We've just released Recent News, a smart news app built with Corona SDK

General (non-technical) New Apps / Works in Progress
#1

We’ve just released Recent News, a smart news app built with Corona SDK featuring a beautiful implementation of Material Design. Recent News learns your interests, suggests relevant articles from the day’s news, and proposes topics that you may like. It’s designed to be very fast and very personal.

I suspect Recent News is the most complex non-game app ever built with Corona. It supports left-right swipe to navigate, floating action buttons, multiple layout options, search with autocompletion, pull-down menus, remote loading of images, offline reading, tablets, appbar menus, pull-out left menus, orientation changes, account syncing across devices, left-right scrolling menus, embark screens, snackbar menus, side glow effects, and more. It’s a thorough implementation of Material Design on both iOS (!) and Android.

From a design perspective, folks here might be interested in the process we went through. We hired a SF-based designer early on who did a conventional design; here are two screens he created for us: https://goo.gl/photos/mPqyVUhb5XEjEVxY6 https://goo.gl/photos/DNshKUTJftcTB1DW6 But after Material Design was released last summer, we revamped the app completely to take advantage of that design language, which included creating a slew of specialized modules.

Please download Recent News and let me know what you think! It’s on Google Play here: 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.recent.personal.news

And the app store here:

https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1009026110

Thanks to Rob and other folks in the forums for their tips along the way!

5.5-inch_iPhone_6_-_Screenshot_1_gqwrpp. 5.5-inch_iPhone_6_-_Screenshot_2_gnavws. 5.5-inch_iPhone_6_-_Screenshot_4_e74dgd. 5.5-inch_iPhone_6_-_Screenshot_3_d0hl8t. final1_bszkdo.png

#2

This is super-slick and really shows what Corona can achieve. I might just have to switch to this from my current RSS reader.

One bug and one suggestion:
Bug: the keyboard doesn’t move when you gain focus on the newTextBox in the Feedback and Bugs screen. I didn’t test other screens, but I know the fields didn’t shift for that one.
Suggestion: can you include a “dark” theme? I always like to use that kind of tint as its easier on my eyes.

Other than that, it’s awesome!

#3

Alex: Thanks! I appreciate your kind words. You’re one of the developers who makes these forums so useful.

Re: the bug, we’re using a webview (with the Zendesk Javascript widget) for the feedback screen, not a newTextBox. I was able to replicate your error on Android; it works as intended on iOS. Because it’s a webview, I’m not sure what we can do given Corona limitations, except perhaps open the page in the system browser on Android. :( 

Re: the suggestion, other folks have asked for this as well and I think it’s a good idea!

#4

@corona273 and  I appreciate  your kind words! Always try to give back; that’s my motto :wink:

Regarding the bug, can you detect when the user obtains focus on a specific field? If not, you could put in an ugly hack of an invisible rect that can let the app know when the user taps in that area of the screen, and shift the entire display group up? Just spitballing here.

Regarding the suggestion, awesome! With that, you’ll supplant Feedly, and after that, world domination. 

#5

Congrats!

Rob

#6

Rob: Thanks!

Alex: Because it’s a webview using a third-party Javascript module, I can’t detect taps myself. But I did change the code last week to open the Zendesk module in the system browser and it seems to be working now; the updated version is on the play store. Thank you for reminding me to do this!
 

#7

@corona273 I’m running into a situation and I’m hoping you can help me out.

I’m having a hard time getting the Search functionality in Recent News to return specific results. If I search for a specific website, the only results I get are for websites that report the same kind of info, but not the website itself. 

Is there a way that I can add specific websites, or web addresses for the search function?

#8

Alex: Hey there! The answer is Recent News’ backend does not currently support limiting queries to specific websites. There are two functionalities it currently supports: if you type in the name of a topic (~15,000 are currently exposed), the app will query the backend’s knowledge graph for the latest articles related to that topic in I believe reverse chronological order. If the text you enter is not a known topic, the app will do a free text query that is in a date-weighted but not strictly chronological order.

