A counter argument - please keep Dropbox even if you implement direct IP ...

Beta Testing CoronaViewer
#41

I’ve used Textastic quite a bit – in fact, it’s the only code editor I regularly use on my iPad. Has Lua syntax highlighting, etc.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/textastic-code-editor-for/id383577124?mt=8

I’d never used the Dropbox connectivity before, but I’m playing with that now – about 5 minutes ago I wrote my first Corona mini-app using the iPad. :slight_smile:

[Edit] It’s a 2-tap process to save the file. Well, it saves local automatically, but to send it back to Dropbox you tap an icon in the toolbar and then tap Upload from that menu.

#42

Great! Thanks for confirming Texttastic. Buying it now. Will be a great $8.99 investment.

Congrats on your first mini Corona SDK app. Thinking about it, this will make a great demo platform for those evangelizing sessions.

#43

This gives me an idea. How about a mini-hackathon. 1 hour, only code on ipad. Those who code on the train or bus while commuting to work get extra credits! Who’s in?  :slight_smile:

#44

Kerem, you have to be a Pro or Enterprise subscriber to use CoronaViewer.  You still can’t deploy any app without actually running the Build step from Corona SDK, so at best if someone were able to get it, they would at best be able to develop an app they couldn’t do anything with.

Rob

#45

+1 for Texttastic. I’m one of those subway commuters and have used it to pound out some rough-draft code while on my way to the office. Shame I won’t be able to sync to Dropbox for CV use while underground, but still, it’s a nice option when above ground. I also like the mini game jam idea using only an iPad. Fun!

#46

Rob, Yup. Thats true. And if one of us was to compile and put the viewer on the App Store that would be a nasty things to do which you could easily track down. I don’t think its an issue either but I was just sharing the thought.

#47

I’m in. Although I’ll probably pick a coffee shop or library for my “mobile” location since I live in an area with no good public transportation. And I don’t commute more than about 25 feet to work. :slight_smile:

I’d like the idea of doing it on a certain day, but being able to pick any 60-minute period on that day. That way those of us swamped or with meetings/previous engagements could still participate.

 Jay

#48

@schroederapps, I was hoping Dropbox on the iPad would work exactly like Dropbox on PC/Mac where you access a local copy of the material even when you are offline but alas at least Textastic does not seem to work this way. If we can figure out how to do this then you might still be able to code while underground! :slight_smile:

Is there a way to open the file directly from the Dropbox on iPad with Textastic? I managed to create a local Textastic copy and upload/download but this is one additional step. PlainText seems to open the Dropbox local copy directly on the iPad and therefore does not have an additional upload/download step. I hope I can figure out a way to do the same with Textastic.

Edit : Just read a little on Textastic site that direct sync is not yet supported. Too bad as it looks like the best otherwise.

@Jay, your idea is great! Its a 24 hour world. We pick a day and anyone who wants to participate does it in any 60 minute period they choose with that day. 

Suggest we wait a bit though so we can all get sorted out with the editors etc. Also the subfolder issues need to be resolved so we can all bring in whatever tools / libraries we may wish to use. 

#49

Tried my offline idea with PlainText which has direct synch but it doesn’t work. Just to recap, I was wondering if we could use an iPad editor + Corona Viewer on an iPad when not connected to the network. Sadly it doesn’t work. This makes sense of course.

Unlike with PC / Mac where any access to Dropbox happens through a single set of designated Dropbox folders on an IOS device every app must use REST API to connect to dropbox and manage its own replica/synch set etc in its own sanbox folder. Since apps can’t see each others sandbox folders there is no way for apps to share dropbox data while offline. Oh well… Not a biggie at all. Just no coding while underground for @schroederapps! 

PS. This could change in the near future as IOS8 will allow a family of apps to share a sandbox. We could potentially make a simple editor just to accompany Corona Viewer and build it as a member of the same family along with Corona Viewer and I bet we would be able to use this thing offline then. Something to investigate in the near future. 

#50

Textastic on sale at $3.99 - Grab it now if you don’t already have it. Amazing deal! 

#51

@ksan Thanks for the heads up! 

Just picked up Textastic, and in short order, I was editing code from my iPad, and watching my iPhone refresh the corona viewer.  Nice!

#52

Oooh! You went dual screen ha? Cool dev rig!!!  :slight_smile:

#53

Great tip Kerem. Thanks for sharing.

If you don’t already use TextExpander for iOS, you might want to check it. The video on this page shows the app in action.

Basically you can create snippets to reduce the amount of typing needed. Textastic integrates directly with TextExpander, so you access all your snippets in Textastic and other supported apps. If you have the desktop version of TextExpander you can also sync snippets between your desktop and iOS device using Dropbox automatically.

One thing to note is that when you add snippets in TextExpander, you will need to manually refresh your snippets in Textastic for any new snippets / changed snippets to show up. There may be an auto-update setting somewhere, but I haven’t found it.

There’s also a cool TextExpander feature called “Fill-in fields” that let’s you create snippets with data placeholders where you want to enter values to be plugged into your snippet on the fly. I’m still experimenting, but imagine a code block snippet that gives you form field options to enter values before it expands the block in Textastic.

“Fill-in fields” are demonstrated at the 3:11 mark in the video:

Have fun!

#54

Wow. This is great!!! Thanks for sharing this tip. I can see this being very useful. Will get it right away.

#55

Anybody figure out a decent way to see error messages? I’m in a coffee shop writing code on my iPad and seeing my iPhone refresh – it’s so cool. Except I’ve apparently introduced an error and without a terminal I can’t use print to debug. I have no clue where to look for the error. Ack! Any ideas? Jay

#56

you could output print statements to an on screen scrollview. i did that before.

if you can wait about 9 hours i can dig up the code for you (in bed right now)

#57

I have a very promising lead on this. Checking it out right now… Take a look : 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/consolekit/id648875678?ls=1&mt=8

ConsoleKit : 

"ConsoleKit is an ios universal application,help you to get console logs of any application instantly on device and allows you to share log information via email. 

No tethering required!. ConsoleKit Application in available for both iPad and iPhone."

Argh… Cheered too soon … “The ConsoleKit app is not supported by latest version of Apple iOS 7”

#58

Yeah, looks like there are a few console view type apps, but they all broke with iOS7. Looks like we’ll have to wait for iOS8 which has the ability to share info from app to app more easily. :frowning:

Got home and found the problem that was stalling me 00 a missing ) at the end of a line. I looked HARD for that kind of stuff and still didn’t see it – a thousand print statements wouldn’t have found that error. We really need an “official” solution…

…although I know remote dev isn’t the reason they created CoronaViewer. But I think it can be such a huge selling point that they should give it more dev hours. Writing the output to a text file in Dropbox would probably be the easiest to implement and would be easy for us to use (just open the log file in another tab and refresh when needed).

 Jay

#59

I fully agree. This should be much simpler when compared with the actual Corona Viewer tool itself. Lets hope there is some additional support going into the tool. 

#60

I think Sergei has the answer to our little problem here :

http://spiralcodestudio.com/corona-sdk-pro-tip-of-the-day-22/

Thanks much Sergei!!!