Understanding the Composer and Storyboarding

Getting Started Newbie Questions
#1

Hello all,

as I am new to Corona and even new to Lua there are some questions that come up while I am trying to become familiar with the language and the framework.

I did some of the tutorials provided by Corona Labs and until a few hours ago i thought i understood the composer API and its usage. But then i stumbled upon a few posts in several forums / other tutorial posts / blogs and so on, where storyboarding was mentioned. And now I feel a little confused.

May someone please explain the difference between Composer and Storyboarding to me?

OR

Does someone know any source where it was already explained?

Is Composer and Storyboarding the same one thing?

Thanks!

#2

Let’s start with the word “storyboarding”. This is an action that is used in the art industry to sketch out scenes and building a visual path for making a movie, TV show, comic book, video or game. In the process of “storyboarding” you make storyboards which are the physical drawings.

I think you mean to compare Composer to Storyboard, two scene managers that we offer to us in Corona. But just to fully cover the bases, Apple also uses the term “Storyboard” in Xcode. It’s their multiple scene manager. Because Corona and Xcode are doing similar things, it helps to be clear which one you’re talking about. For the most part Corona SDK users will never need to mess with Xcode’s storyboards.

Now on to Corona.

Corona Labs needed a scene manager, basically a way you could create multiple screens for your app and switch between them. We named that scene manager “Storyboard” (well before Apple started using the term).  Several years ago, we needed to upgrade the Storyboard scene manager and were heading towards Storyboard V2, but we made enough breaking changes that we decided to call the new scene manager Composer so as not to break existing apps.  Therefore Composer is Storyboards newer, better brother and after a couple of years, we have retired Storyboard.

Unless you have old code that absolutely needs Storyboard, then you should be using Composer.  So to summarize:

Composer is Storyboard V2 and is what we offer today…

Storyboard is an API module for managing scenes – in Corona Terms that is retired.

Storyboard in Apple Terms is a way to have multiple scenes in a native app but is also a design tool.

Hope this helps

Rob

#3

Very very much thanks for the explanation!

It seems that i was not that wrong on my assumption that both are the same thing. Fortunately i did not understand it totally wrong :slight_smile:

So, as I do not have any old corona/lua code I will stick to the Composer term from now on.

I hope that this will help others also.

#4

Hello pascal.niggemeier, reference any prblems you have with Composer to this article, it goes very in depth:

https://docs.coronalabs.com/guide/system/composer/index.html

#5

Yes, thanks.

As I mentioned, i read much about the composer, including the documentation you linked. I thought i understood the principles of the technique but then stumbled upon other posts and 3rd party guides that mentioned the Storyboard.

So to conclude and as a tip for the Team that is responsible for the Documentation: Maybe it would be nice if in the current Documentation of the Composer could be any hint at the fact, that the Composer was originally the Storyboard some time.

Maybe this will avoid some confusion in the future, as many people (like I did) do not just read the official current documentation but also read what they find via search engines (bing & co.).

#6

Let’s start with the word “storyboarding”. This is an action that is used in the art industry to sketch out scenes and building a visual path for making a movie, TV show, comic book, video or game. In the process of “storyboarding” you make storyboards which are the physical drawings.

I think you mean to compare Composer to Storyboard, two scene managers that we offer to us in Corona. But just to fully cover the bases, Apple also uses the term “Storyboard” in Xcode. It’s their multiple scene manager. Because Corona and Xcode are doing similar things, it helps to be clear which one you’re talking about. For the most part Corona SDK users will never need to mess with Xcode’s storyboards.

Now on to Corona.

Corona Labs needed a scene manager, basically a way you could create multiple screens for your app and switch between them. We named that scene manager “Storyboard” (well before Apple started using the term).  Several years ago, we needed to upgrade the Storyboard scene manager and were heading towards Storyboard V2, but we made enough breaking changes that we decided to call the new scene manager Composer so as not to break existing apps.  Therefore Composer is Storyboards newer, better brother and after a couple of years, we have retired Storyboard.

Unless you have old code that absolutely needs Storyboard, then you should be using Composer.  So to summarize:

Composer is Storyboard V2 and is what we offer today…

Storyboard is an API module for managing scenes – in Corona Terms that is retired.

Storyboard in Apple Terms is a way to have multiple scenes in a native app but is also a design tool.

Hope this helps

Rob

#7

Very very much thanks for the explanation!

It seems that i was not that wrong on my assumption that both are the same thing. Fortunately i did not understand it totally wrong :slight_smile:

So, as I do not have any old corona/lua code I will stick to the Composer term from now on.

I hope that this will help others also.

#8

Hello pascal.niggemeier, reference any prblems you have with Composer to this article, it goes very in depth:

https://docs.coronalabs.com/guide/system/composer/index.html

#9

Yes, thanks.

As I mentioned, i read much about the composer, including the documentation you linked. I thought i understood the principles of the technique but then stumbled upon other posts and 3rd party guides that mentioned the Storyboard.

So to conclude and as a tip for the Team that is responsible for the Documentation: Maybe it would be nice if in the current Documentation of the Composer could be any hint at the fact, that the Composer was originally the Storyboard some time.

Maybe this will avoid some confusion in the future, as many people (like I did) do not just read the official current documentation but also read what they find via search engines (bing & co.).