Dapp

Ok, we reached 10 reviews for Dapp Lite \o/.

Which means.. I can now randomly select a winner for a free copy of Dapp.

Yes, it’s completely random.  Honest feedback is much more valuable than anything else.

And the winner is…..

App Store Nickname: Deyooll

Review: This is awesome to give a chance to simple guys like me to make their own contribution to the App Store universe.

Please contact me at dapp@kerofrog.com.au for a free promo code .

Upcoming updates

Interesting feedback from Dapp.  Perhaps not surprisingly most people are keen for the universal iPad version.  Which is about 25% complete.

Just finishing up wireframes and designs for the update.

I’m also very serious about going nuts with ‘connections’, creating a ton more things you can do with Dapp and really move it towards being an all-in-one solution where you don’t have to learn to code to make apps \o/.

There will be a few small non-essential patches coming out between now and the iPad + connections updates.

One of them will include me trying to sneak back in backup/restore feature that got Dapp kicked off App Store for a while .

Hoping that if I link it up to iCloud and just allow you to do it on your device that Apple will let it through…

Heh, we will find out in the next week or two

Xcode Storyboards were released as part of Xcode 4.2 on October 12, 2011 – coinciding with the release of iOS 5.0.

What’s really cool about it is that storyboards allow you to put together the user interface for your app. Including positioning everything on each page (scene), transitions between those pages and the controls used to trigger that process.

Basically meaning you can lay out all the possible paths in your application graphically, greatly reducing the amount of code you need to write.

The only challenge is that there is a bit of a learning curve to get up to speed on how to use storyboards.

This popular tutorial on Ray Wenderlich will show you what I mean -

http://www.raywenderlich.com/5138/beginning-storyboards-in-ios-5-part-1

Once the learning curve of creating new scenes and hooking them up is over, you can really start to play with aspects of your interface.

I can’t talk though, as I avoided Storyboards for a long time because I didn’t want to have to learn something new .

Eventually I learned them, and am glad I did as they have really improved the speed of my development.

What if Dapp created storyboards for you?

And that got me thinking… what if Dapp did this for you?

What if you could create your screens, buttons, transitions and other content straight from your iPhone, no matter where you are?

And then export your project into Xcode, complete with Storyboards, project files and all media where you just had to open up a completed project?

That would be really cool and incredibly useful to anyone looking to create their own app – whether they are a non-coder or an experienced developer.

Which I’m now happy to say has been achieved ☺.

A look at the elements of a storyboard screen

I could create this in Xcode Storyboards from scratch or I could just get Dapp to create it for me.

The neat thing about using Dapp is that I can now just open this up and really only care about positioning my objects by using the drag / drop visual controls available and selecting my objects and updating using the options on the right hand side of the screen.

The transitions, hooking everything up, content, images and positioning have already all been handled by Dapp.

A much simpler interface to use than Xcode Storyboards.

Next steps are just to register for the Apple Developer program and submit your app to the App Store .

And by all means, feel free to get in touch with me if you have questions about those steps.

Next Dapp updates?

iPad universal and heaps more options to help you build bigger and better apps .

All fully tested and currently in review with Apple .

Xcode Storyboards on easy mode – with Dapp creating them for you!

Biggest news is that we’ve been able to add in the ability for your Dapp generated apps to automatically create Xcode Storyboards for you.

Which basically means you can now create an app in Dapp, open up the Xcode project export and start updating directly on your Mac .

Great head start for new developers too, being able to create a skeleton of an Xcode project with all the storyboards already setup and connected.

Exported source files now use delegates – better coding standards

Great news for developers and for people looking to get a nice discount when they get a developer to put together an app for them.

Essentially, together with Views and View Controllers now using delegates (instead of pointers) to communicate, and storyboards included – as a developer you can get a nice head-start on the code and have the dull UI bits already done for you

Dapp 1.7 now creates your complete Xcode Project for you – no more doing this yourself

Sorry!

For years now I’ve made you create your own Xcode project, drag over the exported files from Dapp and then run the project…

But this is improved now .

1/ Dapp will send you a zip file.

2/ You open the zip file and double click on the .xcodeproj file to get started!

Nice.

Dapp Universal on the way!… – iPhone AND iPad apps, combined into one app

Yep, definitely happening and it’s definitely going to be a universal app – so no upgrade cost to you if you’re a current user .

And of course, with Dapp universal you will also be able to make iPad apps…

Yep, big WOW updates….

Namely this new version of Dapp will automatically generate Xcode Projects and all Storyboards for you ^^…

Of course, best if you check it out yourself below -

Cool huh? ^^

Means Dapp is just that much more powerful and you can create your app, export to Xcode Project with Storyboards and instantly open it on your computer.

Heh, will have to update the old Dapp tutorials for bringing across your code into Xcode Projects…

And before I go, also need to let you know about a little competition we will be holding in the near future.

Details aren’t confirmed but the prize is crazy awesome, over $5,000 worth of free UI, Design and Development work on an app that you have created with Dapp!

Stay tuned .

Finished. ^^

New process for Dapp users -

1/ Create app

2/ Export zipped Xcode Project

3/ Open up Xcode project on your Mac and press play to run your app.

