From the Forum — Issue #36

05 September 2014

From the Forum — Issue #36

Welcome to the latest installment of From the Forum. In this series, guest blogger Alex Jackson highlights outstanding threads from the Corona Forum. The goal is to bring attention to the most captivating, interesting, and thought-provoking discussions taking place in our very own backyard.

Please visit the forum to join these conversations or start your own!

1. New Composer scene manager transitions

Working on our Composer scenes within the new manager, one starts to realize that there are some popular transitions that seem to be missing. Specifically the traditional iOS slide transitions aren’t present, which, especially in business apps, would make the replication of native functionality just about perfect.

What to do? Well previously-featured developer Ingemar has been able to create some code that re-creates those tried-and-true iOS transitions which will look great on either iOS 7 or 8, which is fast approaching. Head down to the original thread to take a peek at the logic, and see how you can make your own transitions as well!

http://forums.coronalabs.com/topic/50598-ios-7-style-scene-transitions/

2. Change default zoom level in Maps

Continuing the discussion about business apps, integrating the Map functionality always adds a nice layer of complexity and interest when you’re setting real-world locations. Several apps (and even games!) make sure of this Corona feature, and it makes everything really come together when you’re using the app.

Now, an important feature of the Map feature is changing the zoom level of the map in question. I wanted to highlight a post showing how you can set the default zoom level in your map code, as it’s an oft-overlooked feature that easily changes the way you can interact with the app in general.

Run down to the original thread and see how you can configure this for your game or app today.

http://forums.coronalabs.com/topic/49009-how-to-change-zoom-inzoom-out-default-setting-in-nativenewmapview/

3. Delete and reinitialize all variables in Composer

I’ve seen quite a few new threads popping up requesting help reloading data in scenes when using Composer, the standard scene manager for Corona SDK. It’s not an intuitive question; you’re talking about reloading assets, variable releasing and resetting everything back to square one. There isn’t a magic bullet that will revert everything back to how it once was. We as Corona developers need to do some road-mapping to allow for this functionality in our apps and games.

Rob Miracle has replied to one specific thread with some suggestions or links and info to go over in order to set developers up for success when reloading scenes and re-initializing features that were set up from the outset. Have you own tips to add in? Feel free to post them up!

http://forums.coronalabs.com/topic/44651-how-to-restart-app-and-reinitialize-all-variables/

About Alex

Alex Jackson is an indie developer and the founder of Panc Software, specializing in retro-style gaming. He has created several mobile applications, enjoys long walks on the beach, pixel art, and reading the Corona forums. Contact him by email or follow him on Twitter: @pancsoftware. Check out his new game Crosstown Smash on iOS, Android, and Amazon devices!