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Resolved Mobile App development

  1. How-to
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  1. Ian Wells
    Ian Wells
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. Tuesday, 9 January 2024 21:15 PM UTC

Hi all.

OK, now I'm semi-retired I would like to start designing and building the mobile application I have been promising myself I would start as soon as I had some time. smile

Some newbie questions to start with:

1. Can I build it with PowerBuilder? i.e. PowerScript, datawindows, non-visual objects, etc. Would rather use my existing PB skills that learn something new at this age.

2. If I build it with PB, (instead of something like Flutter) will I be able to deploy it to iOS and Android devices?

3. Do I need PowerServer and if so, is it free for development? (I have a universal PB license).

4. Is there something like the PFC or the STD framework I should use to develop consistent UX/UI and reduce the code I need to write?

5. I will need a local database of some kind and synchronization to a server database (probably Oracle), but not going to worry about that atm. I believe a mobile app lives and dies based upon the UI/UX, so getting that right is priority 1 as well as storing the data locally. Syncing (in an "offline first" type of architecture) - I'm hoping will be written by someone else (some sort of off-the-shelf sync functionality). Going to use something simple like SQLite for now (with an ODBC connection) - will that work for my datawindows?

6. Other development environments (like Android studio and XCode) have a virtual mobile device that your app runs on, so you can make sure it fits on the screen and changes based upon screen orientation etc. Does PB IDE have something equivalent (maybe guidelines or something) so you know if the objects you are placing will fit on the device?

7. Is there an up-to-date video (last one I looked at was from 2018) or some sort of quick start guide to creating a mobile project using the PB IDE? Just something that goes through the steps to create a Project/Workspace etc. and deploying to a mobile device.

Sorry if some of these questions are naive/miss-informed: I've been a PB client/server developer all my coding career. If I think this way then maybe hundreds of other potential mobile app developers, with PB skills, are in the same situation and think the same as me (as I?). laughing

Thanks for your time. Any insights from this great community will be much appreciated.

Cheers

Ian

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Responses (3)
Carl Bolduc
Carl Bolduc Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Wednesday, 10 January 2024 17:02 PM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 1

You could do the backend part of your application in PB. The business logic can be developed in PB and exposed through PowerServer as a REST API. You can build any front-end you want on that API (Web, iOS, Android). There are web frameworks such as Ionic that you can use to create iOS and Android apps. These wrapped web apps often need a persistent layer on a server somewhere and that is where PB/PowerServer can be used.

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Ian Wells
  1. Ian Wells
  2. Wednesday, 10 January 2024 20:53 PM UTC
Trying to make this as simple as possible. If I can't use the datawindow for iOS/Android development, then I will need to turn to something else like Flutter. If this is the case, then I will build it all in Flutter. Thanks for the feedback.
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Armeen Mazda @Appeon
Armeen Mazda @Appeon Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Wednesday, 10 January 2024 04:32 AM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 2

PowerBuilder/PowerServer doesn't offer any iOS/Android app dev capabilities.  There are a lot of technologies out there, and which one you choose will depend on various considerations.  It sounds like you are new to mobile development so just keep in mind it can take quite a bit of time and effort to learn all the various technologies to the extent to build a sophisticated mobile app.

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Ian Wells
  1. Ian Wells
  2. Wednesday, 10 January 2024 20:56 PM UTC
So, can I develop in PB deploy it has a web app and run it in a browser (like Chrome or possibly Safari) on an iPhone/IPad? Running inside a web browser will have the ability to store data in a local database or will all the datawindows need to be populated from a server db?



Sorry again if these questions are silly.



Would sure help RAD of mobile apps if I can use PB. :-)

  1. Helpful
Chris Pollach @Appeon
  1. Chris Pollach @Appeon
  2. Wednesday, 10 January 2024 21:24 PM UTC
Hi Ian;

Yes, with a little help from: https://www.topwizprogramming.com/topwizweb.html

My STD framework supports this product and it works well in my testing.

Food for thought.

Regards ... Chris
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Andreas Mykonios
Andreas Mykonios Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Wednesday, 10 January 2024 07:12 AM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 3

Hi.

As PB is a RAD IDE, I would do a google search for "android ios rad ide". You will get some results, you can evaluate. I don't want to promote any tool mentioned so you can do your evaluation. You can also check for "android ios ide" and you will get a different result with great tools with their pro and cons.

Andreas. 

Comment
Ian Wells
  1. Ian Wells
  2. Wednesday, 10 January 2024 20:59 PM UTC
Go on, give is your opinion on a good RAD IDE for Android and iOS apps. I won't hold you to it. :-) I'm probably just going to build it in PB anyway and then employ someone to re-code it in native iOS or Android.
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