Corona UI

Getting Started Newbie Questions
#1

Hi

I have been comparing various SDKs for iphone development (PhoneGap, Appcelerator, Monotouch, Dragonfire SDK) and am tempted by the Corona SDK. However I am looking at developing a Business App.
I have been trying to establish whether Corona UI is part of the Corona SDK, every post or statement regarding the UI seems to state coming soon, not developed by us, part of a future build etc…

Can anyone answer the fiollowing questions please:

1/ IS Corona UI currently part of the Corona SDK?
2/ Is this included in the Trial build
3/ IS the UI available on both Mac and PC? or Mac only?
4/ IS the UI part of the widget library?
5/ If not part of the Trial SDK, WHEN will it be released?

thanks for your help.
[import]uid: 3252 topic_id: 14567 reply_id: 314567[/import]

#2

Hey there :slight_smile:

Firstly - sorry about the confusion. Prior to the official Corona UI coming out, a community member created a third party tool, also calling it Corona UI. (Don’t get me started on that.)

So, let me answer your questions;

  1. Yes :slight_smile:

  2. It is, as of 2011.591 (The last stable build, released August 2nd)

  3. It is for both PC and Mac

  4. The widget library is a part of Corona UI, yes, see here; http://developer.anscamobile.com/content/widget

  5. N/A [import]uid: 52491 topic_id: 14567 reply_id: 53891[/import]

#3

Hi,

as it currently stands I would not recommend Corona for building business apps.

The widgets are buggy at best and not open source, they have missing functionality and poor documentation.

I’m a fan of Corona, but it is not quite there yet in this regard.

However as it is free to try you could give it a go and see if it meets your requirements…

[import]uid: 50154 topic_id: 14567 reply_id: 53895[/import]

#4

Thanks for your help guys.

I will give Corona a try as I am so far impressed by what it offers and the excellent support and community. [import]uid: 3252 topic_id: 14567 reply_id: 53904[/import]

#5

@photos, Badman,

  1. Since the framework that corona is build upon is OpenGL, native controls are a bit of an issue, so the same are simulated by creating them via code. Now, Jon has done a brilliant job at this but then there will always be some lose ends that will cause issues.

  2. I disagree with the fact that business apps cannot be created or Corona is *not* recomended, the matter of the fact is that *most* developers using corona love it for the easy access to the physics engine. Not a day goes by when some or the other developer thinks that Physics engine is the silver bullet to game development, to move a character, to practically do anything, they use physics.

  3. A lot of developers that get attracted to Corona have either had no development experience or come from other platforms like “fruit bowls” and the sort. Very few developers come from the enterprise background and those that do, do not want to make another businessy app.

  4. If you get stuck, ask for help, I am sure there are a couple of developers including myself that do work on enterprise/businessy apps. In-fact making them with corona not only makes them easier, but also flashy and fun.

NO!! I do not use physics in my non-gaming or gaming apps :wink:

cheers,

?:slight_smile: [import]uid: 3826 topic_id: 14567 reply_id: 53919[/import]

#6

I have been playing around with Corona for 2 weeks now to see if I can justify the expense of becoming a “subscriber”. So far I am really liking it.

I tried the widget example but it tells me it is not supported on Android yet. I have been struggling a bit with a 3rd part “ui” library that does work with Android. Any idea when the Corona “ui” will be functional on Android?

Thanks,

Scott Orheim [import]uid: 85127 topic_id: 14567 reply_id: 53994[/import]

#7

@scott, if you are happy to use iOS like native controls on an Android, then I guess by all means the controls can work on Android. The reason (IMO) that it says it is *not* available for Android is that they need to get the skinning of the controls right and some of them work differently, like the pickers are not wheels, but an up/down control with a +/-

cheers,

?:slight_smile: [import]uid: 3826 topic_id: 14567 reply_id: 54007[/import]

#8

So, is there a separate ui library as indicated in some of the documentation (ui.newLabel documented at http://developer.anscamobile.com/content/button-events, for example) or is it just the widgets library now? If there is a separate ui library where is the documentation?

Thanks. [import]uid: 104904 topic_id: 14567 reply_id: 92879[/import]

#9

There’s both - widgets you can check out under the native UI section on API page, ui stuff for making new buttons has info in the ui.lua file itself. (A great example of it is the button events sample code which is already in the CoronaSDK folder on your computer.)

If you have more questions we have a specific sub forum just for this kind of thing right here; http://developer.anscamobile.com/forums/official-coronaui-forum

Hope that helps :slight_smile:

Peach [import]uid: 52491 topic_id: 14567 reply_id: 92946[/import]