Multi Screen support

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summary says it all

Original issue reported on code.google.com by michaelmcole@gmail.com on 10 Sep 2010 at 4:33

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Original comment by halabel...@google.com on 11 Sep 2010 at 2:58

• Changed state: Accepted

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This would be nice, though you can always create arrangement elements that you 
show and hide just like jumping to different screens. 

Original comment by irwin....@gmail.com on 23 Sep 2010 at 12:52

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Issue 132 has been merged into this issue.

Original comment by halabel...@google.com on 23 Sep 2010 at 2:28

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That would be nice. Because we can arrange and organize the app's with a 
contextual meaning.  And give the blocks a easier and simple task. Play with 
the visible prop of objects it is not so economic...

Original comment by eduardo....@gmail.com on 14 Oct 2010 at 12:00

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Issue 331 points out that Screen Arrangement objects aren't hidden in the 
emulator when the "visible" flag is cleared.  If this were fixed, we could use 
arrangements to implement a crude form of multi-screen support.  It would be up 
to the developer to make sure all the right objects were on the right 
arrangement and that only one arrangement were visible at a time.  

Now it is hard to get two full screen arrangements correctly on the screen.

Original comment by kicktheb...@gmail.com on 15 Oct 2010 at 8:52

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Would be nice to be able to make more functional applications with menusystem 
and stuff :)

Original comment by johnny.o...@gmail.com on 10 Nov 2010 at 9:00

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Original comment by lizloo...@google.com on 11 Nov 2010 at 3:37

• Changed state: Started

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Wohoo :D status: started!!! :D

Original comment by johnny.o...@gmail.com on 11 Nov 2010 at 3:48

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Hooray! I can't wait. Then i can finally do that game i've been dreaming of :)

Original comment by nmz502l...@gmail.com on 11 Nov 2010 at 3:51

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the problem with multiple screens using screen arrangement is that the 
"visible" only works on the phone and not the emulator.
unfortunately the program i'm working on heavily relies on many screens and 
there is no way around it until a new release fixes this.

*sigh* seems I have to wait for now...

Original comment by RJFa...@gmail.com on 13 Nov 2010 at 10:22

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Visible should work on a phone or emulator, but not in the designer (in the 
browser), which makes it really hard to design your UI.

Original comment by lizloo...@google.com on 13 Nov 2010 at 7:50

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for any other application I used so far for creating apps, what appears on the 
designer (browser) should appear same as on the phone. it is still easy to 
manipulate anything since what is invisible is still selectable on the right 
panel right? it's also actually easier not harder since you see what is really 
happening and things are more clean instead of things overlapping in a mess.

remaining visible however makes it impossible to overlap its position by 
another button. that is why I have created a feature thread about it.
if you have another opinion please let me know

Original comment by RJFa...@gmail.com on 13 Nov 2010 at 9:36

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I disagree with comment 11, and I agree with Comment 12.

The designer should look as much as possible like the final application.

Original comment by Julie.Sm...@gmail.com on 13 Nov 2010 at 10:38

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Oops, my wording in comment #11 made it sound like I *want* visible not to work 
in the designer. Sorry about that. That's not what I meant at all, although I 
can see why everyone thought that's what I meant (because I used the word 
should).

I was actually trying to point out that what RJFares reported in comment #10 
was misleading. He/she wrote that visible doesn't work on the emulator. I think 
he/she meant to write "designer" instead of "emulator". 

The current behavior is that the visible property works on the phone or 
emulator, but it doesn't work on the designer.

I agree with comments 12 & 13 that the designer should look as much as possible 
as the phone/emulator.

Separate from the multi screen support feature, I'll see if I can make the 
visible property work in the designer.

Original comment by lizloo...@google.com on 15 Nov 2010 at 8:21

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Keep up the good work, im holding my current project until multiscreen support 
is here :)

Original comment by johnny.o...@gmail.com on 15 Nov 2010 at 8:39

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the blocks editor should have a sep page for each screen also, to remov a lot 
of clutter and make editing one specific screen also.

