Create your Xojo account, download Xojo and begin to bring your mobile app to life. Launch Xojo and begin with the Android Quickstart and Android Tutorial. These two will walk you through creating your first Android app with the Xojo programming language. If you prefer video, we have a number of videos detailing the ins and outs of Android you can find in this playlist. When you are ready for more, the Xojo programming blog already has multiple posts about Xojo Android.

If you are already developing mobile apps in Xojo for iOS, we have some resources for you too. This PDF details the differences (and limitations) between iOS and Android. Please reference this document for the most up to date details.

Register now for our next webinar all about developing Android apps with Xojo!

The Web SDK can help, giving you the opportunity to build anything. In 2022r4 we are adding more examples, to help you start building your custom controls.

Here is the list of the new examples we’ve added in this release.

Custom Button

This is a highly configurable custom button, where you can set any width, height and the border radius.

It is probably the simplest control you can create, but it will help you to practice. This example also demonstrates everything you will need to draw your controls in the Xojo IDE layout editor.

There are plenty of comments in every SDK event to help you get started.

Custom Select

This is an alternative to the WebPopupMenu control, built from scratch using the Web SDK. It also makes use of the DrawControlInLayoutEditor event and contains plenty of comments.

It uses the same techniques we are using for the first example, in a more complex control.

Bootstrap Toast

While in the other examples we are using plain JavaScript, this one demonstrates how to use TypeScript for coding your controls. TypeScript is the language we use to compile our own web controls, and what we also recommend to build them.

As this control needs a folder structure, you can find this example in this path:

Extras > WebSDK > Examples > Bootstrap Toast

This is a special control, as it doesn’t works like the other visual controls. Like a WebDialog, you will need to drop the control into your WebPage. Whenever you want to display a Toast, you’ll have to call a method.

Conclusion

Building your own controls will open a new world of possibilities. If you want to start with your first one, I recommend you to try to recreate the Custom Button example from scratch, with your own code.

In the Web SDK folder, you can also find the WebSDK Docs PDF document, that will help you to understand better what each event does, when and why.

Are you planning to create your own custom controls? Let us know in the forum!

Ricardo has always been curious about how things work. Growing up surrounded by computers he became interested in web technologies in the dial-up connections era. Xojo has been his secret weapon and language of preference since 2018. When he’s not online, chances are he will be scuba diving … or crocheting amigurumis. Find Ricardo on Twitter @piradoiv.

Lots of big projects (both open and closed source) use it for that purpose. We found it has some really great features. For example, they have simplified the process of entering a new case which almost certainly leads to more people using it. The author of a case can close it themselves and then later reopen it without having to ask someone to do so. You can upvote or downvote any case. I could go on and on. That it’s so full-featured and well-thought out is actually unsurprising upon reflection since that’s Gitlab’s business. Naturally we wanted to have all of those features in our own bug/feature tracking system, Feedback. 

Over time that list grew and grew. We decided that some testing of Issues was in order so I wrote an app (in Xojo of course) to transfer all of the data from Feedback into Issues. There are just over 59,000 cases (since Feedback began more than a decade ago) and as you can imagine, transferring all the data along with all the attached files, was a long process. It took nearly a week running almost non-stop 24/7. The API they provide is extensive and allowed me to represent in Issues every case as it was in Feedback. Having all the cases in Issues helped us to see how well it really works.

After much research, test usage and consideration, maintaining bug base software is not the business we are in. While we are disappointed that our nearly complete web-based version is not what we will be using, we are confident that using Issues instead makes more sense. We are in the business of providing Xojo and anything we can do to devote more resources to that, is an improvement. In this case, a system that already does everything we want and more and is being maintained by others out-weighs having one written in Xojo. We already have hundreds of example projects, a great web-based example (Eddie’s Electronics which we will continue to improve), the Xojo Showcase, the Xojo Cloud control panel as well as many internal web apps, all of which are written in Xojo. The development of each of those has resulted in many improvements to the Xojo Web Framework and will continue to do so in the future. Many of you have created even larger and more sophisticated web apps in Xojo such that we have no shortage of feedback from you on how it can be improved. We continue to be grateful for that. We also develop the Xojo IDE and much of the frameworks in Xojo as well. The engineers at Xojo spend more time in Xojo every day than in anything else.

