Hi there!

Gosh, our code-monkeys have been busy. They’ve only gone and produced yet another new release of Spot Specific.

The List Menu widget in action, shown here in Android mode

This time, we’re pleased to announce a brand new widget, and something that should save you a lot of time when assembling apps. It’s called the List Menu widget, and it makes it really easy to include a vertically-orientated menu containing a customised selection of screens. So creating a navigation structure it easier than ever before. Please note that the List Menu widget is still being finalised, so do let us know if you encounter any problems with it.

We’ve also included a variety of improvements to the Simulator, which allow it to better represent the capabilities of a mobile device. Firstly, we’ve added the capability to ‘zoom’ in and out and pan around, where screens have a scrollable width and height.

The device controls window, showing the zoom control.

We’ve also revised the screen controls, including a clearer platform switch, to allow you to preview your screen in both Android and iPhone modes. The screen controls also include a button which toggles the Device Controls window, enabling access to the zoom function (shown at the left).

New Library app: Lochs 1.0 (pan-and-zoom tutorial)

When it comes to new features, it’s always useful to have an example of how they can be used. Two releases ago, we brought you the App Library, an easy way to import example apps into your account to build upon, or just have a look at. We’re using the App Library to bring you a new demonstrator/tutorial app called Lochs 1.0, which shows just how easily you can build a zooming/panning navigational screen using the new capabilities of Spot Specific 8.891.

The app is designed around a panning/scrolling map, which includes a number of navigation buttons to bring the user to other screens. This kind of interaction can be much more compelling than a simple set of buttons (or even one of our new List Menus), since it can add context to navigation, building a more immersive app experience.

The app is deliberately very simple: just a few content screens with rudimentary text and images on Native screens, and the navigation map screen, constructed from an image and some Image Button widgets. We’ll be extending it incrementally over the coming weeks to show how, with simple styling changes, you can create a cohesive visual identity for your app.

You’re free to take the app and build upon it, substituting your own images, content and screens. We hope you can follow along with the tutorial as the app advances over the coming weeks.

We’ll also be publishing more information related to this tutorial in other formats (screencasts and wiki pages) soon, so stay tuned.

The app is available to import into your account right now, so give it a go!

Good Saturday to you, loyal app makers

Spot Specific is already changing the way people make apps: from a single interface, you can design, test and publish an app without knowing any coding languages. At the same time, it’s enabling those versed in HTML5 and JavaScript to create highly functional, beautiful apps more quickly than ever before.

Still, it’s good to know that there are support resources out there. We publish a broad set of documentation, from getting started to details of our API. And because we know that everyone learns in a different way, today we’re announcing something perfect for you kinaesthetic learners out there (and I include myself in that category).

Introducing the App Library

The Spot Specific App Library

The App Library allows you to copy pre-existing Library (template) apps to your account, in order to build upon the features of those apps, or simply to take them apart to see how they work. The App Library is available now to all Spot Specific customers as a standard feature. It’s accessible via a button on the toolbar at the top of the interface. From there you can clone a Library app into your account, and treat it as if it were a normal app.

What else is useful about the App Library? Well, I’m glad you asked:

• Library apps don’t count against your storage quota unless you customise their assets. This means you can play around with them as much as you like without prejudicing your existing published apps.
• Library apps’ assets show up in your My Assets view. This means you can view the assets’ details as normal and use them in other applications. You can also clone these assets into your library to make them your own, and make specific (no pun intended) changes to them.
• Although they count against your total account app quota (which is normally a total of 3), they can be deleted at any time to make way for your own apps. They can also become your apps. By deleting and customising the bits you don’t like and changing the app’s title and other metadata, you can make them your own.
• This is just the start. We’ll be adding to the selection of Library apps with new software releases, and also between releases. So check back in the App Library for more additions on a regular basis.

Other changes in this release

We’ve made the usual round of improvements, bug fixes and feature requests in this release of Spot Specific. The highlights include:

• Improved navigation, including more ‘breadcrumbs’ in certain places
• A whole tranche of new API docs, including for our (rather clever) SSXHR class. This class allows you to preview external JavaScript requests in the Simulator, without breaking security rules or a sweat
• Improvements to app notes. Notes are an easy way for you to keep track of your progress, general information about a version of an app, or anything else you need to take down for your own reference while developing. They now work better, and save your changes automatically.

Try it for free now!

Hello folks,

Today we’re delighted to announce a new revision of Spot Specific Apps a la Carte, version 0.85. We’re still in a beta phase, but are pretty excited about what this release brings – in particular, a completely revamped device simulator, and a slew of usability improvements.

The simulator

The new Spot Specific interface - complete with built-in simulator

The simulator is a key part of the experience of building an app: it’s your real-time preview of how your application will look and work on a real device. In this release we’ve made several important improvements to it:

• Drag and drop. This is huge. It’s now possible to drag new widgets straight from the widget picker into the simulator, exactly where you want them to go. Need a ‘Forward’ button? Just drag it right where you want it. While dragging a widget into place, you’ll notice that a ‘ghosted’ preview appears under the mouse.Drag and drop  also works for editing existing objects. If you need to move something around, just click and drag it and the object’s edit form will appear to update its settings in real-time.
• Integration into the main window. While the previous pop-up window had its charms, we felt that it could benefit from being more closely tied to the current status of the main Spot Specific window. This makes it clearer which screen the simulator is simulating at any given time. This also also a necessary prerequisite for drag-and-drop editing.

Usability improvements

We’ve spent some time thinking about how to make Spot Specific easier to navigate and spend time in. Other than the simulator’s new location, the most noticeable visual change is the pinstriped background against which the toolbar icons now sit. However, the more significant change is the ‘breadcrumb trail’, which indicates at all times where in your account you currently are. The breadcrumb bar sits right above the workspace area, and gives you an easy way to navigate back up the ‘tree’ of your account, starting at your desktop.

We have also improved a number of other details which enhance the user interface:

• Assets are now listed in alphabetical order in the My Assets list
• Multi-line text fields now behave more as you would expect
• It’s now possible to ‘tab’ between fields in all forms
• The integrated documentation is now easier to navigate, and takes up less space in the browser window

These are just the highlights, so why not have a go and see what you can make?

A full change-log will follow as an addendum to this post tomorrow.