Building a Simple Mobile App on Glide

Glide (www.glideapps.com) specializes in providing users with a quick and easy way to turn their Google Sheets spreadsheet into a mobile app. I should mention that Glide has now added the option to use their internal data tables instead of Sheets, but I decided to go ahead and build my app with Google Sheets as my data source. The app itself is a basic reminder application, to keep track of appointments, projects, articles, or anything that I might want to explore further. Creating the app went like this: 

• I went to my Google Sheets account, created a blank spreadsheet, and added six fields: Keywords, date added, target date, description, location/source, and image. The "keywords" field contains words that relate to specific types of items in the database: blog posts, no-code platforms and tools, sports, space exploration, medical technology, volunteer projects, animal rescue, and so on. The "date added" is self-explanatory, "target date" refers to something like a deadline date or the date of an appointment, "location/source" could be a URL, business address, or the name of a contact, and the "image" field could be a picture of a product, a map, or a screenshot of an app.
• Once the spreadsheet was set up, I entered several sample records in order to have some data for Glide to work with: 
  
  
  
• Next, I signed up for a free account on Glide. A free account allows you to create mobile apps, but you're limited to 500 rows of data and 1,000 sheet updates (changes to your Google Sheets spreadsheet), plus your app is public (open to everyone).
• After I signed up the "new app" screen displayed (you can either click the "+" sign to start from scratch or you can choose to start from a template): 
  
  
  
• I clicked the plus sign, which brought up the option to use Google Sheets as my data source or use Glide's new internal tables: 

• Next, I selected "Google Sheets" as my data source, clicked "Continue", and chose "ReminderDB" as the spreadsheet I wanted to use. Glide connected to my spreadsheet, formatted my app to fit the sample data, and displayed the  result on the design canvas: 
  
  
  
• Clicking on any of the 3 reminders on this screen (the "List" screen), automatically displayed the "Details" screen for that reminder: 
  
  
  
• Glide added basic navigation automatically (note the back arrow on the details screen), along with a search box. And by checking a couple of boxes you can allow users to edit and/or delete entries. Clicking the pencil icon on the details screen brings up the "edit" screen, which also has a button that lets you delete the item being edited: 
  
  
  
• In addition, there were some other options that could be added easily, such as grouping the list items by a particular data field. 
• You can also add various "actions" to the app, such as composing an email, opening a hyperlink, playing a sound, and so on.

Overall, it was easy to build a simple app with Glide, and there were a number of other things I could have done with it. However, I stopped at this point for two reasons: 

•  One, the responsiveness of the app isn't great at times (which is understandable since it's constantly accessing an outside source in Google Sheets).
• Two, using Glide's internal tables would avoid the responsiveness problem, but if you have a considerable amount of existing data there's no straight-forward way (at least that I could find) to import that data into Glide's tables.

I did like working with Glide though, and once they address the import problem it would be one of my top choices for building mobile apps.

How to Market Your App in the App Stores

Once you've placed your new application in the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store, it's time to concentrate on developing your ASO (App Store Optimization) plan. The basic purpose of your ASO is simple - draw as many buyers as possible to your app page. OK, but how do you accomplish that? 

The answer involves a number of factors, including:

• Keywords. Google estimates that 40 percent of apps are discovered through app store searches - which tells you how important it is to make use of the particular keywords that turn up in searches for your type of app. 

• App descriptions (long & short). Keywords also play a part here (even though the Apple store doesn't take them into account in establishing keyword ratings) but the description for your app has to be more than keywords, it has to catch the attention of prospective buyers. Your app needs to offer to solve a problem for them, entertain them, or inform them in some way, and the description is where you need to convince buyers that your app can do that better than your competitors. You're also limited in the number of characters in your description that the potential customer will see on your page, so you need to be concise and make every word count.

Items to include in your description: 

• The purpose of your app.
• A list of the different functions available in your app.
• The types of users who could benefit from using your app.
• Screen shots/Videos.
• Note: Do not include user reviews in your description in the Apple store - they're not allowed.

• App Icon - You may not be aware of it but your app's icon can also influence potential buyers. An icon that's simple and projects the theme of your app helps reinforce the message you're presenting to anyone who lands on your app page. An effective icon can be like the road signs in Europe and elsewhere that get their message across with just a picture.

