I just signed up and am using 2.0. I'm quickly realizing how easy a non coder can build an app with Buzztouch. My problem is just that, I'm a newbie. Now that I'm building an app, I have many questions and Buzztouch U is unavailable at the moment. Here goes.... 1) My app will probably have close to 300 pages, its mostly menus leading to menus leading to a word doc. If I dont want to self serve, how can I do this through Buzztouch? their max is 100 pages. 2) If I want my app to be native when I'm done, can I get code that dosnt point back to the buzztouch servers and how? If I go with self serve, can I just load the Buzztouch software onto my computer at home to build my app? I dont mind paying for the pages but Im not sure I want to buy servers and stuff to do it. Thanks in advance.

Welcome from another newbie. Well I am still new myself, but I can give a quick answer to some. Yes ;-) 300 pages ... would suggest using HTML_Doc files, forms/files you (or a web site) make and include inside the application at time of packaging (after downloading the source code). Self-serve = BT-Server located on your own server machine. Would also highly suggest that. No real limits (with some exceptions i.e. API calls) Native ?=? offline (no web access) app -> yes it is possible. Building the app, well, that has to be done on your own PC no matter what, that is not done on buzztouch.com or the BT-Server (self serve) , they only give out the source code. It is up the the person to package it for the correct OS and do all the other work needed to get it ready to publish. Now this is just a very brief overview. There are some good pages that members have made. I think they made it threw the move (still located in the help section) and a few on other sites including http://myskylla.wordpress.com/ Buzztouch is the way to go.

sorry maybe Im using the wrong terminology. By 300 pages I mean that so far I started off with a home page of four menu choices. they each go to another list of menus and so on until it gets to a final word doc. there will only be like 75 to 100 actual word docs but you will have to navigate through several menus to get to them. by the time I'm done I estimate around 300 of what I believe are considered pages. except for the word docs, all of the menus are made with Buzztouch. as far as html doc files, not sure what your talking about. (i'm that new) I panned on just creating the docs and residing them in the app so the app doesnt have to access the web to work. (native?) So as fr as Buzztouch is concerned, their limit of 30 or 100 pages etc., only applies to published app residing on their server? I can have several hundred paes while I'm building it for free? Sorry if I havnt mentioned it, I'm new.....

Well if you would make the menus with html pages, instead of buzztouch menus, then it would be easier to make it an offline app, as with the menus there would be a call to the web site to get the configuration for them. Yes, the limitations that are shown on the site, are for the site, not the BT-Server setup. Again I would highly suggest that setup if possible. It does take a bit more knowledge or some assistance or BT could even do it for you. I had not even finished my first app (online) when I figured it would be worth it to get the BT-Server setup instead.

Hi @CalypsoKid, Welcome to buzztouch! I think you'll find lots of awesomeness here! @FREESCOsoft has already answered quite a bit, and quite well, but I'll expand on some things. With respect to installing BT Server, you have to use the LAMP (Linux, Apache, mySQL and PHP) stack. So, you can't install it on your laptop or home computer, unless it happens to be a Linux box with all that stuff on it! And even then you'd need a dedicated IP (I believe). There are tons of free hosting solutions out there that you could install on, and plenty of people here willing to help you install it. buzztouch will do it for a fee. Regarding terminology, what buzztouch limits you on is the number of 'screens' that your app has. So, you could have a menu list with 1000 items in it, and that would be one screen. But, if each menu tap took you to a new screen, that would be 1000 screens. And if each of those took you to an individual final screen, that's another 1000 screens, for a total of roughly 2001 screens! But it sounds like from your description that several screens will take you to the same final screen. So, given that, you're likely to hit your screen limit pretty darn fast. But, there is a way around that...create your own screens using JSON. This is a fairly advanced technique, but it essentially means creating a text file that defines the attributes of your screens, and any child (sub) screens, and then referring to that file to build what the user sees. So, you could have a single buzztouch screen that calls a JSON file to build all the sub screens, and from the buzztouch perspective, your app only has one screen. Make sense? There used to be some documentation on how this works, but I don't see it on the new site anymore. I'll try and dig it up for you. One last thing to keep in mind. Apple really likes it if users can get to information in one or two taps. So, you might want to keep that in mind when designing all these nested screens. Too many taps...too deep a menu structure...and you may loose user interest. People have very short attention spans when reading lots of info...like this post! There we go! Let me know if you have any questions, and again, welcome to buzztouch! Mark

Gotta love Google! http://www.buzztouch.com/docs/v1.5/screen_menuList.php Mark

@Calypso Kid, building the app as suggested by Mark is definately the way to go. You should build a few apps just to learn how. Read everything on the help. Link posted above, read all the How-To's and read MySkylla's Guide to Buzztouch. www.myskylla.wordpress.con Fred

Thanks everyone I appreciate all of the help!!!!

My tip herre would be to have a small project that is complete within 12 or so pages. My first was for my rascals and had pics and info on ponies, as it would be cheaper than buying them one. It taught me loads doing first and getting it published. I would approach BT as becoming a developer long term than just having a need to tackle a project or idea first. My first app I really wanted to design is now close to finishing and will be my fourth app released.

Thanks Marko. The app that I'm building is a very simple app that just gives specific info for many many shops in a favorite location of ours. It is menu driven. It starts off with five "areas" to select from. Upon the selection of an "area" it expands to up to 20 or so "sub-areas" within the original "area". It then expands to word docs, up to 3 word docs for separate shops within the "sub-area". It's moving along really quick but the pages are adding up very quickly. Maybe it's just my perception, but all of these menu options are necessary for this app to be useful to the end user. I'm checking out GoNorthWest's suggestion of building in JSON but basically I'm just a guy with an idea for an app with no experience in the field. I'm sure that I'm doing it wrong because it seems super easy with Buzztouch!

Doin it wrong is a good way to start Not using the JSON data is the labor intensive way, but the easy way. Fred But for future maintaince and future development the JSON way is the best way.

Is there a way to take the downloaded source code from Buzztouch and use it in a JSON editor from the Mac app store? Does anyone out there suggest a Mac App Store JSON editor?

Yeah, why isn't buzztouch u working?

Buzztouch U™ is a feature that will be rolled out in the near future. Date uncertain. I'm sure when it's ready they'll let us know. Fred

Ok, thanks for info. I thought it was maybe a paid feature or something, but thanks.