Upload Files To A Remote Server Using Ionic Framework

I was recently asked by one of my subscribers if I knew how to upload files from an Android or iOS device to a remote server using Ionic Framework. My initial response was no, but it didn’t stop me from taking a whack at it.

Using the AngularJS extension set, ngCordova, with Ionic Framework and the Apache Cordova File Transfer plugin, you can easily upload files to a remote server.

Hooks With Apache Cordova Mobile Applications

If you develop Apache Cordova applications long enough, you’re eventually going to notice little things that you feel you can improve in the development / deployment lifecycle. Making use of hooks in your Apache Cordova project can yield many great things for your project.

Make List Items Swipeable In Ionic Framework

It is an expectation of modern mobile applications to have a fancy UI with smooth animations and gesture controls. Users want to be able to drag things, see smooth transitions, popups and other neat UI wizardry.

A common UI feature, as found in apps like Gmail, are swipe-able list items. Whether it be swiping to show buttons or swiping to perform tasks, it adds an additional layer of coolness.

Using Ionic Framework on top of Apache Cordova gives us access to swipe-able elements in the ion-list directive.

Syncing Data With Firebase Using Ionic Framework

Lately there has been a lot of buzz about Firebase and now that it has been bought by Google, it is probably only going to get bigger. Firebase has a very thorough datastore API making it very useful for applications that can leverage JavaScript.

Now you might be asking yourself, well can’t I use the Dropbox datastore API that you mentioned in one of your previous articles? You absolutely can, however, Firebase is a far better solution when creating a service because the data isn’t sandboxed to a specific user like Dropbox.

In this example, we’re going to create a simple Apache Cordova Android and iOS application using Ionic Framework.

Accessing A Localhost Server From Genymotion

Many times when developing Android applications, you’re doing it to pair with a web server. You’re planning on creating this awesome web service / Android experience, but you aren’t quite ready to publish the web service to the internet.

The following will show you how to connect the Genymotion Android emulator to a locally hosted web application.

Understanding Tabs In Ionic Framework

A very popular pattern on all mobile platforms is the tabbed interface. This interface is especially popular on iOS where it is encouraged by Apple’s design language over a side menu. It has the advantage that the user can see all of the options available to them whereas a side menu’s options are hidden by design.

Ionic has a very simple tabs directive allowing you to implement these kind of interfaces with lots of options for different styles (icons only, text only, text and icon). In this tutorial, we’ll take a look at the ionic-starter-tabs project on GitHub and break it down piece by piece to get a good understanding of how it works.

Debugging Your Android Source Code With ADB

Debugging your source code is a critical part of any application development process and Android is no exception.

A lot of people post comments or email me asking me to help them with their application that isn’t working. The first thing I try to ask for are the log files. I do this because 90% of the time, the log files have an error message that tells us exactly what line the error is on.