• Sales (downloads). A large number of downloads shows your app is popular and reassures viewers looking at your page that a good many other people were impressed enough to try it. 

• Reviews. Customer reviews and ratings can have a major effect on how well your app sells - poor reviews can kill your app in a hurry. There are a number of ways to go about asking for reviews:
• Ask readers while they're actually using your app (there are plugins that make it dead simple to do that).
• Offer to activate an extra feature in the app to any reader who leaves a review.
• Take the time to respond to both positive and negative reviews - let your readers know that you care about their opinions.

• Additional resources. Maintain contact with your followers on social media and continue to request reviews from websites and YouTube channels that specialize in discussing new apps.

Keywords are vitally important to getting your app noticed - so how do you include them in your ASO planning?  To begin with, the title of your app should contain the word or phrase most commonly used in searches for apps like yours, which means you need to do a little research to identify that word or phrase. The easiest way to do that is to use Google Keyword Planner (you'll need a Google Adwords account).  Go to the Keyword Planner, enter the keywords you've brainstormed, and check to see which are the most popular. You can also go to websites like Sensor Tower or App Annie, enter the names of some of your competitor's apps, then look to see which keywords they're using to draw traffic to their pages. 

Feedback from your customers can also be key to the success of your app in the Play Store or App Store. Let customers tell you what they like or don't like about the program, whether or not they had problems using it, and what they would like to see added to it. Years ago I had a shareware program on the market and customer comments allowed me to short-circuit a potential problem with a program bug and also led me to add a new feature that greatly improved the application. Listening to your customers not only avoids bad reviews, it provides you with new ideas for your app. 

In addition, along with your contact information, be sure to ask politely for users to leave a positive review if they like the app. Don't be pushy about it, just let them know how much you would appreciate their comments or rating.

That covers the main points about marketing your app on the marketplace. Be sure to spend some time planning your marketing approach (keywords, app description, etc.) before you put your application in the Apple or Android store - and be ready to make changes at any time, depending on how sales are trending.

Note: Look at How to Find Great ASO Keywords for Your App by Kimberly de Silva for more tips on how to find the best keywords for your app.

The Legal Side of No-Code App Building

You've built a really cool app, tested it thoroughly, and you're ready to market it and start making money. You've taken care of everything, right? Well, maybe. One very important detail that often gets overlooked is the legal requirements that may apply to your application.

First and foremost, if your app collects any personal information from the user you're automatically subject to a number of federal and state privacy laws. To be clear, personal information includes almost anything about the user: name, address, date of birth, email address, website login information, bank account number, prescription medications, and much more. If your application (or any third-party service it connects to) collects or has the ability to collect personal information from  its users, you're required to post a privacy policy regarding that ability and post it in a prominent place. That can be prominently displayed on the home screen of your app or anywhere that the user is sure to see it.

OK, so you need a "privacy policy", but what is that? Basically, it's a statement that lets your users know:

• Exactly what type of personal information your app will be collecting and why you need that information.
• How the app will be collecting the user's information.
• How you intend to protect their personal data (although you may want to include a statement that you're not responsible for malware that may extract that data).
• How long you may be storing their personal information and where it will be stored.
• If you use cookies in your app.
• What options the user has as far as restricting the personal information they supply.
• Who to contact if the user has questions or reservations about your privacy policy.

There are several options for creating a privacy policy. You can roll your own, you can consult with a lawyer, or there are a number of websites that can supply you with a template or generate a basic privacy policy for you. It's also a good idea to ask users to digitally sign something stating that they accept the terms of your policy. However you go about it, make sure that if your website or mobile app collects this type of information, make your users aware of it in order to avoid possible penalties or lawsuits.

Makerpad's No-Code Cheat Sheet

 Quick note: Makerpad has a brief summary of no-code terminology, providers, tools, and other information at The Ultimate No-Code Cheat Sheet. It may not be the "Ultimate" cheat sheet, but it does provide a nice overview of the no-code world.

Building a No-Code Mobile App with Adalo (Part 3)

Part 2 covered creating the screen to add new items. The final part of this app allows the user to list the records in the database and to update or delete selected records. 

