Week 35
Extensions
If it feels like MIT App Inventor has limited options compared to apps you may use frequently on your own devices, you need to know about its feature called "Extensions". The Android community of programmers have created numerous pieces of code that can easily be added to your app that grant it additional functions. There are a few trusted websites where they can be found, including PuraVida
The AnimatedGradient extension you see working on the left was discovered by Brandon Zamora - it's super-easy to set up and would be a really nice touch for anyone's app. Especially a "Magic" button on PaintPot!
Coding the Animated Gradient
This video is posted first because it's really all you need to make the magic happen. Download the extension file, add it to your project and then add it to the Design as a non-visible component first.
Building a Gradient Test
I do show how to download and activate the extension, but this video is mostly showing how I built a little test app so you could see the gradients that are at the end of the video above.
Week 35 Optional
Quiz App Videos
Quiz App Videos
These videos are for a project you can do instead of Paint Pot +. These tutorials really need to be redone but I don't want to hold anyone back, either. I think these old ones are still an improvement over the MIT App Inventor tutorial version.
We were using Weebly when the Quiz was our final project. It has not been fully converted to Sites but is available for interested coders.
Questions for the Quiz
It's important to prepare the materials for your quiz carefully. Using a spreadsheet will make it much easier to fill out the Lists used to keeps track of questions, answers, correct answers, etc.
Image Resolutions
The images for our quiz need to be optimized for use in our Android App. If we make them no more than 400 pixels tall and choose a JPG compression quality setting to reduce the file size we can fit 10+ images into the app without overloading it.
Quiz Interface
Video introduction to starting to buildi the Main screen for the user interface of our quiz. The rest of the screen is presented as a slideshow on the DATAtech page to make it easier to see the settings clearly. MAKE SURE YOU ARE NOT ON SCREEN1 when you do this.
Creating the variables needed to both make calculations and store the lists of data for questions, answers and outside links.
Making the answer selection buttons not only functional but interactive, giving visual feedback to the user and making it easy for them to change their mind about an answer.
Setting up the interface for the initial interface display and component visibility for the first time the Main screen is accessed.