I ♥ My

Smartphone

A Computing Science Course in

Mobile App Development
by Jeremy Scott

LEARNER NOTES Version 2, August 2016

I ♥ My Smartphone Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements
This resource was partially funded by a grant from Education Scotland. We are also grateful for
the help and support provided by the following contributors:

Bridge of Don Academy

Crieff High School
George Heriot’s School
Johnstone High School
Kelso High School
CompEdNet, Scottish Forum for Computing Science Teachers
Computing At School
Council of Professors and Heads of Computing (CPHC)
Professor Hal Abelson, MIT
Mitchel Resnick, MIT
Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Edinburgh Napier University School of Computing
Glasgow Caledonian University School of Engineering and Built Environment
Heriot-Watt University School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences
Robert Gordon University School of Computing
University of Edinburgh School of Informatics
University of Aberdeen Department of Computing
University of Dundee School of Computing
University of Glasgow School of Computing Science
University of St Andrews School of Computer Science
University of Stirling Department of Computing Science and Mathematics
University of Strathclyde Department of Computer and Information Sciences
University of the West of Scotland School of Computing
ScotlandIS
4J Studios
Brightsolid
Google
JP Morgan
Microsoft Research
Oracle
O2
RunRev
Sword Ciboodle

Special thanks go to Ian King who assisted with updating these materials for App Inventor 2.

The contribution of the following individuals who served on the RSE/BCS Project Advisory Group
is also gratefully acknowledged: Professor Sally Brown (chair), Mr David Bethune, Professor Alan
Bundy, Professor Quintin Cutts, Ms Kate Farrell, Mr William Hardie, Dr Fiona McNeill, Professor
Greg Michaelson, Dr Bill Mitchell and Professor Judy Robertson.

Some of the lessons within this resource are based on existing work by Professor David Wolber of
the University of San Francisco and the App Inventor EDU site, reproduced and adapted under
Creative Commons licence. The author thanks those concerned for permission to use and adapt
their materials.

BCS is a registered charity: No 292786

The Royal Society of Edinburgh. Scotland's National Academy. Scottish Charity No. SC000470

Page i
I ♥ My Smartphone Acknowledgements

For Sarah, who loves her smartphone, and Anna, who loves her smartphone too.

Page ii
I ♥ My Smartphone Contents

Contents
A Brief History of the Telephone ...................................................................... 1
Mr Watson, come here – I want to see you! ................................................. 1
Going mobile .................................................................................................. 2
When mobile phones became smart phones ................................................ 3
Convergence: Bringing it all together ............................................................ 4
Telephone…or computer? ............................................................................. 6
Smartphone Software ..................................................................................... 9
Operating system ........................................................................................... 9
Apps ............................................................................................................. 10
The mobile app industry .............................................................................. 11
Mobile App Development.............................................................................. 13
Lesson 1: Virtual Pet ...................................................................................... 15
Virtual Machines .......................................................................................... 17
Lesson 2: Finger Painting ............................................................................... 19
The Importance of Design ............................................................................ 19
Bugs .............................................................................................................. 21
Variables....................................................................................................... 22
Lesson 3: Mole Masher Game ........................................................................ 27
Procedures ................................................................................................... 28
Comments .................................................................................................... 29
Lesson 4: Times Table Helper ......................................................................... 33
Validating Input ............................................................................................ 39
Lesson 5: Virtual Map Tour ............................................................................ 41
Lists (Arrays) ................................................................................................. 43
Lesson 6: Heads I Win .................................................................................... 45
Lesson 7: Wiff-Waff Game ............................................................................. 49
Summary ...................................................................................................... 55
Mobile App Project ....................................................................................... 57
Congratulations ............................................................................................ 65

Page iii
I ♥ My Smartphone Contents

Page iv
I ♥ My Smartphone A Brief History of the Telephone

A Brief History of the Telephone

Mr Watson, come here – I want to see you!
On March 10th 1876, Edinburgh-born inventor Alexander
Graham Bell spoke into the first telephone: “Mr Watson, come
here – I want to see you!”

His assistant, listening at the other end of the line in another

room could hear Bell clearly. Bell had just invented the
telephone and started a revolution in communication that
would change the world.

The ability to speak directly to

someone over a long distance quickly caught on and the land
line phone quickly became the must-have accessory in more
and more homes.

It remained difficult to call someone on the move, however. As

early as 1930 it became possible to place a call to a passenger
cruise ship via a radio link but it was not until the outbreak of
World War II that portable communications devices that we
might recognise today became available: first the backpack-
based “Walkie-talkie” and then the hand-held “Handie-talkie”
(opposite), both developed by Motorola.

In the 1940s and 1950s, radio telephones in cars became available, but these were
expensive, bulky and plagued with poor reception.

Page 1
I ♥ My Smartphone A Brief History of the Telephone

Going mobile
The first experimental hand-held mobile telephone was
demonstrated in 1973 by Motorola and weighed around 1kg,
but it was not until 1983 that the first devices went on sale.

These early devices were large and heavy, had a short battery
life and were capable only of making telephone calls.

It was not until 1993 that manufacturers began to add extra

features to mobile phones, such as a calendar, address book,
clock, e-mail and simple games. The first of these was IBM’s
Simon handset.

Around the same time, hand held computers (often called

PDAs – Personal Digital Assistants) began to appear that
offered basic computing tasks in the palm of your hand.

These were commonly used with a stylus (like a pen) to tap a

touch-sensitive screen. The most successful of these was the
Palm range of handhelds (left). These devices couldn’t make
phone calls or send text messages – they were simple hand-
held computers. They were, however, very popular and made
Palm one of the world most successful technology companies
of the late 1990s.

Investigate the products below. Complete the table by writing down what you think
are the two most important features of each device.

Year Product Important features

1993 IBM Simon

1996 Palm Pilot

2002 RIM Blackberry

2007 Apple iPhone

2008 HTC Dream

2011 Nokia Lumia

2014 Apple Watch

Page 2
I ♥ My Smartphone A Brief History of the Telephone

When mobile phones became smart phones

These early smartphones were…well, not that smart. They could send and receive emails
and perform a range of basic office functions for business users, but were not
particularly user-friendly.

In 2007, Apple introduced the iPhone, which was

aimed initially at consumers. The iPhone was a
genuine “game-changer” and was the first mobile
phone to feature a multi-touch interface. Until
then, touch screens had been available on many
devices (such as the Palm Pilot) but could sense
only one point of touch at a time.

The ability to sense more than one point of touch

on a screen may seem like only a small
improvement on single-point touch, but think of
all the actions you can perform on a modern
multi-touch device. It brought about the
possibility of gesture-based interfaces where you
can swipe, pinch and zoom with your fingers.

