xaif

KO | EN

gitlite — search

#javascript #typescript #llm #golang #android #machine-learning #linux #nodejs #java #windows #cli #kubernetes #awesome-list #mcp

(★ 16)

Run your MIT App Inventor projects on (nearly) any operating system!

xaif Latest Version Download

Download Latest Version (.zip)

// repository documentation

Was this content helpful?

★ 0 (0 ratings)

# xaif

Run your MIT App Inventor projects on (nearly) any operating system!

**This tool is in an early development phase, see the disclaimer below.**

## Demo

https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/58807793/147475511-b9bbba8f-970e-4491-a4dc-f7a4b0089d3b.mp4

## Prerequisites

You will only need to have Flutter installed (https://docs.flutter.dev/get-started/install).

Flutter is an open-source cross-platform app development framework. This tool is built with Flutter, but more
importantly this tool will transpile your app into an (intermediate) Flutter app, that can then be compiled for
different operating systems.

> Important: you will *not* need to actually write any Flutter code yourself, you just need to have Flutter installed so xaif can use it under the hood.

> Also important: you only need to install Flutter (and possibly other dependencies) on *your* development machine. Any executables you build can be installed/run on other devices without installing additional dependencies. (Just like you can distribute your apk).

**Basic Flutter setup:** Please follow [Flutter's installation guide](https://docs.flutter.dev/get-started/install) (
depending on your computer's operating system). You will need to complete the "Get the Flutter SDK" step

**Advanced, platform-specific Flutter setup:** Flutter's setup guides will include additional setup steps (e.g. "Android
setup", "Web setup"). You only need to complete these steps if you want to later compile your app for the respective
platforms. 
(For example, if you want to compile your app into a web app, you need to complete the "Web setup" step).

**After installing Flutter** Make sure that Flutter is correctly set up by running `flutter doctor` in a shell.

## Download

Please note that xaif has only undergone (limited) testing on Windows and Linux (Ubuntu). It should in theory also work
on macOS, but this hasn't been tested, yet.

**To get xaif**, you have two recommended options (plus one other fallback option). 
**Choose one**:

#### 1. **Run the source code directly:**
1. Either clone this repository with git or download it as a zip-file from GitHub (green button titled "Code")
 and unzip it to any location. 
2. Then open a shell in the location where you cloned/unzipped the repository and run `flutter run -d windows` (if
 your computer is running Windows) or `flutter run -d linux` (if your computer is running Linux) or
 `flutter run -d macos` (if your computer is running macOS). 
 (This first approach will require you to have followed not only the "Basic Flutter setup", but also the *additional* setup steps for your computer's operating
 system in the Flutter installation guide. So if you want to run xaif with this approach, you need to
 *also* follow the ["Windows setup" step](https://docs.flutter.dev/get-started/install/windows#windows-setup) in
 the Flutter Windows installation guide if your computer is running Windows, or
 the ["Linux setup" step](https://docs.flutter.dev/get-started/install/linux#linux-setup) in the Flutter Linux
 installation guide if your computer is running Linux, 
 or the ["macOS setup" step](https://docs.flutter.dev/get-started/install/macos#macos-setup) in the Flutter Linux
 installation guide if your computer is running macOS.)
 
#### 2. **Run prebuilt executables:**
Alternatively, you can download and run prebuilt binaries of xaif from the CI. They are available from
the [releases page](https://github.com/m0nac0/xaif/releases) (as Assets) or
from [any successful CI Workflow run](https://github.com/m0nac0/xaif/actions/workflows/main.yml?query=branch%3Amain)
(as artifacts). 
For this approach you only need to complete the basic Flutter installation!
 
#### 3. **Very limited: use xaif web demo:**
*This has serious limitations, and it is recommended that you use one of the first two approaches, if
possible* 
~You can go to https://m0nac0.github.io/xaif and test a web demo of xaif. This should only be used as a quick demo. 
It does not require you to install anything.~

## Usage Guide

1. Export your project from App Inventor as an AIA file.
2. After starting xaif, select a location for the new project directory and your AIA-file.
3. xaif will now create a new project folder in your chosen location. Then it transpiles the code (and assets) from the
 AIA-file to Flutter code and writes them to the new project directory. 
4. Afterwards you are presented with multiple different options to review the generated Flutter code, run your app on
 different devices or build executables for different platforms
 (operating systems).

The **run options** are a good choice to quickly test your app on different "devices" (somewhat similar to App
Inventor's Companion), while **building your app** results in an executable file (or directory of multiple files), like
an APK for Android.

While your app is running, you can also **update the project** by selecting a new AIA file (new version of your app).
Any running instances of your app should update nearly instantly (for web apps, you'll need to reload the page).

After you have built an executable you can also launch it (or manually copy it from the project directory to store it).

