Suggestions requested for simple legal app

Solar2D General Questions/Discussion
#1

I want to develop a simple app for the legal market that will offer a handbook about a particular area of law.  There will be few, if any, graphics and I just want to create a clean, searchable interface that will enable users to access different chapters of the handbook quickly.  There will probably only be about 20 pages of text contained in the handbook.

Any suggestsions on the best way to do this with Corona?  Should I create HTML files and load them via the web view?  How would I go about implementing search in that scenario?  Is it better to put the text into a database?  Anyone have sample code they would be willing to share that might make this project easier for me?  I am a newbie and I’m learning as I go.

Thanks! 

#2

Does the data ever need to get updated? if so how often? 

#3

Thanks - the data would probably only need to be updated 1-2 times per year at most.

#4

Ok. Then you can rely on baked in data in SQL Lite db running on the device and update using App Store updates once or twice a year. SQL Lite will allow you to run simple sql searches over your data to bring back results. Good luck with your project.

#5

Great, thank you so much for your response!

#6

You’re welcome.

#7

<mlintonesq>: Corona’s text display tools do not offer the ability to underline, italicize, boldface, superscript, subscript, small caps, etc. text within the same paragraph. You could not even excerpt this opinion:

The States next argue that courts and prosecutors sufficiently consider a juvenile defendant’s age, as well as his background

and the circumstances of his crime, when deciding whether to try him as an adult… See, e.g., Sumner v. Schuman, 483 U. S. 66.  

Corona also does not support tap-to-select copying of text, so that’s another feature you’d be lacking when using display.newText.

In other words you might want to consider using HTML for that. There’s nothing stopping you from keeping two copies of the text, though, and using <ksan>'s suggestions to search on the plaintext and display the HTML.

Corona has its advantages, but I think it’s fair to say that Corona’s text rendering is not its strong suit. (The interface you used to post your query on this web page is far more feature-ful). Also be warned of Windows Phone text rendering performance issues.

#8

Thank you very much - that could be a huge issue for using Corona.  Perhaps it is best for me to bite the bullet and learn some Swift since iOS is the primary target anyway.

#9

Why not try it with a webview in Corona in some static HTML pages and see how it works? Your app sounds like it would be a good candidate for that approach. If that fails, you can always go native. :slight_smile:

#10

Does the data ever need to get updated? if so how often? 

#11

Thanks - the data would probably only need to be updated 1-2 times per year at most.

#12

Ok. Then you can rely on baked in data in SQL Lite db running on the device and update using App Store updates once or twice a year. SQL Lite will allow you to run simple sql searches over your data to bring back results. Good luck with your project.

#13

Great, thank you so much for your response!

#14

You’re welcome.

#15

<mlintonesq>: Corona’s text display tools do not offer the ability to underline, italicize, boldface, superscript, subscript, small caps, etc. text within the same paragraph. You could not even excerpt this opinion:

The States next argue that courts and prosecutors sufficiently consider a juvenile defendant’s age, as well as his background

and the circumstances of his crime, when deciding whether to try him as an adult… See, e.g., Sumner v. Schuman, 483 U. S. 66.  

Corona also does not support tap-to-select copying of text, so that’s another feature you’d be lacking when using display.newText.

In other words you might want to consider using HTML for that. There’s nothing stopping you from keeping two copies of the text, though, and using <ksan>'s suggestions to search on the plaintext and display the HTML.

Corona has its advantages, but I think it’s fair to say that Corona’s text rendering is not its strong suit. (The interface you used to post your query on this web page is far more feature-ful). Also be warned of Windows Phone text rendering performance issues.

#16

Thank you very much - that could be a huge issue for using Corona.  Perhaps it is best for me to bite the bullet and learn some Swift since iOS is the primary target anyway.

#17

Why not try it with a webview in Corona in some static HTML pages and see how it works? Your app sounds like it would be a good candidate for that approach. If that fails, you can always go native. :slight_smile: