What’s new in AppStudio for ArcGIS Version 3.0

Anonymous User · ‎04-19-2018

We are excited to announce that AppStudio for ArcGIS version 3.0 is now available to download. This release focuses on upgrading underlying Qt framework, build infrastructure and the ArcGIS Runtime. In addition, many new features and enhancements are added to AppStudio Desktop, Player, AppFramework, and three templates.

Few highlights of AppStudio 3.0 release:

Underlying Qt framework has been upgraded to 5.10
ArcGIS Runtime has been up upgraded to 100.2.1
Sample apps available in AppStudio Desktop are now categorized
Player now uses an app’s ArcGIS Runtime license if available
Map Tour template supports Mobile Map Packages, allowing it to work fully offline
New Measure tool was introduced in Map Viewer template
You can now limit the maximum attachments number for the Quick Report template
Support for connecting to high-accuracy GPS receivers and location accuracy parameters

You can get the latest version of AppStudio for ArcGIS here. Don’t forget to update the AppStudio Player app on your mobile devices from iTunes and the Google Play store or on your desktops from here.

AppStudio 3.0 new feature highlights

AppStudio Desktop

With this release, ArcGIS Runtime version has been updated from 100.1 to 100.2.1, which means all of the exciting new and powerful features, bug fixes, and enhancements added to ArcGIS Runtime 100.2 and 100.2.1 are available in AppStudio 3.0. We also discontinued support for ArcGIS Runtime 10.2.6 on AppStudio Desktop; please read this blog post to learn more about this deprecation. Additionally, we have improved the sample searching experience by adding a new combo box to categorize more than 60 samples. Many enhancements are added to the cloud Make and Advanced Settings tool as well. A blog post on what’s new in AppStudio Desktop is coming soon, so watch out for it!

AppStudio samples are categorized

AppStudio Player

As of the AppStudio 3.0 release, ArcGIS Runtime 10.2.6 and iOS 32-bit apps are no longer supported. This means the latest Player 3.0 available in the app stores will only run Appstudio apps built with the new generation of ArcGIS runtime 100.x.

Just in case, if you still have apps that are built using the old generation of ArcGIS Runtime 10.2.6 that need to be tested we have released Player Classic separately in both Apple app store and Google play store.

Note that Player Classic doesn’t include new changes added to 3.0 release. Also, you are required to download and install Player Classic separately. You can install both Player classic and latest player both on the same device if needed.

The existing Player in the app stores will be updated with all the new features and enhancements added to 3.0 release, such as supporting fingerprint login on Android and Face ID login on iPhone X, and applying for an app’s ArcGIS Runtime license when being run in Player. Watch for an upcoming blog post on what’s new in Player 3.0!

Player uses app's Runtime license

AppStudio Templates

All three app templates - Map Viewer, Map Tour and Quick Report have received many exciting new features, enhancements, bug-fixes and improvements in user experience in this release.

Map Tour now works fully offline with the support of Mobile Map Packages
You can launch Map Tour at a specific page using custom URL Scheme
You can sign into Map Viewer quicker and safer using fingerprint, or face ID for iPhone X
A new Measure tool is now available in Map Viewer to help you measure distance or area on the map
Map Viewer gallery now supports new options to show maps only, offline maps only, or both
The Quick Report results page message has been improved, with reporting each attachment’s upload status to the feature service. You can also rename video attachments in the Quick Report
A warning message will be displayed when downloading Mobile Map Packages with cellular data on all three templates

We will publish three separate blog posts to provide you more information on template updates next week.

New Measure tool in Map Viewer template

AppStudio Framework

Two new beta plugins – Positioning, and Device – have been introduced in this release. These allow you to create an app that interacts with high accuracy GPS receivers. We also published a GNSS Info sample to demonstrate how to connect to a receiver and present location accuracy and satellite information. Other changes in the AppFramework include:

Biometric Authentication is now supported on Android
Encryption used in Secure Storage Plug-in is upgraded and as a result, the maximum length for a key or a value has been changed from 240 to 214
Speed improvements have been made for secure storage on Android
The AppFramework.Dialogs plugin is now deprecated
Text-to-speech has been moved out of beta and supported on all platforms

GNSS Info sample

Bug Fixes

BUG-000095218	Symbology issue with applications created using the Story Map Tour template in the AppStudio for ArcGIS website is resolved.
BUG-000095405	Incorrectly formatted word "Display" in Settings is corrected
BUG-000099383	The Map Viewer template in AppStudio for ArcGIS now shows the default extent when opened on Android and iOS devices
BUG-000101053	Missing checkboxes in App Studio Make tool from AppStudio for ArcGIS Desktop on Arabic Mac OSX is corrected.
BUG-000101597	Security vulnerability with iOS applications created with AppStudio for ArcGIS is resolved.
BUG-000101602	iOS apps developed with AppStudio for ArcGIS are now getting compiled using the default iOS memory management framework.
BUG-000101822	The AppStudio for ArcGIS Map Viewer crash issue with time-enabled layer is resolved.
BUG-000101978	Security vulnerability with Android applications created with AppStudio for ArcGIS is fixed.
BUG-000102326	The issue with Map Scale settings of AppStudio for ArcGIS Map Tour not being honored when set in AppStudio for ArcGIS Desktop no longer exists.
BUG-000102917	An AppStudio for ArcGIS application created with the Map Viewer template shows numeric coded values rather than associated domain values.
BUG-000103139	A Map Tour template app in AppStudio for ArcGIS is able to retrieve an image that is successfully accessed when the same image is referenced in a Story Map Tour application in ArcGIS .
BUG-000103313	The OpenStreetMap basemap displays in an AppStudio Player for ArcGIS app that is created using the AppStudio for ArcGIS Map Viewer template.
ENH-000089905	Issues with Quick Report app in German are resolved.

