MIT App Inventor for iOS version 0.9

[ewpatton]

Hi Ghica,

It should be the case that the iOS companion will accept URLs in the file:///android_asset/ form. The iOS WebViewer implementation internally rewrites the URLs to the sandbox path that iOS generates when the companion is installed. This will be true in both the companion and compiled apps and should be backward compatible with the Android version (modulo a change we need to make for the companion).

As for the WebViewStringChange event, I’ll make sure that makes it into the next beta version.

[Ghica]

My app I wanted to try, reading an RSS feed, does not load, it gives a connection error. Why?

xPath_bbc_iOS.aia

My other test apps load fine.
Cheers, Ghica.

[Ghica]

Another question, I understood not to install iOS13. Is that still the case? Apple seems to be impatient to install it on my devices.
Cheers, Ghoca.

[ewpatton]

The version we publish through our preview server has a patch to fix the iOS 13 issue. We’re going to submit a new version to Apple next week that will fix it via TestFlight (once they approve it, of course).

[Dro]

Can you please share the list of known issues for iOS and items being addressed in the next release for iOS?
Thanks, Noel

[Anke]

Unfortunately I have not realized yet that there is a beta test version for iOS.

I have created some of my Android apps (AI2, Kodular) also for iOS (Xcode 11 / Swift 5). So I have some experience with Xcode & Swift and I know the problems that can occur when switching between Android and iOS, especially regarding (auto) layout (constraints / stack views) or frameworks like AVFoundation (for media files and the different audio formats supported by iOS) etc.

I’d like to test how (well) App Inventor works for iOS (my iOS apps have been updated for iOS 13.1.1 a few days ago).

Can I still register as a beta tester?
I completed the form. (http://appinv.us/ai-iOS-beta)

Greetings,
Anke

[Susan_Lane]

We track known issues through a private github repository.

We’ll have a list of changes in the next TestFlight release once it is submitted, but it we can’t commit to how long it will take the new version to be approved by Apple.

[ewpatton]

Here’s an updated list of Known Issues that we are trying to address for the next release:

• Some CloudDB projects with high throughput, such as SketchAndGuess, can occasionally result in a use-after-free bug that crashes the companion. We are still working to track this bug down.
• Add margins to buttons, labels in device default mode
• Constraints in nested components using percent sizing results in infinite “loop” until the size of the component is changed
• Investigate media asset issues
• Fix barcode scanner hotspot
• Port generic event handler support to iOS
• Setting image on arrangement tiles the image rather than stretching it
• Companion on iOS 13 reports AIComponentKit.Component not found FIXED
• Orientation property not applied to Screen FIXED
• Canvas and ImageSprite not positioned properly in Screen.Initialized FIXED
• Support Dark Mode in iOS 13 FIXED
• Marker LongClick doesn’t appear to be working FIXED

[Dro]

Hi Evan,
In my experience with the iOS companion only small single screen or single view screens work.
My big app does not start even after changing percent sizing to pixels.
Question: is there a way to trace the app startup in the iOS companion?
Thanks

[ewpatton]

@Dro we fundamentally understand the issue affecting your app, but it’s going to take us some time to fix it because it requires rearchitecting how we construct the view hierarchy. My goal is to put together a proof of concept based on the AIA you sent me. If I get it working, I’ll send you a special build you can use to try it.

[ewpatton]

Just a heads up that we’ve sent out another batch of iOS beta invitations via Apple TestFlight.

[kangris]

Is App Inventor for iOS will OpenSource?

[ewpatton]

We haven’t yet decided at what point we will open source the iOS version.

[JSauer12]

Does this mean that there is something I can use with my students that will work with ios13? Will the information Beryl sent out about the other option for running app inventor programs work on iOS 13 now?
Thanks!

[ewpatton]

The preview server we put up for teachers to use will work with iOS 13. The version on TestFlight still needs to be updated to include the bugfix for iOS 13.

[ewpatton]

Hi everyone,

We just sent out a batch of 500 more invitations for the iOS beta program. Thanks to everyone who is helping us test. Please keep the bug reports coming.

Regards,
Evan

[Point]

I found some problems on the list,
I turned on the Show Filter Bar
And it didn’t work on iOS (it only worked on Android)
Android:

IOS:

And when I tried to put in such a list Hello, World (with list from csv row )
I got a weird result (it only happens on iOS):

And the SelectionIndex block doesn’t work properly (only on iOS)
It gives the index that follows (for example, the first index in the list would be considered as 2 instead of 1)

[ewpatton]

@Point
Thanks for the report, but in the future please submit issues using the iOS Beta Testing form as it gives us a centralized way of managing incoming bug reports.

[Souvik_Bera]

I have a question related iOS version as I have not tested it yet.
Will it support extensions ? If yes will we have to write extensions in Java and Swift both ?

[Anke]

Will it support extensions ?

That would be too good to be true, but I have little hope …