In just a few years, multi-touch interfaces have

spread to many devices and have become
steadily cheaper. It is difficult to foresee us ever
going back to devices with lots of physical
An iPhone 3G from 2008 showing
buttons to press.
its large multi-touch screen.

Page 3
I ♥ My Smartphone A Brief History of the Telephone

Convergence: Bringing it all together

Modern smartphones bring together technologies such as GPS, Bluetooth and the
accelerometer – and, of course, wireless Internet access.

This is an example of convergence – that is, integrating technologies which were once
separate into a single device.

Investigate the following technologies. Beside each one, write down its function (what
it does) and an example of a portable device (other than a smartphone) which uses it.
a microphone translates sound vibrations in the air into
electric signals and scribes them to a recording medium
Microphone Function or over a loud speaker
___________________________________________
hyperx quadcast
Example device ______________________________________

converting electrical energy into acoustical signal energy that

Loudspeaker Function ___________________________________________
is radiated into a room or open air.

Example device ______________________________________

a device that allows the user to interact with a computer
Touch screen using their fingers
Function ___________________________________________
iphone
Example device ______________________________________
measure the vibration, or acceleration of motion of a
Accelerometer structure
Function ___________________________________________

Example device ______________________________________

GPS sensor provides position, velocity and timing information

Function ___________________________________________

Example device ______________________________________

Bluetooth allows devices to communicate with each other without cables

Function ___________________________________________

Example device ______________________________________

CCD Function ___________________________________________

(Charge Coupled Device) Example device ______________________________________

Digital Compass Function ___________________________________________

Example device ______________________________________

Page 4
I ♥ My Smartphone A Brief History of the Telephone

Discuss with your neighbour what you think will be the next big advances in
smartphone technology. Using either a graphics package or pencil & paper, draw a
labelled design for a smartphone 10 years from now.

Page 5
I ♥ My Smartphone A Brief History of the Telephone

Telephone…or computer?
Whilst we use the term “smartphone” to describe a modern multi-function mobile
telephone, it is probably better to think of it as a pocket computer which also happens
to make phone calls.

A computer is a machine which can follow a program (a list of instructions) to perform a

task. As well as a processing device, it will usually have one or more input, storage and
output devices.

Discuss with your neighbour what each of these could be within a smartphone.
Write down your answers.

Device Smartphone example(s)

microphone, keyboard, mouse,
Input

CPU, GPU
Processing

iCloud, SSD, one drive

Storage

LED lights, speakers, projector

Output

Page 6
 I ♥ My Smartphone A Brief History of the Telephone

Did you know…? For many users, phoning is one of the tasks they perform the least on their smartphone.
In a 2013 survey, 26% of respondents said they chat for less than half an hour each
month on their handset. 23% said they surf the web on their phone for more than five
hours a month, while just 9% made voice calls for the same amount of time.1 A more
recent survey2 showed that a quarter of smartphone users would typically not even
make one voice call per week.

A 20163 report from network company Cisco stated that mobile data traffic had grown
4,000-fold over the previous 10 years and almost 400-million-fold over the previous 15
years. In 2015 alone, there was a 75% increase in mobile data traffic.

The same report predicts that by 2020:

 mobile data traffic will increase another eight-fold, with approximately three
quarters of that data being video;
 there will be around 1.5 Internet-connected mobile devices for every person on
the planet, with smartphones accounting for nearly 50% of all devices.

Finally, a 2014 study4 revealed that the average person spends 90 mins a day on their
phone – meaning that nearly 4 years of the average person's life is spent staring at their
phone screen!

1
Source https://gigaom.com/2013/07/19/data-is-now-a-higher-priority-than-voice-uk-mobile-
users-say/
2
Source https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2015/sep/08/one-in-four-uk-
smartphone-weekly-phone-calls
3
Source http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/collateral/service-provider/visual-networking-
index-vni/mobile-white-paper-c11-520862.html
4
Source http://www.mobilestatistics.com/mobile-news/23-days-a-year-spent-on-your-
phone.aspx

Page 7
I ♥ My Smartphone A Brief History of the Telephone

Page 8
I ♥ My Smartphone Smartphone Software

Smartphone Software
All of these technologies would be useless without software to bring them together.
Software is the name for computer programs – list of instructions – which tell the
computer hardware how to perform a task. On mobile devices, there are two main
pieces of software:

 the operating system and

 apps

Operating system
An operating system (OS) is a set of programs that a computer runs all the time it is
switched on.

An OS performs many tasks, but we can think of it as the program

that gets the computer “up and running” and makes it work and look Apps
the way it does.

The OS sits between apps and the computer’s hardware, letting apps
access the hardware. This is why it is possible to run software OS
written for an OS such as Microsoft Windows on a wide variety of
different computers.

Examples of operating systems on desktop computers include Hardware

Microsoft Windows, Apple MacOS and Linux. At the time of writing,
the most common operating system on mobile devices is Android from Google.

Write down the names of some mobile device operating systems. Beside each one,
give the name of an actual device that it runs on.
If you or someone you know has a smartphone, write down what it is and the name of
the operating system it runs.

Mobile OS Actual Device

Android Samsung Galaxy S7 mobile phone

IOS iPhone
_________________ _________________________________________________
harmonyOS Huawei
_________________ _________________________________________________
watchOS apple watch
_________________ _________________________________________________
colorOS oppo
_________________ _________________________________________________

Page 9
I ♥ My Smartphone Smartphone Software

Apps
Once your computer or smartphone has started up, you will want to do some tasks with
it. Don’t worry – no matter what you want to do, there’s almost certainly an app for it!

The word “app” is short for application. An application is a computer program that
enables the computer to do a useful job.

Write down the names of three desktop applications.

Beside each one write down how much it costs.
Photoshop: $20.99
____________________________________________________________________
spotify: Free
____________________________________________________________________
OBS: Free
____________________________________________________________________

Now investigate a mobile app store such as Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Write
down the names of three mobile apps and their cost.
Instagram: Free
____________________________________________________________________
Facebook: Free
____________________________________________________________________
Twitter: Free
____________________________________________________________________

In most cases, you will see that a mobile device app has fewer features than a desktop
application. This is usually reflected in the price, with many apps being free, or costing
less than a pound.

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I ♥ My Smartphone Smartphone Software

The mobile app industry

Mobile app development is still a new industry, but is already worth billions of pounds
per year.

A 2015 report stated that the “app economy” supports 1.8 million jobs across the entire
EU, and this is predicted to rise to 5 million by 2018 5. The same report said that the
European app economy is predicted to rise to €63 billion by 2018. A separate 2016 study
reported that there are 1.66 million app economy jobs in the USA alone6.

