Develop Mobile Apps

Mobile app development is the act or process by which a mobile app is developed for mobile devices, such as personal digital assistants, enterprise digital assistants or mobile phones.

Suitable For

People who like to develop mobile apps.

Skills Required

Today many online app maker tools are available which allows you to create mobile apps even if you don't have any knowledge of Android or iOS programming.
To find online app maker tools, Google search 'andoid app maker' or 'ios app maker' .
But if you have the knowledge of Android or iOS app programming it will be an advantage, but not necessary.
You must understand how mobile app stores work and how to market your app on them.

How to Get Started

1. Just learn how to code everything.
2. Pick an Idea.
3.Define the Core Functionalities.
4. Sketch Your App.
5. Use app builders and some coding (using BF SDK).
6. Building the App.

Time Required For Starting CPA Marketing

Depends on the expertise of the app developer and scope of the app.

Tips

1. Find out users’ likes & dislikes.
Right platforms and features.
3. Offline Friendliness.
Make simple apps just like a smartphone.
Ads & Banners: Keep it limited.
Customized Design.
One App For One Reason.
Choose the right people.

How To Monetize

1. Upload a free app on Android’s Play store and Apple’s App store. Monetize it with AdMob, Google’s mobile advertising network.
2. Upload a paid app, set some initial price for downloading the app.
3. More people will download your app more money you will make.
4. You can also promote affiliate products through your app and earn extra commissions.

Top 10 Develop Mobile Apps

            1. Udacity :https://www.udacity.com/
            2. Udemy :https://www.udemy.com/
            3. Lynda :https://www.lynda.com/
            4. Tree House :https://teamtreehouse.com/
            5. PluralSight :https://www.pluralsight.com/
            6. skillwise :https://www.skillwise.com/
            7. skillshare :https://www.skillshare.com/
            8. code school :http://www.codeschool.org.uk/
            9. Careeer Foundry :https://careerfoundry.com/
            10. TutsPlus :https://tutsplus.com/

Tutorials

        https://www.youtube.com/aS__9RbCyHg
        https://www.youtube.com/D-iqMlLOrec
        https://www.youtube.com/_TgrWBZ40cs
        https://www.youtube.com/TnTn6e4Pfn8&t=1s
        https://www.youtube.com/ixVOMdUcOrU

How To Make Progressive Web App (PWA) For Blogger [EASY]

Many brands create Progressive Web Apps (PWA) for their websites, to enable users to install the super lite web app on their smartphones and enjoy a native app-like experience while browsing that site.

Progressive Web Apps are also great for branding, as once a user installs it, it stays on their Home screen and the brand’s logo stays in the user’s mind.

There’s a rumour on the internet that Progressive Web Apps cannot be made for Blogger. But today I am going to prove that wrong.

In this article, I am going to show you how to create a Progressive Web App for Blogger to let your readers enjoy a native app-like experience on your blog/website.

What are Progressive Web Apps?

Ever noticed a “Add to home screen” pop up in Google Chrome when you visit some websites? Well, that pop up is shown when a website supports PWA.

When you click on the “Add to home screen” button, the website’s logo is added to your phone’s home screen.

To learn more about PWAs, check out this article.

Demo

If you are reading this article on your mobile phone, simply tap on “Add to Home screen” from the menu (chrome menu) and then tap on “Add“. Then you will see that TechRBun’s PWA has been added to your phone’s home screen and when you open it, you will be able to use TechRBun.com just like any other app on your phone.

Well, now that you have got a clear idea about what a PWA is, let’s get started with learning how to make a Progressive Web App for a Blogger site.

Steps To Make Progressive Web App For Blogger

Please note, as of now, it isn’t possible to define the serviceworker.js file for the PWA for Blogger. This is because Blogger doesn’t let the user upload his/her own files to the root directory of the website. And due to this limitation, caching won’t be supported in this PWA. 

Also, Google Chrome won’t show the add to home screen pop up. The visitor will need to manually click on the add to home screen button. However, you can obviously include a banner on your site, instructing the user how to install your site’s PWA on their phone.

