Release Notes

Version 134, May 4, 2013

  • You will need to upgrade your copy of the MIT AICompanion for this release. Look for version 2.07 in the Google Play Store. [More Information].
    NOTE: This version may not auto update from Google Play because it requires an additional permission. We added READ_LOGS permission to aid in debugging.
  • The Web Component can now do the http “PUT” and “DELETE” methods.
  • Added a “Slider” component. Permits you to choose a numeric value based on the position of a slider which you can move.
  • Updated the Twitter Component to use the latest Twitter API.
  • The Webviewer Component can now use location services.
  • You can now decide whether or not buttons with images give feedback when pressed.
  • Bugfixes.

Version 133, February 5, 2013

  • You will need to upgrade your copy of the MIT AICompanion for this release. Look for version 2.05 in the Google Play Store. [More Information].
  • Updated Texting Component. The property “ReceivingEnabled” is no longer a boolean but is instead a numeric value. 1 = receiving disabled. 2 = Receiving enabled, but only when the app is running. 3 = Receiving enabled, both when the app is running and when it isn’t (in which case a notification is displayed, as it does for the v132 release). So 1 is the equivalent to “false” in the old release and 3 is equivalent to “true” and 2 is a new option which emulates the behavior of the old texting component (prior to release v129) where texts could be received only when the app was running.
  • New Button Press Behavior: When an image is set as a button background, it will change color (lighten) when pressed in order to give the user feedback that the button was pressed.
  • Disable Horizontal/Vertical and Alignment properties for HorizontalArrangement and Vertical Arrangment in designer when width/length is automatic. Disable Vertical Alignment for Screen when Scrollable is set.
  • Added logic to ShowChooseDialog & ShowTexDialog methods to include a Cancel button based on a new arg to indicate cancelable state.
  • Incorporation of the “Bugsense” Error reporting system in the MIT AICompanion App. This system will report bugs directly back to MIT.
  • Bugfixes.

Version 132, December 12, 2012

  • Wireless Access to App Inventor. The new MIT AICompanion App, available at the Google Play Store and for direct downloading, may be used to develop App Inventor Apps instead of using a USB Cable to connect your phone. All that is needed is a wireless (WiFi) network accessible to both the phone and the PC used for development.

Version 131, December 10, 2012

  • Image Picker is updated to permit selecting images both from the camera and from other Photo Albums accessible from the device. It also copies the selected image to a file on the SD card and returns the path to that file as it's “image” argument to AfterPicking.
  • Camcorder component: Minor modification to where recorded videos are stored. Now stored in the Camcorder default location.
  • Bugfixes and Cleanup work on the Texting Component.
  • Fix to buildserver that on occasion resulted in packages that required external libraries (such as Texting and Fusion Tables) to not have the correct libraries included. Note: This was fixed in v130c patch release as well.
  • Notifier component fixed to display reasonable sized fonts on both older and newer versions of Android.

Version 130, November 9, 2012

  • Migrated FusiontablesControl to the new V1 API library.

    The implementation follows V1 migration guide:
    https://developers.google.com/fusiontables/docs/v1/migration_guide

    The main changes are:

    • The API has a new URL: https://www.googleapis.com/fusiontables/v1/query
    • Oauth 2.0 authentication is used with an API key. Developers must now register with Google and get an API key.
    • The Google AccountManager is used to select an account and obtain an access_token that is used in all queries. (Similar to old approach)
    • Google API client libraries are used in the implementation.
    • All queries use the client library's Sql object to make the actual requests. This is similar to the deprecated version.
    • A new method, SendQuery, is added to perform API v1 requests. The updated FusiontablesControl is backwards compatible. Previously written applications, using DoQuery, will still work until the end of the year.

  • Modified Texting component.

    The main changes are:

    • Now works with Wifi. This solution using Google Voice. It requires users to sign up online for Google Voice and to download and install the Google Voice mobile application. The mobile application is used for incoming messages. For outgoing messages the application uses Google AccountManager to authenticate the user and then uses their Google Voice account to send messages.
    • Applications that include the revised component can receive text messages even when they are not running, with the user being notified on the status bar of incoming messages.
    • Component now uses OAuth2Helper, same as used in FusiontablesControl.