Our migration to Issues is now complete, so launching the Feedback app or clicking on Feedback in the Xojo toolbar will take you to the new Issues system. You will find all of your cases there and you will be notified when they change. You can begin using the new system to look for existing issues, up or down vote them, add new comments, files, create new issues, etc. It’s also very well-designed to promote conversation about an issue. I think you will find it to be easier to use and at the same time more powerful than Feedback. We have implemented single-sign on so you will be automatically logged in using your Xojo credentials. All of the Feedback case links on the forum are being updated to point to the same case but in Issues. 

Issues is far more transparent than Feedback. The benefit to you is that you’ll see more information about each issue. You can see how many issues have been created. You can see to which member of the Xojo team an issue is assigned. You can see which Xojo release (milestone) it’s assigned to as well. Remember that this is only a best guess. When it comes time to begin pre-release testing, if an issue is not yet closed, it likely will be moved to a later release.

We have always strived to be quite open with the community. While change always comes with some cost, we are convinced that this one is in the long-term best interests of the Xojo community and that in the end is what drives us to do what we do.

UPDATE: Now with Xojo 2019r1, you can develop and build console and desktop apps for the Raspberry Pi for free! Download today and get started! Xojo Pi supports Raspberry Pi 2, 3 & 4.

Back at XDC 2015 when we announced Xojo would be adding support for the Raspberry Pi, we thought it was a fun extra for Xojo users. We were not expecting the overwhelming excitement and interest from the Xojo community and makers around the world! To celebrate Pi Day like the true geeks we are, we’re making Xojo Pi licenses free from Pi Day & forever!

Email hello@xojo.com for your free Xojo Pi license activation code.

Share the new with you friends, we’re on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

UPDATED: 4/8/2019

These are some of my favorite technology, software and programming books:

The Pragmatic Programmer (Andrew Hunt, David Thomas)

One of my favorite programming books of all-time. The topics in it are obvious, perhaps even simple, but the advice is value and, well, practical. The book is short, fun-to-read and always worth revisiting and is the inspiration for a video I did: The Pragmatic Programmer.

Eric Sink on the Business of Software (Eric Sink)

Eric is the founder of SourceGear, the makers of Vault version control software. This an excellent collection of Eric’s writings from his blog and MSDN, which is mostly business-focused.

Code Complete (Steve McConnell)

A good book on coding standards, techniques and other things. I’ve had a few things to say about coding standards from time to time.

Programmer’s at Work (Susan Lammers)

This book is an oldie from the 1980’s and has some interesting tales from early pioneers in the software industry.

Joel on Software (Joel Spolsky)

A collection of great articles from Joel Spolsky’s Joel on Software web site. These articles are getting a bit dated, but Joel is a great writer so they are always fun to read.

Getting Real, Rework and Remote: Office Not Required (Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson)

These three books are great short reads and offer useful advice on how to work in the modern software development world. Getting Real is also available for free online.

What are your favorite software-related books?

If you missed it, the recording of the presentation is available in the Dev Center: What is Xojo?

Q: I would use Microsoft SQL Server Express with Xojo Lite. Is this possible?

A: You can certainly use Microsoft SQL Server with Xojo, but you will need to upgrade to a Desktop, Web or Xojo Pro license. Contact customer support to get a quote.

Q: Will Xojo be supporting build apps for Android?

A: Yes! We announced plans for Xojo to be able to create Android apps at the Xojo Developer Conference in October 2016. We will post milestones as we reach them on the Xojo blog.

Q: Is it possible to deploy an iOS app to my own iPad?

A: Yes, absolutely. If you don’t have an Apple Developer account, you can follow these steps to get your free Provisioning Profile from Apple. If you do have an Apple Developer account, the steps are much easier: Deploying to Device.

Q: Is there a way to show the Library and Inspector at same time?

