What: Neil Mansilla (Mashery) and I will describe the Mashery API management platform and the Appery.io mobile app development and support platform and will explain how they fit together. Max will then demo building two apps in Appery.io using Appery.io plug-ins for Mashery-managed APIs.
When: Tuesday, May 21, 2013 from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM (Timezone: America/Phoenix)
Register now: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/920503433
Ronald Konijnenburg has written a great tutorial on how fast and easy it is to build a mobile app connected to SAP HANA (over a lunch break) with Appery.io.
Note: even thought the tutorial mentions Tiggzi, all the steps should work the same way in Appery.io
There are more than over 40 services that provide a mobile backend as a service, also known as BaaS. The most well known are Parse (acquired by Facebook), Kinvey, StackMob, and many more. Appery.io also provides a mobile backend. All make it very easy to setup a backend for your app such cloud database, Push notifications and other features. built.io is a new backend as a service (BaaS) provider and joins the already crowded space.
Many believe that to build a mobile app (HTML, hybrid, or native) all you need is to create a mobile backed. In the article What Happens When Almost Anybody Can Build A Mobile Business App? the author talks about how easy it is to create a mobile app using build.io backend services. And it is very easy — to create the mobile backend. But who is going to create the app UI and then connect the UI to the mobile backend? A mobile app is not just the backend. A mobile app has user interface (UI), backend services, 3rd party APIs and then connections between UI and the services.
What tools can you use to build the mobile UI and connect the UI to the services? One response I recently got was: “Use Eclipse or xCode”
The reason you would be using cloud-based backend services is because they are very simple to create and use. You don’t have to install anything, configure anything. Just sign up and start building your backend. Eclipse and xCode are very powerful tools but they are not easy to use. They are traditional tools meaning they need to be downloaded, installed and configured. At least for Eclipse, you would need to download and configure various frameworks to build the app UI. It’s not easy and will take a long time. So, why would you easily create a cloud-based mobile backend but then pick more complicated tools for building the UI?
A mobile app is more than just a backend. It is mobile UI, backend services and 3rd party APIs, all integrated. Appery.io is the only cloud-based platform that provides all the tools you need:
Tomorrow and Friday I will be at API Strategy and Practice conference in New York City. I’ll be talking about Tiggzi Platform, APIs and API plug-ins. I will be using ESPN API (Mashery) to show how fast you can build a mobile app in the cloud.
AT&T recently launched new In App Messaging API. The API makes it very easy to send SMS message from your mobile app, using your own number. Another great feature is that now you can send a message to any mobile number, regardless of carrier.
To make it as easy as possible to use this API, we added a plug-in to Tiggzi Platform. The plug-in has all the API pre-configured and comes with a sample app. If you don’t have one yet, sign up for ATT Developer account.
We’ll come back to this page a little bit later to set the callback URL.
Let’s go to Tiggzi Platform.
When you test the app in a desktop browser, to authenticate you will need to enter your mobile number to get a 4-digit code. When you test on the mobile device, you won’t need to do this. To test on the mobile device, email the link to the device or simply scan the QR code in Test window.
When you receive the text and click Allow, you will need to enter the number received:
Once you enter the number, you will be redirected to the app:
As you can see, it’s very simple to start using AT&T In App Messaging API in your app. If you have any questions, please post them on our forum or email us at support@tiggzi.com.
Final note, this plug-in only works when running the app in the browser. As the API requires oAuth 2 authentication, it won’t in a PhoneGap (hybrid) app. We will update the plug-in to work in a PhoneGap app as well.
We recently published three new API plug-ins in Tiggzi Platform that also include a ready-to-run sample apps. Follow the links to learn how to use and add plug-ins to your app.
Find the Sports News You Want with ESPN API Plug-in
Search, Review, and Compare Prices with Aetna GoodRx API and Sample App Tiggzi Plug-in
Get Access to the Entire Best Buy product catalog with New Tiggzi Plug-in and Sample App
We just published a new step-by-step tutorial on using the File API and User Management. Give it a try and let us know what you think.
Back in July we launched Tiggzi Database for storing app data. It’s the first offering from Tiggzi Backend Services. We are now working on Push, and Server-side code. Last week we also added File API for storing files.
Tiggzi Database is MongoDB but with some really nice extra features. First, is the web console for managing databases, managing collections, and even trying out queries:
Second, everything in the database is instantly exposed via REST API. The web console offers curl request commands to make it very easy to try it:
Anything that’s exposed via REST, you can easily use that service in Tiggzi app builder. It can be a database, or any 3rd party REST API. When using 3rd party REST API, you add a new service, set its URL, define its request parameters and then define its response parameter.
As the database is part of the Tiggzi mobile platform, we are able to give you much better integration between the builder and the database (and other soon available services). It’s very simple but extremely powerful. From the app builder, you can browse all the databases you have, select a particular collection and instantly generate all the REST services for that collection. Check it out.
Create New > Database Services
Once you select a database, you can see what collections it has:
You can select which services you want to generate. The top section lists User management services.
The services selected will be generated under Services folder:
Every generated service is ready to be used, the URL is set, the request parameters are set, and the response parameters are set. Here is an example of create service (POST):
If you are wondering what’s next? We are planning to add a full CRUD generation, in addition to services, we will also generate the mobile pages.
Give it a try and let me know what you think.
Our friends at Kinvey posted an update to their really nice Backed as a Service Ecosystem map. Some call it the subway map, the Pacman map, or you can also look at it as “Where we fly map”.
Thank you to Kinvey for including Tiggzi, we really appreciate it.
Tiggzi is right there:
A lot has changed in Tiggzi in the past couple of months so I would like to offer an update. Hopefully the map can be updated.
I don’t believe Mobile SDK is the best fit for Tiggzi (and other players such Sencha and Appcelerator). Tiggzi is much more than a mobile SDK, in fact, it’s a mobile app platform (more about it below). One suggestion is to add a new line that would include Tiggzi and others such as Appcelerator.
Tiggzi is a mobile app platform, and one of its biggest components is the mobile app builder.
Drag and drop app builder
It’s a cloud-based, drag and drop builder (IDE) for creating HTML5, jQuery Mobile and PhoneGap apps. As Tiggzi app builder uses jQuery Mobile and PhoneGap to create apps — it’s probably best to list it on a separate line with lines going to jQuery Mobile and PhoneGap (already exists). Again, this is just my opinion.
In early July we launched Backend Services under io.tiggzi.com. The first feature in the backend services is a cloud database.
Database features
Database web console
We are also working on Push, File storage, Server-side code, and Analytics features. I think there should be a line going from Tiggzi to BaaS line (io.tiggzi.com) – similar to Sencha’s connection to Sencha.io.
To summarize, this is Tiggzi mobile platform:
We just published a step-by-step tutorial on building a jQuery Mobile app with Tiggzi Database API.
It was always incredible simple to build app in Tiggzi, now that Tiggzi added a cloud database, it has become even easier and faster. Check out this screen cast.
The first step is to build the UI with jQuery Mobile.
Create a database and a collection for your app data. Everything is instantly exposed via RES API and you even get curl hints.
Defining the services includes the following:
Setting up service URL to point to Tiggzi database/collection.
Setting up database id.
Right on the spot test the service to make sure it works.
From test response, you can automatically create the service’s output.
Binding the service to UI.
Testing the app in browser (there is also an option to test without the mobile frame)
Try the tutorial!