I suppose we could add the limit-to-one-site functionality, but no other users have ever asked us for this before. Our working assumption (which may be wrong) is that folks will be primarily interested in our personalized recommendations, and so as a small startup with limited resources that’s what we’ve focused on.

Or are you asking to be able to follow individual news organizations? We address that in the in-app FAQ. :slight_smile:

#9

No, you’re on the mark with the functionality I was referencing. I was hoping to use it as an RSS feed reader, but I’ll have to figure out another way. Thanks for the quick response!

#10

Alex: Ah! Yes, we are not an RSS feed reader. Or more precisely, we’re far smarter than mere RSS feed readers. :slight_smile: We deeply read all the day’s news, try to understand the topics and concepts involved in each article, group related articles, and compare them against your interests. A lot more involved, but, we think, more useful–and far less configuration required.

#11

This is super-slick and really shows what Corona can achieve. I might just have to switch to this from my current RSS reader.

One bug and one suggestion:
Bug: the keyboard doesn’t move when you gain focus on the newTextBox in the Feedback and Bugs screen. I didn’t test other screens, but I know the fields didn’t shift for that one.
Suggestion: can you include a “dark” theme? I always like to use that kind of tint as its easier on my eyes.

Other than that, it’s awesome!

#12

Alex: Thanks! I appreciate your kind words. You’re one of the developers who makes these forums so useful.

Re: the bug, we’re using a webview (with the Zendesk Javascript widget) for the feedback screen, not a newTextBox. I was able to replicate your error on Android; it works as intended on iOS. Because it’s a webview, I’m not sure what we can do given Corona limitations, except perhaps open the page in the system browser on Android. :( 

Re: the suggestion, other folks have asked for this as well and I think it’s a good idea!

#13

@corona273 and  I appreciate  your kind words! Always try to give back; that’s my motto :wink:

Regarding the bug, can you detect when the user obtains focus on a specific field? If not, you could put in an ugly hack of an invisible rect that can let the app know when the user taps in that area of the screen, and shift the entire display group up? Just spitballing here.

Regarding the suggestion, awesome! With that, you’ll supplant Feedly, and after that, world domination. 

#14

Congrats!

Rob

#15

Rob: Thanks!

Alex: Because it’s a webview using a third-party Javascript module, I can’t detect taps myself. But I did change the code last week to open the Zendesk module in the system browser and it seems to be working now; the updated version is on the play store. Thank you for reminding me to do this!
 

#16

@corona273 I’m running into a situation and I’m hoping you can help me out.

I’m having a hard time getting the Search functionality in Recent News to return specific results. If I search for a specific website, the only results I get are for websites that report the same kind of info, but not the website itself. 

Is there a way that I can add specific websites, or web addresses for the search function?

#17

Alex: Hey there! The answer is Recent News’ backend does not currently support limiting queries to specific websites. There are two functionalities it currently supports: if you type in the name of a topic (~15,000 are currently exposed), the app will query the backend’s knowledge graph for the latest articles related to that topic in I believe reverse chronological order. If the text you enter is not a known topic, the app will do a free text query that is in a date-weighted but not strictly chronological order.

I suppose we could add the limit-to-one-site functionality, but no other users have ever asked us for this before. Our working assumption (which may be wrong) is that folks will be primarily interested in our personalized recommendations, and so as a small startup with limited resources that’s what we’ve focused on.

Or are you asking to be able to follow individual news organizations? We address that in the in-app FAQ. :slight_smile:

#18

No, you’re on the mark with the functionality I was referencing. I was hoping to use it as an RSS feed reader, but I’ll have to figure out another way. Thanks for the quick response!

#19

Alex: Ah! Yes, we are not an RSS feed reader. Or more precisely, we’re far smarter than mere RSS feed readers. :slight_smile: We deeply read all the day’s news, try to understand the topics and concepts involved in each article, group related articles, and compare them against your interests. A lot more involved, but, we think, more useful–and far less configuration required.

#20

I am new here. I was wondering where I can get a template of the app.