Developing Applications with App Inventor
Learning Objectives
Tools
Developing Mobile Applications
Table 3.1: Examples of smartphone applications
Mobile Application
Stages of Creating Smartphone Applications
MIT App Inventor
Advantages of Using MIT App Inventor
Developing a Tourism Application
Differences between Prototyping UI and Developing UI
App Inventor was developed by Google in 2010 and is now maintained by MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).
Transitioning from Prototype to Application
Start Building Apps with App Inventor
Figure 3.2: Signing in to App Inventor
To start a new project in MIT App Inventor:
The App Inventor Interface
Table 3.2: App Inventor - most commonly used components
Changing the Properties of a Component
To change the screen title:
Adding a Button to the Screen
Aligning the Components of the Screen
Adding a Background Image to the Screen
Figure 3.8: Adding a background image
To add a Label component:
Programming the Interactive Button
The App Inventor Blocks Page
Understanding the groups of programmable commands
Each component that you select will have its own event handlers and operations to alter their properties.
To select the Click event for the button:
To access the Text property of the label:
To modify the Text property of the label:
Testing the Application
Setting up the Android Emulator
1. Run the Application with Android Emulator
2. Run the Application with AI Companion
Before scanning both devices have to be connected to the same WiFi network.
Figure 3.16: Testing an application with the MIT AI2 Companion
When you close the Companion app, the application is removed. In order for it to remain on your mobile device it needs to be installed.
Describe the four stages of developing a mobile application.
Compare how developing applications with MIT App Inventor differs from traditional mobile app development.
List the advantages of developing mobile apps with MIT App Inventor.
Create a simple application about a country you want to visit.
Describe how a wireframe prototype will help with the development of the tourism application.