project task manger app with corona [idea]

[yoel12344]

I had a dream where I was working, I used an app for project task management. it didn’t use a grid or anything boring. it was very intuitive.

you simply click next and it goes to the next text screen with a fade in animation. and with a  changing background color.

on every screen, there was a task title description and checkbox (if it’s done you check it).

here is a prototype /mockup(made with flash in 5 minutes):

http://www.fastswf.com/20QWQ5g

what do you think? can something like this be useful? Is there something like this in existence? can it be done properly with corona sdk gui lib.

from my experience with small gui example projects I created, corona gui is quite wonky.

I don’t have any other way to create android apps (maybe PhoneGap but its even worse).

I already predict a problem with navigating big projects with 200+ tasks. with just next/previous btn.

do you think csv is a sufficient db for something like this?

ideas suggestions are welcome. 

I just want another opinion before I start writing code.

[agramonte]

Not useful for me, but I don’t know anything about keeping track of tasks. I just have a notebook with a pen I cross off items. I don’t think corona gui is wonky at all. With experience, you can do some amazing things. Here is an example of a business app written in Corona that looks amazing in my opinion:

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/gohenry-pocket-money-manager/id683249974?mt=8

I would not use CSV but that is just my preference. I would json or use a local db.

[stevenjacob098]

What is Cortona by the way how it can be used for the development? Is it a Microsoft Technology as Microsoft Give Microsoft ASP.net MVC Certification For its Technology.

[yoel12344]

here it is:

https://github.com/yoel123/corona-sdk-project-tasks-manger

the only problem is updating data, but its no problem if you exit and run it again everything updates.

also, I can’t find the saved file in android file dir, not much of a problem the app has an editing screen.

does anyone know where “system.DocumentsDirectory” is on android? on windows, it’s in AppData.

I think ill change from flat file to sql. I have a feeling this will solve those problems.

other than that for me personally it’s a good tool.

as for “Not useful for me, but I don’t know anything about keeping track of tasks.”.

I totally get you I was like that too. but one day you will learn to regret not having a proper project plan.

I’m talking from experience.

" Here is an example of a business app written in Corona that looks amazing in my opinion:"

it’s totally awesome. this does give motivation to get into it.

another thing I like about corona for gui, creating effects like fade and tween animations is easy.

" I would json "

haven’t thought of json, ill play with it a bit. interesting.

[rob]

system.* directories are part of the app’s “sandbox”. Their location varies on whatever the standard is for that device. But the point is you shouldn’t care where they are. They are part of the app that other utilities and applications should not have visibility into for security reasons.

You happened to find it on Windows, but on iOS and Android, those folders are in places that you’re not supposed to know where they are. If you need there, you use the provided constants like system.DocumentsDirectory to access the folders.

You can’t think like a desktop developer when building for mobile. You probably shouldn’t fully think like mobile developer when building for desktops.

In the case of a task/project manager, you almost certainly should consider an online data store so you can manage your project from a web interface on desktop computers (the commonplace to do this from) or a dedicated mobile app.  Look at trello.com. I doubt anything other than some cookies to maintain your login and which projects are open is used in local storage. It’s almost certainly a NodeJS server using some NOSql data store.

Rob

[yoel12344]

you’re probably right. about everything.

about a web app. I am a web developer originally with php.

a webapp for this sort of thing is the right idea. multi-user. and multiplatform with responsive css (with bootstrap for lazy devs).

for the effects simple jquery $("#bg").fadeIn() shod do it.

but this thing came to me in a dream I had to make it. maybe for personal use and show off.

also wanted to prove (to myself at least) that I don’t need frameworks like feathers to create GUI.

[Develephant]

“… bootstrap for lazy devs”

Ouch, that hurt.  :P 

-dev

[rob]

There is little they way of communications between a native.newWebView() and your Corona app and for many, that’s a show stopper. Our native.newWebView() is a simple tool to let Corona developers show some web content in their existing app and game. I would not make an app a webView is the main primary feature (Apple would likely reject it.)

Today, “hybrid mobile development”, seems to be the popular way to build a dedicated “native”, responsive apps. It’s a combination of NodeJS, Angular JS, Ionic and Xamarian. You will see this with mobile banking apps. It’s pretty obvious because of many of the looks, styles and behaviors would have taken extra effort to have done them using native app controls.

We have been creating UI’s by hand for as long as there has been a web and we will continue to do well into the future. There are plenty of opportunities to interface Corona front end with a LAMP backend. It requires a little bit of different thinking. You’re not going to use JS/CSS to manipulate DOM behaviors as much as you are going to primarily provide the C (controller) in MVC with it. Let Corona manage the view and the PHP/MySQL backend represent the M (model).

