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Mobile WYSIWYG editor: Alternatives or a guide to XDK AppDesigner


I recently (4 days) stumbled upon Intel XDK to develop hybrid html5 apps and it looks very promising and powerful.

I wanted, for learning purposes, to design a simple application (a single view application with some buttons, a list and a swipe menu) using one of the XDK integrated UI frameworks like JQuery mobile or AppFramework 3.

To achieve my goal I started a new project using AppDesigner and I followed the official Intel XDK video tutorials.

However those tutorials refer to an older version of AppDesigner, and some things now are missing / different in the current version (2727).

I also encountered many different problems (button groups with different buttons size, misplaced elements, apparently random behaviours, crashes...) to the point that I can't use it even for simple tasks like putting something different than a title on a footer.

So I came up with 2 alternatives:

1- AppDesigner, right now, is bugged like hell. In this case are there any FREE WYSIWYG editors that target mobiles and offer the same feeling and functionalities of AppDesigner (drag&drop functionalities, preview on an emulated phone etc.) ? I don't have any preferences about the graphic framework used, so if an editor works only on AppFramework, Ionic or another it would be ok anyway. OFFLINE editors are prefered. It would be fine even if someone finds a link to older versions of XDK, so I can use the same used in the tutorials.

2- I failed to understand how AppDesigner works. As said however the official video tutorials are outdated. So is there a more recent guide (video tutorials are prefered, but a book / guide would be fine anyway) that targets a more recent version of AppDesigner and covers almost every basic functionality?

Many thanks


Solution

  • MastErAldo - Well stated. I am on the Intel XDK team. You have raised valid concerns. We will have new App Designer videos available soon. The ones available now, as you pointed out, are 2 years old. With a 6-8 week release schedule, there have been a lot of changes in that time.

    If you opted in to receive information when you registered, you should have received an invitation this week to two short, live webinars later this month which are specifically about App Designer, where you can listen to and ask questions of one of our most knowledgeable App Designer developers.

    In the future, to ensure we see your feedback, please post on our forum: https://software.intel.com/en-us/forums/intel-xdk

    Thanks for letting us know of your concerns. It helps mold our product when we know which features our users are concerned about and what issues you are having.

    Pamela