iOS Question How to get started (installing & building first app) with B4i?

J

Jimdriver2

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I've just bought the B4A + B4I + Hosted Builder bundle. I'm an experienced B4A user but am basically now completely unclear on how to start with B4i.

I'm developing an app for a charity. I've developed it fully in B4A so now need to remake it in B4i.

I've got two significant problems:

1. I can't find any tutorials online for how to setup B4i and create a first hello world app in it. Please can I be directed to documentation that takes me through those installation, setup and development basics.

2. I think I've misunderstood what the Hosted builder was. I thought it would be a completely remote environment I could log into to develop in B4i. Having now installed B4i it seems to me that it is rather just a remote service that does compilation/building tasks I can't do without a Mac. My bigger problem is that I don't have any iOS devices, and now it appears to me that without those I've nothing to develop with. Is there any kind of emulation or remote service available for that?

I'm really hoping I don't need to use the 30 days money back guarantee, as I really need an iOS version of my app.
 
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ilan

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Jimdriver2 said:
1. I can't find any tutorials online for how to setup B4i and create a first hello world app in it. Please can I be directed to documentation that takes me through those installation, setup and development basics.
Click to expand...

have a look at this:

https://www.b4x.com/etp.html

Jimdriver2 said:
aving now installed B4i it seems to me that it is rather just a remote service that does compilation/building tasks I can't do without a Mac.
Click to expand...

with the hosted builder you are connected to a real mac so you can compile your project and run it on a real ios device.
if you dont have an ios device you can run the project on an ios simulator but for that you will need a real mac although i heard that it should be possible to use a virtual machine that is running mac os on it. anyway if you are planning to build ios applications you should really consider buying an ios device. you can get it very cheap on ebay

bottom line you dont need to have a real mac to build ios apps using b4i if you use the b4i hosted builder although you should have an ios device to run your app on to see how it runs. the simulator is not always the best tool to check your apps.
 
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J

Jimdriver2

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Great thanks. Those two tutorial videos should hopefully help me for my first question. I had just scanned their names and because the B4A video was called Installation and Configuration I thought those B4i videos were something different. Probably should have spent the 5 mins needed to quickly watch them.

That's also cleared it up regarding the need for a physical device. To be honest I should have realised that I guess.

Hopefully I can find a cheap iphone 4 or 5 somewhere that I can use.
 
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Erel

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Computersmith64

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ilan said:
[...] you should have an ios device to run your app on to see how it runs. the simulator is not always the best tool to check your apps.
Click to expand...

Actually if you only have one iOS device to run your apps on then you really need access to simulators for other iOS devices. I have 3 iOS devices (iPhone 4, iPhone 5S & iPad Mini) & I still need to use the iOS simulators to test on the various other devices to make sure the layouts work OK on the different variants. Also, when you publish an iOS app you now need to provide screenshots for a minimum of 6.5", 5.5", iPad Pro (2nd gen) 12.9" & iPad Pro (3rd Gen) 12.9" - so you really need access to either the actual devices or simulators to get those screenshots. You can try to fudge them by taking screenshots from one device & resizing them, but I doubt they will always scale correctly for the different displays.

Fortunately (don't read this part Erel) I do all my iOS development in Xcode on a Mac so I have access to those simulators, but I imagine it would be difficult to be 100% confident that your app will work on all iOS devices without them. As Ilan suggested, you might be able to run a MacOS virtual machine in Windows & then run the simulators on that.

- Colin.
 
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Computersmith64

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Erel said:
It is very simple to use the simulators with B4i if you have a local Mac.
Click to expand...
Yeah - my post didn't quite come out right. I didn't mean "fortunately I do all my iOS development in Xcode" - I meant "fortunately I use a Mac" & therefore have access to the simulators. From JimDriver2's OP I'm assuming he doesn't have a Mac.

- Colin.
 
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ilan

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Me too. It is much simpler to work with a simulator.
 
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