  • Updated Twitter component with latest version of twitter4j. Fixing bug that makes some numerical replies from Twitter fail.
  • Added zipalign tool to the packaging process allowing applications to be placed in the play store.
  • Added Progress bar, allowing for the monitoring of the application build process.
  • Modified the Blockseditor so that it now connects and works with the Samsung Galaxy S III.
  • Fixed Full Screen Video to work with older android versions.
  • Added speed and heading to callback for Sprite.Flung and Canvas.flung.
  • Added transition animations to screens.
  • Added caching of Message of the Day messages.
  • We also made minor User Interface improvements and bugfixes.

Version 129, September 11, 2012

  • Resize-able and Full Screen Video support. You can now resize an existing Video Player component from the blocks editor. In Android 2.0+ you can set a Video Player to use the entire phone's screen. The <back> key will restore it to its original size.
  • Horizontal and Vertical Arrangements can now align their contents. Arrangements and Screens can now align their contents along Left, Right, Center, Top and Bottom edges.
    These settings have no effect if the arrangement size is set to automatic, and vertical setting has no effect if the screen is scrollable.
  • Canvas and Sprite Improvements. The new events "Flung", "TouchUP" and "TouchDown" have been added to Sprites and Canvases. When a user touches a Sprite and then quickly swipes their finger in some direction, a "Flung" event is issued for the Sprite which gives the direction and speed of the swipe. This can be used to determine the direction and relative speed to move a Sprite. Canvases also receive a Flung event so a user can perform the swiping (Fling) motion anywhere on a Canvas and the MIT App Inventor programmer can decide how to handle it.
    When a user places their finger on a Sprite, a TouchDown event is now triggered. When they lift their finger a TouchUP event is triggered. These events are in addition to the existing "Touched" event.
  • Added new screen orientation settings: (1) User (let's the app's user select portrait or landscape; and (2) Sensor (auto-rotates as the phone rotates)
  • We also made minor User Interface improvements and bugfixes.

Version 128, August 6, 2012

  • Minor bugfixes associated with building from sources.
  • Added code to map account e-mail addresses. A special configuration file (fixids) is used to map Google Email addresses to other Google Email Addresses. This is used to fix some people who have mixed case letters in their email addresses when in the past they didn't.
  • The Blocks editor is now signed with a public CA issued certificate. People should no longer see a warning dialog box from Java that they have to click past.
  • Added more detailed logging to the build server.

Version 127, July 24, 2012

  • Added a Camcorder component. It works similarly to the Camera component but captures Video instead of photos.
    • Known Issue: If you play back a recorded video, it will be very small. This will be fixed in an upcoming release.
  • Allow Image Sprites to rotate and resize simultaneously.
  • Bugfix in Webviewer component where it could under certain circumstances get a null pointer exception.
  • Permit Application's versionName and versionCode to be edited in the Designer as a property of the Screen1 component. This is necessary to permit updating of applications submitted to the Google Play Store.

Version 126, June 26, 2012

  • Upgrading the Player Component - Added a Completed event, an isPlaying method, a Looping and Volume property. Modified the Stop method to seek back to the beginning of the song.
  • Updated Player Component Documentation.
  • Added new flag to the launch-buildserer script allowing the ability to specify log file and output path.
  • Added a link to the main panel for access to Release Notes.
  • Updated text in Quizme tutorial.
  • Added check for invalid file names.
  • Modify LocationSensor component to include designer properties for time and distance notification intervals.
  • Cleaned up misleading warning and error messages.
  • Updated documentation on how to restart the app from the blocks editor.
  • Added new property, MinimumInterval, to accelerometer, that keeps it from reporting Shaking events too often.
  • Changed the error reporting so that red error messages in the Designer disappear when the user clicks the mouse anywhere on the screen.
  • Updated documentation for color blocks to match the changes made in "make color" and "split color"
  • Change version to come from Git rather than Mercurial.

Version 125, May 6, 2012

  • Added ability for apk's created with this version of AppInventor, to be uploaded to Google Play.
  • Fixed Searching in documentation.
  • launch_buildserver script now accepts command line arguments
  • Fixed numerous issues in the documentation pages.
  • App Inventor should now work better with IE9
  • Fixed signout link
  • Added a Shape property to the Button component
  • Fixed orientation sensor documentation bug
  • Made changes to make Button FontSize dynamic
  • Updated notepad.jnlp to fix broken link.
  • Made the "/learn", "/about", and "/forum" subtrees not require login.
  • Added some minor logging improvements.