Hi guys, Im new here just signed up. So Im trying to orientate around the site. I understand that I should follow the steps to get started but were is the "buzztouch Essentials Learning path" ??? How do I get stared to learn this? plz let me know.. Kind Regards Don

Go into you account and go to buzzu .. Take a look at the videos

Yep; head over to the section that says 'BuzzTouch University' and take a look at the videos there. You can start off with either iOS or Android; most people eventually do both. If you have questions or any kind of issues, let us know in the forums; we've been there and done that, and we don't mind helping. Cheers! -- Smug Oh, and GoNorthWest (another forum contributor and author of many fine tutorials) reminded me in another post: Ian and Chris host a new user webinar every couple of weeks or so; check the webinar schedule in the left side menu as well. A Bit early for us on this side, but you can catch it before work. It's worth the time.

Yep you got a link in top, Buzztouch U, that a perfect place to start. And Welcome. Miguel

Yes Excellent, I am working my way through the tutorials (They are very good and help full btw!) Thanx for all your help. Most probably I will have allot of questions.. but Im going to go through these tutorials and try and read up as much as possible my self before I start to ask. Thanx again!

Welcome @Don_Dada! You will find the "How To" section also at the very top here. Please don't hesitate to post any questions if you encounter any. LA

you could also go to youtube and search for "buzztouch new user webinar" you should be able to find a couple recording, that should help you understand how it all works. -Chris

Hi Don, 1. you mastered the Forum - that is great. Ask question. There is always someone who will give you a hint. 2. Take the Buzztouch U as university, it is worth to see it more times, it is packed with information. You got a star, it means you do watch it. Great, continue. Repeat. 3. Google threads with specific questions... also under Forum you can find Advanced Search option, it also works well. 4. Make some projects. Not necessarily it must be successful. You learn most by doing. 5. Integrate plugins to your projects... see what it can do. 6. Youtube is full of good tutorials: members put there a lot of good stuff. Watch the names here and google in youtube. I found real gems there. 7. There is a lot of How-to... excellent stuff. 8. Do not underestimate the power of webs of users: buzztouchmods.com, buzztouchaddons.com, www.myskylla.com - all that lead to very useful stuff, especially myskylla is packed with tutorials. 9. Work, work, work. 10. Do not forget to have fun, do not forget beer, do something beautiful everyday. Frogman

Hi forum, And thank you betide frogman for your detailed reply. I have completed the first segment and found it very informative and easy to follow. I started the second segment 'Xcode' and it is pretty clear that these tutorials have been made for ppl who have some sort of previous experience with coding. This is not really for any beginner that has 0 experience or knowledge. The tutorial starts and all of a sudden the guy is banging out code after code that just look like hyrogliphics to me. There is no explanation really to what each character is fore an why. And with the YouTube tute on one side of my screen and Xcode on the other half trying to 1, catch up with him and 2, be able to see that you are typing the code correct Is very hard! I find my self having to paus allot and go into wide screen on the video just to be able to see each symbol beeing typed. I have not managed to he one single piece of code correct. Even when I zoom in and double check the code I'm typing is correct. There still are allot of read round symbols and other error looking stuff that apears. So is this what it is about? Writing code in Xcode like the tute is doing? I don't think I fully understand what buzztouch actually does? I thought I would be building apps with plugins in a more drag and drop typ of fashion. But this is actually all about coding isent it? I find this extremely difficult! And I do not agree at all that Xcode is easier then it looks ( yes if you know coding it probably is) : /

ok.. after freaking out.. I have now decided that I just need to give it a go and see where I run into problems and just learn this way. What I still dont understand is how much can I actually create in Buzztouch? I want to create an app that uses the devices camera and then manipulates the photos by adding stickers to the photos. Could I achieve this all in Buzztouch?

