Is Corona the right tool for what I'd like to create?

Getting Started Newbie Questions
#1

Hi,

I’m completely new to Corona. I’d like to create an app that will show text lines both in 1-line view and as a scrollable list of maybe up to 1000 lines or records. Something like quotes app.

Is Corona the right tool to use?

I’m asking because my impression is that Corona is used mainly for the development of games and apps with images etc.

If Corona is kind of overkill for such an app then what other Rapid development tools are better for what I plan to create?

If Corona is a good choice for this then where would I start? I would probably not need to get into the components and aspects of game development right away.

Thanks.

keram

#2

Hi Keram,

Yes, you can use Corona for this type of app. The “tableView()” widget can handle many hundreds of records in a scrolling/flicking manner:

http://docs.coronalabs.com/api/library/widget/newTableView.html

Best regards,

Brent

#3

Thanks Brent,

It sounds encouraging.

Are there any Android apps of that kind that any users hve already created so I can see how they function?

I’m mainly concerned about the responsiveness and speed of scrolling through the long list of records. I know that such apps developed in Java using Eclipse IDE are very responsive and quick but would like to compare with examples created with Corona.

keram

#4

Hi Brent,

I looked at the above page and tested the 3 examples included there. It’s simple to change the height and width of the widget.newTableView but I’ve noticed what is mentioned on that page under Gotchas: ‘The TableView widget does not support scaling.’

Does that mean that the size of the widget will not be automtically scaled on different devices with different screen sizes?

If this is the case, is there any workaround to get the size auto-scaled?

keram

#5

Hi keram,

The tableView, like other Corona display objects, is sized according to the “content area” that you set up, and that will resize across devices. It would be useful to read the following guide which discusses the content area, since it’s a fundamental aspect of Corona:

http://docs.coronalabs.com/daily/guide/basics/configSettings/index.html

However, for screens with different aspect ratios (some taller, some wider) you would need to create the tableView based on the actual width/height of the screen. There are various functions and methods to obtain these values, so it’s possible to get a tableView that occupies the entire screen on all devices, if that’s your need.

The docs state that you can’t “scale” the tableView after you create it, meaning that you can’t stretch its width/height using .width, .height. :scale, .xScale, or .yScale after you create it.

As for performance, even in a tableView of 1000+ rows, it should be fast because Corona does not render all 1000+ rows into memory at the same time. Instead, it loads the visible rows as they come on/near the visible region.

Hope this helps,

Brent

#6

Hi Keram,

Yes, you can use Corona for this type of app. The “tableView()” widget can handle many hundreds of records in a scrolling/flicking manner:

http://docs.coronalabs.com/api/library/widget/newTableView.html

Best regards,

Brent

#7

Thanks Brent,

It sounds encouraging.

Are there any Android apps of that kind that any users hve already created so I can see how they function?

I’m mainly concerned about the responsiveness and speed of scrolling through the long list of records. I know that such apps developed in Java using Eclipse IDE are very responsive and quick but would like to compare with examples created with Corona.

keram

#8

Hi Brent,

I looked at the above page and tested the 3 examples included there. It’s simple to change the height and width of the widget.newTableView but I’ve noticed what is mentioned on that page under Gotchas: ‘The TableView widget does not support scaling.’

Does that mean that the size of the widget will not be automtically scaled on different devices with different screen sizes?

If this is the case, is there any workaround to get the size auto-scaled?

keram

#9

Hi keram,

The tableView, like other Corona display objects, is sized according to the “content area” that you set up, and that will resize across devices. It would be useful to read the following guide which discusses the content area, since it’s a fundamental aspect of Corona:

http://docs.coronalabs.com/daily/guide/basics/configSettings/index.html

However, for screens with different aspect ratios (some taller, some wider) you would need to create the tableView based on the actual width/height of the screen. There are various functions and methods to obtain these values, so it’s possible to get a tableView that occupies the entire screen on all devices, if that’s your need.

The docs state that you can’t “scale” the tableView after you create it, meaning that you can’t stretch its width/height using .width, .height. :scale, .xScale, or .yScale after you create it.

As for performance, even in a tableView of 1000+ rows, it should be fast because Corona does not render all 1000+ rows into memory at the same time. Instead, it loads the visible rows as they come on/near the visible region.

Hope this helps,

Brent