App Inventor

Hello again! We've started working with App Inventor. This is a software to create and programme an Apk (mobile application). You can design and create the functions of the Apk, and try it in your mobile phone (via Wifi or USB wire), or with a computer emulator, to check if it works properly. 

To access this program you just need a google account with which you log in in the MIT App Inventor webpage. Then you'll be asked the way you want to see the application on real time. You choose it or continue without emulation.

In the main page (designer) you can choose the components from the left column and drag them to the screen in the middle. Here you just place the components of the apk and select their features in the column in the right, as you like. There are many different components, but the most important ones are the buttons, which you can press to make actions, the canvas to add images, the labels to add texts, and other not visible components like the camera or the accelerometer, which act depending on how you programme them.

In the programming page (blocks) you create the 'orders' of the apk, depending on what you want it to do. On the left you can see the different features. If you want some specific component you added in the designer to do any action, you click on its name and select the action you want. You have to combine those 'orders' or blocks in a way it makes sense and works. As I said, you can check if it works with an emulator or with your own mobile phone. As you practice you will manipulate App Inventor better, so don't get desperate at the beginning.

We've had to create two apps. The first one is a photo painter. You can take a picture or take it from your gallery, and paint on it with different colors. You can download it to try it here.

The second one is a questioning game. You are asked a question and you have to answer it. Depending on how you answer it will congratulate you or you will have to try again. I already have to finish and improve it, but you can download it here.

I hope you liked, I think this is very entertaining if you like computing, so I encourage you to try it.

On the other hand this may be the last post about my IT lessons, because this is the last year I can have this subject and the course is finishing, but I will try to post something from time to time. Have a great summer.

Access

Hello again Internet surfers. We are working now with Access, a database management system owned by Microsoft Office, with its relational and graphical tools, and so similar to any Microsoft Office Software. It is used to create any kind of databases, in my case I made a database for a summer camp for anyone interested. It stores the information about the clients, the activities, the age groups, the monitors and the application forms. I'm going to explain you a bit how we've made it and show mine in some screenshots.

First of all we had to create some charts in which we included the information. The clients' and the monitors' charts included their personal data (name, surname, id, address, phone number, email...); the activities' one, the name of the activities, the description and the places where they are hold; the groups' one, the age gaps in which groups are separated, and the application forms' one collects the information of each client's application form, their choices, their allocated monitor and date, their personal data...

In the two first images you can see the main components of these charts.

Secondly we created the forms, which record that information from the charts and allow to add information. You can add them by clicking on "Form" in the window "Create". They can be personalised with different shapes and colors. Buttons linked to other forms or reports can be added, and also dropdown lists to choose the different options from a chart without having to write it oneself.

Then we also added reports for some of the forms. The most important one is the applications' one, because there the information about each client's stay in the camp is collected. It's easy to create because you just have to click on "Create -> Report" when you are on the chart of which you want to create the report, and it appears. You just have to adjust the design if you want to.

A last thing was the consultation. It's a sheet to consult specific information from a Form. You can choose what it will show when you create it with the assistent of consultations. You just follow the instructions and, if you want, adjust the design.

An important thing is the main menu, which has to be done to access everything from the database. Mainly the forms and the important reports, and maybe a print button for a report or an exit button. This can be made adding buttons in the form's tools window, and choosing its characteristics.

Some relationships between forms can be made to ease these things in the database's tools window, and also some other consultations. There are a lot of tools in Access, but the ones we learned are the basic ones, and anyone can manage with them.

I hope you liked and it was useful, see you in the next post (it will be interesting, about App Inventor, so have a look at it).

Databases

Hello! I'm going to write about databases. A database (DB) is a 'bank' of information which classifies the data and creates relationships between the groups of data. This information is organised in a way that the desired pieces of data can be quickly selected, found and accessed. It is also an electronic filling system, as you can add information whenever you want to. If it is properly designed, it can ease administrative works a lot. For example, if you have an enterprise and you want to clasify your products, have the information about their prices, the clients or the dates of delivery... Databases can collect small pieces of information, for small things (like personal things) as well as huge pieces information for huge enterprises or managements.

Traditional databases are organized by fields, records, and files. A field is a single piece of information; a record is one complete set of fields; and a file is a collection of records. For example: a telephone book is a file with a list of records, consisted of three fields: name, address, and telephone number.

On the other hand, data in databases can normally be reorganized and accessed in a number of different ways. They have charts in which the fields are specified and the data and the kind of information they contain is also added; forms in which the data can be seen in an organised way and also new data can be added in the different fields; reports in which the recorded information can be seen in a glance; and consultations in which some specific information is ordered and seen in an specific way, also in a glance, like reports but more specific. Relationships between charts and their fields are made to ease the results of the forms and the components of the database.

Databases are accessed and edited through Database Management Systems (DBMS), like Access, the one we normally use, which belongs to Microsoft. They enable you to enter, organize, and select data once the database has been created and molded for its target.

Once you know what a database is you can create one to organise some information. You'll see my database project in Access in the next post. Have a nice day, and enjoy the good weather.