Special Note: It's fairly easy to accidentally delete a component or entire screen in Adalo. You can usually back up and recover from a mistake like that by pressing the CTRL (CMD on a MAC) and "Z" keys to undo your last action (you may have to do that more than once if you don't catch the mistake right away).

After I added the "List Items" button to the home screen I needed to link it to a new screen that would list all the current records in the Items database. I added a "Link" action so that clicking the button would take the user to a new screen: 

Then I followed these steps to finish building the list and edit/delete screens:

• Once I selected to link to a new screen, Adalo displayed a pop-up with the "new screen" setup information: 
  
  
  
• You can choose different types of screens to create (blank, form, etc.). In this case, I chose a blank screen with an app bar, and added a simple list component to display the item records: 

  

  
  
• You can display two fields from each record. The first or "Title" field is the primary key for your records, which in this case is the keyword(s) field. The second or "Subtitle" field is optional, but I set mine to display the "Date added". To do that I scrolled down to "Subtitle" in the property manager, removed the placeholder text, and used the "magic text" icon (the red capital "T") to connect the subtitle line to the Date Added field in the database records. 
• Quick note: "Magic text" can be used to link fields from one screen to components on a different screen or from one database to another.
• I also wanted the user to be able to search for a certain record by entering one or more keywords, so I added a text input field just above the simple list component and named it "Search". 
• Next, I selected the list component and selected to add a new, custom filter that would display only those records where the keyword(s) contained the text entered in the input box: 

  
• Now I had a list showing the keywords and date added for each item in my database and I had the ability to search for a specific item, but I needed to be able to select a record and display it on a different screen where the user could view it, update it or delete it. 
• The easiest way to create a screen to display an item record was to copy the "Add Item" screen and modify it. To do that I clicked on the "Screens" icon on the left side of the window, selected the "Add Item" screen, and pressed the CTRL and "C" keys to copy it. Then I clicked on the open space next to the Add Items screen and pressed the CTRL and "V" keys to paste the copy onto the design area.
• Once the item detail screen had been created, I clicked on "Form" in it's properties manager and selected to "update the current item" (meaning the item record currently selected on the Item List screen): 
  
• That provides all the necessary functions for the app, except for the ability to delete a record. Rather than set up another screen to do that I placed a second button below the "Update Item" button and added two actions to take place if the button is clicked: one action to delete the record being displayed and another action to transfer control back to the "List Items" screen: 

  

  
  

The actual screens for this (very basic) app look like this: 

Home Screen

Add Item 

List Items

Item Details 

Of course, there are more features available in Adalo, but this should give you a basic idea of how to build a mobile app with Adalo. Here's the URL of the app if anyone wants to try it out:

https://previewer.adalo.com/d21385ed-2e5d-47d0-bb2b-14c4f7c1c112

Building a No-Code Mobile App with Adalo (Part 2)

Part 1  covered signing up with Adalo, creating a blank mobile native app, setting up the database, and starting to work on the different screen displays for the app. At that point there were two screens, a "Home" screen that would act as a main menu and an "Add Item" screen that was still empty. The last thing I did in Part 1 was to add a button on the home screen that transferred control to the "Add Item" screen if it was clicked.

Special Note: It's fairly easy to accidentally delete a component or entire screen in Adalo. You can usually back up and recover from a mistake like that by pressing the CTRL (CMD on a MAC) and "Z" keys to undo your last action (you may have to do that more than once if you don't catch the mistake right away).

The next step is to add the components to the "Add Item" screen so the user can enter the data for a new item: the item keyword(s), the date the record was added, a target date (if any), a description, and a reference (such as a URL). To do I went through these steps:

• First, I added an "app bar" to provide navigation and a place for a screen title. With the "Add Item" screen selected, click on "+Add Component" and drag and drop an app bar onto the screen. Note: A left icon (a left-pointing arrow) is added to the app bar automatically to allow the user to navigate back to the previous screen.
• Next, I found the "Form" component under "Forms & Fields" and added it: 

• Then I connected the "Form" component to the Items collection. Once that was done a form wiith each of the fields in the Items database record displayed on the "Add Items" screen:
  
  
  
