App Inventor for Android Do-it-yourself App Creation
Jul 16, 2015
Talk Outline
App Development (iPhone/Android) App Inventor introduction App Inventor at USF Demo: No Texting While Driving App Inventor’s Secret Sauce What you can build
Developing Apps
iPhone− Objective C− High level tools to turn pre-existing content into an
app. (e.g., http://www.appmakr.com/learn_more/) Android
− Java− App Inventor
App Inventor
Blocks language, like plugging in puzzle pieces. Similar to Lego Mindstorms and Scratch but for
phones not robots “Hypercard” for mobile phones, “electronic
napkin” for prototyping apps Democratizes app building.
App Inventor at USF
CS 107: Computing, Robots, and the Web.− 4th semester teaching App Inventor− Now 2 sections
Students’ work cited in SF Chronicle,NY Times, Techcrunch, Wired, …
Wolber authored App Inventor tutorials• O’Reilly Video series Co-authoring book
Demo: “No Texting While Driving”
Three windows of environment Change title, show in emulator Add label, textbox, button for custom response Respond with a fixed message,test Use custom response of user Custom response for mom Speak it aloud
Why is it so easy?
No syntax. The blocks language eliminates the need to remember and type code
Everything is right in front of you. Components and functions are in drawers. Just find,drag, and drop.
Events at top level. "When this happens, the app does this" is the correct conceptual model.
High-level components. The app inventor team has built a great library with simplicity the main goal.
Only some blocks plug-in. You can't do things that don't make sense.
Concreteness. Less abstract than many languages.
Apps students have built
Quizzes, surveys, study guides USF restaurant guides Droid Where’s my car? Broadcast Hub Next Muni Games
What you can build
Educational apps− Including video, images, text-to-speech
Location-aware apps Games NXT Robot Controllers Web-enabled apps Personal apps
Demo: Quiz App
Lists for questions,answers Index to walk through questions Next button Checking the answer
Try It!
Go to: appinventor.googlelabs.com Register and get started
− Download software− Try HelloPurr app and other tutorials− Use phone or emulator
Help-- Wolber’s sites:– appinventor.org− appinventorapi.com (advanced)
Take CS 107 (and send students!)