You will write a script in PHP that takes input via HTTP GET or HTTP POST, connect to this virtual HTML form using network.request()  and have the form handler output a JSON object that you can easily consume in Corona by converting the JSON object to a Lua table. From there you would use Corona display API’s to handle displaying the view of the object.

In effect, you’re making a RESTful API that bridges between your database logic and your display logic.

Rob

[agramonte]

Not useful for me, but I don’t know anything about keeping track of tasks. I just have a notebook with a pen I cross off items. I don’t think corona gui is wonky at all. With experience, you can do some amazing things. Here is an example of a business app written in Corona that looks amazing in my opinion:

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/gohenry-pocket-money-manager/id683249974?mt=8

I would not use CSV but that is just my preference. I would json or use a local db.

[stevenjacob098]

What is Cortona by the way how it can be used for the development? Is it a Microsoft Technology as Microsoft Give Microsoft ASP.net MVC Certification For its Technology.

[yoel12344]

here it is:

https://github.com/yoel123/corona-sdk-project-tasks-manger

the only problem is updating data, but its no problem if you exit and run it again everything updates.

also, I can’t find the saved file in android file dir, not much of a problem the app has an editing screen.

does anyone know where “system.DocumentsDirectory” is on android? on windows, it’s in AppData.

I think ill change from flat file to sql. I have a feeling this will solve those problems.

other than that for me personally it’s a good tool.

as for “Not useful for me, but I don’t know anything about keeping track of tasks.”.

I totally get you I was like that too. but one day you will learn to regret not having a proper project plan.

I’m talking from experience.

" Here is an example of a business app written in Corona that looks amazing in my opinion:"

it’s totally awesome. this does give motivation to get into it.

another thing I like about corona for gui, creating effects like fade and tween animations is easy.

" I would json "

haven’t thought of json, ill play with it a bit. interesting.

[rob]

system.* directories are part of the app’s “sandbox”. Their location varies on whatever the standard is for that device. But the point is you shouldn’t care where they are. They are part of the app that other utilities and applications should not have visibility into for security reasons.

You happened to find it on Windows, but on iOS and Android, those folders are in places that you’re not supposed to know where they are. If you need there, you use the provided constants like system.DocumentsDirectory to access the folders.

You can’t think like a desktop developer when building for mobile. You probably shouldn’t fully think like mobile developer when building for desktops.

In the case of a task/project manager, you almost certainly should consider an online data store so you can manage your project from a web interface on desktop computers (the commonplace to do this from) or a dedicated mobile app.  Look at trello.com. I doubt anything other than some cookies to maintain your login and which projects are open is used in local storage. It’s almost certainly a NodeJS server using some NOSql data store.

Rob

[yoel12344]

you’re probably right. about everything.

about a web app. I am a web developer originally with php.

a webapp for this sort of thing is the right idea. multi-user. and multiplatform with responsive css (with bootstrap for lazy devs).

for the effects simple jquery $("#bg").fadeIn() shod do it.

but this thing came to me in a dream I had to make it. maybe for personal use and show off.

also wanted to prove (to myself at least) that I don’t need frameworks like feathers to create GUI.

[Develephant]

“… bootstrap for lazy devs”

Ouch, that hurt.  :P 

-dev

[rob]

There is little they way of communications between a native.newWebView() and your Corona app and for many, that’s a show stopper. Our native.newWebView() is a simple tool to let Corona developers show some web content in their existing app and game. I would not make an app a webView is the main primary feature (Apple would likely reject it.)

Today, “hybrid mobile development”, seems to be the popular way to build a dedicated “native”, responsive apps. It’s a combination of NodeJS, Angular JS, Ionic and Xamarian. You will see this with mobile banking apps. It’s pretty obvious because of many of the looks, styles and behaviors would have taken extra effort to have done them using native app controls.

We have been creating UI’s by hand for as long as there has been a web and we will continue to do well into the future. There are plenty of opportunities to interface Corona front end with a LAMP backend. It requires a little bit of different thinking. You’re not going to use JS/CSS to manipulate DOM behaviors as much as you are going to primarily provide the C (controller) in MVC with it. Let Corona manage the view and the PHP/MySQL backend represent the M (model).

You will write a script in PHP that takes input via HTTP GET or HTTP POST, connect to this virtual HTML form using network.request()  and have the form handler output a JSON object that you can easily consume in Corona by converting the JSON object to a Lua table. From there you would use Corona display API’s to handle displaying the view of the object.

In effect, you’re making a RESTful API that bridges between your database logic and your display logic.

Rob