Could we use HTC with AB?

Hello David,

I have tried to compile a webapp, project built using App Builder, using HTML Compiler. There was no error at all but the code seems not to be executed locally (the compile app showed a blank screen).

I wondered if it could be hard for me to adapt the code generated by AppBuilder to be able to execute it locally (like a way to quickly build windows desktop apps).

Many thanks

Hello Samuel,

The problem is that the WebBrowser control (and also Internet Explorer), in which HTML Compiler is based, do not support "ajax" for local files in the same way than Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome does. Also some other features like local storage cannot work for local files in Internet Explorer. For this reasons App Builder debugger is based in an internal HTTP server as you can see.

On the other hand, HTML Compiler relies in the WebBrowser control and certain proprietary Microsoft Internet Explorer protocol, which in fact allow us to do what we wanted with HTML Compiler: never extract any file to the user computer, if we do not wanted this. So with minor or no changes App Builder apps cannot works in HTML Compiler, which can be something good to me too.

We can try using AngularJS script tags instead of individual app HTML files per every app views. This is not the recomended way for more or less larger apps, however, maybe we can do it in order to get ready for HTML Compiler. But the problems just starts here, since other features like local storage cannot works like we expected.

I prepare for you the Calculator sample using script tags instead HTML files per the app views. Download this sample from here. As you can see they can work as an HTML Compiler project, however, some things do not works properly like the themes select control. Most of them are related with the refered local storage problem.

The other problem I can note is that the icons doesn't works too. The problem this time is that HTML Compiler cannot deal with the font files which include the icons. This time the limitation is in HTML Compiler, but we can expect some limitations like that in a program like this, at least all programs which use the same Microsoft Internet Explorer protocol used by HTML Compiler. The refered protocol support almost everything than local files support, but not everything.

Then the conclusion is that maybe we can adapt some specific apps to be used in HTML Compiler, but, currently is not something available for every apps and definetively is not an easy thing to do: I mean we cannot do it using a few clicks.

Hello David,

I do thank you for your detailed analysis and expert reply. I'll do differently :)

Hello,

In fact I am the first interested in a possible combination of App Builder and HTML Compiler, and it's something I plain when start to develop App Builder, however, I asume that this combination is not possible since the refered issues. However I still perservere in App Builder development, and also HTML compiler, because both programs meet their promises, even when they can't work together.

Maybe the most problematic issues exists in the HTML Compiler part, because the use of the "special protocol". But HTML Compiler cannot renounce this way since in fact they are what allow us to meet the HTML Compiler promise: never extract files to the user computer. This is because I never announce HTML Compiler as a "website compiler" or something else.

What HTML Compiler expect is HTML apps writen mostly from the scratch and which take in count the possible limitation of the HTML Compiler environment. Doing this we can be sure our HTML files never be extracted to the user computer, even when we can do this optionally. The conclusion is I prefer to say "this is not possible" than "maybe" or "yes, but not enterelly".

Hello to all,

I want to update this thread, because, with the new generation of DecSoft HTML Compiler, now yes, we can compile AB apps without problems. You can read more information about the new generation of DecSoft HTML Compiler here!

Hola a todos,

Enhorabuena David.. gran trabajo!!!

¡Gracias, hombre! Cabe decir que DecSoft HTML Compiler puede ahora con las apps de AB2, pero, también con las apps de AB1, y, en general, con aplicaciones del tipo que produce DecSoft App Builder, no como el anterior DecSoft HTML Compiler, que, no podía con ellas, debido a lo que se ha explicado arriba en varios "posts".

El actual DecSoft HTML Compiler es mucho más potente y permite muchísimas cosas que el anterior DecSoft HTML Compiler no permitía, aunque, en todo caso el nuevo DecSoft HTML Compiler ofrece también las mejores características de la anterior generación del producto. Es, sin duda, aunque esté feo que yo lo diga, un producto mejorado. Bueno... como el nuevo AB2 lo es también. ;-)