Xavvi: Demo and Your Questions Answered

Our recent Zoom meeting on Xavvi was so successful we had to convert it to a full blown Webinar to allow everyone to attend that wanted to. Thank you everyone who came along and brought your questions! Even though the session overran by half an hour, we still didn’t get through all of your questions. Therefore we have transcribed them here and answered as fully as we can.

Intro and Vision

If you couldn’t make the webinar, here is the overview introduction to Xavvi, and why we are doing it, from Kevin Miller, CEO.

Your Questions, our Answers

Because some of the questions were essentially repeated by different people, and sometimes the way the question was phrased wasn’t entirely clear, I have here paraphrased some questions or merged them together. Hopefully we’ve covered everything!

About the AI tech

is Xavvi based on chatGPT? Jose Garza, Rolf Kocherhans

Yes, Xavvi uses ChatGPT as well as other models from OpenAI. It is possible we will use other AI providers in the future.

Will Xavvi apps themselves have an AI widget to enrich the app with AI for end users? Don B

Yes, you will be able to add AI to your apps for your end users.

If you type a prompt and then are not happy with the result, how easy is it to go back and adjust the prompt as with ChatGPT? Sean Cole

Very easy, you will be able to go back and change your prompt.

Will you be training the AI Xavvi uses so that it gets better over time? Tom Glod, Andre de Tienne

Yes, we will – and you can help! You will have the option to opt in or opt out of allowing us to use your experiences with Xavvi’s AI to improve and add to that training.

Can you tell the AI to add more elements/gadgets to build complex Apps? Yiannis Laouris

Yes you will be able to. That’s exactly how we envision it working, you build the app incrementally, using the elements we will train the AI to recognise.

Will the new AI be able to analyze your code and automatically list your local variables for you? Clovice Lewis

Clovice, we are so glad you asked. Yes, we are really looking forward to this being possible! It may take a bit of training but its definitely going to be a target for our team to get this ability in the AI perfect.

Watch the AI demo given by James Conway, from the Webinar:

About the Pricing and Features

What is a workspace? Sandro Rizzuto

A workspace is where you log in to create your apps, together with your cloud backend that handles your apps data.

How many apps can you have in a Workspace? David Simpson

You can have as many front-end/UI apps as you like within a workspace. You can only connect them to a single backend for data storage – there is one backend per workspace, including (end) user account management, data storage and configured cloud actions.

Why can’t I publish for all platforms using the Business license? David Simpson

If you want to publish for all platforms then get the Scale license, or alternatively you can bring your own LiveCode license for specific platforms to augment your Xavvi licensing.

Can you download your stacks from Xavvi to continue on the desktop LiveCode? James Hale

Yes.

What is a Cloud Work Unit? Sandro Rizzuto

Cloud Work Units are a name for any cloud-based activity that uses cloud resources including data transfer, cloud computation usage, AI requests and more. Cloud Work Units include everything except Storage or Backups which are listed separately at each tier level. It is not possible to for us to tell you exactly how many Units your app will need, as each app is different. Some apps use a lot of data transfer, others do more computational activities in the cloud. We recommend building your app and trying it out. We will report a breakdown of your use of Units within your dashboard. We have aimed to make the provision of units sufficient for the usage of your app at each tier. For example, one Unit if used purely on data transfer it would equate to several hundreds of GB of transfer.

When do subscription pledges for Xavvi start from? Mark

You will get access to the beta versions just as soon as we can make them available, but this will not start your pledge period. The clock will not start ticking on your pledges until we ship the first stable version of Xavvi. So if you buy a year of Business via a pledge today, your year doesn’t start until we ship.

Where can I learn more about the expected pricing for Xavvi? Multiple people

Go here for a complete line-up of the pricing.

About LiveCode vs Xavvi

Will there be upgrade pricing or perks for existing LiveCode users? Maddog Dean, Lagi Pittas, Heinrich Beck

The campaign pledges were designed to reward our existing user base. The licenses are at a lower price. The Business pledge tier includes the Xavvi Extensions Pack for LiveCode. As a campaign backer special you will be able to use that extensions pack at any level of Xavvi licensing in future, including the lower cost Individual.

For someone who is new to LiveCode, should I consider Xavvi instead? Dennis Burnham

Yes, Xavvi will be much easier for a new user to get started with.

What aspects of the Xavvi tech will also be in LiveCode? Andrew Bell, Tarik Belhaj

All the underlying “engine” technologies will be available in both. So for example, the ability to create your own Script Widgets will be in both Xavvi and LiveCode 10. Where they differ is in the components that we provide. The new Xavvi widget set, API connectors and Cloud backend will only be available within LiveCode 10 if you purchase the Xavvi Extensions Pack for LiveCode. The all new Xavvi web-based development tools, one-click deployment and AI features will only be available in Xavvi.

If I have a LiveCode license valid for future versions, and LiveCode transitions to Xavvi, what will my status be? Randy Padawer

We will continue to maintain support for LiveCode and you will be able to continue to use your LiveCode license with it. These are separate products and we’re expecting to continue to support LiveCode for the foreseeable future.

