We will now host an introductory webinar for Appery.io every first Wednesday of the month. There will still be additional in-depth webinars, but we wanted to make sure there would always be a beginner’s webinar “around the corner” at all times. Here’s the next one:
Wednesday, April 3, 2013 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM PST
Register
The last piece is in for the Appery.io self-training course of videos. We’ve now added:
Lesson 5: Appery.io & PhoneGap Capabilities
In the video, we show how to take advantage of the PhoneGap API with ready-to-use “device services” and data mapping in the Appery.io app builder. For this lesson, we build a simple contacts app and go through the steps of testing it in an Android emulator.
Here is the complete set of lessons from the video page on our help site:
Each lesson links to a YouTube video. For each lesson there is also a link to a Appery.io backup ZIP of the finished lesson app, which you can open as a new project within Appery.io.
We’ll be updating the series soon, so chime in with any suggestions
We’ve started a Appery.io self-training course of videos. These lessons are linkable now from our video page on our help site:
Each lesson links to a YouTube video. For each lesson there is also a link to a Appery.io backup ZIP of the finished lesson app, which you can open as a new project within Appery.io.
What’s next?
Stay tuned!
UPDATE: The date for the webinar has been changed to:
Wednesday, February 20, 2013 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM PST
Appery.io isn’t just a mobile app builder. As a mobile app platform, it also provides a growing list of back-end services (like a database service) for seamless integration into the apps. Join Max Katz, Appery.io developer evangelist, for this hands-on demo and overview of the currently available back-end services and the road map for the future. There will be plenty of time set aside at the end for Q&A.
Thursday, February 7, 2013 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM PST
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We just added some really cool features to Appery.io Platform. Check them out!
As we continue to make Appery.io Platform enterprise-level, just just added a Source view where you can see and open the actual files behind your app. Right now the files are opened as read-only but we are working on allowing you to modify them as well.
We got all our custom themes back and you can also create new themes using the jQuery Mobile ThemeRoller tool. Simply create your theme in the tool, download and then upload to Appery.io. It’s that simple.
jQuery Mobile ThemeRoller site:
Once you create a new theme, select Create New > Theme and upload the theme you created.
You have been asking for this feature and now it’s here. Customize the permissions for your app before building a binary.
You no longer need to email support to find out why the binary build failed. You can now view the error and try to fix it:
We added two new jQuery Mobile components, Grouped Buttons and Collapsible Set:
On the Backend Services side, we added two new data types to the database: Array and Pointer:
Don’t forget to check our new tutorials and as always, if you have any questions let us know via email, forum or @apperyio.
To make it easy to build apps with AT&T API, we just added the AT&T OAuth API Plug-in. The plug-in sets up the OAuth 2 authentication by returning an access token which then can be used to invoke any other AT&T API.
To import the plug-in, select Create New > From Plug-in > ATT OAuth API:
Once the plug-in is imported, open ATT_Settings file:
and set the client_it, client_secret, and scope. The client_id, and client_secret will be available once you register an app at http://developer.att.com. The scope value depends on the API you are going to use. For example, if you the Location API, it will be TL. Refer to docs for the correct scope for each API.
Here is an example of a registered app with three scopes (in red):
One more thing that needs to be set is the OAuth 2 redirect (or callback URL) in app settings
For the callback URL to work correctly, also do the following in the Test window (upper right):
When running the app and you are not signed in into AT&T, you will see this page:
when signed in, you will see the access token:
The access token is also stored into local storage so you can use it to invoke other AT&T APIs.
Learn how to add and send in app messages from your number with new AT&T In App Messaging API Plug-in.
Join Max Katz, Appery.io developer evangelist, for this quick review of how to build a Windows 8 app using the Appery.io app builder. Then, in an expanded Q&A session, Max will hold “office hours” to answer any questions you might have about Appery.io.
When: Thursday, January 17, 2013 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM PST
Register: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/214517057
Best Buy Products API and Sample App plug-in provides a simple, REST-based interface for entire product catalog – past and present. This includes pricing, availability, specifications, descriptions, and images for over a million current and historical products.
To add the Best Buy Products API and Sample App plug-in, from Appery.io builder, select Create New > From Plug-in. Open Shopping, then select Best Buy Products API and Sample App:
Click Import selected plug-ins. The plug-in will be imported and you will see all its files in the Project view:
Before you run the app, we need to enter the Best Buy API key. Open Services/BestBuy_Settings file and enter your API key:
If you don’t have an API key, get it from Best Buy.
You should also go to Project/App settings, set the Start Page to BestBuy_Category_List, set the theme to BestBuy_Theme and check the Render all pages in one HTML file checkbox.
You can now launch the app by clicking the Test button (in the upper right corner).
The starting page of app contains the list of categories as shown below:
Click any category button. The list of the products from the category opens on the Products page:
Click any product to get the product details. The page renders the image preview to the item and the available attributes as shown below:
You can also perform a search by entering a query in the text input at the top and pressing the search button.
Now that we’ve seen how this sample app works, let’s dig deeper to see how the Best Buy Products API is exposed in Appery.io platform.
The following REST services are used for getting information from Best Buy Products API:
BestBuy_GetProductsService service is used for getting the list of required products. REST service Settings display the URL, and other settings:
The {searchQuery} will be set when the app is running, based on user input.
Request tab shows the request parameters defined in the service:
Response parameters are automatically created after doing a service test (in Test tab):
Response parameter:
All other services are set in the same way.
Once a service is added to the page, it is then mapped to the page (request and response):
Aetna GoodRx API and Sample App plug-in can be instantly added to any new or existing app. Aetna GoodRx is offering RESTful services that help to find the lowest retail cash price as offered by a national chain pharmacy for a given pharmaceutical. In addition, user will receive a URL for each result that will navigate to the page in the GoodRx mobile web experience that will display the pharmacy that is offering that price, and even find the closest branch to on their current location.
The ready-to-run app makes it super easy to start using the API. To add Aetna GoodRx plug-in:
After importing the plugin, set the default page to GoodRx_SearchPage, set the theme to GoodRx_Theme and check the Render all pages in one HTML file checkbox.
Using GoodRx API requires an API key which you can get from http://developer.carepass.com. To enter the API key, open Services/Aetna_GoodRx_Settings file:
Once the API key is set, click the Test button (upper right corner) to launch the app in the browser. The start page looks like this:
The page contains the search attributes for drugs as follows:
To test the app, you should enter some search parameters. For example, let’s enter “lipitor” in the “Drug Name” field. If you click the Search button then, you’ll see the screen with the search results:
If you click the Go to website button, you will be redirected to GoodRx desktop website or mobile website (if you launch the app on a mobile device).
The page shows information about the drug as well as information where it can be purchased.
Now that we’ve seen how this sample app works, let’s dig deeper to see how the GoodRx API is exposed on the Appery.io platform.
GoodRx_LowPriceSearch is used for getting the list of the lower prices of the requested drugs. The URL and the main settings of the service as shown below:
If you open the Request tab, you’ll see that only the apikey parameter is defined here. The reason for this is that the service can receive different sets of parameters, so all the other required parameters are added dynamically in Javascript Helper.search() function before service invocation.
The response parameters are displayed under the Response tab:
This service holds the API key. It is used in GoodRx_LowPriceSearch service.
