Android Tutorial B4A-Bridge a new way to connect to your device

There are several options to develop with B4A:
- Android emulator or a VM.
- Connect to a real device in USB debugging mode
- Connect to a real device with B4A-Bridge.

I recommend starting with B4A-Bridge, which is the simplest connection method.

USB Debug Mode

You will need to first configure your device to support USB debugging (Settings - Developer - USB debugging).

In order to reveal the developer settings you should follow these instructions:
- Choose Settings - About Phone
- Find the Build Number entry and click on it 7 times.
- On many devices you need to set the USB connection type to MTP or PTP.

Not all devices support USB debugging.

B4A-Bridge

B4A-Bridge is made of two components. One component runs on the device and allows the second component which is part of the IDE to connect and communicate with the device.
The connection is done over the local network or with a Bluetooth connection.

Once connected, B4A-Bridge supports all of the IDE features which include: installing applications, viewing the logs, debugging and the visual designer (taking screenshots is not supported).

Android doesn't allow applications to quietly install other applications, therefore when you run your application using B4A-Bridge you will see a dialog asking you to approve the installation.

Getting started with B4A-Bridge
1. First you need to install B4A-Bridge on your device.
B4A-Bridge can be downloaded from Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=anywheresoftware.b4a.b4abridge

Note that you need to allow installation of applications from "Unknown sources". This is done by choosing Settings from the Home screen - Manage Applications.


2. Run B4A-Bridge on your device. It will display a screen similar to:

3. Connect the IDE to the device

Go to Tools -> B4A-Bridge -> Connection -> New IP

You will be asked to enter the device IP address. The IP is displayed on the device.

The status bar at the bottom of the screen shows the current status:

That's it.

When B4A-Bridge gets connected it first checks if the designer application needs to be updated. In that case it will first install the designer application.

B4A-Bridge keeps running as a service until you press on the Stop button.
You can always reach it by opening the notifications screen.


As mentioned above, when you run an application you are required to approve the installation. You will usually see the following screens:

Note that the Internet permission is automatically added in debug mode.

In the above dialog you should choose Open to start the application.
If you try to install an existing application signed with a different key, the install will fail (without any meaningful message). You should first uninstall the existing application. Go to the home screen - Settings - Applications - Manage applications - choose the application - Uninstall.

Once you finished developing you should press on the Stop button in order to save battery.

Logs

With B4A-Bridge the logs will only appear in release mode if you add this line to the main module:

#BridgeLogger: True

It is better to comment this line before submitting your app to Google Play.


B4A-Bridge source code is available here: http://www.b4x.com/forum/basic4andr...ls/8153-b4a-bridge-source-code.html#post45854

Tip

You can click on the B4A-Bridge status in the IDE to connect or disconnect the bridge.

 

[hyuk7]

Have you tried to manually uninstall B4A Designer?

I have a Eeepc t91mt with 2gb memory to use the B4A, which is a slower netbook, I need a device connection to develop an app because the emulator is toooo slow.
If I uninstall the B4A-Designer, how can I design onto the device? Do I need to re-install it manually, or is there any other way to design rapidly?

BTW I thank for the quick response in the community.

 

[Erel]

B4A Bridge will install it again automatically. See the notes at the bottom of the announcement: http://www.b4x.com/forum/additional...pdates/9034-basic4android-v1-50-released.html

 

[Reemj]

hi

hello
when i bridge connect between a laptop and a mobile it brings only interface.
how can i bring both the interface and the data on databae?

thanks
Reem

 

[Erel]

What do you mean? Is your database included in the project?

 

[Reemj]

yes, database on local server on a laptop.
I want to fetch data to a Mobile

 

[Erel]

Is this question related to B4A-Bridge?

 

[Reemj]

yes, because if the app work on emultor it is fetch te data but with bridge

amobaile can not fetch the data

thanks a lot

 

[Erel]

B4A Bridge is only responsible for starting the application (and showing the logs). If your application starts and then encounters a problem then it is not related to B4A Bridge. I recommend you to start a new thread for this issue.

 

[Heinz]

Hello, i have got my new Toshiba AC 100 10k
Netbook. The B4ABridgePlus starts on Portrait
mode. Can i have it in landscape mode ?

 

[agraham]

You can modify and recompile it yourself from the source code here.

 

[SteveBee]

Nice!

Just got my first Android phone... a horrible little cheapie to develop on (yes, I'm actually an iPhone 'fanboi' <g>).

Have been using the emulator - but this B4a Bridge is great - downloaded from market and connected via WiFi - debugs nicely - good job!

Question: is the purpose of the Designer on the device so that the B4a IDE Designer addresses the device, rather than the emulator?
So I should I be seeing something on the device when I play with designer? (because I see nothing - its blank)

Again, good work - a very smooth way to hook up the IDE and device.

Steve

 

[SteveBee]

So I should I be seeing something on the device when I play with designer? (because I see nothing - its blank)

Forget this - my omission - when moving from Emulator to real device, I had forgotten to press "Connect" again, so the Designer could connect to the *new* device.

 

[optimist]

B4A-Bridge should be used when you have a wireless network available (both the device and the computer should be connected to the same router).

We have such a nice weather, so i develop in a park under old trees
My smartphone is connected to the internet with umts.
Additionally i enabled "thetering", so this internet connection is shared with my laptop.

I am able to use the bridge even in this scenario without problems :sign0098:

No router needed, developing with bridge like a charm and mobile internet on both devices :sign0060:

Thanks

 

[WizardOz]

This works so perfectly, its almost a dream!

 

[Kamac]

That's very useful. I'm gonna also start using it in the near future.

 

[timo]

It works fine with a Galaxy Next, but there's nothing to do with the Galaxy S Plus.
Any suggestions?

 

[Erel]

Do you get an error message?

 

[timo]

No. Only 'Disconnected' on both sides. They simply don't find each other.
Galaxy S Plus have only 3 USB options: Kies,Multimedia and mass memory.

 

[Erel]

It may be a router firewall issue. You can try to ping the device from the desktop command line and see if it is reachable.

 

[timo]

It was a tethering strange behaviour; it changed the setting alone. Boh...