Hey everyone and Merry Christmas! With the plugin submissions suspended, I just wanted to keep the community abreast of some of the plugins I intended on submitting come January 1st for Buzztouch users to take advantage of: 1) QR Reader: Submitted a QR Code Reader screen prior to the plugin submission deadline (before the plugin submission suspension). This screen will allow users to read QR codes directly from within your app either by accessing the camera roll or by taking a picture right there and then! I've also included a tutorial on how to incorporate the QR Reader in your documents that contain QR codes if you want your app users to be able to access the link associated with your QR code! 2) Dropbox: Currently working on a Dropbox screen plugin. Would once me be a simple one screen menu where the app user would log in to their Dropbox account and modify their files and folders with freedom (i.e. add, removing, moving, etc.). It would basically resemble the Dropbox app, but only with one main tab, which should more than suffice. 3) Random Screen: Currently working on it, but will likely be the trickiest due to my lack of knowledge with PHP. David was kind enough to offer to help with the PHP for my submitted QR Reader plugin. Nonetheless, this plugin would give app users the ability to click on the screen/tab and a random page/item from your app would be accessed. As you can see, PHP would be crucial to this plugin as the Buzztouch user would hopefully have the ability to choose which files/menus he or she would like to be included when a user chooses Random. This is the plan. :) 4) Calculator/Unit Converter: A nifty plugin if I may say so myself! I say this because I've seen a few apps that are just this - a calculator that also acts as a unit converter for lengths, currencies, distances, etc. Simple idea - incorporate a calculator that also allows the user to convert one measure of unit to another (i.e. miles to kilometers, US to Canadian $, etc.). Would add some great functionality to any app! ****5) RSS Reader? I've seen various posts asking for a RSS Reader, but I've seen many have used alternatives that seem to work just fine for the most case. Any demand for this? That is all! Feel free to make any comments or suggestions - looking forward to bringing these plugins to buzztouch in 2013! Thanks once more to all you ladies and gents for your support. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Nicholas

woa, nice work thank you so much, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Nicholas hope your plugins available on BT Plugins soon. im Hoang from Vietnam

That sounds great! I am particularly looking forward to the currency converter! Happy New Year and keep up the good work! Farcat

Hey @GraciousWolf_Pe, Can you elaborate more on the Random screen and the relation to PHP? LA

The RSS reader attracts controvosy, but I think it would be very useful indeed to have. Previous RSS plugins were able to display feed stores even if offline - which is useful. Any alternatives are basically html paqes that need to be online to work. A plugin can provide a reasonably consistent interface and work offline. It is a neat way of providing access to news feeds and I think there is a place for that. I think the problem people have with RSS plugins is two fold, one on which is realy not to do with a plug-in at all. Problem one is that people struggle to map the rss xml feed fields to the plug-in, especially images. This is down to the variety of standards. Second, which I think is not really a plug-in issue, is that when you click on the feed link, it takes you to a page with the whole story that you may not be able to control the presentation of.

I would agree with @AlanMac on the RSS reader. Also on the QR plugin most can be easily integrated into an App so not sure if a plugin is needed. Just my 2 cents. LA

Thanks for the feedback, guys! @Black White & @ Farcat - Thanks, I hope to bring the plugins to you sooner rather than later! @LA - for the Random Screen Plugin, PHP would be what the Buzztouch user sees on the control panel. In this respect, it would be great if users can either choose which files/what type of files can actually be accessed via the Random Screen. For example, if I have 100 PDF files like I feel like sharing, but I don't want the random screen to access Word documents that I have in my app, this should be an option Buzztouch users should have in the ability to select their screens for random display! @AlanMac - all very good points. All about standards and what one user expects from the type of RSS Feed Reader available. Would be tricky to have an all in one type of plugin as users do prefer different styles. @LA - I agree for the QR plugin in that there are guides that do give enough information for most to integrate the code into their app. Plugin would be the "lazy man and woman" solution. It also would be neatly connected to the Control Panel and easily moved to wherever the user desires in the app. ;) Once more, thanks for the feedback - based on it, I believe I will be working towards getting the Dropbox and Calculator/Unit Converter plugins out there first! Thanks again and enjoy the holiday break! Nicholas

Sweet! I have several published apps and some in the works that I will definitely use the Calculator/Unit Converter in. Thanks! Tim

Sounds great! LA

Good stuff. Easy for some is impossible for others, some members of these forums are complete noobs and depend on this plugin model that David and buzztouch have created. The more plugins we have will give users the chance to build great looking apps with absolute no experience or coding knowledge which is the dream. Keep up the good work

Can't wait! Looking forward to it.