Worldwide, the app economy is predicted to be worth over $100 billion by 2020 on the
back of nearly 300 billion downloads per year. At the time of writing, 85% of all
smartphone app sales were for games7.

Whilst many mobile apps are created by professional software development companies,
there are also many “bedroom developers”8 – people who create mobile apps in their
spare time, either as a hobby or a sideline to their main job. There are over 35,000 such
people in the UK alone. It is also an industry dominated by young developers.

Maybe you will go on to make a career in this industry!

5
http://eurapp.eu/2014/02/13/study-finds-total-18-million-jobs-eu-app-economy-
%E2%82%AC175-billion-revenues-taken-eu-app
6
http://www.progressivepolicy.org/slider/app-economy-jobs-part-1/
7
https://www.appannie.com/landing/forecast
8
http://www.visionmobile.com/product/uk-app-economy-2014/

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I ♥ My Smartphone Smartphone Software

Page 12
I ♥ My Smartphone Mobile App Development

Mobile App Development

The rest of this course will focus on how to write programs to create mobile apps.

You will be using App Inventor, originally

created by Google and now developed by
MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology),
one of the USA’s leading universities.

App Inventor is a powerful software development environment that lets you create apps
for Android smartphones. We will be learning how to use App Inventor through a series
of lessons.

At the end of each task, there will be some questions which will assess your
understanding of what you have learned.

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I ♥ My Smartphone Mobile App Development

Page 14
I ♥ My Smartphone Lesson 1: Virtual Pet

Lesson 1: Virtual Pet

This lesson will cover
 The App Inventor environment
o Components
o Properties
o Code (blocks)
 Event-driven programming

Mobile features
 Touch interface
 Working with sound

Introduction
Your teacher will demonstrate a simple mobile app to you. This is the app that you are
going to create – an on-screen virtual pet which you have to “care” for.

Task 1: Getting started with App Inventor

Watch screencast VirtualPet1. This will introduce you to App Inventor and the designer
screen, where you assemble your app’s components.

Once you have done this, try creating a similar screen for your own VirtualPet app. Feel
free to experiment with the different properties of each component!

Task 2: Creating code

At this point, all we have created is the app’s interface. Whilst this is an important stage
in development, the app won’t actually do anything! We must now add some
instructions (or code) to make the app work as intended.

Watch screencast VirtualPet2, then try to create your own version of the app. If you get
stuck, go back in the screencast or ask your partner.

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I ♥ My Smartphone Lesson 1: Virtual Pet

There are two parts to an App Inventor app:

1. Components and their properties (or settings);

2. Code (or blocks) – the program instructions.
Most of the code is triggered by events – things that happen on the phone –
such as a button click. Code can also be used to change the properties of the
components.

Components need code (instructions) to perform a task.

Your code should look similar to the picture below:

Task 3: Testing your app

Using either the Android emulator or live testing using a mobile phone, try out your app.

Did it work as intended? If not, go back and check your code for any mistakes. If that
doesn’t work, check the properties of your app’s components too.

Congratulations – you have just created your first mobile app!

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I ♥ My Smartphone Lesson 1: Virtual Pet

Virtual Machines
The Android emulator is a recreation of a complete Android mobile phone
on your computer.
It is obviously not a real phone – it can’t make calls or receive texts, for
example. However, App Inventor sees it as one, and sends the same
commands to the emulator during testing as those sent to a phone.
The Computing Science term for this is a virtual machine.9

Task 4: App Inventor reference sheet

Your teacher will issue a handout of the App Inventor environment. Fill this in and keep
it handy for reference.

Extension Task 1
This virtual pet reacts to being touched, rather than being stroked. Your teacher will
now demonstrate how to replace the Button component with a Canvas component,
which can detect a drag event.

Now alter your app so that the cat meows only when it’s being stroked.

Extension Task 2
In the Designer, add an image sprite (Animation→ImageSprite) under the cat’s chin.
Make it big enough to detect a touch. Just leave it blank, with no image file.

In the Blocks Editor, use a Sound.Vibrate block from your sound component’s drawer,
make your cat purr (i.e. make the phone vibrate) when you stroke under its chin!

Extension 3 – Cool Feature

In the Designer, add an
accelerometer component
(Sensors→AccelerometerSensor).
Then add the code shown opposite
so that your virtual pet works when
you shake the phone.

9
Strictly speaking, a virtual machine is a computer running in software that, like a physical
computer, has an operating system and can run applications.

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I ♥ My Smartphone Lesson 1: Virtual Pet

Did you understand?

It would be a simple task to add buttons that change the picture and sound for different
animals. Such an app could be used to teach very young children how to recognise
different animals and the sound they make, for example.

Run the app VirtualPet3,

where this has been done.
The code is shown
opposite.

Unfortunately, there is a
bug in the app – a problem
that stops the app working
as expected.

(Bugs are described in

more detail in the next
lesson)

1.1 Try out the app and describe the problem.

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

1.2 What change would you have to make to the code to correct it?

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

1.3 Now make your change. Did it fix the problem? Did you have any problems doing
this?

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

Page 18
I ♥ My Smartphone Lesson 2: Finger Painting

Lesson 2: Finger Painting

This lesson will cover
 The App Inventor environment
o Components
o Properties
o Code (blocks)
 Event-driven programming
 Variables

Mobile features
 Touch interface
 Graphics
 Camera
 Accelerometer

Introduction
Your teacher will demonstrate a touch-driven finger painting app.

Task 1: Building the interface

Watch screencast FingerPaint1 which covers building the app’s interface.

The Importance of Design

Before we make anything – a house, a dress or a mobile app – we should start with a
design. Because there are two important parts to a mobile app – the interface and the
code – we design these separately.
● The easiest way to design the interface is by sketching it out on paper.
● The most common way of designing the code is to write out in English a list of
steps it will have to perform. This is known as an algorithm.
Writing an algorithm is the key to successful programming. In fact, this is what
programming is really about – solving problems – rather than entering commands on
the computer.
All good programmers design algorithms before starting to code.

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I ♥ My Smartphone Lesson 2: Finger Painting

Task 2: Designing and creating the code

Algorithm & Code

when a colour button is clicked

set the canvas paint colour to
the appropriate colour

when canvas is touched

draw a circle at that location

when wipe button is clicked

clear canvas

when small button is clicked

set line width to 5 pixels

when large button is clicked

set line width to 15 pixels

when canvas is dragged over

draw a line from the start
point to the end point of
the drag

Watch screencast FingerPaint2 to see how to build the code (shown above).

