GSoC Proposal Questions

Maria_Chemerys · March 18, 2024, 10:56pm

Hello,

I am very interested in creating iOS versions of Android components for MIT App Inventor. I am writing a proposal for a 175-hour GSoC project on this topic and would like to ask some questions regarding it:

I want to work on components with some unimplemented features (ListView and File). Also, I would like to develop LightSensor, ProximitySensor, and Barometer components. Do you think that this can make up a good project in terms of benefits for MIT App Inventor?
I noticed that there is a pull request by the former GSoC participant Dhruv Shrivastava where he implemented some of the ProximitySensor and Barometer features. Is it better to use his code as a foundation or start developing these components from scratch?
While browsing through GSoC successful proposals for MIT App Inventor, I saw that their duration was 12 weeks. Is it possible for my project to last a little longer (13 weeks)?

Thank you

Patryk_F · March 18, 2024, 11:35pm

Hello. Although I'm not the right person to talk about GSoC, I'm glad there's someone programming for iOS who wants to improve ListView. I've opened a PR for ListView improvements, but for Android. I think if someone created similar new features for iOS, it would be implemented faster.

Maria_Chemerys · March 19, 2024, 12:00am

Thanks for your reply, I am glad to hear your opinion I've also already created a PR where I added some missing functionalities to iOS ListView (Search and SelectionColor property). I hope to receive feedback and continue contributing to MIT App Inventor because I really like this project

Patryk_F · March 19, 2024, 12:08am

Great. I see that ListView on the iOS side requires a lot more work than on the Android side. Look at my PR and the list of modifications. Is anything from this list impossible to implement on the IOS side?

github.com/mit-cml/appinventor-sources

Modification of the ListView component. Performance improvements, adding new properties and methods.

mit-cml:ucr ← patryk84a:ucr

opened 09:51PM - 19 Jan 24 UTC

patryk84a

+7764 -7212

I'm working on a ListView component. I want to improve its performance and add n…ew properties and methods. Perhaps I should adapt this component for integration with Kodular. Below is a list of tasks to be completed, in my opinion, some of them have been completed, but there is still some work left. I would also like to hear opinions on whether I am going in the right direction so as not to do unnecessary work. - [x] **improved performance when filtering the list** - I changed the way filtered elements are displayed, I removed several variable arrays which, in my opinion, were a problem. - [x] **improved performance when loading data** - I separated data loading from creating a new adapter instance, which also eliminated the side effect of ListView resetting when loading data. I removed any modification of user-entered data by removing any data processing loops. Now the data is stored in one list of objects. This allowed us to significantly speed up data loading. - [x] **fixed a bug caused when setting index to 0 when ListView contains dictionary data** - [x] **adding new methods AddItem and AddItemAtIndex** - [x] **adding DividerColor and DividerThickness properties** - two properties that make it easier and adjust the divider between elements, visible = thickness > 0, only works when element margins = 0. - [x] **adding new properties ElementColor, ElementCornerRadius, ElementMarginsWidth** - three properties that adjust the appearance of a single element, I separated the background color of the ListView from the background color of a single element. - [x] **adding the SearchHintText property** - [x] **adding the MultiSelect property** - I added this property, it was previously hidden, it works, but requires consideration whether we need to adjust the method of returning indexes. - [x] **make ListViewLayout and Orientation properties visible in blocks** - [x] **removal of the Refresh method** - I don't know if it should remain, but with the @Depracated annotation. - [x] **adding new methods AddItems and AddItemsAtIndex** - [ ] **adding new methods ClearList and UpdateItemAtIndex** - [ ] **adding the ElementHeight property** - [ ] **adding Html properties for texts** - [x] **adding the BounceEdgeEffect property** - to allow you to override the standard edge animation. - [ ] **adding a new GridLayout layout** - [ ] **adding the Reverse property** - this will allow you to reverse the list, the first element will be at the very bottom or on the right side - [ ] **added ImageSide property** - can add another layout or provide this as a separate property, maybe improve it to allow you to customize the image side for each element separately.

Maria_Chemerys · March 19, 2024, 11:09am

Everything seems possible except for the SearchHintText property. There are no native ways to do this in UIKit.

While reading through the Conversation section of your PR, I noticed that there was a misconception regarding the absence of the possibility to implement the BounceEdgeEffect property for iOS. If I understood correctly, this is the bouncing effect when the user reaches the end of the scrollable ListView.

Actually, there is a Boolean property called "bounces" for this purpose which is available starting from iOS 2.0 and true by default. I've tried to enable/disable it for iOS ListView and it works fine

Patryk_F · March 19, 2024, 11:24am

And this solution?

Maria_Chemerys · March 19, 2024, 11:33am

This is a hint for a UITextField. iOS ListView in MIT App inventor code does not have it. It consists of a UISearchBar, UITableView and UITableViewCells.

Patryk_F · March 19, 2024, 11:36am

So for iOS they used the native SearchBar, while for Android they used a regular TextView instead of SearchView... so in my opinion it would be a good idea to implement TextField instead of SearchBar in iOS and adapt it to search, unless this is not possible.

I found it:

var placeholder: String?

The string to display when there’s no other text in the text field.

It is true that by extending the UISearchBar you can get more options, but I think that the basic functionality is enough.

By default, an English hint is placed in the search field, which is a problem for some people who create an application in another language. There have been many reports of this problem, so it would be nice to be able to change this text. This will only be implemented when we get such a feature in iOS. Maybe I would try my hand at Swift, but I don't even have the right devices to test it.

Maria_Chemerys · March 19, 2024, 12:27pm

I could help you to test this if you really want to deal with it. I just feel that as a developer, I should look at the problem in terms of the efficient allocation of resources. There are many more crucial functionalities missing in App Inventor's iOS ListView. It would be more reasonable for me to add them for starters. After that, I could try dealing with this particular issue too.

By the way, I appreciate that you care about the iOS part as much as for Android one and I am grateful to you for not giving up when trying to find a solution

ewpatton · March 19, 2024, 1:58pm

There is a PR for this on iOS: