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Geolocation functionality is one of the most popular features in mobile development. In Appery.io, a geolocation plug-in is available out-of-the box and can be configured in minutes to use in your mobile app. Recently, we’ve updated the geolocation plug-in for AngularJS apps (both Ionic and Bootstrap) and now it is even more intuitive and faster to use. In the geolocation plug-in docs you can find out how to add the plug-in to your Appery.io app, so you can retrieve the current position and start\stop watching position.

Make sure to check out all our mobile development tips.

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Appery.io Charts plugin

From talking with developers who are building business and enterprise apps, we’ve heard that displaying data visually with charts is one of the highest priority requirements. To make it easy to visualize data, Appery.io has introduced a lightweight plugin that has everything you need to add pretty and inform-dense charts to your mobile app.

In this post we’ll show you how to do exactly that.

The Appery.io Charts plugin is available for AngularJS types of apps – both Ionic and Bootstrap. It’s built on the popular Chart.js library and consists of two JavaScript and one CSS asset. It can be added to your app the same as any other Appery.io plugin:

1. Open your Appery.io app and go to CREATE NEW > From plugin.
2. Choose Appery.io Charts and click Import selected plugins.
3. All the assets and the charts page will be added to your app.

Now you can go to Project > Routing and set the Default route for charts page to make this the initial page for your app.

There are three type of charts implemented in this plugin – Line, Bar and Radar. Switch them and see the animation by clicking the appropriate buttons.

Chart.js supports many other chart types, you can learn about the other charts here.

In this plugin, charts are displayed based on the data stored locally, in the scope variable. However, you may want to use a database as the data source for your charts. It will take less than a minute to configure the plugin in this way. Read the plugin documentation to see how.

Hopefully you will find this easy-to-use plugin useful. If you have any suggestions on how to make it better – feel free to contact us!

User login/registration is one of the most common features in a mobile app. Permitting login with existing credentials that users have from social networks can significantly simplify the authentication process and improve the user experience.

User Login Registration Examples for all project types (jQuery Mobile, Ionic, and Bootstrap) has just been updated with social authentication functionality. You can use those examples to quickly set up your app with the social login feature or see how it’s built to implement your own.

To create an app from an example, click Create new app > From example and choose the example you want from the list of available examples.

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With Barcode Scanner plugin, you can quickly add the functionality to scan bar codes from your app.  This can be helpful in many cases. For example, when building a warehouse mobile app: simply scan a product bar code, search the database with that code and retrieve the product information.

You can see how to build such app for jQuery Mobile here.

Adding a Barcode Scanner plugin to your Appery.io Angular app is very simple:

1. Go to Project > CREATE NEW > From Plug-in.
2. Select Apperyio Barcode Service and click Import selected plugins.

Then, in the Project view, a related service (Barcode_scan) and a JavaScript (Barcode) file will appear. After a native service has been added to the app, it can be called like any other REST service.

The Barcode Scanner plugin uses Cordova API. As the plugin uses native APIs, you should test it on the device or using the Appery.io Tester app.

Read the step-by-step tutorial we’ve prepared on Using the Barcode scanner service. And of course, feel free to contact us if you have any issues.

We just announced some great news for Appery. We’ve passed the 250,000-user mark, we’ve updated our tester app so users don’t need to have an Appery.io account, and we’ve rolled out a new release of  the platform that includes these key features (among others):

• Simplified implementation of social login and LDAP sign-on for apps
• Extended offline capability in apps to use the internal database or an external one
• New Bootstrap and Ionic components
• Outline page component view for enhanced developer productivity

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What’s a mobile conversion?

Simply put, a mobile conversion is an instance of a user taking a desired action within your mobile app. This could be completing a sale for example, or even just filling out and submitting a form. They differ from download conversions in that they are accomplished in-app, after the initial download of the app has already occurred.

Not everyone needs to worry about mobile conversions in their applications, but if you’re building an app where conversions are key, few things are more important than increasing that rate.

Mobile traffic now accounts for over 16% of all web traffic, and in general, businesses have done well in acquiring users for their apps: by 2016, there will be 2 billion smartphones in use worldwide, with an average of 27 apps per phone.

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We know that developers love examples. One of the most requested example is how to build an app with barcode scanner and search the database. We created an app example that does exactly that.

Appery.io plugins

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In case you missed our webinar, watch this recording to learn how to use Appery.io to build a barcode scanner mobile app. (At the end of this post is some of the coding used in the webinar.)

Check out many other videos on the Appery.io YouTube channel.

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Appery.io and Bright Pattern have partnered to improve the simplicity of implementing live in-app customer service for enterprises and their customers. The partnership’s result is a plug-in for the Appery.io platform that helps companies to quickly add contact center functionality to their mobile apps. Read the rest of this entry »

If you missed our webinar, watch this recording to learn how to use Cordova APIs in a mobile app. The webinar shows:

• Building a hybrid app in Appery.io
• Using Apache Cordova APIs:
  • Alert
  • Geolocation
  • Barcode scanner
  • Camera
  • FileTransfer –  use plugin for quick file upload to Appery.io database
• Fast testing with Appery.io Tester app

Check out many other videos on the Appery.io YouTube channel.