April 2015 Summaries

In April 2015, a workshop on building mobile apps with the Ionic framework was announced to take place at ng-Vegas, led by software engineer Terence Carroll, who has experience with both startups and large enterprises. The workshop promises a hands-on introduction to mobile development using Ionic, where attendees will learn to create, build, and publish cross-platform mobile apps for both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, covering topics such as native versus hybrid apps, Ionic UI components, and the Ionic CLI. Attendees are recommended to have a basic understanding of JavaScript, Angular, HTML, CSS, and some familiarity with the command line, though no prior mobile development experience is required. Carroll, who is passionate about teamwork and has a background in AngularJS, Ionic, C#, iOS, and Android, will guide participants in setting up a mobile development environment, planning, designing, and deploying their apps.

April 21, 2015, marked the launch of the Ionic shop, allowing enthusiasts to purchase Ionic-themed shirts and stickers from shop.ionic.io and StickerMule. The initiative aims to enable Ionic developers and supporters to showcase their affiliation at events or in everyday life. As this venture represents Ionic's initial step into retail, customers are encouraged to provide feedback on any purchasing issues. The clothing sizes are unisex, and the store emphasizes appreciation for the community's ongoing support through various contributions to the Ionic ecosystem, including usage, advocacy, and educational efforts.

The book "Developing an Ionic Edge," published by Bleeding Edge Press, is a collaborative effort by a group of developers known as "The Hybrid Collective," who provide insights into building applications using the Ionic framework. The authors, including Keith D. Moore, Robin van Baalen, and Anton Shevchenko, utilized tools like Google Hangouts and GitHub to coordinate their efforts, focusing on showcasing Ionic's features through the development of the Trendicity app, which integrates functionalities like Google Maps, OAuth2, and platform-specific UI elements. They emphasize the ease of creating cross-platform applications with Ionic due to its built-in adaptability for iOS and Android, sparing developers from extensive customization for different platforms. The book is aimed at both highlighting the rich functionalities of Ionic and guiding developers through practical implementations, making Ionic a compelling choice for those needing a versatile framework for mobile application development.

In a discussion of Angular 2's evolution, this text highlights the significant shift from Angular 1's use of controllers, $scope, and directives to a more streamlined component model in Angular 2, which embraces object-oriented programming principles akin to languages like Java and C#. Angular 2 components replace the complex meta-structure of Angular 1 by encapsulating instance data, event handlers, and templates in a single, cohesive unit, making the framework easier to use and less error-prone. This transition to a cleaner, more explicit design aligns with modern web standards and prepares Angular for future technologies such as Web Components and Shadow DOM. The text also introduces the concept of annotations in Angular 2, used to define components with attributes like selectors and templates, and hints at new dependency injection and data binding methods to be discussed in future posts.

Customizing an Ionic app using SASS can enhance its appearance but may also lead to syntax errors that disrupt the build stream. The article demonstrates how a missing semicolon in the SASS file can cause a syntax error and break the gulp build stream, highlighting the inconvenience this poses during app development. To resolve this, the solution involves modifying the gulpfile.js to include an error logging option in the SASS task, which logs errors to the console without breaking the build stream. This adjustment allows developers to continue working on SASS files while receiving notifications of syntax errors, thus maintaining the functionality of the live reload server.

To celebrate the New Zealand launch of Disney’s "How to Get Away with Murder" TV show, TVNZ Blacksand and Rush Digital developed a unique murder mystery game app using Ionic, presented as an "Alternate Reality Game." The app simulates the internal communications hub of a fictional law firm where players, acting as junior members of a legal defense team, work to clear their client, Hilary Finn, accused of murder. Players engage with various tasks, released over six weeks, which involve interacting with real-world elements like social media and phone calls to gather clues and decide whether to "leak" or "bury" evidence, gaining points and engaging fans aged 18-30. The development team used Ionic for its cost-effectiveness and cross-platform capabilities, completing the app in under six weeks with bespoke UI and seamless integration across Android and iOS.

Max Lynch, CEO of Ionic, discusses the significant changes introduced in Angular 2 and its impact on the Ionic framework, expressing excitement about the advancements made and the potential for the community to embrace these updates. He highlights the transition from Angular 1 to Angular 2, emphasizing the shift from a complex system of directives, scopes, and digest cycles to a new component-based architecture, which promises to simplify development processes. Lynch notes that the Ionic team is one of the early adopters of Angular 2, and they are dedicated to sharing their experiences and educating developers through a series of blog posts. The introduction to Angular 2 includes setting up a project with a quickstart guide, creating basic components, and running applications using ES6 and module loading support, with a move towards TypeScript to streamline the toolchain. The article serves as a precursor to future posts that will delve deeper into Angular 2's component system, aiming to facilitate a smoother transition for developers familiar with Angular 1.

Ionic has introduced a new feature in version 1.3.19 of its CLI, designed to improve access to documentation, enhancing the ease of development. The "ionic docs" command allows users to quickly access specific sections of the Ionic framework documentation through their browser. Users can explore all help documents with "ionic docs ls" or receive suggestions for document names using "ionic docs repeat" if they are unsure of the exact title. The update encourages developers to install the latest version of the Ionic CLI via npm to benefit from these new documentation access features.