App Lab - Importing Screens HELP!

1

Hi all,

My students are building an app through Code.org and they are each creating a few screens. I’ve discovered the “Import Screen” function which allows them to share their screens.

However, when I practiced it myself, the screen was sent over but not the code. We are trying to collect all the students’ screens into one class app. Am I missing something? Do we have to copy and paste the code into one long screen?

Thanks for any help.

2

Hi @ako

This sounds like an awesome project! App Lab code is all written in the same space, so, yes, copying and pasting the code will be the best way to get it to be operational.

I don’t know what the end goal is, but keep in mind that your class will need to think about variable scope and come up with common global variable names that you want to have as global so there isn’t a whole bunch of repeated variables that have the same name but might serve different purposes.

For the actual screens (not the functionality), you can import the screen from other students’ work as you have already discovered.

Does that help?

Also, I’d love to see the finished project and hear what you all are doing - it sounds cool!
KT

3

Thank you so much Kaitie. The global naming scheme, I anticipate, has saved me a huge headache. We have established a global naming scheme.

I anticipate we have to have a global naming scheme for the

  • Screens

  • Buttons

**

Do you know if we need a global naming scheme for the text areas and labels?

**

Our project is to create an app around our project. Students are learning about food and want to share with others what they learned. Topics like food insecurity, digestion, GMOs, etc.

Thank you so much for your help!

4

Hi @ako,

I would recommend having all elements follow a naming scheme. In the Computer Science Discoveries curriculum, there’s a lesson involving combining multiple screens. The lesson features a sample screen with all elements labeled, and it seemed to follow this scheme…

screen_description_element

So if you had a Home screen with a button labeled “Menu”, that button would have the ID home_menu_button.

In your case, lets say there’s a text area for the user to type in their suggestion on a survey page. We might name it survey_suggestion_text.

Frank

5

Thank you Frank for the tips. I’m on the lesson now from the CS Discoveries unit and it is very helpful. The naming scheme seems to be very important and I’ll make sure my students can name their screens uniquely.

Appreciate the time you spent to help me.

6

Hi Katie,

You helped me so much a few weeks ago I was wondering if you could give me some advice. My students are designing an app with App Lab. They have created 13 different group apps relating to our class topic.

We are trying to import all the group apps into one app. However, when we are importing screens the pop up screen is too small to hit the “import” button. We are averaging about 25+ screens per group app. We have tried to zoom out and that hasn’t worked.

Any suggestions?
Thank you!
Adam

7

Hi Frank,

Thank you for your help last time with my problem with the importing screens. Another issue came up and I am wondering if you had any thoughts.

My students are designing an app with App Lab. They have created 13 different group apps relating to our class topic.

We are trying to import all the group apps into one app. However, when we are importing screens the pop up screen is too small to hit the “import” button. We are averaging about 25+ screens per group app. We have tried to zoom out and that hasn’t worked.

Any suggestions?
Thank you!
Adam

8

Hi @ako,

I’m assuming you’re talking about the screen that pops up after you paste in the link and it shows a list of screens for you to choose to import? And the orange “import” button is too far below the screen?

I’m running Chrome and zooming out does allow me to see lower on the screen, but it sounds like that’s not working for you. Here are some other band-aid solutions you might try…

  • Find a higher-resolution screen
  • Rotate the screen - depending on your computer, you may have to dig around in display settings, or some computers have keyboard shortcuts, like Ctrl+Alt+Right arrow key (and different arrows for different orientations)
  • Press tab and the next checkbox will be selected. Keep pressing tab and eventually the “Import” button will be selected. Press space bar to press the button. This method would take some careful counting since you wouldn’t be able to visually tell when the “Import” button is actually selected.

I’ll forward your question to code.org staff in case they have any suggestions or can modify App Lab to accommodate.

Frank

9

Frank,
Thank you for your time in this issue. This is very helpful. You hit it right on the dot in identifying the problem, and it sounds like you have experienced it yourself.

When I get back into class with my students, I’ll try those options with their work.

I appreciate you forwarding this issue to code.org. I also submitted a request to them and it sounds like they are aware of the issue and are working towards a scroll down bar.

Thank you for your time and advice!

Adam