Mobile app questions

Wappler General
1

Hi!

After many months, I feel like my web app is good enough and I’d like to start with the mobile app. Back to being a complete beginner…

  1. When starting a new mobile project, will it be “connected” to the sockets from the main project? Can the mobile app get realtime data from the main project’s api’s?

  2. Are push notifications possible? (New event from socket -> push notification)

  3. Can I design any look & feel animations etc

  4. Can I build for Ios & android?

I found another platform which focusses only on app creation with react native + expo, but they don’t support sockets and if all possible I prefer to work with Wappler…

2

  1. You can use GET and POST for api/database actions. I believe they also recently added built-in support for Socket.io though i haven’t tried it myself.

  2. Wappler builds on Capacitor, which allows for you to do this with a bit of extra code.

  3. Wappler has Framework7 and Bootstrap which work with App Connect inside of Wappler, though you could technically add any design framework you like. As for animations, framework7 has some built in page transitions, but for icon animations I use Lottie.

  4. Yes, but if you want to publish or build for iOS you’ll need XCode which is uniquely on Mac.

If you’ve already created a website with wappler you can connect your API actions directly within the app (you’d need to create a web project anyways since mobile apps don’t support PHP).

Although the docs are a bit outdated for mobile apps its a good starting point to see what you can do with Wappler.

1 Like
3

@Teodor Could you confirm please that if I build a mobile app, I can get socket events from the main apps api’s into the mobile app? Couldn’t really find info on it in docs and forum.

4

Thank you. Do you think that framework 7 and Wappler’s general dev for mobile etc are good for modern production apps?

My concern is that Wappler’s main focus is on web apps, and that the mobile development is maybe a bit behind with features

5

hi
i see no one replied to you.
its been a month. what have you found with your mobile learning?

6

Hi, I went with another solution for the mobile app, using the server api’s created with Wappler. Didn’t really try Wappler’s mobile app creation though so might just be good.

7

thats interesting.
i played around with tons of front end tools, because i always had MSSQL back end and a way to create endpoints to that data.
draftbit
bubble
appgyver
InDe
(and more i can’t even remember)

but something (or many things) always eliminated those tools. most DID produce a nice ‘proper’ mobile UI, but then drawbacks.

which did you use?

8

I’m using draftbit. I don’t need to do complicated stuff on it, I just display and update data with the Api’s I created with Wappler. It was enough for me to make it look like a nice and a proper app, it’s quite expensive though.

Also, you should consider that if you use another platform for the app, that it complicates stuff with Wappler’s security provider for user logins etc. I implemented Auth0 to manage that part on both platforms.

I recommend to first check if Wappler’s mobile builder is for you though, I’m quite sure that you can do all with it. I needed to use another platform because of specific external reasons

9

oh, i’m not trying others. i’ve already looked at all that crap. thats why i’m here :slight_smile:
IMO, draftbit’s only strength (that they try to sell you on) is that you can export your source if you need to leave them, vs rewriting from scratch if you developed in Appgyver, for example, and then wanted to switch tools.
BUT thats only useful if you stay in the angular React arena where your source is compatible. wouldn’t help you at all if you went to another tool.

but what was so deficient in Wappler that you had to go to another tool?
You couldn’t make a “nice and a proper app” here?

10

I’m sure you can create nice mobile stuff with Wappler. Draftbit builds in react native which is more of a standard now in mobile development, easier to hire people to work on it.

11

You can make very nice mobile Mobile Applications with Wappler. Simple CSS makes the world of difference to getting some real quality look and feel away from standard Bootstrap or FW7 layouts, and then it is hard to tell the difference between a Wappler App or any other App. Its easier now than ever before to get started, now that Capacitor is integrated. The only thing Wappler can not do is submit to the Play/App Stores. One big tip is to set your physical device up with Developer options enabled. Aside from that it is actually quite simple to get started. You can use any API, either using the API Connector or your own Wappler based API’s (Server Connect Actions, the two Project approach, one for the App itself and one for your Server Actions, remember Android/IOS can not execute PHP or run Node so it has to be external to the App itself, that is why two Projects are required)… Wappler built Apps play nicely with Android Studio too! Can manage store deployments there, and signing etc, plus a lot more if required, such as debugging. Best thing to do is just give it a go for yourself!

12

Hi @alpine,
Could you precise the way to achieve Push Notification?
MAybe you could share with us the “bit of extra code” or the way you build it?
Thanks