September 10, 2011
At Last!!!
At long last (big sigh of relief here by me) QuickConnectFamily 2.1 is finally available for download. It involved a lot of work by many people and has come together well. There are some big changes for both the iOS and Android platforms. These enhancements and changes have been driven by requests from developers like you.
Both:
- This one is BIG. The JavaScript functions now exist inside the qc name space. In other words where you would have used the handleRequest method it is now the qc.handleRequest method. The old behavior is deprecated.
- Another BIG one. In order to make the Control Function code more readable and more easily comprehended for those new to the framework all Control Functions MUST return one of the following three values (see the documentation for more information):
- qc.STACK_CONTINUE – This instructs the framework to execute the next control function in the stack.
- qc.STACK_EXIT – This instructs the framework to terminate all further stack execution.
- qc.WAIT_FOR_DATA – This instructs the framework that a call to database or remote data has been made or a call to device specific behavior such as showing a map, displaying the camera, email editor or other native behaviors.
- Work has been done to improve the asynchronous call stability in the underlying framework. (Thank you to the team at affinityAmp).
- Miscellaneous bug fixes and enhancements.
Android:
- Bug fixes
- Expanded database support and fixes
- A major rework of the underlying Android Java code to make it match the design changes in iOS. This is in preparation for QC Plugins and some new features such as ‘window-in-window’ that will be part of the next release as a Plugin. The ‘window-in-window’ code is in there now but not official until it is converted to a plugin and the same behavior is available for iOS.
- Added a hybrid sqlite database example
iOS:
- Bug fixes
- Removed the native footer code since libraries for scrolling and others such as Sencha, JQTouch, etc. are now of good quality.
- QC Family Hybrid Plugin API and design spec completed. There is an example of how you can add to QC on your own. If you thing these additions could be useful to others you are free to charge for them, or not, host them yourself, notify me and I will add them to the plugin list on the QC plugin site. If you are willing to donate them to the QC community send them to me for review and I will put them into the git repository and list them on the QC plugin site.
- Updated all the examples to use the new return values and the new qc name space.
April 12, 2011
JavaScript fixed length double
For those of you who are using monetary or other fixed length values in your app here is a little function to help you out. It accepts any numeric or string values and produces a string that can be used for further calculation as a number or displayed. If the number is shorter than the precision indicated the function will pad it with zero characters until it is the correct length.
Enjoy.
Call it like this: var fixedLengthFloat = toFixed(3.2, 10);
The function:
function toFixed(value, precision) {
if(isNaN(value)){
value = 0;
}
if(precision < 0){
precision = 0;
}
var power = Math.pow(10, precision || 0);
var result = String(Math.round(value * power) / power);
if(precision > 0){
if(result.indexOf(‘.’) == -1){
result += ‘.’;
for(var i = 0; i < precision; i++){
result += ’0′;
}
}
else{
var decimalPortion = result.substring(result.indexOf(‘.’)+1, result.length);
var placesMissing = precision – decimalPortion.length;
for(var i = 0; i < placesMissing; i++){
result += ’0′;
}
}
}
return result;
}
January 6, 2011
QuickConnect and the Mac app store
The mac app store is up. Do you want to put an app up? QC has supported hybrid mac development for two years. It is ready for you now. All you have to do is make your selection as you see in the picture below and start making your app.
I’m currently adding more functionality to QC Mac. The update should be out next week but you can get stared now. Develop your app in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript just like your hybrid iOS, Android, Blackberry apps.
Selecting QC for the Mac
QuickConnect 1.6.6 now available
QC 1.6.6 has a fixed installer but also has an upgrade that should make your user interface more responsive when you use the framework calls to download or upload files, make native database queries, or any other calls you make down the the native layer. You don’t need to worry about the threading issues or starting the threads. It is all automatic. It doesn’t have any impact on your JavaScript code.
January 4, 2011
QuickConnect family Release for Windows, Linux, etc.
