CODAPPS

This course is an introduction to coding and programming through a simple project: creating a mobile app that runs natively on Android and iOS smartphones.

Open

This course is open: all the lecture materials are free and can be reused, under a Creative Commons licence.

Tutorials available in web pages, pdf, slides, and ebooks!

The course was originally made of videos and Word documents. They are now written with asciidoc, a format which makes it easy to convert these tutorials in slides, web pages, and pdf documents. Basically, sharing and collaborating online becomes easier, without being blocked by a proprietary file format.

Questions and answers? Using Github issues

I moved to Github as a way to handle Q & As. Read the lesson about how to use it!

Start here!

• Welcome!
  • How to use the Q&A forum on Github to get help on the course ( web page, slides, pdf, source)
• Module 1. Setup of NetBeans and Codename One: the tools we need to create a first app
  1. Installing NetBeans and the "Codename One" plugin if you have a Mac computer. ( web page, slides, pdf, source)
  2. Installing NetBeans and the "Codename One" plugin if you have a PC. ( web page, slides, pdf, source)
  3. Checking for updates of the "Codename One" plugin ( web page, slides, pdf, source)
  4. Creating a project and previewing your first app ( web page, slides, pdf, source)
• Module 2. Essential notions of software development and creation of screens (aka "Forms") for the app
  1. Essential notions and vocabulary ( web page, slides, pdf, source)
  2. Creating a Form: two different approaches ( web page, slides, pdf, source)
  3. Adding Labels and Buttons to a Form ( web page, slides, pdf, source)
  4. Adding pictures to a Form ( web page, slides, pdf, source)
• Module 3. Designing the app: styling and layout of the user interface
  1. Advanced styling of Components ( web page, slides, pdf, source)
  2. Using Layouts ( web page, slides, pdf, source)
  3. Using Containers ( web page, slides, pdf, source)
• Module 4. Testing your app on Android and iPhones, releasing your app on Google's Play Stor and Apple's App Store
  1. Quick overview of the process to test and release apps ( web page, slides, pdf, source)
  2. Testing on Android phones and publishing on Google's Play Store ( web page, slides, pdf, source)
  3. Testing on iPhones and publishing on Apple's App Store ( web page, slides, pdf, source)
  4. Errors in the test and release process: how to fix them ( web page, slides, pdf, source)
• Module 5. Essentials of coding
  1. Variables and objects: to define and store stuff ( web page, slides, pdf, source)
  2. Classes and methods: to make your app do stuff, and organize your code ( web page, slides, pdf, source)
  3. A toolkit of essential coding tricks to make your app agile, fast, and able to handle a lot of variables ( web page, slides, pdf, source)
  4. Coding cheatsheet - a handy summary of this module ( web page, pdf, source)
• Module 6. Designing the mobile version of the Cookie clicker (by Orteil)
  1. The Cookie clicker ( web page, slides, pdf, source)
  2. The Cookie clicker: coding the layout of the main screen ( web page, slides, pdf, source)
  3. The Cookie clicker: adding Components to design the app ( web page, slides, pdf, source)
• Module 7. Animating the app
  1. The Cookie clicker: clicking the cookie ( web page, pdf, source)
  2. The Cookie clicker: clicking the tools to increase the cookie production ( web page, pdf, source)
  3. The Cookie clicker: animating the count of cookies ( web page, pdf, source)