Fast Dynamic Image Processing in Your Appery.io Mobile App with Sirv

Sirv logo

Images are an integral part of any mobile app UI. A frequent requirement is to process these images (for example, making the image smaller for a particular device screen size). Such processing could be done on the client, but requires additional code and likely will effect app performance. A better solution is usually to process the images on the server where it is much faster and also gives you more options and flexibility. Sirv is a cloud service that does just that. Sirv and Appery.io have joined forces to show you how easy it is to use advanced image processing when building your app in Appery.io. Read the rest of this entry »

Video: Building a Mobile App With Database in 5 Minutes

This 5-minute video shows how to create a simple, yet real mobile app that talks to an API backend.

Exposing Relational Database, Web Service via REST API Using RESTXpress [Video]

This webinar shows how to expose legacy enterprise systems via REST APIs using RESTXpress. The video covers:

  • How to expose a relational database via REST API
  • How to expose a web service via REST API
  • How to build a mobile app in Appery.io with the exposed REST APIs

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New Weather API and Geolocation App Example

Since we know developers love examples, we’ve just added one more! When you create a new app, you can base it on the new Weather API and Geolocation Example.

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Video: Building Enterprise Mobile Apps Fast with the Orchestrate Database and Appery.io Development Platform

Building Mobile Apps With the Appery.io Development Platform and Orchestrate Database

Gone are the days when you could afford to take months to build an enterprise mobile app. In today’s fast market, you need to be able to prototype the app in a few days (or even hours), release the first version in a few weeks, get feedback, fix bugs, release the second version. Repeat.

To help you meet this challenge, Appery.io and Orchestrate have collaborated to create this step-by-step tutorial on just how fast you can build a real mobile app. The app is built in the Appery.io visual development platform, connected to an Orchestrate database via REST APIs, tested, and deployed. (If you’re new to Appery.io you can start with the Building your first mobile app tutorial.)

In addition, Appery.io and Orchestrate will hold a joint webinar titled “Building Enterprise Mobile Apps Fast with the Orchestrate Database and Appery.io Development Platform” covering this material on September 11 at 10:00am Pacific time. Register now!

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Appery.io and Auth0 Join Forces To Simplify Mobile App Development With Identity Management

apperyio_plus_auth0

Building mobile apps with identity management wasn’t simple, until now. Auth0, a cloud service that eliminates the friction of identity for your app, and Appery.io, the only cloud platform with visual development tools and integrated backend services, are collaborating to make this happen. With the jointly created Appery.io Auth0 plugin, you can simplify identity management integration for your app, and this post will show you how.

Appery.io Platform

Appery.io is the only cloud-based platform with visual development tools and integrated backend services. Appery.io provides a powerful visual environment to build HTML5 and hybrid mobile apps connected to any API.

The Appery.io platform provides the following core features:

  • Build HTML5 mobile apps and hybrid apps for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone.
  • Drag and drop visual app builder for quickly building the app UI, with Source view for customizing the UI with any code.
  • Connect to any cloud API service, and bind the service to the page via a visual binding editor.
  • Integrated backend services that include: cloud database, push notifications, and server code.
  • HTML5 app hosting.
  • Fast testing in-browser, and on device via Appery.io Mobile Tester app.
  • Collection of plugins that provide fast integration with popular API providers.

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Building Mobile Apps with Tropo API in Appery.io

Working with mapping has been improved to provide you with a more efficient and user-friendly way of binding your data. Now, with the upgraded Mapping feature binding your data is more intuitive; it also provides more features and flexibility. This tutorial uses old mapping, and will be updated shortly. The new mapping uses the same concepts. The following page shows how to migrate the old mapping to the new mapping.

Tropo provides a powerful cloud API that can be used to add real-time communication features to your app. Using  popular web technologies such as PHP, JavaScript, Ruby and many others, it makes it easier to create and control network features.

tropo_log

Tropo also provides a great REST API that lets you configure and control Tropo applications through the use of RESTful methods. This includes the ability to create new Tropo apps, add phone numbers to them, delete applications, and much more. And as Appery.io provides a very comfortable way to work with REST API’s, it’s unbelievably easy to add Tropo communication features to your Appery.io app.

But before you begin, the Tropo application should be created by using the Scripting or Web API. Lets start with creating a simple Tropo app!

