From the Forum — Issue #95

23 October 2015

From the Forum — Issue #95

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. Zipping and unzipping workarounds

Getting your app as lean and mean as possible can be the key to success in any market that exists these days. I’m not going to go into my whole “use the zip plugin NOW” diatribe, because I think we are all over that by now. What I will say, is that if you are using the zip plugin or are planning on doing so, you’re going to want to start making some plans.

Specifically, the zip plugin seems to be on the fritz, meaning that zipping multiple files isn’t working as it should. This can be a real nuisance, but thank Odin that Lua has “for” loops!

Head on down to the original thread to see a bit more on this loop workaround and how best to use it. Have your own idea? Don’t be shy, share with the class!

https://forums.coronalabs.com/topic/59250-zip-compress-not-working

2. Keyboard mana from heaven

There’s a lot of confusion surrounding how to deal with mobile device on-screen keyboards, and the best practices regarding moving and hiding the hit-testable keys themselves. It’s a subject that, indeed, has been covered here before, but now we have something concrete to learn from.

That bastion of baud rates RoamingGamer, in attempting to demonstrate his accumen for all things keyboard, has provided a cool little module for the Corona community to learn on. In his own words, the example will “automatically cycle through the focused fields so you can watch how the devices handle panning and off-screen fields.”

It’s pretty sweet to watch the keyboard work itself out, and figure out how to have your app or game act accordingly! Click through to the original thread to grab the github link for this diddy!

https://forums.coronalabs.com/topic/50905-detect-keyboard-height/

3. Helper classes are always a good idea

I need to start using more helper classes. These handy-dandy time-savers are what make a good developer a great one, allowing them to save time and not constantly write and re-write the same code over and over again.

Getting some pointers when making your helper classes is never a bad idea, and the Corona developer who started the below thread was looking for just that. Trying to minimize redundancy and increase efficiency, what started as an open-ended question turned into a fascinating discussion on what would determine a successful helper class, and what would cause just as much wasted time as re-writing the same touch listener multiple times.

Check out the original thread below to learn more about these issues and how you can side-step them.

https://forums.coronalabs.com/topic/59770-any-comments-on-my-toucheventhelper

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 Segreta on iOS, Android, Windows Phone and Amazon devices.