What to look out for in migration to B4? šŸ¤”

Might be useful to get some tips by those using B4 what Xojo users should look out for.

besides a better experience (or so Iā€™ve heard)

how to build for mac???
do u need to install anything else on userā€™s machine??

Start with B4XPages, rather than old advice about ā€˜Activitiesā€™ā€¦ it will make cross platform easier.

Donā€™t expect file system access to be what you are used to (I still cant get reliable access to data files , but Iā€™m new to it too)

how to get hold of B4XPages??

Include XUI in the libraries
Start a new project, and choose B4XPages as the type.
That will get you a quick framework to start with

Thnaksā€¦ found it nowā€¦ i am just doing a ā€œhello worldā€.

how do i compile for the mac??

do user still need to install the java framework ??

Im pretty sure they do.
Havent tried for Mac yetā€¦ nobodyā€™s expert here, been at it for about 10 days myself.
I assume you are working in B4J ?

Probably have good read of this:
https://www.b4x.com/guides/B4XCrossPlatformProjects/?page=1

i think you need to install the java runtime or somethingā€¦which i have done.
try to run the jar file but it isnā€™t workingā€¦ i saw the java launcher started but nothing was done afterwad

AlwaysBusy is :wink:

I remember his brilliant REALbasic tutorials - maybe time for an introductory tutorial for Xojo users? :innocent:

great ideaā€¦ markusā€¦
alwaysbusy, are you up for that??

Did you go through the steps on the main page, https://www.b4x.com/b4j.html. Follow steps one and two, configure the paths within B4J and you should be good to go, assuming B4J.

Already did that. Build the first hello world. Donā€™t know what to do next on mac or window. I got some jar file

If you have the JRE, the jar should run as as executable.

On windows you can create a standalone app that doesnt need a JRE: https://www.b4x.com/android/forum/threads/integrated-b4jpackager11-the-simple-way-to-distribute-standalone-ui-apps.117880/

For mac, https://www.b4x.com/android/forum/threads/how-to-run-execute-a-jar-on-macos.121783/

Iā€™m more of the Web guy on the B4X platform. I donā€™t own a Mac but Iā€™m sure Ive seen some stuff on the B4X forum about deploying a B4X app on the Mac. I know one can now create a standalone from within the IDE. For Mac I think it generates some script one can then run on a real Mac then to make a standalone package you can distribute. I believe these packages contain a JRE that is installed if needed.

B4J Deploying on which platform ever needs a JRE or JDK install on the target platform. Cause B4j makes jar Files. Except for Windows there is the possibility of generating exe files with runtime inside. After there is an actual runtime you will be able to run your app made with B4J. Our customers are running B4J apps oin Windows (7 and 10), Mac/OS, Ubuntu Linux, redhat Linux, OpenSuse Linux).

When editing and want to debug: so not forget to switch from Release to Debug. Debugging starts App automatically on your computer. It will run without problems.

To use B4X under Linux: I would strongly recommend codeweavers crossover to install it cause it works fast and reliable.

Do yourself a favor: read the forum for all questions you may have in case of developing with B4x Software. It is realy capable to generate nice Software!

To develop on Mac/OS I would also strongly recommend to use Codeweavers crossover cause it letā€™s you install B4x on Mac also.

For IOS I strongly recommend to use the BuildServer Option so you are not in the need of a local Mac computer for development. The Apps generated are capable to get through the strong Apple tests to be listed in Appstore. Same for B4A for Android.

One of the big goals is the reusable Code: reuse code is simply and working really nice. Look in the B4x Forum for this you may learn how to write your app for being able to directly reuse elements at all.

I wrote in the meantime a bunch of apps and I can say it works. I came from xojo and I miss nothing. Okay, there was one annoying part: regular expressions. Use the keyword Regex for it. Otherwise you have none. Even is you need to convert Bytes, you can download a libnrary for it. In this example Byteconverter. Simple and working. Stress-less in my View.

And with the time Banano or Abmaterial will be capable to build Webapps in the ā€œxojoā€ method, it sosts a bit of time. Even now it is no problem to generate web apps witch are reliable, stable and really fast.

Hello all, hope you donā€™t mind me joining the discussion.
A few points:

It is easier to develop Windows apps with B4J, however you can create standalone packages that will run on Mac or Linux without any other dependencies. It is done with a tool named B4JPackager11 together with B4J-Bridge.

There is a very good search engine in B4X forum. Try it.
B4X is quite mature now and some of the older libraries or features were replaced with newer and better features. Both Android and iOS are moving fast and bring new requirements in each new version.
B4X itself thrives to be 100% backward compatible.

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Who else should be allowed to join this discussion. The standalone packaging I have to test, I bought a local mac already for testing this. That Linux is working I did not know but I will test today, thanks for this informative reply erel!

Hi Erel, the B4J_Bridge is only to do remote debugging on the mac. What i want to try run an app with everything packaged.

i read the B4JPackager11 is already include in B4J

You should connect to a Mac with B4J-Bridge and then run the external B4JPackager11 tool. It will create a Mac (or Linux) package.

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