(Under the hood, this uses Flutter's functionality for compiling and running apps.)

### Additional information

- Please note that your operating system may at any time delete temporary files, including the project directories created
  by xaif if you choose your system's temporary files directory as the location of the project directory. If you want to
  back up the project directory, simply copy it to another location (you can see the location of the project directory in
  xaif).

- Every time you launch xaif, a new project directory is created. If you want to use xaif for
  different projects, it is recommended to close and reopen xaif to actually create a new project directory
  (otherwise the files from the old project are overwritten).

- xaif does not delete its project directory, unless you explicitly tell it to. If you want to save storage space you
  should delete project directories that you don't need any longer.

### Available target platforms

Depending on your computer's operating system, the choice of target platforms
(= the operating systems for which you can compile your project) will vary. For example, if you are on a
Windows computer, you won't be able to compile your app for iOS.

#### Compiling an *.exe for windows

If you want to build your app for windows (build an exe-file) you may need to

a) Turn on developer mode on your Windows machine (recommended by the Flutter team)

b) OR go to the project directory once (path is displayed in the tool), open a command prompt as admin and run
`flutter build windows`

The reason is that this tool uses Flutter plugins for many components, and Flutter cannot (at this time)
build windows executables with plugins if developer mode is not turned on (or the build has not been run as admin).

It is (as always) your responsibility to review the code generated by this tool and decide if you are comfortable
building it in an admin shell!

## Project Status

- Only single-screen apps supported
- Some special Screen1-properties not supported
    - e.g. only Material Theme is supported

### Builtin blocks

- Control: complete, except blocks related to dictionaries and multi-screen
- Logic: (mostly) complete
- Math: (mostly) complete
- Text: (mostly) complete
- Lists: complete, except lists_to_csv_table,lists_from_csv_table, lists_lookup_in_pairs
- Dictionaries: (mostly) complete, except advanced methods
- Color: (mostly) complete
- Variables: complete
- Procedures: complete

### Components (including their methods)

- UI: complete except WebViewer & possibly some attributes on some components.
- Layout: complete (Change: TableArrangement is scrollable)
- Media: only Camera, Camcorder, ImagePicker, Player, VideoPlayer
    - Completed event does not fire for Player, VideoPlayer
    - VideoPlayer only supported on Android/iOS/web and only supports network files (http:// or https:// URLs)
- Drawing/Animation: none
- Maps: none
- Sensors: only Clock (Timer never fires while app is in the background)
- Social: Sharing, Texting and PhoneCall (but no direct messages/calls; no intercepting of messages/calls)
- Storage: complete, except CloudDB
    - File does not have functionality for Delete, Append, LegacyMode
    - NB TinyWebDB may not work correctly in web browsers, if the used web service does not run on https
      (like the default one)
- Connectivity: only Web (no sending/saving files, no cookies, no header/timeout control, no decoding with dictionaries)
- Mindstorms: none (will not implement due to lack of Mindstorms equipment)
- Experimental: none
- Extensions: not yet supported

## Plugins / Licenses

Depending on which components your app uses, (the code generated by) xaif may use different Flutter plugins. You should
make sure that you obey all licenses of these plugins and of Flutter. To help with that, this tool will add an "About"
entry to the AppBar's overflow menu ("three dot menu"), that opens an about dialog. That dialog contains information
about this tool, about your app and the option to open a licenses page with some information about all plugins and their
licenses (generated automatically by Flutter).

## Feedback & Contributions

If you have any feedback, or encounter any issues running your project, please let me know
by [opening an issue](https://github.com/m0nac0/xaif/issues/new)
or [discussion](https://github.com/m0nac0/xaif/discussions/new)!

## Disclaimer

This tool is in an early development phase and not exhaustively tested.

It is your responsibility to check the code generated by this tool and use this tool with caution.

Please check the LICENSE file, and especially note the following parts of the LICENSE:

> 15. Disclaimer of Warranty.
>
>THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.
>
>16. Limitation of Liability.
>
>IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MODIFIES AND/OR CONVEYS THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

## Security

(Where possible) it is always advisable to review code you are running, which includes code generated by this tool.

In addition to all the above, you should only use this tool with AIA-files that you trust. I cannot exclude with
certainty that it may in some cases be possible for an attacker to insert malicious Dart code into the generated Dart
code, if you use a malicious AIA-file from an attacker.

## Acknowledgements

A huge thank you to the team at **MIT App Inventor**, for creating, maintaining and continuously improving the App Inventor,
which I consider one of the greatest tools to teach programming and app development!

And similarly thank you to the **Flutter team** for creating their great cross-platform app development framework!

xaif

xaif Latest Version Download

Today's picks

Was this content helpful?

Recent Feedback

xaif

xaif Latest Version Download

Today's picks

Was this content helpful?

Recent Feedback

Download README