A (non-exhaustive!) sample of some of the things you can include in standalone applications in LiveCode
While the majority of LiveCode features are built-in to the language, there are increasing numbers of ways to extend LiveCode, some of which require the inclusion of native code modules and other resources. The long-term vision for the IDE is to provide an extensions ecosystem, where script libraries, plugins, LiveCode Builder widgets, libraries and modules, custom controls and old-style externals can be easily downloaded and installed, and if required, subsequently built into standalone applications.
One important step towards this was the implementation of a dynamic property inspector, so that widgets and custom controls could have a way of specifying their editable properties and how they can be edited. Up until now the standalone settings stack has suffered some of the limitations of the old property inspector – namely that adding features requires manual modification of a stackfile.
An ‘Inclusions’ pane has been added to the LiveCode standalone settings user interface for the 8.1 releases, which not only simplifies the way you choose what extra functionality you want in your apps, but also allows you to select from a complete list of available inclusions, with a clear indication of the supported platforms at the side.
This significantly improves the cross-platform development experience provided by LiveCode. The iOS and Android panes no longer have separate check boxes for the various built-in externals (such as the XML external). Moreover any resources added to the appropriate locations should be reflected in the list.
Search for inclusions
But wait! In a lot of cases you won’t need to select what you want to include- LiveCode can do it for you.
LiveCode allows you to either search for required inclusions, or select them yourself.
All widgets present on stacks will now have the appropriate resources included, whether you have LiveCode search for inclusions or select them yourself. But in addition, searching for inclusions will also search for code which creates widgets or calls LiveCode Builder library handlers, and include all that’s needed to make them work in standalone applications.
Building mobile apps
As a consequence of making the inclusions settings apply to all platforms, we were able to easily add a couple of new features to mobile application building:
- Script library inclusions on mobile – Â The built-in script libraries that have always been available for desktop platforms only (such as the Geometry and Table libraries) are now available for mobile standalone applications.
- Search for inclusions on mobile – Selection of the search for inclusions option now also applies to mobile applications.
Building for multiple platforms
As of LiveCode 8.0 dp 2 there are no restrictions on building standalone applications for multiple platforms at once.
3 comments
Join the conversationBvG - June 19, 2016
Instead of an option button that does automatic search for inclusions, I suggest you make a button, which says “search automatically for inclusions now” (or similar). Then in the list of inclusions, automatically added ones would be marked as such. The advantage over what you propose is, that automatic and manual inclusions would not be excluding each other, and failures in automation can more easily be remedied by the user/developer himself.
Ali Lloyd - June 19, 2016
I think this is a good idea – I’m not sure it should necessarily replace the search for inclusions option entirely as some people may rely on the inclusions being updated each time as the inclusion requirements they have change. On the other hand you would expect this not to change that often, so I can definitely see that your suggestion would be better for a lot of applications.
Anyway, long story short, why only have one when you can have both! Thanks.
Max - June 23, 2016
When will be released DP2 ?