B4J Question [ABMaterial] Lib for mobile web app

bembulak said:

Hi all!

Currently I'm evaluating the possibilities of B4J for creating a web app. I know, that this is possible.

However, my main user base will have a mobile device (phone/tablet, Android/iOS/windows). The webApp demo shows us, that it is possible to build an app when you do the whole html/css/js stuff on your own. I want to avoid that.
I've played around with jQuery mobile a little, but I don't like it. I just can't wrap my brain around a dozen of different programming languages at the same time.

Then I saw the ABMaterial library today and looks really good.

My question is: is it suitable for mobile apps/mobile devices? I've had no time yet to prepare a basic example and can't call the example website with my phone!

Any hints/suggestions? Thank you!

Click to expand...

Totally. The important that that you need to know is how to handle this Framework... do you want to put this on a server and the access from a (or a lot of) cellphone? of you want to create, let say, a "single user" application that you want to have install in your phone and use the ABMaterial?

Regards

I want to put it on a server, yes. Maybe my own Raspi for the start. I have to handle a hand full devices for the start. I can't install the app on the phones, so PhoneGap/Cordova, or even native B4X is unfortunately no option...

bembulak said:

is it suitable for mobile apps/mobile devices?

Click to expand...

Yes this works fine. In fact, the responsive framework is build so it 'adepts/rearranges' components depending on the device it is opened. It's kind of hard to explain, you'll have to see it yourself. But if you open it in Googles resizer, you can have an idea of the changes it does for you (automatically or with very few changes from your part)

see http://design.google.com/resizer/#url=http://prd.one-two.com:51042/demo

Note: in the Google Resizer you can navigate through the page (also use the top right buttons to change the device size you want to see)

alwaysbusy said:

Yes this works fine. In fact, the responsive framework is build so it 'adepts/rearranges' components depending on the device it is opened. It's kind of hard to explain, you'll have to see it yourself. But if you open it in Googles resizer, you can have an idea of the changes it does for you (automatically or with very few changes from your part)

see http://design.google.com/resizer/#url=http://prd.one-two.com:51042/demo

Note: in the Google Resizer you can navigate through the page (also use the top right buttons to change the device size you want to see)

Click to expand...

Thank you for the reply. I'll give it a go then! But's pretty likely that I'll come up with some questions ...

bembulak said:

Thank you for the reply. I'll give it a go then! But's pretty likely that I'll come up with some questions ...

Click to expand...

You have come to the right place, as you shall soon discover.

Study the Feedback app to get a basic understanding of the framework. There are some tutorials to help with certain constructs.
The Code Generator is invaluable for creating modal dialogs for input sheets. Five lines of code you input will generate 400 - 700 lines of (flawless) required code!

It is great to have another user contribute to our understanding by providing examples of their discoveries.

Thanks

Harris said:

You have come to the right place, as you shall soon discover.

Study the Feedback app to get a basic understanding of the framework. There are some tutorials to help with certain constructs.
The Code Generator is invaluable for creating modal dialogs for input sheets. Five lines of code you input will generate 400 - 700 lines of (flawless) required code!

It is great to have another user contribute to our understanding by providing examples of their discoveries.

Thanks

Click to expand...

Hi Harris, as I've seen you developed a web app using ABMaterial, care to share some codes of your app? how you use controls such as ABMNavigator as menu, configuration pages, etc. I'm totally new in b4j, seeking some design pattern to speed up my discovery. TIA.

Hanstel said:

Hi Harris, as I've seen you developed a web app using ABMaterial, care to share some codes of your app? how you use controls such as ABMNavigator as menu, configuration pages, etc. I'm totally new in b4j, seeking some design pattern to speed up my discovery. TIA.

Click to expand...

@Hanstel - I see we share the same birth date.

I can give you the entire package - including the MySQL DB, since my project is very dependent on it. I use USBWebserver for my local WAMP. Works great for dev.
I laid out tables using the Feedback as base example, then I used CRUD Generator to build my modal forms. Each form was tweeked to add other elements (combo's, etc).

I have just started to use the PDFViewer. What a powerful component! Much more than I ever expected - yet these surprises are always nice...
My mobile app generates 3 PDF's each day (work shift) for each vehicle. The left container will hold the config settings to range what the user needs to see (date range, selected vehicle, type of vehicle (truck or trailer), driver (if required). I will likely use a table grid to select the desired item to display. MySQL holds all the data while the actual PDF's are stored in a folder on disk.




PM me your email and I will package it up.

Thanks

Hi

I am just starting to get a feel for this, and you wonderful attempt to manage ABMaterial gives me hope that this is the right way.

Any change to get a copy of your program to help me study the way you have amanged this?

email donohuedavid01 at gmail.com

thanks every so much, as one colonial (New Zealander) to another!!

Kind regards

David

Hi there!

Had not much time in the last weeks.
But now I want to give it a go again. My main problem at the moment is: I have the template, ok. It seems to be the base skeleton of what an ABM webapp has to have to work. But I have absolutely no idea how (and where) I have to extend it to just get a feel for the dozens of components it offers.

My plan was:
take the template and have exactly ONE page. Then add som components to the page and maybe add some code/behaviour to some of the (if they provide one).
But here I'm already stuck.

My project structure looks like this:
- have a copy of the template.
- b4j-File renamed to fit the project name (ABM_01.b4j)

- File ABMApplication, Line 4: Appname = "ABM_01"
- File ABMApplication, Line 5: InitialPage = "ABMPageTemplate"
- File ABMPageTemplate, Line 13: Appname = "ABM_01"

So far so good. But why do ABMApplication and ABMPageTemplate booth do have a method called "BuildPage()", when ABMPageTemplate should be the first page to be loaded? And what is the URL of the app then? On my local machine http://localhost:51042/ABM_01 ? Where are components added?
And how can the App be depoyed e.g. to an existing Webserver? What are the prequesites, despite a JRE or JDK?

So many questions, so many questions...

Sorry.

My 2 cents...

You may want to start with the Feedback project to get a feel for how the framework is configured.
It is simple enough to follow along until you get your feet wet. It helps to start with a working project, then modify it so you can see what happens.
Trying to start fresh and bolt components and pages together is very difficult when starting out.

Yes, there are many questions, but one has to pose the right question to get a valid response.
This will take some study on your part. It seems daunting (and frustrating) at first, but it does get easier. You will begin to understand how to make this work.

I knew NOTHING about this system when I first started, but with some patience and hard work (time spent with feedback and demo apps), I figured out what to ask when I "Really" got stuck... I always received an answer that pointed me in the right direction.

Hi, seems like I was frustrated last night, or had too many questions.
I sat down again and started over with the template. I have a single site with a button now that writes to "Log", when I click on it.

I will take a look at the feedback project - overlooked the directory when extracted the ZIP. Thank you for the hint!