I'm new to App developing so am hoping if someone may be kind enough to offer some advise please. I have an app I am seeking to get developed. It seems my options are to go to a traditional apps developer which they would build on their own platform, or have someone code up custom code that could used as a custom buzztouch app. The questions I have are: 1) How much using buzztouch limits the scope on whats possible with normal apps development? 2) Is apps coding generic enough to outsource the coding of a custom function to an outside coder whereby the code can then be inserted into the Buzztouch custom tab? (from experience seems too simple!). I am assuming the likes of Buzztouch would cut down a lot of the overheads development, leaving a developer to focus on the core content. (Generally when it comes to serious programming I prefer to work with experts in this field). THE APP ======= The particular app I am seeking to build is a calendar based App that will allow the user to identify time on/off periods between different workers rosters. The app would be required to maintain a record of a range of workers roster schedules whereby the user would then select the relevant workers to visually identify overlapping work and time off periods. For this stage of the app, the data could be stored within the app/phone. In addition the app is to include*: - Push Notifications: To push messages out to app users. - Upgradability: The App is to be structured to allow the future upgrade of functions that may include a record of personal details, setting calendar events, sending reminders based on calendar events, and monetizing through special offers. - Upgrade Notifications: Have the ability to notify the app user of updates. - Opt-in: Be able to collect email and name to advise future updates and offers. * I understand these would all be normal buzztouch functions Thanks for your interst and would appreciate any advise. Chris

Hi Chris, About done for the night but I'll toss a few thoughts in this and check it in the morning to see where it ends up. Maybe get a few more comments by then? The biggest challenge to most successful apps is the design and the backend support mechanism. It's very very unusual for a data-centric app to try to store all the data in the device. It's done, it's just limited (think muti user, updates, changes, backups, etc). There's almost always a backend component for ALL successful data-centric apps. With that said, if you're like most folks that land here after an epic quest to find the 'perfect app builder' (which doesn't exist) you're probably better at conceptualizing the design, what is should look like, and how it should function than you are actually coding the thing (and the backend). So, maybe spend your first few days / weeks using a graphic program or working with a designer to get a very firm grip on what it should look like, what the controls should do, etc. This will be a good start regardless of how you end up finishing it. This can take much longer than you think. Here's how we do it... Start with paper. Yes, paper. One sheet for each page or screen in your app. The smallest, most least complicated screen you can imagine still gets it's own sheet. Draw, scribble, doesn't matter EVERTYHING you can think of on these sheets of paper. Slide them around (to back of stack, to front, etc) as you imagine how the navigation and controls will work. When you get through this painful or fun (depends on how you look at it) exercise, you'll be WAY AHEAD of the game when it comes time to create individual UIViewControllers (iOS) or Activities (Android) for each screen. Hope this helps...I'll check in AM to see what else ends up under it.

From my understanding, if you can build it on the web you can build an app. The convergence of web apps & native apps is amazing. Unless you need off line fuctionality, it doesn't seem that's there much of an limitation. Fred

Thanks for your comments David & Fred. David your design approach makes a lot of commonsense (too much commonsense in fact!!). I also understand from what you are saying is that a back end web component would be a smarter necessity for a data driven app. The only issues i would see there is if the app is out of wireless range then if it relies on backend connectivity its rendered inoperative - unless some data is cache stored in the app? Please excuse my ignorance, but with regard to the management of that backend data, would the buzztouch environment provide the facility to manage that, or I would assume more likely this would be on a seprate back end server I would setup?? Secondly, as far as the custom function development for the app (apart from the back work), can that function be readily outsourced as generic code or is the coding propietory to the buzztouch framework? ... hope that makes sense! Thanks, Chris So when I've done that, my question then is

Ah thanks David for the advice on getting started with my App ideas! I agree that I am a bit confused on whether I should have a website act as a backend for the app, and store, process, then output the data (maybe as rss feed) that gets displayed in the app itself? either way there is defintiely no perfect solution already programmed, which makes this frontier so exciting for me and also challenging! What if we could develop a plugin that integrated the app itself with wordpress? That could help provide a backend that can do thinks like user authentication, output data in rss feeds, and so much more. Theoretically we could have several plugins that integrate with various functions and abilities that our own wordpress website could provide! How exciting!