We hope you enjoy all the new updates, features and bug fixes included in this release. As always, we will continue to listen to your feedback and bring new features to improve your app development experience. A series of blog posts on what’s new in the templates, Desktop, and Player will be published soon. So, stay tuned!

Want to try AppStudio for ArcGIS? check this video to see how to sign up for a free trial.

Anonymous User · ‎04-26-2018

Hi Tina

Can you clarify something please? Can AppStudio 3.0 be installed and run alongside the old AppStudio 2.x on a Windows machine? I remember a comment made during the beta that it couldn't, but I'm not sure if that just referred to the beta or the not?

One of our users went ahead and installed them both (to different installation directories) and on the face of it they seem to work. But are there any issues that we might not be aware of where they might conflict or cause problems?

Anonymous User · ‎04-27-2018

Hi Paul,

You are able to run AppStudio 3.0 alongside with AppStudio 2.x. However, notice that because all of the AppStudio apps are in the same folder, any Runtime apps created on AppStudio Desktop 3.0 will be using ArcGIS Runtime 100.2, meaning that these apps will not be supported on AppStudio Desktop 2.0. You can manually change Runtime import statement to 100.1 if you wish to run them on AppStudio 2.0 though.

I hope this help.

Tina

Anonymous User · ‎05-01-2018

Hi Tina,

I installed both (installed v3 to a different directory). When I run an app directly from AppStudio in v2.x that uses the old runtime (10.2.6) it runs. But if I try to open it in QtCreator it doesn't. I think that it is opening in QtCreator using the version that AppStudio v3.0 installed which is missing the old runtime, is that right?

Is it possible to fix this on my PC so that I can edit and run old apps from QtCreator? Or do they share the same version of QtCreator and libraries etc, meaning that I really can't have both versions of AppStudio running on the same PC?

Feel free to email me direct if easier to continue discussion offline.

cheers,

-Paul

DustinBaumbach1 · ‎05-02-2018

Hi Tina Jin‌,

Great blog post! I'm looking forward to interacting with it in this new version of appstudio. I was curious how accurate the high-accuracy GPS is in this new version of the quick report template using your devices standard GPS? Can you get an accuracy of less than +- 16 ft just using either iPhone or android standard GPS inside the phone? This information would be great to know in order to get more sea turtle researchers using our applications on nesting beaches.

Thank you,

Dustin

MassimilianoSantini · ‎05-15-2018

Hi Paul,

first of all, thank you for answered to my previous email about ipa size.

Now, I'm interesting about this post about concurrent installation of AppStudio 3.0 and 2.1...
do you and Tina continued the discussion offline?
Did she answer you about running old version in new QtCreator?

Thanks

Massimiliano

MassimilianoSantini · ‎05-15-2018

Hi all,

the cloud Make of apps built in previous AppStudio 2.1 with ArcGIS runtime 10.2 produce .ipa 32-bit, 64-bit or both?

The same app migrated to 100.2 in new AppStudio 3.0 produce ipa only 64-bit, right?

thanks

Massimiliano

Anonymous User · ‎05-15-2018

Hi Massimiliano

I'll paste here the reply I got from one of the AppStudio team. I should emphasize that this is obviously not an officially supported or recommended workflow from ESRI.

----------------------------------------------------------

Side by side installations of different versions of AppStudio is not supported out of the box. Below manual steps should get this working on your dev machine.

You can install AppStudio 2.1 and 3.0 to different folders and run apps by double clicking. This will work.

But, when running from QtCreator, apps will always run using the AppStudio version that was installed last.

On your system, you can manually create new external tools in QtCreator using below steps for running apps with both versions of AppStudio.

Close QtCreator

Navigate to C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\QtProject\qtcreator\externaltools

You’ll find a set of xml files. Open AppRun.xml , the AppStudio path listed in this file is the one that gets used always while running an app using (Alt+Shift+R) in QtCreator

Create AppRun_21.xml in this folder with below content. Replace path with the AppStudio 2.1 installation path on your machine.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<description>AppStudio Run 2.1</description>

<category>AppStudio</category>

<path>C:\Users\username\Applications\ArcGIS\AppStudio_2_1/bin/AppRun.exe</path>

<arguments>--nosplash %{CurrentProject:Path}</arguments>

<workingdirectory>%{CurrentProject:Path}</workingdirectory>

<environment>QT_LOGGING_TO_CONSOLE%3D1</environment>

</executable>

</externaltool>

To associate a keyboard shortcut for the new external tool added in above step,
- Open C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\QtProject\QtCreator.ini in text editor
- Add Tools.External.AppRun21=Alt+Shift+2 to the KeyboardShortcuts section

Launch QtCreator
- To get intellisense and help working correctly, create desktop shortcuts to launch the qtcreator installed with corresponding AppStudio (path: C:\Users\username\Applications\ArcGIS\AppStudio\QtCreator\bin\qtcreator.exe)
- FYI. When clicking the Edit button in AppStudio 2.1 and 3.0 , it always opens QtCreator from the path listed in C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Esri\AppStudio.ini -> [Tool-QtCreator] -> command

You should now see 2 AppRun options under QtCreator -> Tools -> External -> AppStudio with different keyboard shortcuts associated.

Anonymous User · ‎05-15-2018

Hi Massimiliano,

Yes you are right, the app built on AppStudio 2.1 will include both ipa 32-bit and 64-bit and the app built on AppStudio Desktop 3.0 will only support 64-bit.

Thanks,

Tina