STEP 1: Get The Correct Favicons

This is the most important step that you need to perform to make a PWA for your blogger blog.

Go to https://favicon.io (this is the best site I have found till now for this purpose)

If you already have a nice logo for your website, choose the “Generate from Image” option or else you can choose the “Generate from Text” option.

Quick Tip: If you are using the “Generate from text” option and want the background of your logo to be transparent, change the background colour value to #FFFFFF00

Download the zip file on your computer and extract the files into a folder.  

STEP 2: Compress The Images(Optional Step)

You can optimize those images to reduce their size for faster loading time, using tinypng.com

STEP 3: Upload The Pictures To A Draft

Go to blogger.com and create a draft post and upload the extracted pictures to this post in the original size.

And save the post (make sure you don’t publish it)

STEP 4: Edit The site.webmanifest File

Right-click on the site.webmanifest file and click on Edit.

You’ll find two instances of “src”: In the first instance, replace /android-chrome-192×192.png with the link of the 192 x 192 size picture that you uploaded to the draft post.

To find the link, simply right click the picture and click on copy link.

In the second instance, replace /android-chrome-512×512.png with the link of the 512 x 512 size picture that you uploaded to the draft post.

Save the file.

STEP 5: Upload The site.webmanifest To An Online Storage

This article has been updated here. DriveHQ is no more supported, thus it has been replaced with GitHub.

Go to GitHub and sign up.

Now create a new Repository.

Give your Repository any name you want and set it to public. Then click on Create repository.

Upload the site.webmanifest file using the “uploading an existing file” link.

Now click on “choose your files” browse the site.webmanifest file and upload it. Then click on “Commit changes”.

Now click on the site.webmanifest file from your repository.

Then, open the raw site.webmanifest file by clicking on Raw.

Now copy the URL of the Raw site.webmanifest file for you PWA.

Copy the link and paste it to Notepad so that you can use it later.  

STEP 6: Put The Links In The Header

Go to Blogger —> Theme —> Edit HTML.

You’ll see the <head> tag.

Just below this tag, Paste the following lines:

Don’t forget to replace the sample “href=” URLS with the actual URLs.

Copy

<link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="180x180" href="(REPLACE THIS WITH ORIGINAL) Link to the 180 x 180 size picture"/> 
<link rel="icon" type="image/png" sizes="32x32" href="(REPLACE THIS WITH ORIGINAL) Link to the 32 x 32 size picture"/> 
<link rel="icon" type="image/png" sizes="16x16" href="(REPLACE THIS WITH ORIGINAL) Link to the 16 x 16 size picture"/> 
<link rel="manifest" href="(REPLACE THIS WITH ORIGINAL) Link to the site.webmanifest"/>

Click on the Save theme button.

Done! Congratulations!

You’ve successfully made a Progressive Web App (PWA) for your Blogger blog.

How To Revoke Whatsapp Group Join Link

 Android tutorial today I will show you how to revoke deactivate Whatsapp group join link or invitation link with pictures.

These are Following Steps:- 

Step 1: Open Whatsapp Group and click Group Name.

Step 2: Now we scroll up a little bit here.

Step 3: Here we click Invite via link option.

Step 4: Now click the Revoke link.

Step 5: Here we click REVOKE LINK option.

I hope you enjoy this post and the photos. 

SO YOU WANT TO BE AN ANDROID DEVELOPER…

 If you’re someone who wants to become an Android app developer, and certainly if you already are one, you’ll have noticed that there are thousands of apps on the Google Play store. Some are flooded with reviews and have been downloaded thousands of times, others never receive any attention, and have few or no downloads.

In this article, I’ll be covering some of my experiences as an Android developer—I have been programming for a number of years now. I started by learning three programming languages; C, C++, and Java. I then went on to do web development, before advancing to Android development.

The first applications I built were very basic and mainly for fun. A few years ago, I participated in a RHOK (Random Hacks Of Kindness) event and in a team of five we developed the award winning Buddy App. I also developed another app at around the same time, Sema, that would listen to Kiswahili phrases and translate them.

Hopefully, you can learn from my experiences. Let’s get started!