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I ♥ My Smartphone Lesson 2: Finger Painting

Bugs
A bug is an error which stops your code working as expected. There are two main types
of bug which can occur in a program:
● Syntax error
This happens when the rules of the language have been broken e.g. by mis-
spelling a command. Syntax errors usually stop the code from running.
Languages like App Inventor provide code in ready-written blocks, so you won’t
make many syntax errors.
● Logic error
This means your code runs, but doesn’t do what you expect.
Unfortunately, it’s still possible to make logic errors in App Inventor!
A third kind of error is also possible:
● Execution/run-time error
This means your program crashes (stops running) when it is run (executed).
This may be the result of performing an operation such as division by zero, for
example.
Finding and fixing these errors in a program is known as debugging.

The code we have created so far has two bugs:

a) The starting colour of the “paint” is black. Once you select another colour, there
is no way to get back to black.
b) The starting colour of the line is 1 pixel wide. Once you select the big or small
brushes (5 or 15 pixels), there is no way to get back to 1 pixel.

Did you understand (part 1)?

2.1 Discuss with your partner what features your app would need to solve each of
these problems. Write your suggestions below:

a) Paint colour: __________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

b) Line width: ____________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

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 I ♥ My Smartphone Lesson 2: Finger Painting

2.2 Discuss what you could do to reduce the chance of logic errors appearing in your
apps. Write your suggestions below.

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

Task 3: Fixing the bugs

Your teacher will show you how to fix these bugs. Once you have seen this, make these
changes to your FingerPaint app.

Did you know…? It is often said that the word “bug” dates back to 1947 when an early computer at
Harvard University broke down because of a moth stuck in a switch!
Whilst this did happen, the use of the word “bug” to mean an error or problem with a
machine was used as far back as the 1800s.

Variables
A variable is a space in a computer’s memory where we can hold information used by
our program. It’s just like storing something in a box.
We should always give a variable a sensible name that indicates the kind of information
that’s been stored there…just like putting a label on the box to tell us what’s inside.
To create (or define) a variable in App Inventor, we use the built-in initialize block and
then plug in a value to tell the computer what type of
data it will contain such as text or a number. Remember
to give the variable a sensible name, too.
Once a variable is defined, the information stored inside it can be changed (or varied) –
hence the word “variable”.

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I ♥ My Smartphone Lesson 2: Finger Painting

Extension 1: More flexible brush size

We have seen how we can use variables to store information such as the “brush” size.
This makes our program code more flexible.

Now alter your app so that every time the user clicks on ButtonBigBrush or
ButtonSmallBrush, the size of the brush is increased or decreased by 1 pixel.

Hint: Create a variable for the brush size (call it brushSize).

When ButtonBigBrush is pressed, our code should say “add one to brushSize”.

So... brushSize = brushSize + 1

(new value) (current value)

So, if brushSize was previously 5, it would now be equal to 6. Another click would make
it 7, and so on. Once it has been set, we set the canvas line width to this value.

Once you have done this, create the code for ButtonSmallBrush.

Extension 2: Any colour you like

Add another horizontal row of colour buttons below the current ones.
Hint: by setting width to Fill parent…, you can also fit more colour buttons in a row –
especially if you remove the Text property in the button.

Extension 3: Cool feature

Let’s add another feature: a camera button.

This will take the user to the camera app on the phone. After taking a photo, it will
become the background of the drawing canvas. The user can then paint on the photo!

Hint: Add a camera button to the bottom row on the screen (a camera icon is provided
with this lesson’s graphics). You will also need a camera component (Media→Camera).

/…

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I ♥ My Smartphone Lesson 2: Finger Painting

Let’s consider how we can make this happen and the code we’d use:

Algorithm
when camera button is clicked
take a picture

after picture is taken

set background image of canvas to the camera photo

Code

Extension 4: Another cool feature

Okay – one last feature: a save button.

This will let users save their masterpieces to the image gallery on their phone!

Hint: add a save button to the bottom row on the screen (provided with this lesson’s
graphics – see down arrow icon opposite). You will also need a TinyDB component –
this is used to store data permanently on the phone (Storage→TinyDB).

Note that this feature only works when the app is downloaded to the phone.
It will not work under live testing or on an emulator.

Algorithm
when Save button is clicked
store drawing canvas image as file

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I ♥ My Smartphone Lesson 2: Finger Painting

Did you understand (part 2)?

In this lesson, we learned that variables can be used to store values in a program.

2.3 What type of variable – text or number – should be used to store the following
values:

a) 23 ______________________________________________________________

b) Alice ____________________________________________________________

c) 3.14 ____________________________________________________________

d) SG12 RDW _______________________________________________________

e) Fourteen ________________________________________________________

f) 0131 240 5000 ____________________________________________________

2.4 Using short variable names like a, b or c seems like it could save a programmer
time and effort in typing. Why would this be a bad idea?

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

2.5 A variable name should always be as meaningful as possible – that is, the name
should suggest the value that’s being stored. However, we shouldn’t make it
longer than necessary.

Write down suitable variable names for the names and scores for two players in a
game (four variables in all)

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

2.6 /…

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I ♥ My Smartphone Lesson 2: Finger Painting

2.6 Think of some non-Computing examples of “variables” and their possible values.
An example is shown below:

Variable: cutlery Possible values: knife, fork, spoon

Variable: __________________________________________________________

Possible values: _____________________________________________________

Variable: __________________________________________________________

Possible values: _____________________________________________________

2.7 A user starts up a FingerPaint app and immediately clicks ButtonBigBrush (code
shown below).

However, when the user tries to paint, nothing appears on the canvas until they
click ButtonBigBrush a second time.

Discuss with your partner why this happens and what change(s) should be made
to the code to fix this bug.

Reason ____________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

Correct code _______________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

Page 26
I ♥ My Smartphone Lesson 3: Mole Masher Game

Lesson 3: Mole Masher Game

This lesson will cover
 Timers
 Variables
 Procedures

Mobile features
 Touch interface
 Working with graphics
 Using timers in games

Introduction
Your teacher will demonstrate a simple mobile version of a popular fairground game
(commonly known as Whack-a-Mole). In this game a mole appears and you have to tap
it quickly before it disappears again. This is the app that you are about to create.

No moles will be harmed in the making of this app!

However, you can use a graphic of a target (file: Target.png) if you prefer
– or even a draw a character of your own!

Task 1: Creating the interface

Watch screencast MoleMasher1. This will take you through creating the interface – the
screen design and components – needed for the game.

Task 2: Designing the solution

Let’s consider the main steps we need to code in our game. There are two main stages:

 touching the mole

 moving the mole

We’ll now design our code by creating an algorithm for each stage.

