I moved here from AI2 where I completed several apps. Quite obviously Thunkable X is a very different beast. I am having trouble understanding the basic design. For instance, in AI2 one can, through the blocks, set elements to true or false. This seems to be unavailable in TX. Also in AI2, one can put elements into Vertical or Horizontal Arrangements which I cannot figure out how to do in TX. Can someone point in the direction of a good design tutorial please…TIA
In Thunkable X, the markup is based on the Flexbox:
Intro to Spacing:
https://docs.thunkable.com/thunkable-cross-platform/create/intro-to-spacing
You are right, Thunkable X in some ways is very different from AI2. The general approach to work is as follows:
- If you did not find the widget you need, then it can probably be made from existing widgets.
- If you did not find the desired block, then think about another way to solve the problem. For example, there are no visibility properties for widgets, but to hide it you can set the size = 0 or make the background and the main color transparent
- If something works on iOS, but does not work on Android, then use the ADB debugger, and try to solve the problem in another way
- If you need functionality that is not present in the native part, then use web api (services) and JavaScript in the WebViewer component (data exchange between WebViewer and the native part is still available via the Firebase database - Realtime DB component)
- Copy and verify of work literally after every action. If you first add 500 blocks to the project, and then decide for the first time to see how this works, it will not be easy to understand when mistakes and oddities began to appear in the work.
- If you see an unclear property on the properties panel, its description can be found in the React Native documentation https://facebook.github.io/react-native/docs/getting-started.html
If you are going to develop applications for iOS, then I recommend to see the demonstration project
https://x.thunkable.com/projects/5b4c3582222e5c1e8aad2901/project/properties/designer/
Also do not hesitate to look at the official documentation
https://docs.thunkable.com/thunkable-cross-platform,
channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTVZRyybOCDBL2zLXSeQVsw
and tutorials (purple button “>” in the left of the development environment)
Thank you for this help. I had a quick look, and it looks like I have a lot to learn.