HTML5 Builder Error

[shown1980]

I am a Delphi developer with quite some years in using Delphi for my tasks, but recently I decided to keep up with the current technologies so I downloaded the trial version of HTML5 Builder hoping that I would get the same beautiful RAD environment and tools that Delphi gave me all these years. However to be honest, I ran into a lot of problems when trying to use H5B.

I am sure that when I will understand how it works I will be pleased with it, but for the moment I have no idea where to begin... how to start... anything. A hello world app tutorial does not cover it anymore.

 

There is a serious lack of help for this new platform. I might be interested in jQuery's documentation and PHP documentation at some point but at the beginning I would really need a personalized help for them... I mean, take a few chapters from each external technology and re-write it from the H5B developer's view.

 

- The tutorials I found on the web are confusing to say the least. For starters... they all show php code for mobile app projects, while when I try to build one - I get js-code files to write in. I have no idea where to access the php files and I surfed the IDE up and down. I assume the tutorials were made with a previous version of the product... and that is very confusing...

- If you would dedicate one developer from your team (and that is not a lot to ask from a company like Embarcadero) to make video-tutorials for all obvious tasks possible and upload them to a channel on youtube for example you would get 100 times more attention towards H5Builder. A lot of new developers would turn your way.

The H5B is meant to be used mainly by single developers, also it is supposed to be easy to use... so, one developer from your team should be able to come up with serious (updated) DEMOS in a matter of days (let's make it weeks). 

- I would like to see more video-tutorials for mobile app development. How to make stuff... Your team should have an overview of the product and could explain it to the masses without big words... just simple facts... while showing how it's done. I am not asking you to do my work, I am asking you to show me how to do it, and I will do that myself.

 

- Why not make case studies? For example... "say you want to make a simple mobile app with no DB required, that obtains and shows you your GPS coordinates in two editboxes when you press a button... these are the steps you need to follow: first you start a new project..." and so on

or " say you want also a simple mobile app that uses multiple screens. You have 2 options... use pages or use a layered panel... when using pages you should do the following... when using a layered panel...The difference between using the two techniques are the following..."

or " did you know that in order to go from page one to page three... all you need to do is to add this code to your button onclick event?"

or "do you want transition effects to be shown when moving from one page to another? This is how it's done..."

or "do you want to populate a select-menu from a dataset dynamically? you must do the following..."

 

- I understand that you are proud of the phonegap mobile deployment wizard... but please do not make a video-tutorial on how to use a wizard... that is for kids. We need serious video-tutorials about how to sort things out inside the code and design development area.

 

- there is NO GRID in any of the palettes, that is unacceptable. Any app you would want to build uses at least one grid even if only for positioning inside the screen area. The developers (like me) who develop applications for customers... work with databases... and there is no better way to display a table's content than with a DBGrid. Please do something about it, you implemented jQuery (which sounds awesome) so what is the matter with implementing one of the many-many existing grids that use it natively?

 

- There is no coherent help for absolute beginners like I am with web technologies. That is not a smart move. There are tools out there that do not require deep knowledge of these technologies in order to perform simple tasks in a mobile app for example. I do not want to use them, since I am dedicated to Delphi for as long as I will develop desktop apps, but give me a better choice for web developing.

- The Embarcadero Chat does not work at all for me... why?

- I have 4 days left of my trial period and I cannot say that I was able to build a simple, multiple "form", app that uses the components from the palette? You want to know why? Of course I knew how to place components on the forms... that is not a subject of a video-tutorial... The reason I got stuck is because I opened the demos... one by one and I tried to reproduce them, but it was impossible. All the demos contain exclusively PHP files and code... and when I start my projects i receive only javascript files... where should I enter the php code in order to test it?

 

Recently a friend suggested that I should check out Tiggzi app builder to see how great it is. I did that and I was surprised to see a RAD that I would have expected from Embarcadero to provide..., that does all the things a beginner would like to do in a mobile app without any knowledge of HTML5, CSS or JS. 99% of the work is done with the mouse... I am sure that for more extended capabilities it would maybe become more difficult to use but for simple apps you need almost no knowledge of HTML, CSS nor javascript.

 

I will forever remain a Delphi fan and I hope that HTML5 Builder will evolve to be the best developing tool on the market for HTML5 and when that happens, I will buy it the day it gets released, but today I am a little disappointed. And more specifically ... I am disappointed with the documentation,step-by-step tutorials, how-to's and so on. I do not need the IDE to look and feel like Tiggzi... but I need to know HOW TO USE the H5 Builder

 

I apologize if I speak only for myself and most of you disagree with my point of view...

I am looking forward for your input. Anyone who cares to enlighten me is welcome. I still have 4 days left of my trial version and I would love to be able to make something move with this platform

Thank you

Edited September 4, 2013 by ignace
removed self promoting URLs

[kicken]

This sounds like an email you should send off to the HTML5 Builder support people so perhaps they can improve their product to your desires. We have nothing to do with said application and can't do anything about your issues. I would venture to guess that very few, if anyone, here uses that program. Most of the newbies seem to use Dreamweaver and the more advanced users tend to write their HTML/PHP/JS them selves rather than use some kind of wysiwyg editor.