(free) native app RAD with REST

hpl123

Hi all,
This is a tip to check out Appgyver: https://www.appgyver.com/. It is a RAD native app builder with REST capabilities. The builder is easy to use, the logic can be quite complex using a function library similar to AwareIM and the REST can be configured with GUI to (I assume) connect directly to an AwareIM backend. Best of all? It´s free.

I have played around a bit with it (also looked at a showcase of apps developed) and am pleasantly surprised over what it can do and I think this can be a great option for someone who wants to build a native app outside of Aware and have it connect to Aware via REST. I have no real use for it now, otherwise I would have dug deep and confirmed Aware integration etc.. If anyone else does something in appgyver/AwareIM, please share your result.

tford

Thanks for sharing, Henrik!

From the video, AppGyver is definitely a tool to consider for the toolbox. Impressive!

swiftinitpvtltd

I checked video, it looked great as first pass.
The 2 big problems -

ent. pricing is 850$ per month, free version does not let me connect to databases like in aware I can connect to tons of databases mariadb, mysql easily. They provide free database only for hobby use vs aware provide inbuilt database for production use.
Clicked on cloud integration and popped please pay 850$ per month and we will let you do cloud integration then I said ok let me think and then I closed the browser and went back to Aware IM work.

hpl123

swiftinitpvtltd wrote
I checked video, it looked great as first pass.
The 2 big problems -

ent. pricing is 850$ per month, free version does not let me connect to databases like in aware I can connect to tons of databases mariadb, mysql easily. They provide free database only for hobby use vs aware provide inbuilt database for production use.

Clicked on cloud integration and popped please pay 850$ per month and we will let you do cloud integration then I said ok let me think and then I closed the browser and went back to Aware IM work.

Not sure this is correct. On their website they state "For all indie developers and organizations with less than $10 Million (USD) in revenue or funding
Composer Pro is free for life." and that is IF you don´t use any of their additional services like hosted auth or hosted cloud integration (the REST api IS NOT the cloud integration). The tool itself is free and the local client storage and REST api tool looks like it´s free which means Appgyver supports local client storage and REST api connections for free and that was the whole point. Create a native app that uses local client storage together with an AwareIM backend i.e these are connected via a REST api. I could be wrong though and it´s something I have missed.

customaware

I have been trying out Appgyver and on the face of it, it looks really good.
Have it communicating with an Aware app via rest. Single record is perfect.

Problem is when returning a collection of records.

Aware returns the json with opening { } brackets and "response":

Like this......

Error: Error: 
The result was not an array. Maybe the data you're looking for is inside one of the response object keys?

{
  "response": [
    {
      "Code": "1",
      "Data": "Mark",
      "Title": "Weekly Meeting",
      "CreatedDate": "11/10/2020",
      "Active": "Yes",
      "Description": "Weekly Meeting to review 4 week look ahead"
    },
    {
      "Code": "2",
      "Data": "Peter",
      "Active": "No"
    },
    {
      "Code": "3",
      "Data": "George",
      "Title": "Monthly Meeting",
      "CreatedDate": "11/06/2020",
      "Active": "Yes",
      "Description": "Monthly Meeting to review 3 month look ahead"
    }
  ]
}
status: -1

But Appgyver expects an Array like this....

Error: Error:
The result was not an array. Maybe the data you're looking for is inside one of the response object keys?

[
    {
      "Code": "1",
      "Data": "Mark",
      "Title": "Weekly Meeting",
      "CreatedDate": "11/10/2020",
      "Active": "Yes",
      "Description": "Weekly Meeting to review 4 week look ahead"
    },
    {
      "Code": "2",
      "Data": "Peter",
      "Active": "No"
    },
    {
      "Code": "3",
      "Data": "George",
      "Title": "Monthly Meeting",
      "CreatedDate": "11/06/2020",
      "Active": "Yes",
      "Description": "Monthly Meeting to review 3 month look ahead"
    }
  ]

Does anyone know a way for Aware to return JUST the array?

customaware

Found the answer......

Just needed to add response to the Response key path.

Awesome.

swiftinitpvtltd

hpl123 wrote
swiftinitpvtltd wrote
I checked video, it looked great as first pass.
The 2 big problems -

ent. pricing is 850$ per month, free version does not let me connect to databases like in aware I can connect to tons of databases mariadb, mysql easily. They provide free database only for hobby use vs aware provide inbuilt database for production use.

Clicked on cloud integration and popped please pay 850$ per month and we will let you do cloud integration then I said ok let me think and then I closed the browser and went back to Aware IM work.

Not sure this is correct. On their website they state "For all indie developers and organizations with less than $10 Million (USD) in revenue or funding
Composer Pro is free for life." and that is IF you don´t use any of their additional services like hosted auth or hosted cloud integration (the REST api IS NOT the cloud integration). The tool itself is free and the local client storage and REST api tool looks like it´s free which means Appgyver supports local client storage and REST api connections for free and that was the whole point. Create a native app that uses local client storage together with an AwareIM backend i.e these are connected via a REST api. I could be wrong though and it´s something I have missed.

ok thanks. I did quick overview check. I will recheck again. Hope its not what I think as first impression.

hpl123

eagles9999 wrote

I have been trying out Appgyver and on the face of it, it looks really good.
Have it communicating with an Aware app via rest. Single record is perfect.

