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.
August 16, 2011
QC DBSync version 1.3 available
For those of you needing a native database synchronization tool version 1.3 of QC DBSync is now available. It includes minor functionality and API upgrades on the iOS side, an example service written in PHP is included in the download.
QC Native 1.3 available
For those of you doing native, not hybrid JavaScript, development with QC I have uploaded a new version of QC Native. It rationalizes the differences between the Java and iOS versions making the APIs nearly identical. I have also updated the API Docs for Android, created API Docs for iOS, and included both in the downloads as well as the QC Family web site.
The download now includes a SimpleDB example for both Android and iOS. The example inserts values into the database, queries values from the database, and can do an HTTP GET. The iOS database interactions show how to use CoreData. I will soon (by the end of the month??) have an example using the Android ORM I’m developing.
Still working on that QC Hybrid release. It is getting really close. More on that later.
May 11, 2011
iPad and Showing the camera in Objective-C
So here is a hint for using the camera with the iPad.
The iPad allows the camera view to rotate as the orientation of the device changes. Imagine this set of views.
window
———-> base view
—————> subview
————–> camera view
If you display the camera from the subviews’ view controller the camera views’ control bar and the orientation of the camera view itself will only be correct if the device is in portrait-right-side-up orientation when the camera view is displayed. In any other orientation the camera view will be displayed incorrectly and this orientation error remains as the device orientation changes.
If the set of views is like this the camera view will be displayed correctly regardless of the original orientation of the device. It will remain correct as the orientation of the device changes.
window
———-> base view
—————> camera view
So here is a rule for showing the camera via the UIImagePickerControllerDelegate class.
“The view controller that displays the camera must be controlling a view whose superView is the main window if the controlled view auto rotates.”
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.
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
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
QuickConnect 1.6 beta 18 available
beta 18 was posted last friday and is now available. It includes several new user interface behaviors and examples.
If you just updated to the 4.0 development environment you should know that Apple has removed 3.1 development support. You will need to update the example’s base SDK to 3.2. This is done by:
- opening the example
- selecting the project in the left-hand, project explorer view
- clicking the info icon in the xcode window header
- selecting the General option in the new dialog
- setting the ‘base SDK for all options’ found at the bottom of the dialog to 3.2.
I’ll get the examples all updated to 3.2 for the beta coming out this weekend.
