Introducing the Next Generation of AppStudio Player
By Chris LeSueur and Tina Jin
AppStudio Player for ArcGIS lets you instantly view AppStudio apps on a real device without requiring a full build and deployment cycle. We are happy to announce that Playerhas received its biggest update to date in the 3.1 release. We have completely re-designed Player from the ground up with a crisp new look, plus introduced many new features and enhancements to make your testing experience even better.
Improvements to Performance
Player is now faster and more responsive than ever, with significant improvements made to app refreshing, searching, and downloading speeds to help you save testing time. Player also loads your apps preview card faster to the Cloud Page gallery with the implementation of lazy-loading, which can be extremely helpful when you and your organization have many apps (We have organizations with hundreds of apps).
Better Performance
Better Enterprise sign-in experience
Enterprise sign-in experience has beengreatly improved by addingthe ability to validate portal URL synchronously while you are typing. You will be notified with an error message if the input portal URL is invalid. In addition, your portal URL will be automatically saved in your history.
Enterprise Sign In
Cloud page
Once you have signed-in, the app will direct you to the Cloud page, where you can find all your apps as well as apps that are shared with you. You can easily sort apps by last update date, last created date, and name.
New Cloud Page
Update page
We’ve introduced a new Update page to detect local apps with pending updates automatically, allowing you to easily and quickly update them all at once, with a single tap.
Bulk App Updates
Samples page
AppStudio Player 3.1 now includes a Samples page where you can download and explore more than 60 live ArcGIS Runtime and AppStudio AppFramework sample apps directly onto your mobile device. We also provide you the ability to search for samples based on their functionality.
Note: You don’t need to sign in to download and run sample apps, so install AppStudio Player today and give it a try.
Access Sample Apps
Improvements to Search
With the new Player, finding your app is easier than ever, as you can now easily search for apps by entering keywords in your app title, summary, description, and even tags. The returned results can also be sorted by last update date, last created date, and name. What’s more, search now automatically saves your search history and makes it easier for you to access it the next time, or search for something similar.
Improved Search
App Details page
The new App Details page shows your app metadata, such as app summary, description, licensing information, what capabilities are being used in the app, and what types of device are supported. Also, we have added the ability to find out all the apps that are created and published by a specific owner with a responsive owner text button on the App Details page.
More App Details
Play apps with more options
Player 3.1 brings new design and better experience to the side tab. When you are running your app in the Player, pressing on the side tab opens a side menu with smooth animation and a few options to refresh app without exiting it, hide the side tab and take screenshots, connect to the Remote Console to debug, and exit your app.
Quickly Access to Tools
Side menu
The new side menu design provides a clean and intuitive experience to access the Scan QR code function, the Diagnostics page, the Connect to Remote Console tool, App Settings, and the About page.
New Side Menu
Diagnostics page
The Diagnostics page helps you to learn more about your device, such as screen size, network connectivity, sensors, and locale.
New App Diagnostics
Better error message handling
When your app fails to run in Player, Player now provides error messages and access to an interface to share it with others.
Capture Error Messages
Localization and Internationalization
Player 3.1 now fully supports 37 languages, with different date and number formats to provide the best worldwide experience to our users. Demand for the right-to-left (RTL) support has been growing, and with this in mind, we have implemented support for RTL while developing the new Player.
Internationalization
Enterprise template
Player’s source code is fully available in AppStudio Desktop (New App > Enterprise tab). We have made it easier than ever for you to modify, brand, and create your own Player as an enterprise distribution app. Currently, we have exposed Portal URL, Portal name, Portal configured with IWA, Show Scan QR code menu, Show Diagnostics menu item, Show Connect Remote Console menu item, Feedback email, Show sample pages, and Font,propertiesinto the Player template’s settings in AppStudio Desktop, which allows you to quickly and easily make these changes without editing the code. However, if further customization is needed, you can open Player’s template in the Qt Creator and modify the source code.
Create a Custom Player
Note: You will need to register your app and obtain an App ID (Client ID) to allow users to log into your own Player using OAuth 2.0. This can be down by uploading your app to ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise, and then navigating through AppStudio Settings > Advanced Settings and then clicking on the Register button.
Feedback
Want to provide your feedback? We have provided a Feedback option in Player’s side menu to bring up an email draft, pre-filled with Player version and your device information to help you easily connect to us.
Give Us Feedback
We encourage everyone to experience the new AppStudio Player – you don’t even need to sign in. Simply download AppStudio Player from the app stores (Apple, Google), or get a desktop version. Next, open AppStudio Player and navigate to the Samples page to download and explore our 60+ live samples. We’re always looking forward to your feedback to make Player even better. Let us know what you think by reviewing the app in the App stores, or send your feedback to appstudiofeedback@esri.com
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Chris LeSueur is a Sr. Product Manager for ArcGIS Survey123 and ArcGIS QuickCapture. Chris has over 25 yrs experience in the GIS industry working in various positions in Technical Marketing, Competitive Intelligence, and Product Management. As a product manager Chris works to broaden the reach of GIS by improving the experience of mobile field data collection.
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