4/ Adjust app quickly in Xcode Storyboards on your Mac

Other nice things are that code export now uses delegates (better than pointers) and now if you’re looking to get someone to make an App for you, then Dapp can seriously save you lots of money by you providing an initial version of your app to the developer.

With storyboard being in the export, developer can much more easily jump in and extend the project you created \o/.

You need Dropbox Sync

Yep, I’m a mystic. ^^

Seriously, export via email isn’t cool for larger projects.  And how nice would it be to tap once on your iPhone to export and then within a short time have access to the file from your computer via your dropbox folders?

Not in this version, but is scheduled for next.

Dapp Icon being updated

More a vanity piece but it’s time for an upgrade.

You can check out http://manage.kerofrog.com.au for a recent icon we updated for Manage.  Gonna have a similar styling for the updated Dapp icon .

iPad Version

Yes, very very big on the agenda.

It will take a little while longer to put together so I’ll still be pushing out updates for Dapp iPhone in the meantime.

Taking objects to the next level

There’s some really cool stuff I want to do with starting to take objects to the next level and allow you to connect things up.

For example, being able to put in a slider and use it to modify the values of another control… ^^

Or being able to setup a scrollview of images etc…

Really need your help here though as I’m not sure what would be the most useful for you here?

Let me know and it’ll most likely be put in a later version .

Heh… and this is just the start.

Big plans for all sorts of new templates, designs, widgets and plug-ins to give even more options for your Apps.

Ed: Feel free to request new features here - http://dapp.kerofrog.com.au/411/feature-requests/

Storyboards

You’ll be able to open up what you’ve designed in Dapp and continue working visually on the layout via storyboards in Xcode.

Don’t worry though .

You don’t need to do any fancy Storyboard stuff (for non devs out there) – it just allows you to go in and make minor changes to your project before you push it out to the App Store or forward it on to a developer.

Xcode Projects

Heh, this one is really cool.

I don’t know about you but having to drag/drop files into Xcode can be a bit tedious – what if you could just have the whole Xcode project ready to go?

Open the exported zip file from Dapp, double click on the Xcode project file and run

iPad Universal

And perhaps the biggest update is of course the iPad version of Dapp – that yes, will be a combined iPhone / iPad app so no extra cost to get .

Well, not if you already own Dapp… … New users not so lucky as the price will go up when the universal version comes out.

PS: Pickup the free version of Dapp here - http://itunes.apple.com/app/dapp/id370888555?mt=8

PPS: Also looking for new tutorial requests – let us know if there’s anything you’d love to use Dapp to create and we’ll show you how .

I love to write.  I love to teach.

So I figured, why not just teach everyone everything you’ve learnt over the last 4 years on the app store.

And the over 15,000 dollars worth of investments in business and personal development courses, books, audio, videos and seminars.

.

So I am .

I’ve already written a large bunch of content of over 20 posts.  Just gonna seed one each day, and keep em topped up of course .

The site for this is kerofrog.com

Just two up so far, but yeah, if you want to learn about everything I’ve done wrong! lol…

Then check out the free report on the right hand side of the site.

It goes through the 8 biggest mistakes yer gonna make and how not make them… as I did..

Some bloody awesome info there, so check it out.

PS: I also put bought some nice pics to put in the report to make it more interesting .

Ok, I’ve released a new version of Dapp and have updated the website.

But, now I’m not sure what to work on next.  This is where you guys come in.

Visit our new Feature Requests section and post what new feature/s you would like to see in Dapp.  I’m going to gradually add them to the poll and the most voted for features will be what I’ll be working on next.

Nothing like democracy … but mainly, I want to make sure I’m coding what you want.

Yep, on sale for a very short time. 40% off for the next 48 hours!

Dapp has never been on sale, so for anyone who has been holding off, now is the perfect time to pick up Dapp.

Check out Dapp on the app store.

Finally . Apologies to our users that have been waiting a long time for Tab Bar Controllers. But, they are now available! I’ll try to get out a video tutorial on how to use them out today.

But that’s not all, I’ve also expanded the way table views work. No more duplicate rows for each section. You’ll also find that you can now set individual images and other settings for each cell.

Something else that should have been in there a long time ago is transparent images. Yep, you can now use transparent images . Just drop in your image files via iTunes file sharing and away you go. Dapp supports either jpg or png image files.

I’ve also included a new Dapp backup option that you can find in the ‘settings’. Backup Dapp as often as you like. You can then access your backup via iTunes file sharing and save it in a safe location. This will especially be great news for users that have a new iPad or iPhone and need to shift Dapp to a new device.

I’ve also gone through and added some more helpful info for various properties that should make things easier to understand. That and various minor tweaks.

I’d just like to say thank you to the testers that helped out to make this update of Dapp bug free… and of course, to all of our wonderful users that have provided feedback (not always positive , which is cool) and supported Dapp.

Also, each new update resets the reviews for Dapp . So I’d be soooo grateful if you could leave a quick rating or review of Dapp. The link is below, and it should only take up a few seconds of your time . Thank you!

I’m currently in the process of updating the Dapp and Manage websites to provide much more information on what’s going on. Also to allow you guys to participate more and tell me what you want to see in Dapp! Well, apart from an iPad version, that I’ve been flooded with requests for. I’ll make sure to keep you guys up to date on how that’s going too.