Unit Testing A NativeScript Angular Android And iOS Mobile Application

Writing tests is a very important part of mobile application development, but not everyone does it. It could be laziness, it could be because you don’t know how. I fall into the category that I’m often too lazy to write tests. I don’t have time to write tests, I just want my application done. That is probably not a good answer. Unit testing will lead to overall better applications with less problems down the road.

Not too long ago, Ben Elliot wrote a guest post on The Polyglot Developer regarding unit testing a NativeScript mobile application. The thing is, that this was directed towards vanilla NativeScript. While vanilla is a very valid option when it comes to NativeScript, I prefer using Angular which is a bit different.

We’re going to see how to write unit tests for a NativeScript Android and iOS applications that use Angular and TypeScript.

Converting Your Ionic Framework 1 Application To Ionic 2

Ionic Framework has been around for a few years now and has completely changed the way people develop hybrid mobile applications. With Angular out and Ionic 2 nearing stable release, the Ionic 1 and AngularJS predecessor will be a thing of the past and forgotten. What if you’ve gone all in with the first version of Ionic Framework, how do you convert to the latest and greatest?

We’re going to see how to take a simple Ionic Framework application and convert it to Ionic 2. While there will be similarities, the process is manual, but better in the long run.

Use Mozilla’s LocalForage For Key-Value Storage In Ionic 2

When it comes to saving data in an Ionic 2 mobile application, there are many ways to get the job done. You can use the classic HTML5 local storage, but run the risk of compatibility problems between all available devices. You can use SQLite, which is part of Ionic Native, but that will only work for Android and iOS and has more of a mobile API. You can also use SqlStorage, but that is a very proprietary solution. This brings us to localForage from Mozilla.

Mozilla advertises localForage as a wrapper to IndexedDB, WebSQL and localStorage which will offer maximum compatibility across the grid.

We’re going to see how to include localForage in our application which is a valid option for Ionic 2.

Using SqlStorage Instead Of SQLite In An Ionic 2 App

When it comes to Ionic 2 there are many ways that you can store your data. For example you could use HTML5 local storage, Mozilla’s localForage library, or Ionic’s SQLite extension that is part of Ionic Native. With these options available, I get a lot of requests for information on Ionic’s less advertised SqlStorage option.

We’re going to take a look at using SqlStorage in an Android and iOS application rather than the SQLite alternative.

Support iBeacons In Your Native Android Mobile App

I play around with iBeacons quite frequently. I created my own Internet of Things (IoT) iBeacon project as well as an AngularJS wrapper for using iBeacons in an Ionic Framework application. This time around I figured I’d take my iBeacon adventure to the next level and try to use them in a native Android mobile application.

Using the AltBeacon library by Radius Networks we can easily add iBeacon monitoring and ranging support to our native Android application. We’re going to see how to scan for a variety of proximity beacons and display them within an application.

Build A Password Manager For Android And iOS Using Ionic 2

Have you ever wanted to build your own password manager? Maybe you don’t trust the password management tools that already exist, or maybe you just want the experience. I personally use the tool 1Password, but many of my friends don’t trust the applications that exist on the market. It is a valid concern that they have. What if the password managers that exist are using an ancient or obsolete DES specification or similar, rather than the modern AES? What if the master passwords are not being hashed with a strong Bcrypt algorithm?

Not too long ago we created a password manager using the NativeScript framework, but what if we wanted to build one with a different technology.

We’re going to see how to build a password manager that makes use of the AES specification using Ionic 2 and Angular. This application will work for both Android and iOS and look great on both.

Build An RSS Reader Mobile App With NativeScript And Angular

Rich site summary (RSS) feeds are very common on blogs or sites that have a publication type feed. These feeds are in XML format and have information such as the publication title, a summary, or other bits of information that is rather useful. There are plenty of mobile applications on Google Play and iTunes that support the aggregation of RSS feeds, but have you ever wanted to build your own? Maybe you want to create your own news application based on your own algorithms, or maybe your company has a mobile application and you’d like to include a blog section to the mobile app. Whatever the need may be, doing so is not difficult.

We’re going to see how to use Angular, Yahoo’s YQL language, and NativeScript to build a fully native RSS feed reader for Android and iOS.