How to make an iPhone app If you can’t program

Introduction• Did you know how easy it is to create

your very own iPhone app?

• You don’t need to hire a mobile agency to help you create an iPhone app, nor do you need to have deep technical programming skills to build one yourself.

• There are several tools out there which can help you create and customize your very own iPhone app in just a few hours.

• You can build a customized iPhone app for your business, community group, sports team; personal resume or even the favourite charities you’re involved in.

What is your App?

• Have a clear idea what app you’re planning to build.

• Collect as much information and images that you would like to include in your app.

• You can explore as much at the start to get your creative juices flowing.

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Research: What are the mobile app builders out there

• You can choose to use search engines, but we recommend these three free-to-download software available on the internet that helps you create mobile apps for your iPhone

- Appcelerator Titanium 2.0 - PhoneGap- AppMakr

Appcelerator Titanium 2.0(www.appcelerator.com)• This user-friendly platform allows you to build

cross-platform applications that will run on Android, iPhone and Windows devices

• Uses JavaScript coding normally used for web development

• Easy for web developers to transition into mobile development

• For Java newbies, you can check out the Java tutorials here.

http://www.w3schools.com/js/

PhoneGapwww.phonegap.com• An Apache Software Foundation Incubator project

named Cordova is another platform that lets you build a native iPhone app wrapper around standard HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

• Deployable on various platforms (Android, Windows, Blackberry, Symbian, WebOS and Bada)

• More suitable for those looking to extend data-driven web applications; rather than graphics-intensive applications; to a broad range of mobile devices.

• Provides good API documentation and only requires a short API learning curve. Hence for those who knows a bit of Java, they will see this as a breeze.

AppMakrwww.AppMakr.com • A web-based tool most suitable for those who

are not keen in learning Java or get involve in any coding work.

• Simple drag-and-drop interface, and the elements dragged here are the actual icons used in your app / site, rather than symbolic blocks.

Advantages: • AppMakr automatically creates cross-platform mobile apps that run natively on Android,

iPhones as well as simultaneously creating a mobile web site that will run in the browser of any HTML5 enabled smartphone.

• Apps built are automatically uploaded for free to AppMakr’s own app market and the web, and can also be published to commercial markets including iTunes and Google Play for a small fee.

• This app is what we’ll use for the rest of the article, since it seems to be the best choice among the three.

Get Started with AppMakr

1. Go to www.appmakr.com • Enter app’s name• Get Started• Sign in using Gmail, Google account, Facebook,

Twitter account, or your Yahoo ID

Using the Machine (Step 1)

2. Fill in the details on the first page. Step One (Basic Info)

• Contact Information• Name of the App• Overall Colors & Design (Colors of

background, title and text)• Background Image of the app

interface • Splash-screen image (this image will

appear when the app is loading). • App Demographics (Region, Country

or State that your app targets)

Note: You can upload your own design or image; or select from The Machine’s library of free images.

Do note that the image uploaded should have recommended dimensions of 768 pixels wide X 1024 pixels high.

Using the Machine (Step 2)

• Here are a few examples of the functions you can include in your app:

a. Blogb. Bookshelf

Using the Machine (Step 2)a. Blog – A collection of blogs that your

users follow. • Find the MyBlog icon under News and Third

Party Feeds category.

• Click and drag the icon to your app interface (middle of the screen).

• Go to the blog that you want to be in your app, like Blogger, and search for the RSS feed link.

• Click the RSS link, and then copy the URL.

• Go back to The Machine and paste the URL to the feed URL box found on the screen’s lower right panel.

Using the Machine (Step 2)b. Bookshelf – A collection of

books and book listings that your users could compile in one place.

• Under the Music and Books menu, click and drag the Bookshelf icon to your app interface in the middle of the screen.

• Locate the URL of the books either through Amazon.com or through your iTunes listing.

• Paste the URLs to the corresponding boxes in The Machine interface.

Using the Machine (Step 2)c. Others - You will find other categories with functions that you

may think are more suitable for your type of mobile app. Some of them include:

SOCIAL FEEDS MUSIC & BOOKS EVENTS

LOCATION USER INTERACTIONS SHOPPING

Publish your App (Step 3)Step Three (Publish your App)Once you’re done with the app’s customization details,

you can finally publish and download your app.

• Choose your Icon• Write a Description• Write a Welcome message• Add some additional info• Add some Tags (Improve your results in search

engine and make your app more searchable)

• Pick your HTML5 Domain (eg. fanapp.mobi, churchapp.mobi, ourcondo.at, bhealthy.mobi,..etc)

• Publish Categories (eg. Books & Reference, Accounts/Tax, Education, Games, Social networks, etc)

Download your App & Share

• Lastly, simply download the app from the URL or QR Code provided, and you’re done.

Useful Tips

• Never forget to save your work while using The Machine. After every customization, click the Save button, in case the work you’ve completed isn’t carried over to the next step.

• There is a Step-by-Step tutorial in ten languages that is available to you throughout the app creation process if you do get a little lost.

• If you want to market your app in other stores like Google Play and Apple App Store, you’ll be asked to pay a fee.

Summary

• Great for small business owners, musicians, bands, churches, local communities, real estate agents, schools, learning institutions, etc