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I ♥ My Smartphone Lesson 3: Mole Masher Game

Algorithm
To Update Score Display (procedure)
set the text of the score label to “Score: “ + the score

To Move Mole (procedure)

set the mole’s X co-ordinate to a random place along the canvas
set the mole’s Y co-ordinate to a random place down the canvas

When the start button is clicked

set the score to zero
call Update Score Display procedure

When the mole is touched

increase the score
call Update Score Display procedure
make the phone vibrate
call Move Mole procedure

Every second (1000 millisecs) during the game

call Move Mole procedure

Watch screencast MoleMasher2 to see how to build the code from the algorithm above.

Procedures
In this lesson, we saw how lines of code can be grouped together into a procedure.
Creating a procedure is like creating a new command in your programming language.
Procedures let us:
● break down a problem into smaller problems and solve each of those separately.
We can then concentrate on just one small “sub-program” at a time.
● create a single piece of code that we can use (or call) as often as we need to
within a program. This saves us “reinventing the wheel” by entering the same
code lots of times.
As a general rule, whenever you have a clear “sub-task” in your program, you should
create a procedure to do this. It will make your life easier!

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I ♥ My Smartphone Lesson 3: Mole Masher Game

Extension 1
Adapt your program to display the number of misses as well as the number of hits.

Extension 2
Display a “GAME OVER” sprite on the canvas when the misses reach a certain number.
Hint: Create a GameOver procedure for this.

Comments
You may have noticed that some code is shown with small comments
beside it in speech bubbles.
Comments are used to explain what code is doing. This is useful if you’re working as
part of a team, so that other programmers can understand your code – or even for
yourself, when you try to update your app this time next year!
All good programmers use comments to explain key stages in a program.

In App Inventor, right-click on a code block to add a comment.

Once you have done this, click inside the speech bubble to add a
comment. You can show/hide comments by clicking the blue
question mark icon on a code block which has a comment.

Remember: comments are there to help you and can save hours of frustration when
you’re trying to understand another programmer’s (or even you own) code!

Extension 3
Go back to your code and add comments to it.
Note that you would normally add comments as you create your code, not afterwards.

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I ♥ My Smartphone Lesson 3: Mole Masher Game

Did you understand?

3.1 How could you make the game more difficult for users?

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

3.2 Discuss the following examples from real life. What “procedures” could they be
broken down into?

a) Getting ready for school ____________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

b) Making breakfast __________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

3.3 Discuss with your partner some examples of sub-tasks within a simple “space
invader”-type game that could be coded as procedures.

Write down the “sub tasks” in the space below.

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

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I ♥ My Smartphone Lesson 3: Mole Masher Game

3.4 A user scores 10 hits and 5 misses in a MoleMasher app, then clicks a Reset
button (code shown below).

Write down the values displayed in LabelHitsNumber and LabelMissesNumber

after the Reset button is clicked.

LabelHitsNumber: ___________________________________________________

LabelMissesNumber: ________________________________________________

Write down any changes you would make to the code for the Reset button below:

when ButtonReset.Click do

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

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I ♥ My Smartphone Lesson 3: Mole Masher Game

Page 32
I ♥ My Smartphone Lesson 4: Times Table Helper

Lesson 4: Times Table Helper

This lesson will cover
 Handling user input
 Variables
 Fixed loops
 Validating input
 Working with text

Mobile features
 Touch interface
 Using the keypad

Introduction
Know your times tables? All of them…? How’s your 47 times table?!

In this lesson, we’re going to create a handy times table reminder that goes way beyond
the 1 to 12 times tables.

Task 1: Creating the interface

Create the interface for the app, as shown overleaf (no screencast this time – try it
yourself):

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I ♥ My Smartphone Lesson 4: Times Table Helper

Horizontal arrangement containing

Text Box + non-default properties…
Name TextBoxTableNumber
Hint Enter table (1-12)
Numbers only [Tick]
Font Bold, 18, sans serif,
black, left aligned
Size Width: Fill parent
Height: Automatic
Button + non-default properties…
Name ButtonCreateTable
Text Display Table
Font Bold, 18, sans serif,
black, centre aligned
Size Width: Fill parent
Height: Automatic

Label + non-default properties… Label + non-default properties…

Name LabelTableTitle Name LabelTimesTable
Text [Blank] Text [Blank]
Font Bold, 24, sans serif, Font 24, sans serif, blue,
red, centre aligned centre aligned
Size Width: Fill parent Size Width: Fill parent
Height: Automatic Height: Automatic

Make sure the Screen1 component is set to Scrollable.

Task 2: Designing the solution

Let’s consider the main steps we need to code in our game. There are three main stages:

 Getting the times table number from the user via the text box
 Creating the times table header e.g. The 12 Times Table
 Creating the times table itself

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I ♥ My Smartphone Lesson 4: Times Table Helper

Algorithm
When button “Display table” clicked
set a variable <table> to the number entered in the text box
call Create Table Header procedure
call Create Table procedure
clear the text box

To Create Table Header (procedure)

set the table header label’s text to “The” <table> “Times Table”

To Create Table (procedure)

repeat 12 times using a counter
create a new line in the table
add this line on to the previous table text

To create a new line in the table we create the following block of text:

loopCounter x tableNumber = loopCounter x tableNumber

variable text variable text math
value value result of calculation

(text block \n = take a new line)

So, if the user enters 5 for the table number, it will create the text:
1 x 5 = 5
2 x 5 = 10
3 x 5 = 15
…and so on.

Now watch screencast TimesTable. This will take you through creating the code that
implements the algorithm above.

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I ♥ My Smartphone Lesson 4: Times Table Helper

Extension 1: Weight converter

Design and write an app to create a conversion table of kilograms to pounds
(1kg = 2.2 lb). The table should go from:

a) 1 to 10

b) 5 to 100 in steps of 5 (use the STEP feature in the loop)

e.g. Kilogrammes to Pounds conversion

1kg = 2.2lb
2kg = 4.4lb
3kg = 6.6lb

…etc.

NB There is no input from the user in this app. It should just work when you click a
“Display conversion table” button

Extension 2: Currency converter

Design and write an app that lets the user enter the current exchange rate for US Dollars
and produces a table to convert US Dollars to Pounds.

Choose suitable start and end points for the amounts, as well as an interval (step) for
your table. Use a search engine to find out the current exchange rate when testing your
app.

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I ♥ My Smartphone Lesson 4: Times Table Helper

Did you understand (part 1)?

4.1 From a programming point of view, why is it a good idea to let the user enter the
table via an input box and store this in a variable?

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

There is a bug in the Times Table app.

After creating the first times table, it keeps adding new tables on to the end of
the previous one every time the display table button is clicked, instead of
replacing the current times table.

If you haven’t already noticed this, try out the app again. You may have to scroll down
on the phone/emulator to see this, so make sure the Scrollable property is ticked in
your Screen1 component.

