Mobile App Development: Make iOS & Android Apps Without Code

The best way to ensure you have a smooth development process is by creating an outline. This can be done on some scratch paper, but for demonstration purposes this video shows an example made in MS Paint.

Outlines help you visualize how your app is going to look and helps you plan the flow your users will experience. This also helps you avoid making excess changes and saves you lots of time you'd otherwise spend scrapping something you've already worked on.

Importing your project into XCode early on allows you to preview your app and how it looks as you work on it. You'll want to make sure you include any plugins you plan on using so you don't have to redownload and import your project every time you add something new.

Importing your project into Android Studio early on allows you to preview your app and how it looks as you work on it. You'll want to make sure you include any plugins you plan on using so you don't have to redownload and import your project every time you add something new.

Features of advanced menus:

• Display OS specific menu items; this allows you to display a different menu on iOS than on Android so you don't have to create multiple versions of your app.
• Optionally display a header image at the top of the menu that can link to another screen
• Provide description text under your menu item titles
• Include icons next to your menu items

Custom Text/HTML screens are mostly used to display your content. They allow you to use HTML, CSS, and Javascript to create beautiful screens, or use the built in text editor to easily display your content.

Button menu features:

• Display menu items in the form of icons
• Multiple button layouts such as grid, vertical, horizontal
• Optionally include labels with the buttons
• Customize the size of the buttons based on the size of the device being used
• Include sound effects with button taps

You've seen how to create screens with custom HTML and text, next you'll see how to insert images into these screens and include hyperlinks.

In this example, we take a snip of an address on Google Maps, upload the snip to the web, insert it into the custom HTML screen, and finally link it to the google turn by turn directions page.

Custom URL screens allow you to send your users to a website within your app. Useful for displaying external content without forcing the user to open up an external browser.

You'll also see an example of an error you'll receive if you forgot to include a plugin with your project, and how to avoid/solve the problem.

It's a fact that beautiful apps receive more downloads, higher ratings, and higher sales than apps without a pleasing design. In this video you'll see just what a difference a few graphics makes.

Inserting graphics and applying styling to your apps only takes a few easy steps and will make a huge difference in your apps user experience!

Of the two app stores, the process for getting your iOS app in the store is a little more complicated. You'll see how to create the ID's and profiles required, how to prepare your app listing, and how to use XCode to compile and upload your app for review.

Keep in mind that Apples review process can take 2 or more weeks and you may not get approval on the first revision. However, unlike Google, they provide useful feedback and let you know exactly what you need to change to get approved.

By default, your app will come with an excess amount of permissions enabled for Android. This can create trust issues with your users if your app requires odd permissions.

See how to quickly and easily remove unused permissions from your app and compile an .APK file from your project, which will be used to upload to the Google Play Store.

Creating screenshots, icons, and submitting your app to Google Play. You'll usually see your app in the store within a few hours.
Check the resources attached to this lecture to get links to the tools used here.