FIRST, UNDERSTAND THE DEVELOPMENT GUIDELINES

Google is the company behind the Android operating system and they have a full set of standards with which you must comply if you want to release Android apps on the Play store.

My first apps were messy. Sometimes I would install them and their icons would appear on top of other icons, or cluttered somewhere by themselves, all because I didn’t follow the user interface navigation guidelines.

These guidelines make it possible for users to quickly understand how your application works, make applications consistent with one another, and will ensure users are more likely to reuse your app. So apply them.

UNDERSTAND YOUR USERS’ NEEDS

Often developers sit in front of a screen, develop, and deploy apps that meet their limited needs. However the most successful apps are built with the user in mind.

In our Buddy app, our users were Android phone owners who often had more than one device. Managing their contacts was an issue, especially when they wanted to transfer contacts, or access their phone remotely. Our aim was to meet their needs.

Once the app is up and running, collect and address any issues raised. If users feel you are handling their issues well, they’ll keep using your app.

Often, developers have strong coding skills, but publish poorly designed interfaces. Remember, the user isn’t interested in the lines of code you have written, they experience the front-end. If you’re not a good interface designer, then collaborate with someone who is. If you can’t find anyone to team up with, learn the fundamentals of design and download some free UI kits.

USE ANDROID, AND STAY UP TO DATE

It is strange to think it, but many Android developers aren’t Android users. Android apps are frequently simply ported from iOS apps, and so don’t take advantage of Android’s enhanced abilities.

By immersing yourself in Android you’ll experience more than just listening to your app users. Participate in Android communities to connect with like-minded people. Forums like those on Google+ have been my learning ground. Many of them are vibrant, and inspirational.

As you know, Android is a Google product. Occasionally Google likes to release updates for its operating system. For example with the release of Android 7.0 Nougat, it is now possible to develop apps that can multi-task.

Multi-tasking allows apps to split the device screen and run multiple applications simultaneously. It’s tremendously helpful, and was announced first at a Google event. By keeping up with these events you’ll discover new techniques that will improve your apps. My favorite is Google I/O, which is a conference I have never missed. It helps me keep my apps updates, and be among the first to implement new standards.

ALWAYS DEVELOP FOR MULTIPLE DEVICES

My first Android device had a 3″ screen, and the apps I developed looked great…until I tried them on a larger screen; then they looked awful.

Android gives users the freedom of choice to run on a variety of devices, with countless different viewport sizes. As a developer you need to ensure that your application is well designed on as many devices as possible—if not all of them,.

However, it is impossible to physically test on every device running Android, and even the wealthiest development companies can only maintain a limited device library. To overcome this I use density-independent pixels in my layouts.

Ensure your application is fast on every device. I will absolutely discard any app that performs slowly, and I am not alone. I also avoid any app that will cost me on space, so make sure you optimize your app. You can enhance the speed of your app by refraining from from using unnecessary objects and variables; the more objects you use the more hiccups occur during garbage collection, which slows the experience even on powerful devices.

TEST YOUR APP. THEN TEST IT AGAIN. AND AGAIN.

As a professional developer you would never dream of releasing an app without testing it, but it is tempting to skip steps.

My friends wanted to see the Sema app on their phones shortly after I had presented it to the group. The app had been running smoothly on my Android simulator, but I hadn’t yet installed it on a real device. When I let me friends install it, the app failed to launch on some devices. There was a bug! Having experienced that embarrassment myself I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to thoroughly test your applications.

Having written the code you’ll already know how it works, so you know what to expect. So I always recommend getting users with a variety of experience levels to test your app, they will find issues that you didn’t expect. Get some other developers to test your app’s performance.

IS YOUR WEBSITE MOBILE APP READY?

 It’s no secret that the mobile revolution is already here. Everyone’s been abuzz with talk about the need for websites to be mobile-ready and responsive for years now. But considering mobile device usage accounts for 55% of all internet activity, now is the perfect time to ensure any site you work with looks just as good on a mobile device as it does on a standard computer.

Here’s another impressive stat: nearly 47% of all internet traffic now comes from mobile apps. When you take that into consideration, it might be worth thinking about converting your website into a mobile app from the get-go.