A: Yes! Xojo has a preference to change the Library and Inspector to display as floating palettes. When you do this you can have both open at the same time and can even position them on a second display.

Q: Can iOS apps make use of low-level APIs?

A: You can use the Declare command to directly access iOS APIs. Some examples are also included with Xojo. The open-source iOSKit library provides access to many additional iOS features as well.

Q: How do you connect to database(s)?

A: Xojo has built-in support for SQLite, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle. In addition you can use ODBC to connect to any other database (as long as you have a driver).

Q: How easy is it to access the hardware features of apple devices, such as the GPS or its movements?

A: Xojo has a built-in class for accessing location/GPS information: iOSLocation. The iOSMotion class gives you access to information about device movement from the accelerometer and gyroscope.

Q: How do you create apps that work on both iPhone and iPad, switch screens as appropriate?

A: You can specify different views that are used for iPhone and iPads by setting the Screens. Also, the Split Screen topic in the User Guide shows how iPad apps can have two views displayed at once. There are a few example projects that show this as well:

• Examples/iOS/Apps/XojoNotes
• Examples/iOS/Navigation/SplitViewExample

Q: Where can I find Xojo training materials?

A: You can access our vast library of online learning materials at the Xojo Dev Center. There you will find Quick Starts, Tutorials, User Guide, Reference Guide, Videos and much more. From our Resources page you can access our free textbook, Introduction to Programming with Xojo, and our Teacher’s Guide. Join us for free webinars and virtual events, or watch on-demand webinars and video tutorials covering all kinds of topics. If you are interested in training, Xojo offers training and there are other options in our Add-On Store.

Q: How would I transition a desktop Xojo app to a web service + custom web UI?

A: You can move your desktop app’s business logic to a web app that functions as a web service. More information about that is in the Web Services topic, which has links to many videos on this topic. Another option to help with this is the Luna open-source framework. Once you have your web service set up, you can use the HTTPSocket in desktop, web or iOS apps to connect and use the web service.

Q: As a Filemaker developer, can Xojo display/play photos,video, mp3 files?

A: Yes, Xojo has built-in controls to display pictures, play video and mp3 files. Some of them include: ImageWell, WebImageView, iOSImageView, MoviePlayer, WebMoviePlayer. Also there is a web project that shows how to play audio using HTML5: Examples/Web/Controls/AudioPlayer.

Q: How do I convert my FileMaker Apps (desktop and mobile apps) to Xojo?

A: You’ll find some ideas at the Migrating from FileMaker topic at the Dev Center.

Q: Where can I find examples for developing Xojo plugins?

A: Included in your Xojo download (in the Extras folder) is the PluginsSDK, which has documentation and examples on how to create your own plugins.

Q: Can you say a bit about reports?

A: Xojo desktop projects can use the Report Layout Editor to design reports that can be printed or displayed on the screen. There are also several 3rd-party reporting products available.

Q: Info about Raspberry Pi and for Apple TV?

A: Xojo can create desktop, web and console apps that run on Raspberry Pi 2 and 3. You can find more information, with some example hardware projects here: Raspberry Pi. Xojo cannot directly create Apple TV apps, but you can use a Xojo web app as a web service to send content to Apple TV TVML apps using the open-source Viewpoint project shown by Tim Dietrich in the most recent Virtual Xojo User Group meeting.

Q: What happens with my Xojo Apps when the user updates their Operating System? Will I have to make an update for the Apps?

A: Your Xojo apps are generally not affected by OS updates. Of course, you’ll want to use the latest version of Xojo to ensure you have the most recent support for the latest operating systems.

Q: How active is the referral forum for the Pro users, specifically from the freelance developer perspective?

A: This varies greatly, but currently there are about 2 posts per week on average with about 28 items currently listed.

Thanks!

Thanks to all the attendees for the great questions! Be sure to give Xojo a try today. It’s free! You’ll soon be making apps faster than you ever thought possible. Additional “What is Xojo?” webinars are scheduled for February and March. Be sure to join so you can ask your own questions. For more casual conversations, join our Lunch with Xojo hangouts in February and March.