I have put together a QC 1.6 release for non-Mac users. It includes a jar file for QCNativeAndroid, files for QCPHP, QCErlang, and the 1.5 release of QCHybridAndroid. As soon as I can get to it I will be updating the hybrid iOS and hybrid Android environments to include the multi-threading now available in the native iOS and native Android environment. It will be interesting to see how the available threading effect what we can do in JavaScript.
December 31, 2010
Sencha Touch and QuickConnect Hybrid
Ed Canas has put together a short video on how to use Sencha Touch with QuickConnect for the iPhone and iPad. You can find the video here on the QuickConnect wiki. In seven minutes he has the Sencha Kitchen sink example working with the QuickConnect JavaScript functions still available.
Thanks Ed.
December 23, 2010
QuickConnect 1.6.4 Now Available
I have just posted the 1.6.4 version of QC on SourceForge. It includes some defect fixes and some minor additions, and a few big changes. QC 1.6.4 requires the iOS 4.2 SDK.
The big changes are regarding the native application templates. You can now use the same design to create Objective-C iPhone, iPad, and Universal iPhone/iPad apps that you have been using to create your hybrid applications.
These native iOS apps come ‘pre-threaded’. Every time you call handleRequest your command stack is executed on a worker thread. Any of your ViewControlObjects that you create for your control Stack are executed in the main thread since it is the only one that is allowed to update the User Interface. All other behavior is done on a worker thread and you don’t have to worry about how to set it up, make it go, or make it stop.
Just as with the hybrid apps you’ve been creating with QC all of your async calls to HTTP servers, portals, etc. are linearized for you. You never need to write another callback function!
In addition to making your remote HTTP calls easier all of the templates for native QuickConnect applications also include support for both direct SQLite access and CoreData.
With a little time working in Interface Builder and putting together some CoreData objects your app is up and running.
Examples are already in the download for all of these native iOS templates. Check them out and see how easy native iOS apps can be.
The next release will have native multi-threaded Android applications as well.
One other change is that the PHP template has been updated. Take a look at the example in the download.
Lee
September 14, 2010
couchDB and the iOS environment
Recently I got a ping from a QuickConnect user regarding connecting to couchDB. For those that don’t know couchDB is a document storage database. It is written in Erlang and, if I remember correctly, uses the Mnesia a database written in Erlang. couchDB also uses the HTTP protocol and JSON for communication.
As I went back and spent a few minutes with couchDB again I realized that the Objective-C version of the QCFamily Enterprise Data Sync feature that I will be presenting at the iPhoneDevCon on the 27th – 30th of September, 2010 needs only minor modifications to work with couchDB. I hadn’t thought of this before and was pleased that with these minor modifications couchDB could be added to Oracle, MySQL, and other relational databases that are supported.
Too much fun!
July 4, 2010
QuickConnectFamily 1.6 Release is Here.
The first non-beta of QuickConnect 1.6 is now available.
Thanks to several of your users the new QC release is available. It is no longer in Beta!
It includes an update to Android version 2.2. You will also find that the template selection has been dramatically simplified. You will find that there are now two template groups, QuickConnect Mobile Hybrid and QuickConnect Mobile Obj-C. Within these groups you will find the different types of projects.
For the Hybrid group you will find iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry, and PalmWebOS hybrid JavaScript/Objective-C templates.
For the Obj-C group you will find iPhone and iPad Objective-C templates.
The Obj-C group is used to develop pure Objective-C iPhone and iPad applications.
There have been many changes and improvements since 1.5 including many more examples.
June 22, 2010
The upcoming iPhoneDevCon
I will be teaching three classes at the iPhoneDevCon in San Diego on September 27-29. You can get a discount admission if you use my discount keyword. It is BARNEY. Make sure you use all upper case characters when typing it in.
To register you can go to http://www.iphonedevcon.com
To see what classes are being taught go to http://www.iphonedevcon.com/classes.html#2
I’ll be teaching:
- an introductory class on QuickConnect
- a medium class on modular iOS development in Objective-C
- an advanced class on Objective-C development for enterprise data synchronization
I would love to meet as many of you as possible and get feedback on the roadmap for QuickConnect. I hope to see you there.
Lee