4.2 Discuss why you think this happens. Write your reason below.

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

4.3 Discuss what change you would need to make to the code to prevent this from
happening. Describe it below.

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

4.4 After discussing your answer to 4.3 (above) with your teacher, make the change
to your code.

Did it fix the problem? ________________________________________________

If not, what mistake did you make? _____________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

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I ♥ My Smartphone Lesson 4: Times Table Helper

Did you understand (part 2)?

There is another bug in the times table app.

Try clicking the Display Table button without entering a number. Your app will
display an error message then quit. This is known as a program crash.

Don’t crash and burn!

An app which crashes will attract very few users!

4.5 What is the name for this type of error?

__________________________________________________________________

4.6 Discuss why you think the app crashed. Write your reason below.

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

4.7 Discuss what could be done to prevent the app from crashing. Write down your
suggestion below.

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

Now read on to see how to do this…

Page 38
I ♥ My Smartphone Lesson 4: Times Table Helper

Validating Input
Whenever we get input in a program we should always check that it is valid – allowable
or reasonable – before we process it.
If an input is invalid, we should:
● tell the user they have entered an invalid value
● tell them what the valid values are
● ask them to re-enter their input
The program should not progress until the user enters a valid value.

Now let’s amend the app so that if the text box is empty, the user receives an error
message. Our app will only create the times table if a number is entered.

Algorithm
if text box is empty
display error message
else
display table

To display the error message, we will use a Notifier

component (User Interface→Notifier), so add one to
your component screen. The Notifier component is
used to create a box on the screen with a message.

The code to the make the Notifier is shown below –

feel free to alter the text.

A Notifier is useful because it stops the user performing any other function in the app
until they have dealt with the notification. This way, we can be sure the user has seen
and (hopefully) read the message.

On a desktop computer, a notification is often called a dialogue box.

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I ♥ My Smartphone Lesson 4: Times Table Helper

Did you understand (part 3)?

4.7 Write down a range of valid values for the following inputs:

a) someone’s age ____________________________________________________

b) the number of days in a month _______________________________________

4.8 Write down an invalid value for a number that an app will divide another number
with.

__________________________________________________________________

4.9 In this app, we saw the use of an if…else statement to tell whether or not the user
had entered a value into the text box.

Now consider an app which decides whether students’ test scores resulted in a
pass or a fail (assume a pass mark of 50).

Which of the following if…else statements would produce the correct results?
Write the letters of the correct statements below the table.

IF testScore = 50 IF testScore < 50

student has passed student has failed
A D
ELSE ELSE
student has failed student has passed

IF testScore <= 50 IF testScore ≠ 50

student has failed student has passed
B E
ELSE ELSE
student has passed student has failed

IF testScore >= 50 IF testScore > 50

student has passed student has passed
C F
ELSE ELSE
student has failed student has failed

Correct results (letters) _______________________________________________

Page 40
I ♥ My Smartphone Lesson 5: Virtual Map Tour

Lesson 5: Virtual Map Tour

This lesson will cover
 Variables
 Lists

Mobile features
 Touch interface
 Working with lists
 Linking to external services

Introduction
In this example, we’re going to create a guided tour that
links in to Google Maps.

When the user clicks the “Explore Edinburgh” button, they will be presented with a list
of popular sightseeing destinations within the city, each of which will bring up that
location in the phone’s Maps app. The user will then tap the phone’s Back button to
return to the Tour app.

Task 1: Creating the interface

Create the interface shown overleaf:

/…

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I ♥ My Smartphone Lesson 5: Virtual Map Tour

Task 1: Creating the interface

Image + non-default properties…
Name ImageScreenPic
Picture EdinburghSkyline.jpg
Size Width: Automatic;
Height: Automatic
Label + non-default properties…
Name LabelInstruction
Text Discover Edinburgh with your
smartphone!
Font Bold, 14, sans serif, centred
Size Width: Fill parent;
Height: Automatic
ListPicker + non-default properties…
Name ListPickerPlaces
Font Bold, 18, sans serif, centred
Size Width: Fill parent;
Height: Automatic

ActivityStarter + non-default properties…

Action android.intent.action.VIEW
ActivityClass com.google.android.maps.MapsActivity
ActivityPackage com.google.android.apps.maps

This app makes use of the ActivityStarter component (Other stuff→ActivityStarter)

which enables one app to start up other apps. In this case, our app will start up the
Maps app on the phone.

Note that you must enter the properties for the ActivityStarter exactly as shown
(including upper/lower case letters).

Task 2: Designing the solution

Let’s consider the main steps we need to code our Virtual Map Tour. The app will let
users pick a location from a list and display that location in the Maps app.

There are two main stages:

 setting up the lists

(one for place names and one for corresponding map references)
 launch Maps with location chosen from the lists

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I ♥ My Smartphone Lesson 5: Virtual Map Tour

Algorithm
Set up the lists
create variable containing a list of place names
create variable containing a list of map references

Display the map

note the position of the chosen location in the place names list
open maps with the URI in the corresponding position in the locations list

Watch screencast MapTour to learn how to create the code needed for the app.

Extension 1
Alter your app to create a similar map tour for your own local area. Remember – you can
use Google’s Street View to get up close!

Lists (Arrays)
Lists (also called arrays by Computing Scientists) are ideal for storing items of data that
are related, rather than having separate variables for each item. For example, we could
store the name of everyone in a class in a single list instead of having separate variables
for Student1, Student2, Student3, etc.
In this example, we worked with two lists:
● one that held the place names the user sees in the list picker
● one that held the corresponding Google Maps locations (URIs)
By keeping the two pieces of information in the corresponding position in each list, we
could tie them together – that is place name #1 corresponded to map location #1, etc.

Position Place names list Google Maps locations list

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Edinburgh+
1 Edinburgh Castle → Castle+Grounds,+Castle+Terrace,+Edinburgh...
Museum of http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=museum+
2
Scotland → of+Scotland&ll=55.94711,.191306&spn=0.0...
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Edinburgh+
3 Scott Monument → Castle+Grounds,+Castle+Terrace,+Edinburgh...

This is a common way of tying two or more pieces of information together in Computing
Science.

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I ♥ My Smartphone Lesson 5: Virtual Map Tour

Extension 2: Cool feature

Let’s add location awareness to your map tour.

For this we will need a LocationSensor component (Sensors→LocationSensor).

Leave it set to the default properties.

Add a label (call it LabelCurrentLocation) below the ListPicker component on your

screen, then add the following code in the blocks editor:

Your app should now provide a live readout of your current location!

Page 44
I ♥ My Smartphone Lesson 6: Heads I Win

Lesson 6: Heads I Win

This lesson will cover
 Variables
 Conditional loops
 Working with text

Mobile features
 Touch interface

Introduction
In Lesson 4: Times Table Helper, we used a FOR loop to repeat
a piece of code a fixed number of times. For this reason, a FOR
loop is sometimes called a fixed loop.

