Android features do not appear to be complete

[richervin]

I'm working hard trying to get this working on an Android. Being proficient in Visual Basic, and slightly familiar with Hypercard, I expected having a working program in a few hours.

Here are my experiences so far:

Windows
1) The android SDK installation does not work well in Windows. Firstly, the installer doesn't recognize a valid Java installation, requiring an installation workaround. Secondly, it has to be installed in a folder with no spaces in the names. It does not work when installed in it's own default folder. Thirdly, it gets runtime errors and warnings when running from a base configuration.

2) I could NOT make livecode work with my Android installation, after working around all the above issues. I was trying to configure it in VirtualBox under both x64 and x86, to no avail. I spent 3 days on this. It simply does not seem to work with the R12 installation of Android.

Macintosh
After abandoning the Windows installation, I moved to the Macintosh. Installation and configuration were fast and painless. It appears that this is the native environment for livecode, and I would plan to purchase licensing for the product EXCEPT for the following issues:

1) While there appears to be a large suite of native iOS functionality integrated into the product, these features appear to be inert on the Android. Yet, android licensing is the same price as iOS licensing. Considering that almost NONE of the mobile-specific functionality is working on the Android, this seems unfair. RunRev should not be charging full price for the Android deployment option at this time.

2) Livecode widgets appear to be devoid of mobile-style functionality. For example, I spent two days trying to develop a simple Android style list scroller. Though I finally accomplished this, it is clunky and slow to respond. I am now able to scroll a list on my Android with a swipe gesture, but just barely. The upside of this is that it ought to work equally on any platform that supports touchStart, touchEnd, and touchMove.

3) Most of the user-submitted examples, including those tagged with "Android", do not work with the Android. The sheep herder example "works", but is very clunky. All the scrolling list examples I have found are iOS specific, and do not work on Android.

4) MobGui - does it work with android? I cannot find anything that states simply "This works on Android." Also, I haven't found any clear reference to the features of MobGUI execept that it has iOS and Android "Styled" controls. It that all it is? Styled versions of basic controls? Does it have more advanced widgets, like scrolling lists or calendar selectors or anything of the sort? I looked at it for about 3 minutes and lost patience. I don't want to waste yet another 3 days figuring out that it doesn't work, doesn't support, or is lacking features.

[BarrySumpter]

Correct on all fronts.

Now take that frustration and multiply it by 1000.
And thats how frustrated I've been over the last 4 months.

iOS is the RunRev focus.
The only way we'll be getting Android updates is if its direcly convertered from RunRevs iOS development.
Hence, no gesture scrolling for Android.
RunRev would have to change focus from iOS to Android to get those Android features.
So at the mo, not gonna happen.

Also RunRev are only focused on what iOS can do.
And are not interested in adding to iOS with special RunRev anything.
So thats not gonna happen with Android either.

I've sorted out the gesture for a DataGrid Form and Table for the Android.
The DataGrid Form is much smoother.
The DataGrid Table will only scroll by rows so its looks clunky.
Unless there is a setting to get DG Table to scroll like the Form.
I've already posted my solutions.
And have sent it to the mobGUI developer in hopes of speeding mobGUI for Android along.

I'm after a way to momentum gesture now.
But have had no suggestions as yet.


So if you're NOT as dedicated to Android as I am,
moving to iOS is probably a better, faster, easier path than waiting for Android features.

Man! It really hurts writing that!

[richervin]

I am dedicated to the Android because I see it as a growth market. iOS is a declining market.

However, I don't want to pay $199 for the Android feature when it is so lacking in comparison to the iPhone.

I want to be able to develop ONCE and deploy to both platforms, as well as (ideally) the Blackberry and other devices.

I don't want Android native features in addition to iPhone native features (though I would take it, given no other option).

I want common features implemented across both platforms.

For now, I am looking for a lower entry point for LiveCode Android. Given the current state of development and user experiences, I think RunRev should be giving this deployment option away for free.

[BarrySumpter]

Got this from the Valentina mailing list:

...
> Now that Android sell 3 phones for every 1 iPhone (something like
> 650,000+ activations a day, they expect it to hit a million a day in
> January or February 2012). I use to only get requests for iPhone but
> now I get just as many for Android
...

[sbouju]

Very new to this forum, I found this (old) thread while looking for a very simple example in order to have a specific Android finger scrolling field (and not a field with this ridiculous little scrolling bar on its right, like on my PC). Everything I find about that in the dictionary is so hard to read and to understand... And this post seems to tell me that there is no issue!

Quite a year later, does the negative sound of this thread persists ?

[Jason1234]

Android development with livecode has come on some since this thread was originally posted.

There are some features now like you describe.. here is something from the Android release notes.
This only applies to the version 5 of livecode.

Modal Pick-Wheel support
You can present the user with a list of choices to pick from using standard Android interface elements using:
mobilePick optionList, initialIndex, [ style ], [button]
Where optionList is a return-delimited list to choose from, and initialIndex is the (1-based) index of
the item to be initially highlighted. The item the user chooses is returned in the result. The initialIndex is the (1-based) index of the item to be initially highlighted.
The optional style parameter determines the type of display used If equal to "checkmark" a check- mark (radio button) will be put against the currently selected item.
The optional button parameter specifies if "Cancel" and/or "Done" buttons should be forced to be displayed with the picker dialog.
• cancel - display the Cancel button on the Picker
• done - display the Done button on the Picker
• cancelDone - display the Cancel and Done buttons on the Picker
If the 'Cancel' button is displayed, then any selection made by the user can be canceled, the result contains the initial index.
If the 'Done' button is displayed, then the result contains the initial index. Pressing the back key has the same result as the 'Cancel' button.

The Android look and feel still takes some work in that you need to work with images to get some of the newer looking buttons you see in the market. Also making all these parts re-size for different screen resolutions is tricky to get right and can be time consuming even with the extra tools you can purchase.

I am not trying to put you off as it is usually easier to get a working application done with Livecode than some others I have tried but it is not perfect by a long way, but does seem to be going in the right direction as far as development goes anyway.

I hope this helps...

[sbouju]

Thank you for your response, even I had already founded and relatively easily used this mobilePick command, which does perfectly the job I wanted for my Android device (in remplacment of the various popup I use in PC versions...)

May be it is the reason of my question, anyway, looking (an not founding...) for such an other simple command for another Android specific need, which is a finger scrolling of a field as we expect it...

[jacque]

Yes, scrollers are now implemented for Android. Look at mobileControlCreate in the dictionary to create a scroller object. Use mobileControlSet to control the scroll position of the field or group. Type "scroller" into the search box in the dictionary to see all the commands and messages you can use to control the scroller.

[Jason1234]

Thank you again for your help. I was unaware that feature works with Android as according to the dictionary supplied with version 5.5.1 the control on applies only to iOS.

I must try that as better than the pick wheel probably.

Regards

[Klaus]

Always check the "Release Notes" (Menu: Help), to read about the latest changes and new features!
The dictionary is not up-to-date in this respect.

[jacque]

I was unaware that feature works with Android as according to the dictionary supplied with version 5.5.1 the control on applies only to iOS.

I couldn't find any errors with a quick search but if you can let me know of anything you found that is incorrect I'll report it so it can be fixed. When you look up the scroller messages and commands, some do not include Android because that OS does not support them. For example, scrollerBeginDecelerate is an iOS-only message. But scrollerDidScroll is always sent and shows both icons. RR would appreciate knowing about anything that's wrong, so if you do find something we should let them know.