Titanium SDK 3.0

Two days before Appcelerator released Titanium SDK version 3.0. This  is one of the major release from Appcelerator. This release contains 170 new features and enhancement.

Here I have listed few features based on my personal opinion.

Important New Features in 3.0 SDK

• Alloy FrameworkMVC framework for Titanium Mobile
• On-Device DebuggingOn-device debugging on Android and iOS. Android via USB, iOS via WiFi . Learn more about debugging.
• Android Action Bar Support for the Android action bar
• Command-Line Interface    Support for Node.js-based command-line interface
  

Other Features

• Titanium.App.disableNetworkActivityIndicator  - Prevents network activity indicator from being displayed. (New API, supported on iPhone and iPad.)
• Titanium.Platform.manufacturer - Gets the value of the manufacturer property. (New API, supported on Android, iPhone and iPad.)
• Titanium.UI.AUTOLINK_EMAIL_ADDRESSES
• Titanium.UI.ActivityIndicatorStyle - A set of constants for the styles available for Titanium.UI.ActivityIndicator objects. (Added support for Android.)
• Titanium.UI.Android.PROGRESS_INDICATOR_DIALOG
• Titanium.UI.AlertDialog.style (iPhone and iPad.)
• Titanium.UI.ScrollableView.dragend
• Titanium.UI.ScrollableView.dragstart
• Titanium.UI.TextField.maxLength(Added support for Android.)
• Titanium.UI.View.twofingertap(Added support for Android.)

How to Update?
“For new users, download Titanium 3.0
For existing Titanium Studio users, you will be prompted to update automatically on the next restart. You can also manually check for updates by selecting the Check for Titanium SDK Updates from the Help menu within Titanium Studio ”

Important Links

• Announcing Titanium 3.0
• Breaking Changes in Titanium SDK 3.0 (impotrant article to read befor updating your Ti SDK to 3.0)
• Titanium SDK 3.0 release notes

Appc Mobile Dev Challenge App - ShareCar

My App(ShareCar) for Appcelerator Mobile Dev Challenge



A new Car Sharing service for commuters in India.

Simple and intuitive-to-use car sharing(carpooling) application empowers ride-sharing in real time within India. A ShareCar is a must have app which enables passengers or drivers to save money, commute, carbon emissions and reducing traffic congestion. This app helps you find interesting people in your neighborhood attending the same destination that you are heading to. Users can offer a ride to them or join their ride. Users can easily search, connect and organize their car share together, dividing the fuel cost. It lets you forge useful relationships with like-minded people. Simply use the journey planner to search the database by date and route. Using ShareCar user can share their ride information easily on Facebook.


Why Share?

• Fuel is very expensive 
• Control air pollution & go green
• Save oil, time and money
• Reduce traffic
• Make new friends
• Helps you, helps someone else

Key Features

• Users can quickly and easily insert carpools(offer/request)
• Intuitive messaging system
• Easy overview and management of listings
• Detailed user profile
• Detailed search options for national travel (offer or request, trips by women for women, for smokers / non-smokers, etc.)
• No limit on the number of rides you offer or take
• Easily flip through with clear search result details
  

Technical Features

• Support for Android and iOS 
• Build by Appcelerator Titanium Framework
• Backend - Appcelerator Cloud Services(ACS)
  [Cloud Users, Social Integration,  Custom Objects,  Photos, Messages]

Challengepost URL :  http://appcelerator.challengepost.com/submissions/9857-sharecar

Get connected, socialize, and save money and fuel.

ACS Social Integration

Do you know, How to create ACS cloud user account using Facebook login?
Yes, we can do using ACS Social Integrations.

The external account login will create a ACS Services account if it hasn't been created, otherwise, it will login using the user who has the matching external account info.

STEP 1 - Facebook login in Titanium App 
Use below sample code for Facebook login

STEP 2 - Social Integration
After successfull login with Facebook, you will get Facebook accessToken, you can retrive this token using "Ti.Facebook.accessToken".

To integrate your facebook account with cloud, you need to pass three parameters to "Cloud.SocialIntegrations.externalAccountLogin" method,

id - External account's user id, optional for facebook. ACS server will obtain the uid using facebook token if id is missing
type - Type of the external account social media like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter(Currently only facebook token will be validated by the ACS server)
token - Token provided by the external account
add SocialIntegrations in Facebook login event listener

After the successful ACS Social Integrations go to
https://my.appcelerator.com/apps -> ypou-app -> Manage ACS -> Development -> Users
Here you will find a new cloud user account, which was created by external account login.

Other Methods
externalAccountLink - Associate an external account with an existing Appcelerator Cloud Services user account

externalAccountUnlink - Disassociate an external account from a Appcelerator Cloud Services user account.

searchFacebookFriends - Retrieves a list of Facebook Friends

References: 
http://docs.appcelerator.com/titanium/2.1/index.html#!/api/Titanium.Cloud.SocialIntegrations
https://cloud.appcelerator.com/docs/api/v1/social/loginexternal

Locking Android Orientation Mode

You can lock the orientation mode for Android in Titanium by successfully implementing the following steps :

By following the below steps you can lock the orientation mode throughout the app.

 1) Create a custom AndroidManifest.xml (copy this from original generated source
"build/android/AndroidManifest.xml")
2) Copy this on the created folder "platform/android/AndroidManifest.xml" at the top level of your project.(Inside your project root)

Locking Android Orientation Mode

3) Add this: android:screenOrientation="portrait" to all activities
4) Remove this: "|orientation" from all activities.

Here is my AndroidManifest.xml.


Here you can download the complete working project from my Github account Titanium-Android-Orientation

Appcelerator Titanium Alloy Framework

My Presentation About Appcelerator Alloy Frame work

Appcelerator Titanium Alloy from Karthi Ponnusamy

Here you can download the complete working project from my Github account  Appcelerator Titanium Alloy Sample App