From the Forum — Issue #61

27 February 2015

From the Forum — Issue #61

Welcome to the latest installment of From the Forum. In this series, guest blogger Alex Jackson highlights outstanding threads from the Corona Forum. The goal is to bring attention to the most captivating, interesting, and thought-provoking discussions taking place in our very own backyard.

Please visit the forum to join these conversations or start your own!

1. Timers and their queries

It’s time for our semi-annual remind regarding the timer API and how we can manage the many and varied uses of timed events in our apps and games. It’s as predictable as the sunrise and needs to be addressed with logic and perseverance.

A lot of developers first seeing the limitation of anonymous timers running within scenes when they use them inside of Composer scenes. In many cases, the timers keep running, or worse, throw run-time errors and crash you right out of your app. The below thread drops some knowledge on how to avoid these problems, and one developer provides a new timer module that they whipped up just for this purpose. Head on over to check it out!

http://forums.coronalabs.com/topic/54775-removing-timers-on-scene-change-help-needed-please/

2. Handle those URLs like a pro

Everyone wants a graceful method to handle any problem. No one wants the ugly hack to become a normal solution to a problem during development. Directing users to other apps that you have developed should be seamless and painless; adding in unnecessary speed bumps, interfaces and actions from the user are all ways that those same users will be lost.

The below forum post has a nifty method to handle user interaction from the server side. It allows you to capture that interaction with the app from the user and direct them on to a specific app store to download that app. Speed down to the original post to find out how.

http://forums.coronalabs.com/topic/54724-url-scheme-installing-app/

3. Between the moon and the stars

This one is a bit niche but pretty cool all the same. A Corona developer recently opined aloud as to the best method to access and represent, in code, a lunar phase. The change takes place cyclically, and in that, is ripe for a logic puzzle solved by proper code syntax. Check out the thought experiment in the below forum thread, and if you have your own ideas, or are an amateur astronomer, feel free to throw your two cents into the comments!

http://forums.coronalabs.com/topic/54547-source-for-moon-cycles-phases/

About Alex

Alex Jackson is an indie developer and the founder of Panc Interactive, specializing in retro-style gaming. He has created several mobile applications, enjoys long walks on the beach, pixel art, and reading the Corona forums. Contact him by email or follow him on Twitter: @pancinteractive. Check out his new game Crosstown Smash on iOS, Android, and Amazon devices!