While there is no guarantee that your business will suddenly blossom just because your target audience can now interact with you through an app, it makes even less sense to ignore this portion of the market.

By turning your website into a mobile app, you have another chance to build your brand, reach your ideal client, and even generate new revenue. You’re showing your clients that not only you can build a responsive website, but you also know how to create an engaging app that they can use in the same fashion as you – to expand their reach and grow their business.

In this article, we’ll cover the pros and cons of having a mobile app and share the key things that will help you determine whether your website is ready to make this leap.

Let’s dive in!

PROS AND CONS OF MOBILE APPS

With an increasing number of people spending more of their time on their smartphones, creating a mobile app for your business is a wise choice. Here are some pros and cons to keep in mind.

MOBILE APP PROS

• On average, people spend more than two hours a day using their mobile phone and most of that time is spent interacting with apps. The statistic speaks volumes about the popularity of apps in general and is argument enough in their favor.
• You can use the app in many different ways – from allowing users to book your services directly and sharing different price packages to adding chat functionality, special offers, or providing a tip a day via push notifications. You are only limited by your imagination.
• It allows you to better capture the attention of your audience. When we’re browsing the web, it’s easy to get distracted, either by a new email notification, a friend messaging you on Facebook, a co-worker sharing a tweet, and so on. But once a user is interacting with your app, chances are they will be more engaged. You have their complete attention and you can continue engaging them on a daily basis.

MOBILE APP CONS

• It adds extra maintenance – if you want your app to have any traction and success, you have to keep it up to date and ensure every release provides a smooth experience. Sure, technical glitches and bugs can always happen but do keep in mind that you will need to maintain your app on top of everything else.
• Additional marketing – unfortunately, it’s not enough to submit your app to the app store and get it approved to get users. You’ll have to promote and market your app just like you’re promoting your business. If you don’t have bandwidth to spare, this might be a significant con.
• Added cost – if you don’t have time to develop the app yourself, you’ll have to outsource this task to another developer which means you’ll have to pay for the app development as well as for any ongoing support. And even if you develop the app yourself, there are still fees associated with it so cost is another con to keep in mind.

5 THINGS YOU MUST CONSIDER TO DETERMINE IF YOUR WEBSITE IS MOBILE APP READY

Now that you know the pros and cons of mobile apps, let’s cover the most important things you must consider before creating one.

1. IS YOUR WEBSITE MOBILE-FRIENDLY?

Before starting on your journey to create a mobile app, ensure your website is mobile-friendly. This will make it easier to determine which features would translate well to this platform and show you parts that need to be improved upon or created from scratch.

2. YOUR AUDIENCE’S BEHAVIOUR

Now is a good time to check your analytics and see how your ideal audience interacts with your website. Which devices are they using? Which pages on your site do they spend the most amount of time on and where do they drop off? By analyzing the data, you’ll have a better idea of whether or not you should invest in a mobile app and which marketplace to target first.

3. ASSESS THE FUNCTIONALITY

What functionality do you provide on your website now? What can a potential visitor do? How easy is the process of booking your services or getting support? Will your app offer the same functionality or will you start with the basics?

4. CAN YOUR BACKEND SUPPORT IT?

Your website might be fine on your current hosting plan but if you plan on using the same server to host your app, you might run into issues when there is a surge in popularity and user count increases.

5. BRAND CONSISTENCY

The last point to consider is your brand consistency. It’s true that an app should be simpler to use than a website but that doesn’t mean you have to ignore your brand values and style. If your website already has solid branding in place, it will be easier to develop an app that falls in line with it.

IS YOUR WEBSITE READY?

If done correctly, a mobile app is a great business asset that provides a smooth user experience and feels like a natural extension of your brand. Take the time to assess your website and understand how people interact with it. Once you have a general idea of your site’s strengths and weaknesses and your audience’s behaviour, you’re ready to turn your website into a mobile app.

A SIMPLE INTRODUCTION TO SWIFT

 At the WWDC 2014 Apple introduced a brand new programming language called Swift,. It’s a language that has been created by Apple from the ground up to be both very efficient and very beautiful.