Well, you have to look at it this way: Anything is possible. But everything hinges on effort. BT helps accelerate that effort. Think of traditional programming. You start with a completely empty project. And you add. Everything. What you're getting with BT is all that and more. Things that would take a complete beginner months to get their head around, is done for you already. It's nice if you understand that part, but its not 'critical' in order to build apps and get things done. For the programmer with experience, it's about the same thing. It's a 'jump start'. Although erroneous in the term, you could call BT a framework, although technically it is not. It's more like a 'configurable shell' for your app. Each 'plugin' has a function, and can be separated into various 'groups'. You have menus, which are self explanatory; they list other screens/actions, and mitigate the navigation to that screen/action. You have content screens, which vary in function, but basically they all display data in some way. Web pages, text documents, images, whatever. anything and everything to be displayed. You have 'splash screens' which display content, but typically in a limited fashion. Usually displayed at the app start, they allow you to show off a logo, provide for a disclaimer that must be agreed to, and things like that. And you have 'actions', which do things like call, text, email, etcetera. Plugins provide the 'inexperienced' programmer with a way to build apps with little or no experience. With respect to doing 'lego' building with Buzztouch, to some degree you can, and in other ways you cannot. The 'plugin' concept works well, however you're limited to the diversity of the plugins available. If you need something done that the current selection of plugins will not do, then you'll either have to write it on your own, or perhaps contract out for someone to do it for you. What it seems like you want to do will require some work from either you, or someone who can help you; there isn't a plugin to do image overlays just yet. But google 'iOS UIView Overlay' and search terms similar to your desires, and snoop around stack overflow and see if anything shows up. Also, look at some of the projects in github and see if any of them are close to what you want to do. No sense recreating the wheel, if someone has done a bit of it already. If you find something you can work with, it's not too difficult to integrate things into a BT project. And once you have, the BT 'shell' will allow to periodically update info, make subtle changes, and all of the other features that come with the BT Package. And if all else fails, there is a great support forum that has a few extra ideas and we don't mind sharing. Cheers! -- Smug

Smug thanx for that. I feel I have a better understanding now of Buzztouch, I have been reading up, googeling and watching youtubes. Have also had a play around with the actual online software trying to achieve various things. I have no doubt that this is a great software with a vibrant and helpful community. Its a very steep learning curve that requires allot of time and dedication to ba able to "master" or to create apps. And I would LOVE to learn how to create apps... but I do not know if I have the time to do so. I guess the technology is not quite there yet were you can create decent apps in a drag and drop kind of fashion. So Buzztouch might have not been the ideal option for me with my 0 knowledge of coding and lack of physical time in my life to dedicate to teach my self. Maybe designing more basic apps in a drag and drop platform like Dapp or contracting out work for more advanced app ideas would have been more appropriate for me in my situation (If I could afford it?). Having said that I feel that this is a very powerful too and I would genuinely like to learn it. I will do my best and hopefully things will just get better/easier as I progress. Im only afraid that I will not have the time in my busy schedule and that I will not be able to produce the apps I had in mind in the time frame that I need them. Thanx for your help! I will keep on with my searches..

Funny you should say that; I used to use Dapp to setup my plugins for buzztouch. It's a perfect little tool for that! My very first BT project is the one that made it into the Apple App store & Google Play. I used all BT Plugins, and made no 'improvements' other than graphics to distinguish it from other stuff. It was for a local realtor, and we're negotiating with other realtors to duplicate the effort (for money, of course). That required nothing more than the time to plug it all together. I nabbed a few icons, I edited a few images, and I was there. There was a little more to it, but not that much. There are a few people doing rather nicely doing trivia quiz games for money using the free quiz plugin. It's not hard to create something useful. But again, more detail requires more effort. And all of that takes time. One of the hidden gems in Buzztouch is that you own the code. You own the product. You don't pay royalties. You can take it home with you. It's yours. No matter 'which' path you take, it's going to take some learning. And some frustration. That's just part of the game. Sorry about that, but if it were easy, everyone would be doing it. The difference between me and my competitor isn't that I have a better idea; it's that I can 'implement' my ideas faster. Cheers! -- Smug

That's interesting Smug. Yes nothing comes easy.. I guess Im just a bit frustrated as I really have 0 knowledge about how things work. And dont really know were to start.. right now I am watching tutorials on xCode for beginners (I dont know if this is just going to confuse more as the workflow will not be exactly the same when working with Buzztouch i suspect hmm..) You get the hang of things by just playing around with Buzztouch online and I guess you are right that you can make powerfull apps with what is on offer. Im struggling just to find the basics (or the information). Like I want to be able to add my own custom buttons in the menus I can do so but I can not make them rectangular they can only be square, further more I can not position them were I want on the screen. But I see now that in Xcode there are drag adn drop type features to arrange your design. So do I start off in XCode or do I start off with Buzztouch? (all this is confusing to me). Furthermore I want to create a screen that can upload an image from the users 'Photo Library' ? Or how to redirect a button to the devices camera so they can take a picture?

