When building a mobile application, as a rule you will need to implement two parts: a backend and a frontend. Of course, we can confine ourselves to only the client-side (frontend), but when we have some data that should be stored on the server, we need to have the capability to capture it.
Today, we will create a simple native mobile application with both parts, and we will be doing so with no coding whatsoever. Backendless will handle our backend; it gives us everything that we need from the server-side. For development of the client side, we will use a service called Dropsource. In case if you aren’t familiar with this service, you can read more about it on their official site. In the end, we will have a simple native mobile application with a Sign Up/Sign In screen, ToDo List screen, and Add New ToDo Item screen. The app we will be building today will be native for iOS.
Let’s do it.
Recently we published an article titled “How to Enable Push Notifications Using Backendless in a React Native App (Android)”. Now we are going to continue demonstrating how to enable push notifications, this time for iOS devices. If you missed that article, we recommend you to read it first as there we implemented a basic React Native setup and configured a Backendless App. All the code what we used in the previous article can be found on this github repo. In the repo, there are several commits to separate the main steps. We will use this commit as an entry point for today’s article.
This is the final article in a three-part series on building a multi-user iOS game app. In part 2 of this series, we demonstrated the process of player registration, login, and storing in Backendless Database. Now, let’s take a look at counting the score for every player, creating a leaderboard, and how all of the game installations are notified when this information changes.
The source code for the game is available in the author’s personal Github repo. You can read Part 1 of this series here and Part 2 here.
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.
We are happy to announce the new release of Backendless, version 5.2.0. The new release delivers completely redesigned support for push notifications. With the new release you can create highly visual, dynamic and interactive push notifications for Android and iOS devices. The content in the notifications can be personalized for each individual user, you can greet the users of your apps by name, provide content and information in the context of user’s location or any other related user properties. You can configure your push notifications to include sounds, images, configurable buttons (with inline reply) and custom vibration patterns. You can easily schedule push notifications to be delivered automatically, alternatively you can send them out with Backendless console or using the API. The video below provides an overview and a demo of the new functionality:
Did you know you can use the Backendless Code Generator, which is a part of Backendless Console, to easily generate a simple real-time chat application for iOS, Android and JavaScript? You get full source code and can see how to use Backendless APIs for sending text-based chat messages in real time. In this article I will describe how to modify the generated iOS application so you can send both pictures and text messages.
Development of mobile applications generally requires two parts: the Backend and the Frontend. Of course, you could limit it only to the client-side, but if there is some data which must be stored on the server, there is no way to get around having a backend. In this series of articles, you will create a native mobile client-server application – a basic ToDo app. Backendless will take care of the backend, it gives you everything you might expecting from the server-side (user management, data persistence and scalability to name a few). And for the client side you will use the Dropsource service. In case if you are not familiar with this service, you can learn more about that from their website, but in short, it is an awesome service which lets you build native mobile apps without any coding. At the end of this series, your will have a native mobile application with the User Registration/Login screen, a screen with a listing of the ToDo items and a screen to create a new ToDo Item. Here’s a brief preview of the app along with real-time changes in the Backendless database:
Let’s go!
With the introduction of the real-time database, Backendless is a great platform for developing games, especially multi-user ones. In this series of posts, I will be showing to you how to build a game for iOS with Swift using Backendless. For a quick overview of the game in action, please watch the video below:
Backendless SDK for iOS has received several improvements which increased the portability of our code. As a result, the same library you use for the iOS apps can also be used in tvOS and watchOS apps. All the functionality available in our SDK is available in these two environment, this includes real-time database and real-time messaging. The Backendless APIs are the same as for iOS when using them in tvOS and watchOS apps. Below is a video with a demo of a tvOS app which shows the real-time database in action. The source code of the application demonstrated in the video is available at:
https://github.com/Backendless/AppleTvDemo
This is a very exciting improvement for the SDK as it opens up new opportunities for the developers who look to expand their reach to different types of Apple devices.
All available APIs for creating, updating and deleting objects in the Backendless database operate on single objects. It means when you need to store multiple objects in the database, each object requires a separate API call. This increases the number of API calls your app makes. While it is great for us (hey, our billing is based on the API calls), it is not that great for your app as it results in longer processing times and substandard user experience. Starting today, with the release of Backendless version 4.5.0 we’re introducing the new APIs which will allow you to create, update or delete multiple objects with a single API call.
Bulk Create
Saving multiple new objects in the database is now as simple as passing an array of objects to the server. The server responds with a collection of objectId values (which, for example, can be used in the createRelation API). The bulk create API is supported in all SDKs as well as the REST interface.
Bulk Update
To update objects in the database, the API accepts a condition (where clause) which identifies a group of objects. In addition to the condition, the client must also provide an object containing the changes which should be applies to the selected objects.
Bulk Delete
Similar to “Bulk Update”, this API receives a condition which identifies a group of objects to be deleted.
All of the APIs can be extended using custom business logic’s before/after events.
You can find the documentation for these APIs in the developer guides:
- Android:
bulk create, bulk update, bulk delete - iOS:
bulk create, bulk update, bulk delete - JS:
bulk create, bulk update, bulk delete - REST:
bulk create, bulk update, bulk delete