Swift uses the same API’s as C but in my opinion is easier to learn and get a grasp if you come from a web development background like me.

If you are just as exited about this language as I am, then this is the article for you.

VARIABLES AND CONSTANTS

Declaring variables in Swift, if you come from a Javascript background, should be very familiar; you declare a variable by using the var keyword:

var myNumber = 40

You can, of course, also set constants; to define a constant you need to use the let keyword:

let name = "Developer Drive"

If you have used Objective-C, or in this case even Javascript, one thing you will notice from the sample code I just wrote is that I didn’t add any semi colons. That is because Swift doesn’t require them (although you can include them if you prefer).

MANIPULATING STRINGS

This is another part of the language where you should feel at home if you work with Javascript. Concatenating strings is done as you would see in any of your Javascript files, you just need to use the “+” sign:

var firstName = "Developer"
var lastName = " Drive"
var name = firstName + lastName

By the way, if you want to print this to the screen all you need to do is call println:

println(name)

Inserting variables into a string is also really simple; you need to use “\” and then place the variable inside some parenthesis:

var number = 20
var timeLeft = "You have \(number) minutes left."

As you can see, everything is written in a simple and structured manner.

ARRAYS

One thing every language needs to handle is arrays. We always need them, and it’s a huge help if they are simple to set up.

They are simple in Swift, and again, will be familiar to anyone who has used Javascript:

var names = ["Leslie","April","Tom","Andy","Ann","Ben"]

As you can see this is a really simple and clean method.
If you want to count the elements use the count property:

var numberNames = names.count

Adding elements to your array is also fairly straight forward:

// Adding a single element
names += "Jerry"

// Adding several elements
names += ["Donna", "Chris"]

DICTIONARIES

The other collection type we have in Swift is dictionaries. In this type of collection every value we have in the array is associated with a unique key, like so:

var socialNetworks = ["FB" : "Facebook", "TW" : "Twitter", "G+" : "Google+"]

And as you would expect, you can iterate through them using a for loop:

for (abbr, name) in socialNetworks {
    println("\(abbr) = \(name)")
}

You can also call out a value very easily by specifying the key for it, and if you want to change that value just assign it with a “=” sign:

println(socialNetworks["FB"])
socialNetworks["FB"] = "Vine"

FUNCTIONS

The next step is to see how we can create simple function in swift and we do that by using the func keyword:

func helloRuby() -> String {
    return "Hello Ruby"
}
helloRuby()

As you can see, the syntax for defining a function is really simple and great to look at, even when it comes to calling the function all you need to do is write the name of the function and if you don’t have any parameters, just open and close parenthesis.

Of course, we can also have parameters if we need them. We just declare them inside the parenthesis, after the name of the function:

func hello(name: String) -> String {
    return "Hello \(name)."
}
hello("Ruby", "Tuesday")”

CLASSES

Classes, unlike in Objective-C, are all created in the same .swift file, and there is no need to separate implementation and external interface.

A class is created by using the keyword “class” followed by the name of the class:

class Show {
    var numberOfEpisodes = 20
    func number() -> String {
        return "The Show has \(numberOfSides) episodes."
    }
}

You can create a new instance of the class by simply adding an opening and closing parenthesis after the name:

var show = Show()

You can also change the properties really easily by using dot notation:

show.numberOfEpisodes = 35

STATEMENTS AND LOOPS

We’ve already taken a look at how to use the for loop with an array but there are more statements and loops I want to show you.

The first statement we usually learn in any language is the if statement, and creating these in Swift is as simple as you would hope:

var name1 = "Tom"
var name2 = "Tom"
if name1 == name2 {
    println("Identical")
}

As you can see parenthesis in Swift aren’t necessary for the if statement to work.

Switch statements are another thing we end up using quite a lot when coding, and are written like:

switch babyNames {
 case "Ben":
 println("Maybe")
 case "Jerry":
 println("No Really")
 default:
 println("What about we go with Tom ?")
 }

CONCLUSION

As you can see from these basics Swift is a very well written language that does a great job and should be highly appealing to any web developer hoping to move into mobile. It’s simple, but it allows you to everything Objective-C allows.