Check out some of the tutorials over at http://www.raywenderlich.com/tutorials They have pretty good stuff over there. Learning Xcode will only improve your Buzztouch knowlege. Keep in mind it's not 'replacing' anything, it's 'augmenting'. You're still going to be using Xcode to compile your iOS projects, so learning Xcode is not going to be a waste. Some things you will want to keep in mind as you go through the tutorials though; BT doesn't use ARC (auto reference counting; a way to manage memory) and 'autolayout' sometimes presents a problem (with xib files, sort of a 'view' canvas for the window). By the time you get to those points, you'll understand what they are and what they do, and it won't matter anymore. I can't say 'how long' it will take to get you where you want to go; everyone is a bit different. But one thing at a time and pretty soon you'll be far more comfortable than you are now, and well on your way. Cheers! -- Smug

Smug thanx for that. I feel I have a better understanding now of Buzztouch, I have been reading up, googeling and watching youtubes. Have also had a play around with the actual online software trying to achieve various things. I have no doubt that this is a great software with a vibrant and helpful community. Its a very steep learning curve that requires allot of time and dedication to ba able to "master" or to create apps. And I would LOVE to learn how to create apps... but I do not know if I have the time to do so. I guess the technology is not quite there yet were you can create decent apps in a drag and drop kind of fashion. So Buzztouch might have not been the ideal option for me with my 0 knowledge of coding and lack of physical time in my life to dedicate to teach my self. Maybe designing more basic apps in a drag and drop platform like Dapp or contracting out work for more advanced app ideas would have been more appropriate for me in my situation (If I could afford it?). Having said that I feel that this is a very powerful too and I would genuinely like to learn it. I will do my best and hopefully things will just get better/easier as I progress. Im only afraid that I will not have the time in my busy schedule and that I will not be able to produce the apps I had in mind in the time frame that I need them. Thanx for your help! I will keep on with my searches..

Don, 1. there are many easy drag-n-drop tools in the web. You pay for membership or other scheme. All of them have one thing in common: LIMITATIONS. Basically, you may be impressed with the presentation of the tool (necessary to sell it), but after a while you find out that the outcome is not what you may wanted to be (crap, in other words). The good part is that you may loose about 100 bucks and that only hurts, it does not kill. I made this mistake with Andromo... if you want, I will sell you my access for 20€, I paid 104€. But I do not recommend it to you. It all looks the same and there is nothing exciting there. 2. the other option is to have things coded by a third party. Some guys recommend it. You go to the internet, hire a coder in India (or Slovakia, my country), and you are ready to go. The problem is that it may cost a fortune, or not be solid at all. Guys that I cooperate with in Slovakia wanted 1000-2000€ per simple app... they do a good job, but you have to watch them veeeery thoroughly. Guys in India sometimes do extremely good job for little money, and sometimes only specialize in ways how to sell you nothing for the money you have in your budget. Finding the good ones may be very costly. 3. Buzztouch is somewhere in the middle. You may just drag and drop and just need to compile it, with a lot of possibilities to make it look good, or you may even fiddle around and learn step by step how the whole thing works. Yes, it needs time and effort. But you minimize all third parties, and that is beautiful in Buzztouch and therefore I believe that David Book is a kind of a genius. You choose. There is no free lunch. It either does not work or you have spend some time at least. Cheers! Frogman

Frogman, thank you for that very honest post. It makes sense.. I have decided to stick with Buzztouch and find out exactly what I can do with its own and with the plugins. And then figure out what kind of apps I could make with that. Then see what other app ideas I have that I can not achieve.. and ether learn it or get help creating it. but yea 2000 pounds for an app that might give you 0 in return is quite allot of money. I just need to dive into it I guess! But thanks for putting it into perspective like that! Cheers! Don

good reading