It is also possible to repeat code while a condition is true, ending only when something
has happened e.g. the user has entered the correct password. This is called a
conditional loop.

A conditional loop is used

when we don’t know in
advance how often a process
will have to be repeated.

In this lesson, we are going to create an app which simulates the toss of a coin and
displays the output. The simulation will continue until Heads appears six times.

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I ♥ My Smartphone Lesson 6: Heads I Win

Task 1: Creating the interface

Create the interface shown below:

Button + non-default properties…

Name ButtonTossCoin
Text Toss coin!
Font Bold, 18, sans serif, centred
Size Width: Fill parent;
Height: Automatic
Label + non-default properties…
Name LabelOutput
Text [Blank]
Font 18, sans serif, centred
Size Width: Fill parent;
Height: Automatic

Make sure your screen component is set to Scrollable.

Task 2: Designing the code

Let’s consider the main steps we need to code in our app.

We will have two variables: one for the side (1 or 2, chosen at random to represent
Heads or Tails) and one to count the number of heads. The app will continue tossing the
coin until it has counted a total of six heads, then display the total number of tosses.

Algorithm
To Initialise (procedure)
set side to 0
set headsCounter to 0
set output label to <empty text>

when Toss Coin button is clicked

call Initialise procedure
while headsCounter is less than 6
set side to a random number between 1 and 2
if side = 1
add 1 to headsCounter
add “Heads” to the output label and take a new line
else
add “Tails” to the output label and take a new line

No screencast this time – try coding this one yourself!

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I ♥ My Smartphone Lesson 6: Heads I Win

Extension 1
Discuss with your partner how you would change this app so that it displays the number
of times the coin was tossed. Write down your ideas below.

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Discuss this with your teacher, then make the change to your app.

Extension 2
Discuss with your partner how you would change this app so that it continues until 6
heads in a row are produced. Write down your ideas below.

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Discuss this with your teacher, then make the change to your app.

Extension 3
Discuss with your partner how you would change this app so that it continues until
either 6 heads in a row or 6 tails in a row are produced. Write down your ideas below.

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Discuss this with your teacher, then make the change to your app.

Page 47
I ♥ My Smartphone Lesson 6: Heads I Win

Extension 4: Cool feature

Let’s add a great feature to this app – shake the phone to toss the coin!

Add an accelerometer component to your app

(Sensors→AccelerometerSensor) and drag out
a when AccelerometerSensor1.Shaking block in
the blocks editor.

However, instead of copying and pasting your code all over again from the
ButtonTossCoin.Click block, can you think of a better way to do it?

Discuss this with your partner and write down your idea below.

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Now discuss this with your teacher, then make the change to your app.

NB All that you need to do is give the phone a gentle flick. If you shake it too much,
the app will detect lots of Accelerometer shaking events and may crash!

Page 48
 I ♥ My Smartphone Lesson 7: Wiff-Waff Game

Lesson 7: Wiff-Waff Game

This lesson will cover
 Variables
 Procedures
 Collision detection

Mobile features
 Working with graphics
 Using timers in games

Plus, as an extension

 Motion detection and control

Introduction
Your teacher will demonstrate a classic bat & ball game. This is the app that you are
about to create.

In this game, the bat will move continuously and the user will change its direction by
clicking the arrow buttons at the bottom of the screen. This makes the game quite
challenging, but more fun to play!

Did you know…? Wiff-Waff (also Whiff-Whaff) is the original name for table tennis and was a popular
“parlour game” in Victorian times. After dinner, wealthy Victorians would use boxes to
hit a golf ball back and forth across the dining table! The “net” was made by placing
books on their ends.
Table Tennis is now a popular game enjoyed by millions and has been an Olympic sport
since 1988.

Task 1: Creating the interface

Create the interface for this app as shown overleaf.

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I ♥ My Smartphone Lesson 7: Wiff-Waff Game

Hint: Set the Screen component’s background colour to Black at the very end.
It is easier to work with a white background as you assemble the components.

Label + properties…
Name LabelScore
Text [Blank]
Font 18, Bold, white text
Size Width: Fill parent
Height: Automatic

Canvas + properties…
Name CanvasGameArea
BkgdColor None
Size Width: Fill parent
Height: 315 pixels
Ball + properties…
Name Ball
Interval 10
PaintColor Red
Radius 15
Speed 7
ImageSprite (NOT Image)
Name ImageSpriteBat
Interval 10
Picture Bat.png
Speed 7

HorizontalArrangement with…
Button + properties…
Name ButtonLeft
Image ArrowLeft.gif
Text [Blank]
Button + properties…
Name ButtonStart
Font Bold, 16
Text Start!
Size Width: Fill parent
Height: Automatic
Button + properties…
Name ButtonRight
Image ArrowRight.gif
Text [Blank]

Sound + properties…
Name SoundLose
Source BeepLose.wav
Sound + properties…
Name SoundBeep
Source Beep.wav

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I ♥ My Smartphone Lesson 7: Wiff-Waff Game

Task 2: Creating the code

Let’s consider the main steps we need to code in our game. There are four main stages:

 set up the game

 move the bat
 ball collides with bat
 ball reaches an edge

Let’s design these stages by creating an algorithm for each one.

Algorithm
to Set Up Game (procedure)
set the score to 0
set the ball enabled to true (lets it move)
set the ball colour to green
set the ball’s coordinates to 150, 150
set the ball’s heading to a random number between 45 and 135 degrees
disable the start button

when Start button is clicked

call Set Up Game procedure

when left button is clicked

set bat heading to 180 (left)

when right button is clicked

set bat heading to 0 (right)

when ball collides with bat (use Ball.CollidedWith block)

play beep sound
set ball heading to ball heading - random number (say, 170 to 190)
call Increase Score procedure

1
when ball reaches an edge (use Ball.EdgeReached block)
if edge = -1 (bottom of screen)
call Lose Game procedure Screen
3 -3
else sides
bounce ball off edge
play beep sound
-1
Contd/…

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I ♥ My Smartphone Lesson 7: Wiff-Waff Game

to Increase Score (procedure)

add 10 to score
set Score label text to “Score: “ + the score

to Lose Game (procedure)

play lose sound
play vibration for 500 millisecs
set ball paint colour to red
disable the ball (stop it moving)

No screencast this time – try coding this one yourself!

Did you understand (part 1)?

7.1 a) The algorithm above has a bug which shows itself when you lose. What is
it?

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

b) Describe what you would have to do to your algorithm to fix it?

Hint: the change should be made in the LoseGame procedure.

