery.io topped the list of 10 contenders. While we’re quite pleased to be considered #1 as just an app builder, we like to remind people that we are a full mobile app platform with a great suite of seamlessly integrable back-end services. So, with Appery.io, you get the best building tool—and much more.

Read the whole article.

We’re partnering with VisionMobile for their new Developer Economics survey to help them extend their reach and make sure more developers have a chance to make their voice heard. The survey reaches across thousands of app developers and provides the data for VisionMobile’s well-known reports on the state of the developer nation.

The new Developer Economics survey examines some of the hottest issues of mobile development, such as top mobile platforms, most widely used revenue models, and web vs. native development.

The report will be available for free to the entire mobile community January.

If you’re an app developer, take the 10-minute survey for a chance at some  great prizes.  Prizes include an iPhone, a Galaxy S4, two Nokia Lumia 925 handsets, a $500 USD in-app advertising coupon, and some cool gadgets.

Take the survey now!