Introducing the MIT App Inventor, a free tool that allows anyone who wishes to build Android applications without the knowledge of any programming language.
Android Application Development sounds like a very difficult task for some people: Learning the Java language, the establishment of a development environment Eclipse kind or another computer, compiler, memory management, and more full of factors to consider before launching the APK file initial first version of the app your first Android.
Just for that, developed at MIT free tool called MIT App Inventor allows beginners make their first steps in developing apps for Android, experimenting around light, color and Idodotit particular user, allowing each technical knowledge bases develop applications that work for anything Android, using the browser-only (preferably chrome) without establishing any development environment on your computer.
Just for that, developed at MIT free tool called MIT App Inventor allows beginners make their first steps in developing apps for Android, experimenting around light, color and Idodotit particular user, allowing each technical knowledge bases develop applications that work for anything Android, using the browser-only (preferably chrome) without establishing any development environment on your computer.
Developing a simple application for example
Initially, you will need to be logged in with your Google. Type your username and password, and click Sign In. Then, confirm the application MIT AppInventor Version 2 to access the account information for your Google. Then, you will be asked to fill out a short survey of the MIT App Inventor, leave it at the moment. Press the New Project and named our project a certain name (only letters and numbers), say helloworld.
To show you how application development using App Inventor is a simple task, built an app with a text box control, button, and control Text-To-Speech. The ultimate goal of the application is at the moment will type some text and pressed the button, the app will read it to us using the TTS engine installed on the device. If you do not have one, you can download it here.
We get the Screen Designer, which represents what we actually see in our app:
We get the Screen Designer, which represents what we actually see in our app:
On the right side are the controls, we can drag them into the application and place them. Center - the app screen and on the right - the list of controls that we use and their various properties, such as colors, titles, graphics, text, etc..
Drag the controls that you want to simple applications we build now: a text box, a button (both are under the tab User Interface), and Text-To-Speech (found under the Media tab):
Drag the controls that you want to simple applications we build now: a text box, a button (both are under the tab User Interface), and Text-To-Speech (found under the Media tab):
Press the control to the Text To Speech, see the properties (Properties) to his left? We define the language: Country - United States, Language - English:
Now, the fun part
After we finished "design" and set the various properties of controls in the application, it's time to add the functionality. While standard development environments is a real coding, which requires prior knowledge of Java language, typically, this process is much simpler - a combination "blocks" that represent lines of code, using puzzle pieces.
Let's think about what we want to get out of our app on the level of text:
If we press the button, take the text inside the text box, and say it using the control Text-To-Speech.
Click the Blocks button on the right side top of the screen, next to the Designer, to replace Blocks view. Go to our button, Button1, on which we want to apply the action, and look for appropriate action (when Button1.Click do):
Let's think about what we want to get out of our app on the level of text:
If we press the button, take the text inside the text box, and say it using the control Text-To-Speech.
Click the Blocks button on the right side top of the screen, next to the Designer, to replace Blocks view. Go to our button, Button1, on which we want to apply the action, and look for appropriate action (when Button1.Click do):
What does it mean actually? Exactly what we want to do: when the button is Button1 is pressed, do something.
Now, we need to set our little function what to do. What do we want? Cause the control to the Text-To-Speech in our "talk" to the value within the text box TextBox1. We will do this:
Now, we need to set our little function what to do. What do we want? Cause the control to the Text-To-Speech in our "talk" to the value within the text box TextBox1. We will do this:
At this moment we finished building our first app!
Build the APK file
Now all that's left is to run and test it. For this purpose we have two options: either run it on our Android device, or run it on your PC Emulator. Since Emulator does not work optimally on all computers and takes a long execution time, built the APK file we will install and run on the device, and even then sign and upload the file to Google Play.
Go to menu, select Build -> App - Save to my computer process takes a few seconds (up to a minute or so). Eventually you will get the following dialog box, and you will see the APK file (attached here) drops directly to your PC. To install it, move it to your phone, make sure that the security settings of the device Unknown Sources option is selected in V, and install it using a file manager such as ES File Explorer.
That's it! Finished design, build and run your first Android app on your Android device without the knowledge of any programming language or code tinkering. This is a great tool especially for children, who want to make their first steps in programming. Good Luck!
More information and detailed guides you can find on the official website of the project.
Go to menu, select Build -> App - Save to my computer process takes a few seconds (up to a minute or so). Eventually you will get the following dialog box, and you will see the APK file (attached here) drops directly to your PC. To install it, move it to your phone, make sure that the security settings of the device Unknown Sources option is selected in V, and install it using a file manager such as ES File Explorer.
That's it! Finished design, build and run your first Android app on your Android device without the knowledge of any programming language or code tinkering. This is a great tool especially for children, who want to make their first steps in programming. Good Luck!
More information and detailed guides you can find on the official website of the project.