Creating apps for Apple iOS

[Guest]

Hi all,

I was astonished to see Adobe's german website stating that RoboHelp can create mobile Apps for iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows and Symbian.

From what I understand, only Android is possible at the moment. This works fine for me, I have installed some test projects and am wondering.. is it possible to manually convert the HTML5 output into other OS formats using Phonegap? Originally Phonegap supports the other OS but in the RoboHelp UI only Android settings are available. Has anybody tried this yet?

Robert

[Peter Grainge]

I think you will find that claim relates to RoboHelp 10. See the RoboHelp Tour on my site where you will see that outputs to iOS can be created as well as Android using default screen layouts. I haven't seen default layouts for Blackberry and Symbian but I don't think Adobe would make such claims if they could not be supported. I think the deal is if the device supports HTML5 you are good to go.

There is a new output called Multiscreen HTML5 and that is what you use.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Guest]

Peter,

the claim is really clear - it does not relate to screen

profiles/Layouts. They say that native mobile Apps for these OS can be

generated. I think somebody just copied an old text from PhoneGap.

My idea was the PhoneGap originally could provide these outputs, so

maybe it is possible if you use it manually, not from within RoboHelp.

Robert

[Peter Grainge]

I cannot see how RoboHelp can create an app. If you will let me have a link to the article, I will get someone at Adobe to look at it.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Guest]

I am referring to the function under File > Generate, the last entry is something like "Mobile App". It uses PhoneGap and some other developement kits that need to be installed to compile the HTML5 output. In the output folder you find the apk file under "bin" and can install it on your phone. It works well for me, but at the moment only Android apps can be generated this way.

FYI, the statement I mentioned is here, the second column lists the output formats:

http://www.adobe.com/de/products/robohelp/features._sl_id-contentfilter_sl_featuredisplaytypes_sl_ne...

In English: "Use the HTML5-based multiscreen publication, publishing as Webhelp, CHM, E-Book (Epub3, KF8), as native apps (iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows, Symbian), Adobe Air, PDF, Microsoft Word, Adobe FlashHelp, JavaHelp, EclipseHelp and OracleHelp for Java."

[Peter Grainge]

OK

As far as creating help as an applicationvia the File > Generate menu is concerned, that is an area I haven't looked at. I will see if I can get more information.

As far as the expanded output layouts are concerned, I didn't think that iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows, Symbian native apps were created from the Multiscreen HTML5 layout so again I will have to check.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Praful_Jain]

hi Robert,

Let me make things clear. Multiscreen Output is HTML5 compliant, so can run on different devices including iOS, Android, and Desktop. PhoneGap is a open source framework which allows users to create native apps for different OS including iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone... Please read more about Phonegap @http://phonegap.com/

For creating native apps for iOS, user need to have MAC machine, XCode and other tools. But RoboHelp is a windows only product, so can not generate native apps for iOS.

All being said, RoboHelp users can still generate native apps for all 7 supported platform, following are 2 ways to do it.

• Generate Multiscreen Output and follow the steps http://docs.phonegap.com/en/2.0.0/guide_getting-started_index.md.html to create native apps for different Platform. in this method, user need to manually compile native app for all platform
• Use PhoneGap service which allows user to generate native app for all platform with a single click

In RoboHelp 10, PhoneGap is integrated using Extendscript scripting API, and the script currently generates native apps for Android platform.

thanks

Praful

Adobe RoboHelp

[Guest]

Hi Pfaful,

yes that what I meant, thanks for the link I will have a look. Did you

already use this method in conjuncuntion with RoboHelp output?

Robert

[Peter Grainge]

Robert

This link is to the OLH for RoboHelp 10.

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/robohelp/robohtml/index.html

Under Getting Started > Publishing Features there is a heading "Support for packaging Help content as a native mobile app" with a link to more detail.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Guest]

Hi Peter,

yes that is the functionality currently supported by RH. This works

fine, but only the generation of Android apps is currently possible from

within Robohelp.

My idea was to generate normal HTML5 output and run it through Phonegap

manually to get other app formats for iOS or Blackberry. I just though

I'D ask if anyone has experiences with this, personally I have not

worked with Phonegap before.

BTW, I think we will need a new subforum for topics related to HTML5

sooner or later.

Robert

[Peter Grainge]

We will be getting a Multiscreen HTML5 forum added.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Lmlederer]

Is there a way to generate the Multiscreen Output on something other than a cloud-based platform?

Thanks,

Lisa

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

like, not using Phonegap? Is that what you mean?

[Lmlederer]

Correct. I have a project in RoboHelp that has confidential information that I want to securely create an App for iDevices. Any suggestions?

[Peter Grainge]

All iOS apps have to be downloaded from the App Store and my understanding is that you cannot restrict who can download. That is something I will check with someone else. To get the app in the store I understand you will need a Mac machine and a developer, they need to have a licence or some authorisation. If I am correct about who can download, then you are no better off than having the information on a web server and that is an easier solution.

You can see how this output works using the link below and you can download the project.

http://www.grainge.org/demos/html5 Access it using an iOS device, an Android device and a PC and you will see different layouts.

http://www.grainge.org/downloads/empcareus.zip Will download the Rh10 project.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Peter Grainge]

It occurs to me that by putting the information on a server, your developers could password protect that.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Peter Grainge]

I have just spoken to our guru on such matters and he advises me that in the US downloads can be restricted to Business Partners but that Apple have not rolled that out to other countries yet. Not quite sure how that works given the App Store is international.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Lmlederer]

Thank you. This information is very helpful.