Does LiveCode 10 still exist ? Or is it now Xavvi? Ian Gordon, Clarence Martin

LiveCode 10 still exists, we have recently released LiveCode 10 dp-5 with substantial improvements to its Web engine. We are continuing with development of LiveCode.

Will the new Web deployment features be coming to LiveCode 10 or only be present in Xavvi?

All the new technology improvements such as the smaller, faster web-engine will be available in LiveCode 10.

Can I transfer my LiveCode 10 Web license to Xavvi? Ian Gordon

Please get in touch with us so we can help you with this.

Is data binding possible in Livecode 10 to Firebase, AWS or other providers? Thomas Feger, Sandro Rizzuto

It remains the case that you can roll your own connectors to these database options and a multitude of others from LiveCode.

Will it be possible to import current Livecode stacks into Xavvi? Matthias Rebbe

Yes.

About the Xavvi Extensions Pack

What is included in the Xavvi Extensions pack? Sandro Rizzuto

The extensions pack allows you to continue developing an app you started in Xavvi in the desktop based LiveCode IDE. Included are 30 or so new widgets covering using material design, rendering data and so forth. The new responsive design library is included. The new API connectors to Stripe, Zapier, OpenAI and other platforms are included. Access to the new Cloud back-end data store is included.

Do you have to use the Cloud within the Xavvi Extensions Pack? James Hale

No, you can continue to use your own backend if you prefer.

Can I use the extensions pack directly in LiveCode Desktop without the need to create and export a project in Xavvi first?

Yes, you can develop with the extensions pack in LiveCode desktop, which will connect to Cloud via your Xavvi license

What will the Xavvi Extensions Pack cost outside the crowd funding? David Simpson

It is not available to purchase separately, because you must have a Xavvi license of some type to use it. The cloud enabled widgets and cloud backend cannot work without a Xavvi license. The lowest tier that the Xavvi Extensions Pack will be included in after we ship will be the Business tier. During the campaign, you can get a Business pledge which includes Extensions, and if you later downgrade to Individual you will be able to keep your Xavvi Extensions pack.

About the Tech in general

Does Xavvi support responsive design? James Hale

Yes. There is a brand new system for doing responsive layouts, including multi-column layouts and grids that does not require coding included. The development environment also has the ability to change layout with a single click so you can easily hone different layouts.

Is it possible to install Xavvi on my own server for the purposes of GDPR? Johann Käser

We will be offering this as a custom option, it is not within the current pricing lineup. Please contact us to discuss your exact requirements.

Will the player control be available in Xavvi? Peter Bogdanoff

Yes, we have an almost completed player object for Web which will be incorporated into Xavvi.

Will the script compiler be part of Xavvi? Glen Bojsza

Yes,  bytecode compilation will be included, but optimization and machine code generation will be a separate add-on as it is for LiveCode.

What are Cloud Actions? Can you give an example? Sandro Rizzuto

A Cloud Action is a script which runs in the cloud to perform an action which cannot be done directly from the browser. For example, access to many REST APIs require a secret api key which must be kept secure. Cloud actions will allow easy access such APIs (and many other things) without having to administer a server directly yourself.

How does deployment work? Can a built application be run by the user on the internet, or does it need to be downloaded? Steven Goldberg, Claudio Feres

The apps built by Xavvi are on the internet, they run in a browser by default. They are never downloaded unless you specifically decide to download them to build for desktop.

How can a developer currently using LiveCode 10 benefit from Xavvi’s new ways of working? Martin Koob

You can benefit by being far more productive. Instead of spending time coding interface objects or building blocks that every app needs such as login screens and database backends, you can just drag those components out, apply whatever tweaks you need for your unique app, and then move on. Spend your time on being creative with what your app can do, instead of reinventing the wheel. And dare I say, even the most experienced coder can sometimes learn something new by reading the code generated by AI and finding new ways to apply it!

About the Campaign

What will happen if the pledges don’t meet the goal? Randy Padawer, Bruce Balmer, Nikos Kazantzis

If we fall short of the goal we will assess the situation carefully and see what we are able to deliver and when. One possibility is that we still deliver Xavvi but need to find other ways to achieve a launch marketing plan. If the campaign was to end significantly short of target, we may also have to extend the timeline for delivery and reduce the features we deliver in the first version. In order to be sure we have a great launch in 2023 with all the features including the full AI integration, we need to make our target.

Is there a trial version of the state now up somewhere to try out? Urs Rutschi

Not yet. Stay tuned for this becoming available.

Do you have a Xavvi marketing plan? Paul Dupuis

Yes, we certainly do! Roughly half of the funds from the campaign are earmarked for making as big a splash as we can with Xavvi.

Is LiveCode Team able to develop and maintain 2 frameworks? Albert Meguira

Yes. Remember, Xavvi is built on LiveCode, so we need to continue to develop and maintain that engine, it’s not twice the amount of work to also continue to build LiveCode.

When do you expect Xavvi to be available? Ian Gordon, Bruce Balmer

We’re aiming for the last quarter of this year. As always, we do not give specific release dates, it’s far too complex a project to be able to do that with confidence. However we are a long way down the track and the end of this year is reasonably realistic.

Where can I support this campaign?

Please go here and pledge!