Print Data To Paper Or PDF Using Ionic Framework

Have you ever built an app that has heavy content that might need to one day be printed to a PDF or to paper? Maybe you’re building the next great email or news app, both of which have an expectation that you should be able to print what you’re reading.

Both iOS and Android have printing functionality. We are using Ionic Framework, and lucky for us, printing to either of these platforms couldn’t be easier when we use the Apache Cordova Printer Plugin by Sebastian Katzer.

Sign Into Firebase With Facebook Using Ionic Framework

To continue on my trend of Firebase and Ionic Framework based tutorials, I thought, wouldn’t it be cool to sign into your Firebase application using a social media account such as Facebook?

Out of the box Firebase and AngularFire offer some nifty methods for authentication, however they don’t work quite as expected when it comes to mobile hybrid applications and I’ll explain why.

Make A Gallery-Like Image Grid Using Ionic Framework

I recently started making an application with Ionic Framework that made heavy use of images both remotely and locally. During this time, my goal was to present the images in a grid that looks good for all device sizes and orientations.

One might think this would be an easy task because Ionic offers both grids and a responsive class, however, trivial was far from the case. Instead I had to go to my programming roots and create some display logic when looping through my arrays of images. The following guide will show exactly what I had to do.

Create A Todo List Mobile App Using Ionic Framework

Since writing my two tutorials regarding using SQLite in Ionic Framework and shipping an app with a pre-populated database, I’ve received many requests for a tutorial for making a full blown app. I listen to my readers, so I figured what better way to show such an example, than to create a todo-list type application.

In this tutorial, I hope to accomplish the following:

• Shipping a pre-populated / pre-filled SQLite database
• Access the SQLite database and perform operations based on user input
• Include a WebSQL alternative for testing via a web browser
• Navigate between views using the AngularJS UI-Router
• Remove todo items from your list using swipe gestures

All items that I wish to accomplish have seen their own tutorials. If you’re familiar with the Marvel comic book movies, you’ll know that every hero has their own story, then they meet up for the bigger picture in an Avengers movie. Think of this tutorial like that.

Get Available Free Disk Space Using Apache Cordova

It was brought to my attention that the File plugin for Apache Cordova has no documented methods for finding the available disk space on a device.

This does not mean that you cannot figure out how much space is available on your users device because you can make use of Apache Cordova’s nifty cordova.exec function.

Using The Native Device Calendar In Ionic Framework

A while back one of my subscribers asked me how to integrate the native device calendar into their Ionic Framework mobile application. I didn’t know at first, but after some research I found a great Apache Cordova plugin by Eddy Verbruggen called PhoneGap Calendar Plugin.

Don’t let the plugin name fool you. PhoneGap still works on Apache Cordova, just like Ionic Framework.

This guide will show you how to use the native device calendar with Ionic Framework using the AngularJS extension set, ngCordova.

Why I’ve Gone Hybrid Over Native For Mobile Apps

I started developing mobile Android applications in late 2011. It wasn’t until 2012 that I released my first application to the Android Marketplace, now known as the Google Play Store. Up until early 2014, I only made native Android applications using the official Android SDK. As of now, I have only been using web technologies to create mobile hybrid applications for Android and iOS.

The following will explain why I’ve chosen to develop using modern web technologies rather than native mobile languages.