For this series, we are developing an iOS game called “TapMe”. As TapMe is a multiplayer game, it provides registration for the new users and login for the existing ones. In this article, we are going to demonstrate how to handle user registration and login, as well as how to store a player’s information in the database.
The source code for the game is available in the author’s personal Github repo: https://github.com/olgadanylova/TapMe.git
You can read Part 1 of this series here.
Some Backendless users choose to use REST APIs in their JavaScript projects. While many can simply use our pre-packaged JS-SDK, that SDK may not always be able to achieve the result the user is seeking. Today we’re going to show you how to build a custom and very light API client library for working with Backendless API. Some time ago, we created a simple NPM module named “backendless-request” for sending CRUD requests to the server. That package is used in all our services such as DevConsole, JSCodeRunner, JS-SDK, etc.. If you would like to see the sources of the package, you can find it on Github.
In this week’s Backendless Spotlight, we are going to introduce you to a startup company out of Beirut, Lebanon, called Lifebook. Lifebook is a mobile app and physical product company that allows users to build their own custom photo album through the app and have it printed and delivered to them as a hand-crafted, leatherbound photo album. Lifebook invites users to become “Oxpeckers” (a species of bird known for perching on large animals) and let “Oppy” the hippo guard their memories forever.
Editor’s Note: If you have an app using Backendless for its backend and would like to be considered for a future Backendless Spotlight, please send us an email with a link to your app and a description of how Backendless has helped you be successful.
For each entry in a given table, Backendless creates a unique
objectId property – this is a UUID. In some cases, you may want to have a unique ID based on a whole number. To do this, we will use Backendless Atomic Counters (you can read the documentation about Atomic Counters here). In this article, we will use JavaScript business logic to create a handler that will add a unique value before creating the object. You can then store that value in your table to provide the ID you’re looking for.
React Native helps you build a real native mobile application using JavaScript (for more information about React Native, you can check out the documentation on Github here). The Backendless JavaScript SDK (JS-SDK) already has full compatibility with React Native – just install it from NPM, require in your code, and go. But since the release of Backendless 5.2.x, having only the JS-SDK is not enough to access all the Backendless features; in some cases, we need to have access to native modules for working with certain features such as Push Notifications. We’ve therefore decided to create another module on JS for using exactly in a React Native environment. It’s a patch of sorts for JS-SDK.
In this article series, I’m going to show you how to use this additional JS module. There are will be a total of 3 articles:
- How to enable Push Notifications using Backendless in a React Native App (Android)
- How to enable Push Notifications using Backendless in a React Native App (iOS) (coming soon)
- How to customize Push Notifications using Backendless (coming soon)
Today, we get started with creating a simple Android application on React Native for receiving Push Notifications. Alright, let’s do it.
In this week’s Backendless Spotlight, we would like to introduce you to a nonprofit company that is using Backendless to support educational apps that are bringing literacy to some of the poorest countries in the world. Educators International is a U.K.-based charity that produces apps designed to help teachers in poor countries learn new instructional techniques for teaching math, reading, and other skills, and then providing a platform to assist those teachers in assessing their students’ progress.
Editor’s Note: If you have an app using Backendless for its backend and would like to be considered for a future Backendless Spotlight, please send us an email with a link to your app and a description of how Backendless has helped you be successful.
It is common for developers to build apps where users will have varying access to data and elements within the app based on the user’s role. Being able to limit user access is important to data security, user management, and often, the financial success of the application as user access is commonly tied to how much the user pays. In this article, we are going to show you how you can hide some object properties based on the user’s role. To accomplish this, we will be using Event Handlers.
An event handler is custom, server-side code that responds to an API event. For every API call, Backendless generates two types of events – “before” and “after”. The “before” event is fired before the default logic of the API implementation is executed and the “after” event is triggered right after the default API implementation logic. An event handler can respond to either one of these events. A synchronous (blocking) event handler participates in the API invocation chain and can modify the objects in the chain’s flow. For example, the “before” event handlers can modify arguments of the API calls, so the default logic gets the modified objects. Similarly, an “after” handler can modify the return value (or exception) so the client application that made the API request receives the modified value. For more about Event Handlers, you can read the documentation.
By the end of this guide, you will have a Backendless application with a custom API event handler that modifies objects received from a table and removes restricted properties based on the user’s role.
Amazon Elasticsearch Service (Amazon ES) is a service that can store a lot of data and provide a full text-based search, among other cool features. In this article, we’ll show you how to integrate Amazon ES with your Backendless project.
Save objects to Amazon ES
To save objects to the Amazon ES with Backendless you have to:
- Create an Amazon ES domain
- Create after event handlers in the Backendless console
- Download generated code
- Write JavaScript code to save objects
Today we are kicking off our newest feature called “Backendless Spotlight”. Each week, we will spotlight one published app, available on the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, that uses Backendless for their server-side functionality and infrastructure. Our first spotlight will shine on a startup app called YTCount that just recently came to our attention. Read on to learn more about how YTCount has leveraged Backendless to turn a hobby into an app with over 60,000 active monthly users in just 3 years.
Editor’s Note: If you have an app using Backendless for its backend and would like to be considered for a future Backendless Spotlight, please send us an email with a link to your app and a description of how Backendless has helped you be successful.
It is very easy to use Backendless with Xamarin, Microsoft’s open source native app builder. You can try out Xamarin for building apps for free with the Community edition of Visual Studio from Microsoft. In this post, we’re going to create a simple example based on the Xamarin ToDo list sample provided by Xamarin.