Original comment by chrisyu...@gmail.com on 25 Nov 2010 at 8:08

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They should have tabs like Mozilla Firefox 

Original comment by DoGsa...@gmail.com on 25 Nov 2010 at 8:10

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My suggestion for separate pages/tabs for the editor would be to have one 
'Global' page that covers all variables and procedures that you want to access 
everywhere, then individual pages/tabs for each screen. You can the tie this 
together with the requests for localised variables to provide greater 
separation.

Original comment by slug...@gmail.com on 25 Nov 2010 at 5:55

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Great work for starting this, I cant wait to implement it in my app.
I also reply like @slugsie's suggestion and look forward to their 
implementation.

Original comment by imnotspa...@gmail.com on 25 Nov 2010 at 6:11

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Can't wait... I love how this post has most stars (=

Original comment by DoGsa...@gmail.com on 3 Dec 2010 at 8:32

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I clicked on the star. However... :-) 

I commented on the two screens issue here
http://appinventor.googlelabs.com/forum/index.html#msg/programming-with-app-inve
ntor/I3c2iG9ob48/pJdvO6zmjl4J

It may be that making multiple screens in App Inventor sorta kinda looses sight 
that the apps run on an android device. Does android encourage multiple screens 
(views)?

Here are the kinds of views that are available.
http://developer.android.com/resources/tutorials/views/index.html

A tab view would give tabs like Firefox (comment #21) but it uses multiple 
Activity classes.

Menus (comment #6) would be great. Supporting the android Menu class would take 
some work.

There are several comments that I see as touching on the designer
Block Editor page (comment #20)
Variable page (comment #22) 
Better representation of the design (comment #5, comment #14)
I like them all. Perhaps it would be better to have a designer issue (or three)

AND

liz needs to focus on the NXT blocks (-D (-D (-D because then App Inventor will 
be useful for millions of legomaniacs with NTX robots. We need millions of 11 
yo boys using App Inventor :-P

(I think that will be very cool, but we will all have to help liz by answering 
their questions in a supportive but educational way)

Original comment by g...@jsoft.com on 8 Dec 2010 at 10:16

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Ok I will respond to your comment for you, either way (multiscren support or 
not) people are going to find a way to make multiple screens. The difference is 
having a big jumble of coding or not. Plus app inventor would look nicer and 
more professional. (BTW do you understand what they mean by multiple screen 
views? Almost if not all apps have it.... :p )

Original comment by pheno...@gmail.com on 8 Dec 2010 at 2:46

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Howdy @phenosci

You said "(BTW do you understand what they mean by multiple screen views? 
Almost if not all apps have it.... :p )"

I'm always willing to be educated and I think if you clarify what they mean by 
multiple screen views it will be useful.

Here or in the coffee shop?

Original comment by g...@jsoft.com on 8 Dec 2010 at 9:42

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what I meant in the above comment and what I believe this issue is about is the 
ability to have more than just one screen, in example, you could make a menu 
screen and when you put a button on it, uoi will be able to link it to screen 
2, which would be your second screen, this makes coding a lot simpler and 
easier to use. People can have many screens in a single app.

Original comment by pheno...@gmail.com on 8 Dec 2010 at 10:09

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And btw not more than one screen being viewed at the same time if that's what 
is sounded like I was implying...

Original comment by pheno...@gmail.com on 8 Dec 2010 at 10:29

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ahhh

We can follow up in the coffee shop. It is currently not a programming question.

Interested?

Original comment by g...@jsoft.com on 9 Dec 2010 at 12:28

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Until this feature is implemented hopefully this tutorial I wrote will help 
anyone that has a question regarding how to create multiple screens.

https://sites.google.com/site/aiinfocenter/tutorials/creating-multiple-pages

Original comment by kupfe...@gmail.com on 9 Dec 2010 at 4:50

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@kupferg1:

In your tutorial, you talk about setting the height of the arrangement to 480 
pixels.  Rather, uncheck the Scrollable property of Screen1 and then set the 
arrangements' height property to Fill Parent.