Problem is when returning a collection of records.

Aware returns the json with opening { } brackets and "response":

Like this......

Error: Error: 
The result was not an array. Maybe the data you're looking for is inside one of the response object keys?

{
  "response": [
    {
      "Code": "1",
      "Data": "Mark",
      "Title": "Weekly Meeting",
      "CreatedDate": "11/10/2020",
      "Active": "Yes",
      "Description": "Weekly Meeting to review 4 week look ahead"
    },
    {
      "Code": "2",
      "Data": "Peter",
      "Active": "No"
    },
    {
      "Code": "3",
      "Data": "George",
      "Title": "Monthly Meeting",
      "CreatedDate": "11/06/2020",
      "Active": "Yes",
      "Description": "Monthly Meeting to review 3 month look ahead"
    }
  ]
}
status: -1

But Appgyver expects an Array like this....

Error: Error:
The result was not an array. Maybe the data you're looking for is inside one of the response object keys?

[
    {
      "Code": "1",
      "Data": "Mark",
      "Title": "Weekly Meeting",
      "CreatedDate": "11/10/2020",
      "Active": "Yes",
      "Description": "Weekly Meeting to review 4 week look ahead"
    },
    {
      "Code": "2",
      "Data": "Peter",
      "Active": "No"
    },
    {
      "Code": "3",
      "Data": "George",
      "Title": "Monthly Meeting",
      "CreatedDate": "11/06/2020",
      "Active": "Yes",
      "Description": "Monthly Meeting to review 3 month look ahead"
    }
  ]

Does anyone know a way for Aware to return JUST the array?

Thanks for confirming the REST integration works. Can you share a thought or two on what you have been able to do with Appgyver and Aware and possible limitations etc.?

customaware

Has anyone playing with Appgyver managed to work out how to issue a PUT or a DELETE REST call to Aware?

POST works fine but Appgyver expects PUT for Update and DELETE for Delete which Aware does not like.

hpl123

eagles9999 wrote
Has anyone playing with Appgyver managed to work out how to issue a PUT or a DELETE REST call to Aware?

POST works fine but Appgyver expects PUT for Update and DELETE for Delete which Aware does not like.

Should be possible in Aware, take a look at this: REST GET,POST,PUT,DELETE?

customaware

Apparently PUT and DELETE are not supported. 🙁

Jaymer

Mark

1) put/delete are not support by which?
2) can you give some "bigger picture" benefit of how you thought you could use this tool to improve your Applications?

thx

customaware

Aware cannot consume a PUT or a DELETE verb Jaymer.

From what we have tested so far.... Appgyver is very very cool and would allow you to create NATIVE mobile apps communicating with
Aware via REST calls. POST works perfectly. But PUT and DELETE do not.
I know it is possible to send a POST to Aware that can then trigger an Update process or a Delete Process. That works in Postman.
But Appgyver expects an Update to use a PUT verb and expects a Delete to use a DELETE verb.
Aware does not support.

If it did... then we would immediately pursue a Native version of our mobile requiments using Appgyver.

But at the moment.... no go.

hpl123

I do hope Aware can update to also include the missing verbs to make an full Appgyver integration possible but in the meantime, something like this is also possible:
https://www.xano.com/
https://restdb.io/

These are more or less hosted REST apis configured in a simple GUI way and they include all that is needed for Appgyver apps. These can then act as an intermediate between the Appgyver app and AwareIM. The hosted REST apis are fully configurable and we would then configure some api endpoint from the hosted REST that Aware understands and can work with.

Again, if anyone actually use this or does something with Appgyver etc., please share your results.

hpl123

Another way is build a simple REST api in PHP but requires coding:
https://codeofaninja.com/2017/02/create-simple-rest-api-in-php.html

customaware

Watch this space. 😉

hpl123

Giddy up 😃

Jaymer

@support should give us an update on this.

Mark was talking with him to put these updates into Aware.

customaware

Ta Da!!!! 😉

Build 2831 released....

Bugs:

It was not possible to edit a special "session object"
Unicode characters could not be used in passwords and user names
Custom queries embedded in forms were unnecessarily resized
Reordering items in query could not be done - the dialog always issued an error message

Improvements:
1. PUT and DELETE HTTP verbs supported when exposing REST services

hpl123

eagles9999 wrote
Ta Da!!!! 😉

Build 2831 released....

Bugs:

It was not possible to edit a special "session object"

Unicode characters could not be used in passwords and user names

Custom queries embedded in forms were unnecessarily resized

Reordering items in query could not be done - the dialog always issued an error message

Improvements:
1. PUT and DELETE HTTP verbs supported when exposing REST services

Beeeehutiful 😁