Sign up on the Tropo website, and create a new app:

tropo_new_app

Type a Tropo application name, and choose Scripting API:

tropo_basic_info

Now you should create script. Click “New script” to create it:

tropo_new_script

The text editor will appear. Lets add some simple code:

say('Hello from Appery.io!');
call(numberToDial);
say("Hello, " + customerName + "! There is a message for you: " + msg + "!");

Code explanation:

Function say will pronounce “Hello from Appery.io!” text by using the Tropo’s Text-To-Speech engine. After that, the phone number that was passed as a REST parameter will be dialed. Once the call is accepted, a second phrase will be pronounced. Note that the second phrase contains REST parameters too.

Enter the script name, and click “Save.” Don’t forget to specify the script file extension as “.js”:

tropo_new_script

Click “CREATE APP,” and you’re done with the Tropo side. You can test your Tropo app directly from the browser by using Phono. Click “Call App from browser” and then click the phone icon in the bottom left corner:

tropo_call_from_app

Note that you can’t test the call function directly from the browser.

Now you can launch your Tropo app via REST services from Appery.io.

Copy the voice API key to your clipboard:

tropo_api_key

In your Appery.io app, create the following UI:

tropo_ui

If you not familiar with Appery.io yet, we recommend looking at this very simple beginners tutorial.

All the application magic will be kept in a single REST service that will start the Tropo session. Create the REST service and specify the following settings:

tropo_rest_settings

As you can see, there is the Appery.io Proxy provided for this REST service. Click “New channel,” enter a new proxy name for this REST, and then click “Create” to create a new proxy channel directly from the Appery.io builder.

Note: Read about the Appery.io proxy via the link.

In the Request tab, you can specify parameters and their values that can be passed to the Tropo app. In our case, the Request parameters are the following:

tropo_request_parameters

Go to the Test tab and click “Test.” If everything was done correctly, you’ll see a “Test successful” message, and a REST service response that contains both token and id:

tropo_test

Note that you should obtain phone number to make calls, otherwise the script will fail. You also need to link the UI and REST service parameters.

Switch to Data tab, and create a new datasource based on this REST service. Click “Edit Mapping”:

tropo_rest_datasource

Create the following mapping for REST service Request:

tropo_rest_mapping

This will map data from the UI components to the REST parameters. If it’s difficult to understand, read about REST services and mapping.

Unlike the Request parameters, we will print the REST service response without mapping to print all its data. Open the Events tab, and create the following event:

start_tropo_session > Success > Run JavaScript. Add the following JavaScript code:

Apperyio('session_response').val(JSON.stringify(data));

Note that session_response in this case is the name of your Text Area component.

The last thing to do is to launch our REST service by clicking the button. Switch back to Design view, select the “Start session” button and add the following event:

start_session > Click > Invoke service > start_tropo_session.

Now you can test your app by clicking the “Test” button in the top right corner of the screen.

Click “Start session” and you’ll see the result:

tropo_test_app

If something above was not clear enough for you, check out the Appery.io tutorials and documentation.

Go ahead and create apps using Tropo documentation and the power of Appery.io!

Webinar: Learn How to Build Mobile Apps with Facebook API

Join the Appery.io webinar this Wednesday, at 11am (Pacific Time) learn how to build mobile apps with Facebook API.

Using Facebook API in Appery.io App

When building a mobile app in Appery.io, it’s very easy to use and connect to any APIs. Facebook provides one of the most popular and widely used APIs that you can as easily use in the app you build in Appery.io.

facebook-logo

Appery.io provides a really simple out-of-box approach to pass the OAuth protocol and connect with Facebook. Before building the Appery.io app you need to register as developer with Facebook and create an app. Once it’s done, go to Appery.io builder and import the Facebook API plug-in:

fb_import_plug_in

Once the plug-in is imported you need to specify Appery.io app ID and Facebook app ID in the Facebook_Setting file that listed under the Services folder:

fb_settings

One more thing to do is change the Start Page in App settings to Facebook_Login. After that you can test the app. You’ll see the Login to Facebook button, clicking on which will dial the OAuth log-in dialog, where you should enter your Facebook login and password. After successful authentication, information about you will be displayed at the Facebook_Me page:

fb_me_page

All of the Graph API features can be used the same way, but note, that some actions requires certain scope. You can change default scope parameter in the Facebook_Helper JavaScript file:
fb_tutorial_helper

That’s it, you can now invoke any available Facebook API.  Go ahead and see how to post a wall message in our detailed Facebook tutorial.