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

c) Besides allowing us to concentrate on one sub-task at a time, write down

one other benefit of splitting code up into procedures.
Hint: there is a clue in the answer to part b) above.

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

7.2 Why do we test for a collision at the bottom of the screen in the if…else, rather
than the other sides?

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

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I ♥ My Smartphone Lesson 7: Wiff-Waff Game

Extension 1: Skill levels

Add buttons which allow the user to select levels: Easy, Medium or Difficult. Each of
these buttons should adjust the speed of the ball to suit.

Extension 2: Cool feature

Let’s add motion control to our game, so that tilting the phone will move the bat.
Note that this feature will only work on a phone.

You will need to add an OrientationSensor component to your app

(Sensors→OrientationSensor). In this app, we will use the sensor’s roll value, which
detects left and right tilt on the phone.

Algorithm
Moving bat (using Orientation Sensor)
if orientation sensor roll > 0 then (phone is tilted to the right)
set the bat heading to the right (0)
else (phone is tilted to the left)
set the bat heading to the left (180)

Did you understand (part 2)?

7.3 In what direction will the bat move if the phone’s tilt is zero (completely level)?

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

Why?

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

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I ♥ My Smartphone Lesson 7: Wiff-Waff Game

Page 54
I ♥ My Smartphone Summary

Summary
Computing Science concepts
In this course you have learned about some important ideas within Computing Science:

 Computer software
o Operating system
o Apps
 Event-driven programming
 Algorithms
 Variables
 Procedures
 Input validation
 Virtual machines

Programming structures/commands
You have also used the following programming structures:

 The App Inventor environment

o Components, properties and code
 Decision-making
 Timers
 Variables
 Procedures
 Handling user input
 Variables
 Loops
o Fixed (For)
o Conditional (While)
 Validating input
 Working with text

There are, of course, many more, but you now have the necessary tools to go on to the
next stage

Page 55
I ♥ My Smartphone Summary

Mobile device features

You have also learned about how to access the following features of a smartphone:

 Touch screen interface

 Text
 Graphics
 Sound
 Animation
 Notification boxes
 Motion control
 Accelerometer
 GPS/location awareness

You now have all the skills you need to create some really amazing mobile apps.

So what are you waiting for?

Page 56
I ♥ My Smartphone Mobile App Project

Mobile App Project

Working in a pair or group, you are now going to develop a mobile app of your own!

You may have some ideas already, but software is normally designed by going through a
series of stages:

1. Analyse
2. Design
3. Implement
4. Test
5. Document
6. Evaluate
7. Maintain

Or… A Dance In The Dark Every Midnight!

Let’s consider what each of these stages means within mobile app development.

Analyse
Identify a problem or need your app is going to address. Think about its possible users.
It’s often best to choose something that interests you or you care about.

Design
Design your app in two stages:

1. Make a sketch of the interface

This is sometimes known as a wireframe and is the best way to get a clear idea
of how your app will work.
2. Design your code by creating algorithms
DO NOT just start to try coding without designing it first! Remember the ancient
programmer’s proverb: “Hours of coding can save minutes of design” 10

Implement
Create your app’s screen and components, then create the code that corresponds to
your algorithms.

Remember to comment your code so that it makes sense to other developers – and
you, when you come back to fix bugs or add new features next year!

10
Think about it!

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I ♥ My Smartphone Mobile App Project

Test
Test your app to make sure it works then give it to other users and note their comments.
Fix any bugs that are discovered.

Document
A desktop application comes with documentation – instructions on how to install and
use it.

However, a mobile app should need little or no documentation. Often the only
documentation is some simple instructions in the app itself or on its page on an app
store. You must therefore make your app as intuitive (obvious how to use) as possible.

An important part of documentation is ensuring that comments are included with code,
although this should be done during coding.

Evaluate
When you’ve finished the task, make an honest assessment of how you did. Some
questions that you might ask include:

 Did the app turn out as planned?

 What mistakes did you make on the way?
 If you were to start again from the beginning, what would you do differently?
 Are there any features that you think would make it better?

This is a vital stage in development because it is only by answering these questions that
developers can improve their skills – and future apps.

Maintain
Maintenance is the process of updating your app. There are three main types of
maintenance:

1. Fixing bugs that weren’t discovered during testing

2. Adding new features
3. Adapting your app to work on new devices
A good example of this is creating a tablet version of an app originally written
for smartphones.

Now let’s go through these stages to create your own mobile app!

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I ♥ My Smartphone Mobile App Project

Analyse
Working in pairs or small groups, brainstorm three ideas for your app.

As you do so, think about each app’s possible users and the need it’s going to fulfil.
Think of how it might also link in with other subject areas you’re studying.

1. __________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

2. __________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

3. __________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

Now discuss your ideas with your teacher.

Once you have agreed on the app you are going to develop, write down a fuller
description of what it will do below. Include any mobile features it will use.

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

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I ♥ My Smartphone Mobile App Project

Design (Interface)
Make a sketch of your app’s interface.
Your sketch should be labelled to show what each component does.

Four screen layouts are provided to allow you to experiment (use in either portrait or
landscape).

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I ♥ My Smartphone Mobile App Project

Design (Code)
Design the algorithms for your code:

 Think about the steps each component from your screen design will have to
perform. Write them in English.
 Use procedures where appropriate.
Remember, whenever you have a clear “sub-task” in your app, you should create a
procedure to do this. This is especially true if you will use it more than once!

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I ♥ My Smartphone Mobile App Project

Implement
Now create your app!

 Create the components in the designer

Remember to give them sensible names.
 Then create the code in the blocks editor
Remember to include comments in your code and make sure you have your
algorithm in front of you!

Test
Test your app to make sure it works.

Let your classmates test it too and note their comments below:

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Describe bugs that were found (by you or by testers) and how you fixed them:

Bug: ___________________________________________________________________

Solution: ________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Bug: ___________________________________________________________________

Solution: ________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Bug: ___________________________________________________________________

Solution: ________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

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I ♥ My Smartphone Mobile App Project

Document

Let’s imagine that you’re going to sell your app on an app store.

Write down below a brief description of:

 your app’s main features and

 how to use them.

Remember – you’re trying to get people to buy your app!

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

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I ♥ My Smartphone Mobile App Project

Evaluate

How did the app turn out compared to how you originally planned it?

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

What mistakes did you make on the way?

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

If you were to start again from the beginning, what would you do differently?

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

What additional features would make your app better?

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

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I ♥ My Smartphone Mobile App Project

Maintain

Now imagine that you have to adapt your app to make it work on a tablet computer.

What changes would you make?

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Congratulations
You have now completed this Computing Science course in mobile app development!

Remember that you can use App Inventor at home, so there’s no need for this to be the
end of your time as a mobile app developer.

http://appinventor.mit.edu

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