I agree with @AlanMac about RSS feeds. I think they'd be very useful but I don't think it would attract controversy. As long as it can do things in the same way and look the same as the RSS plugin in Buzztouch v1.5, there wouldn't be any problems.

I am excited by almost everything submitted to the Plug In Market. If you build it I will come. Even though I may not want or need the Calulator plug in, if I support your effort today you may make a plug in next year that allows me to add functionality to one of my APPs that I could not add any other way. I can either support plug in developers today or stop growing as a developer. The meaning of life, Facebook's TOS and code are all well beyond my skill set to understand. Good Luck in 2013 Nichols. Mike

I just wanted to say thank you ahead of time and really look forward to the Dropbox plugin! Also... I come from PHP so I'd be happy to assist if you still need help.

Hi GraciousWolf_PE, Looks very promissing. Keep up doing a great job!! This will definitely help the buzztouch community. Best Regards, Danny

Thanks G-Wolf & Merry Christmas too. I think QR Reader would be great...Calc too! @nonaperak Very cool you offered to assist!! :-)

RSS as it was in 1.5. Then one can use WordPress feeds to drive menu lists. Thanks!

Why someone does not take the code from the 1.5 for RSS lists and rewrite them for version 2.0?

Nicholas, you're doing great things! Looking forward to see you sell some plugins and make a little extra income from your hard work. Cheers mate, David https://buzztouchmods.com

Wow - thanks everyone for the overwhelming support and enthusiasm! I couldn't help but to thumbs up each and every one of your posts ;) Thanks again for the comments and feedback - have a great end to 2012 and see you in 2013! Nicholas

Nicholas, These sound great! I definitely think we need the rss plugin back. I'm using the buzztouch mods one on self hosted but would love to see that on Android. As for the 'control over the rss content' what is stopping us from having an option to show the content but not link to the original site? (for example an rss feed of calendar events may not need a link back, especially if the site is not optimized for mobile) just a thought..... All the best with the plugins, the more we have, the better the platform! Cheers

Hello Nicholas, A fellow named Dave DeLong has released a Unit Converter on GitHub. He even has currency conversion! The code works! I tried his code for a few conversions: Temp, Weight (mass), and Length Download the zip archive via https://github.com/davedelong/DDUnitConverter In main.m this is the sample code I tried to ensure it actually works. I validated the results via Google. // Temperature conversion DDUnitConverter *t = [DDUnitConverter temperatureUnitConverter]; NSNumber * tValue = [t convertNumber:[NSNumber numberWithInt:32] fromUnit:DDTemperatureUnitFarenheit toUnit:DDTemperatureUnitCelcius]; NSLog(@"Temp in C is %@", tValue); // Weight (mass) conversion DDUnitConverter *m = [DDUnitConverter massUnitConverter]; NSNumber * mValue = [m convertNumber:[NSNumber numberWithFloat:10.9] fromUnit:DDMassUnitKilograms toUnit:DDMassUnitUSPounds]; NSLog(@"Mass in US lbs is %@", mValue); // Length conversion DDUnitConverter *l = [DDUnitConverter lengthUnitConverter]; NSNumber * lValue = [l convertNumber:[NSNumber numberWithFloat:72.5] fromUnit:DDLengthUnitInches toUnit:DDLengthUnitMeters]; NSLog(@"Height in Metric meters is %@", lValue); Now its a "simple matter" of wiring up that code to the User Interface screens of your Calculator plugin! :-) -- Niraj

For a Calculator plugin, go to this link to read a 2-part article on how to properly architect and code a Calculator app. The actual Xcode files are also available for download. The author gives a terrific explanation, I was able to follow along on an iPad mini -- no computer needed! http://msmvps.com/blogs/kevinmcneish/archive/2012/12/16/building-a-solid-ios-app-architecture.aspx After having read his sample tutorials on the web site, I've realized that Kevin McNeish has a good teaching style that matches my stubborn brain. As soon as I get another iTunes gift card, I will be buying his eBooks on "iOS App Development for Non-Programmers". Kevin also seems to be responsive on the Forums for his books. Before buying, visit the web tutorials and also download the Samples from the iBookstore to see if the teaching style jives with your personality. (also on the Kindle store) -- Niraj

I was wondering if the QR Reader plugin GraciousWolf_PE mentioned earlier in this post is available?

The QR Reader plugin has been submitted, revised, and resubmitted. Waiting on the Buzztouch crew, but I hope I could get that first plugin out there soon!