From the Forum — Issue #65

27 March 2015

From the Forum — Issue #65

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. The impossibility of complete security

Longtime readers of my “From the Forum” know my opinion on piracy. At the risk of editorializing, living in this beautiful world with other humans means having to deal with some less scrupulous tendencies. It has never been more true in this digital age: if you attempt to sell something, there are individuals who will try to steal that something instead of paying for it.

Relating to digital piracy, the below thread discusses a method one developer wanted to test in order to encrypt some sensitive data which their app would require. Hopefully, before getting to far down the road in working out the code needed to provide the functionality, another developer warns against using that same method, due to the ease of decrypting the data on the device. They also make a suggestion that can be used to provide a layer of protection when working mobile apps. Head to the original thread below to check it out!

http://forums.coronalabs.com/topic/55775-encrypt-files-in-documentsdirectory-sqlite-db/

2. Iterating through groups

It can be tough to keep an OOP mindset when working with variables, values, keys and tables that all can relate to each other and themselves at various points in your code logic. Getting your savedForums table to accept values from your starredPosts table and then set your viewedThread variable to the correct value can be an exercise in frustration to even the most experienced developers.

A question about nested groups and cycling, or iterating, through their children was recently broached in the forum, with the idea that the function could be made a bit more intelligent. The answer came in the form of a recursive function call, wherein you can use the same function call within the function itself. Head down to the original thread and check the elegant solution, and offer your own if you have one!

http://forums.coronalabs.com/topic/55760-question-about-iterating-through-nested-groups/

3. All the best gestures, without the rude ones!

This one is going to be short and sweet. Distinguished Corona developer David McCusky should be well-known for his DMC library, which includes some great modules for multi-touch and trajectory functionality, but this time he’s come to the table with a gesture library patterned after the iOS gesture API.

It’s really fantastic stuff, already incorporating some common gestures like tapping and panning. Really, you should come for the library, stay for the terrific documentation for which David is known. He needs to do another post providing his best practices for recording and maintaining docs for public libraries. Head over to the original thread and don’t forget to say thanks!

http://forums.coronalabs.com/topic/50348-add-gesture-recognizers-pinching-panning-swiping-rotating-long-press/

About Alex

Alex Jackson is an indie developer and the founder of Panc Interactive, 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: @pancinteractive. Check out his new game Crosstown Smash on iOS, Android, and Amazon devices!