• Each field has a label and some placeholder text inside the input box. I didn't need both the label and the input hint, so I went to the left side of the window, selected "> Fields", and selected each field in turn and removed the placeholder text. That helped "clean up" the screen a little, by removing unnecessary text (although, if you had another line or two to fit on one screen you might want to remove the labels instead and gain some vertical space).
• Each field also has an option as to whether or not it's a required field. Since the keyword(s) and the description are the only fields that are absolutely necessary, I changed the option on the others to "not required".
• A "Submit" button is also added as part of the form and you can choose whether to have the app loop back to add another item or return to the home screen after the submit button is clicked. In this case, I had the app flip back to the home screen since I wasn't going to be entering a bunch of records at one time. Note: You can also exit the screen at any time by clicking on the left arrow in the app bar.

Now I had a way to add new items to the database, so the next step was to be able to display existing records and update or delete them. I decided start by going back to the home (main menu) screen and adding another button titled "List Items" that would take the user to a new screen. 

I'll go through that process in Part 3 of this post...

Building a No-Code Mobile App with Adalo (Part 1)

Adalo has the reputation of being one of the easiest platforms for building mobile apps, so I picked it as my first stop in a series on creating no-code mobile apps.  Adalo's free plan lets you explore the platform and build as many apps as you want, although it limits you to 50 rows of data. You can also share access to your mobile app, but if you want to be able to store a reasonable amount of data, publish your app to the Google and Apple stores, publish to a custom web domain or connect to outside databases, you need to move to the "Pro" plan which costs $50 a month.

In my case, the free plan works fine, especially since the app I'm building is very basic, with just three screens. The app is designed to keep track of projects I'm working on, appointments I have scheduled, or just things that catch my attention that I might want to explore later. There are only five fields for each item: key words (product name, company name, item subject, and so on), date added, "target date" (such as meeting date or due date), item description, and item reference (URL, etc.). If I use this same layout on other platforms I'll probably add an image field too. 

Once you sign up on Adalo you can choose to make a desktop web app or a mobile native app, then you pick whether you want to start with a blank app or one of a half dozen app templates. For my project, I wanted to build the entire app myself so I started with a blank layout. The next step is to name your application (I named mine "Lest-I-Forget") and to pick the color scheme you want to use (green and blue-green in my case).

Adalo takes you straight to the design canvas when your initial setup is complete. At that point you'll see three screens already created for your project, a "signup" screen, a "login" screen, and a blank "Home" screen. Since I wanted my app to be public, I went ahead and removed both the signup and login screens. To do that, I clicked on the "Screens" icon on the left side of the design window, chose the screen I wanted to remove, clicked on the 3 dots up by the screen name, and selected "Delete". Note: If you wanted to restrict who can use your app, these two screens are fully functional and connect to a "Users" database that Adalo supplies automatically.

At that point, I decided to set up my "Items" database or "collection", so I clicked  the "Database" icon on the left side of the design window and selected "+ Add Collection". I named the collection "Items" and added the five fields (key words, date added, target date, item description, and item reference). Note: After you add the first field in your database record you need to click "+ Add Property" to set up each of the remaining fields. 

With the database created, I went back to "Screens" to work on the app design. A quick note at this point: Adalo has some keyboard shortcuts that can be really useful. As you add screen layouts the new ones are going to start disappearing off the right side of the design area. To move them back into view, press the right arrow and the CTRL key (CMD key on a Mac). Later, as you move back and forth between app screens, press the CTRL (or CMD) key and the left or right arrow, depending on which screen you want to bring back into full view. You can also press the CTRL (or CMD) key and the "+" key to zoom in or the "-" key to zoom out.

The only screen I had at this point was the "Home" screen, so I decided to use it as my main menu for the app. I clicked on the "Screen" icon on the left side of the design window, selected the "Home" screen, and clicked on "+ Add Component" to add a button element. Once I dragged and dropped the button onto the home screen, the button properties manager displayed on the left side of the window, with the name "Button 2". I changed the name to "Add Item Button" by clicking on the pencil icon next to "Button 2", then I changed the button's text to "Add Item". Scrolling down further, I selected "+Add Action", clicked on "Link"  and "New Screen", and named the new screen "Add Item".

I'll get into the details of creating the different screens for my app in Part 2 of this post...