Original comment by stevo...@gmail.com on 9 Dec 2010 at 5:27

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We'll probably get spanked for discussing this here. But, (no pun intended) I 
thought about that and without testing it, assumed it could get pushed beyond 
the screen size if some component was large enough. I guess it won't do that. 
I'll update the tutorial. Thanks!

Original comment by kupfe...@gmail.com on 9 Dec 2010 at 5:39

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@kupferg1:

Thanks for creating the tutorial!

I have a suggestion: 
1. Uncheck the Scrollable property for Screen1 (like stevozip said above).
2. Use VerticalArrangements instead of HorizontalArrangements.
3. Setting each arrangement's Width and Height properties to FillParent.

These changes will make each "page" behave more like the normal screen, which 
implicitly has a vertical layout.

Original comment by lizloo...@google.com on 9 Dec 2010 at 5:39

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@liz Thanks!

Original comment by kupfe...@gmail.com on 9 Dec 2010 at 5:42

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Thanks Liz, also my fill parent height selection doesn't really do much....

Original comment by pheno...@gmail.com on 10 Dec 2010 at 3:30

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Unstarring this issue along all other stars. I have to say I'm getting the 
sneaking suspicion that AI will end up like every other "visual" development 
platform in the last 25 years -- too basic for the power users, too complex for 
non-developer types. Good as an academic didactic tool and not much else. 

Original comment by ami...@gmail.com on 10 Dec 2010 at 3:38

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@aminox, its still in beta and its been only 1 month since this issue was 
brought up. im giving app inventor at least 6 more months to mature.

Original comment by zaid.a...@gmail.com on 15 Dec 2010 at 2:34

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I'm very anxious for this feature to happen!

Original comment by dreamout...@gmail.com on 18 Dec 2010 at 12:47

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I would love to see this, I need more than one level in a game. I know there is 
arrangement work around but thats a lot of code. Would love to see multiple 
screens and a function to disable anything associated with that screen. Thanks 
you guys are doing awesome, Im happy either way but more is always good.

Original comment by gardner...@gmail.com on 22 Dec 2010 at 9:20

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Finaly, no arrangement tables!

Original comment by joer...@gmail.com on 12 Jan 2011 at 10:34

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I think we should have at least 4 Activities, as defined by

An activity is a single, focused thing that the user can do. Almost all 
activities interact with the user, so the Activity class takes care of creating 
a window for you in which you can place your UI with setContentView(View). 
While activities are often presented to the user as full-screen windows

from http://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/Activity.html

Ed

Original comment by Ed.Joybe...@gmail.com on 16 Jan 2011 at 10:52

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SO unhappy this wasnt in the latest update. Considering this has been one the 
most asked for features, it should have been implemented from the beginning. 

Original comment by chrisyu...@gmail.com on 29 Jan 2011 at 9:07

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This is something the team is working on but it is not an easy thing to 
implement. Apparently it requires changing just about everything with ui 
designer as well as changes to the blocks editor. Keep faith...it is coming.

Original comment by stevo...@gmail.com on 29 Jan 2011 at 10:09

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this is really important!

Original comment by agy2...@gmail.com on 17 Feb 2011 at 2:18

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how wonderful would this be! why is this even a request, WTF!

Original comment by ronell.c...@gmail.com on 18 Feb 2011 at 12:24

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Would really like this

Original comment by nya...@gmail.com on 7 Mar 2011 at 8:01

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Please only comment if you are adding to the conversation. You can just use
the star to register your interest. Kthxbai.

Original comment by jazmatic...@gmail.com on 7 Mar 2011 at 10:42

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Issue 1375 has been merged into this issue.

Original comment by halabel...@google.com on 18 Mar 2011 at 1:15

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hey, its been almost 6 months since this has been brought up, I con continue 
waiting but any ideas on how long it'll take?

Original comment by pheno...@gmail.com on 24 Mar 2011 at 10:11