Until version 76 Mabui relied completely on access to each user’s Google Drive storage and API services to create a new kind of very low cost, scalable app platform. Version 77 marks the end of that approach, at least for now.
All future apps will use the new Mabui platform automatically. Migration refers to existing app data that must be moved, or ‘migrated’, from Google Drive to the Mabui platform.
The reason Google Drive was selected was for access to an almost unlimited amount of free shared file storage, and built-in functions enabling synchronisation controlled solely from users’ devices. This enabled us to build and provide a global app platform at a very low cost.
This approach has proved to be very problematic for 2 reasons:
1. Users don’t like being asked for permission to access their Google account details (with Contacts permission), or to give access to their Google Drive folders. This is completely understandable and must be changed. There have also been many failed installations connected with the Google Drive setup process.
2. Reliability of Google Drive. There have been numerous instances of unexplained events where app file sharing settings are removed, disabling the app in question. Mabui adds sharing to files, but never removes sharing, so this appears to be an issue with Google Drive. It is both unacceptable, and probably out of our control to fix.
For these reasons we have extended the Mabui platform to replace all essential Google Drive access. This will provide a much better user experience and make app building accessible to many more people.
As soon as Mabui v77 is available on the Play Store (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.catalistapp.mab).
This is expected to be 24th September 2019.
If you are an existing Mabui user this change will affect you if you have either:
– Published an app of any type
– Installed an app or used a template app published by somebody else
Yes, but we have made it as easy as possible. Just get the Play Store update and follow the simple on-screen instructions. It only takes a few moments to migrate a Mabui app.
The main difference is that users will no longer be required to give Mabui access to their Google account details (through Contacts permission). Your shareable app files, and any new media files you attach will now be uploaded to the Mabui server instead of your Google Drive folders.
We also expect the new version to be faster and more reliable.
Yes, although in future there may be some limitations on the free version with the option of an unlimited paid version. Existing apps will not be affected.
When you open Mabui 77 for the first time you will be taken to a screen for migrating your studio. There are two stages:
1. First the normal Google Drive studio sync process will occur – this prompts you to download your latest studio if available (if you use Mabui on more than one device).
2. Then the studio data on your device will be automatically uploaded to the Mabui platform. Future studio synchronisations or backups on that device will use the Mabui platform.
Yes – when you open Mabui 77 for the first time on a second device you will need to go through the studio migration screen as before. The process is the same but this time you may be prompted to download the migrated studio that was uploaded from your first device to the Mabui platform.
To ensure that your studio continues to be synchronised correctly on multiple devices you must ensure that each device is updated to Mabui 77 as soon as possible. If you only upgrade one device then the two devices will be checking against different backup copies of your studio and they will no longer be synchronised correctly.
Once you have updated to Mabui 77 and migrated your studio, go to “My Apps”. Apps that you own will be highlighted in bright red to indicate that they need to be migrated. You will also see a message asking you to migrate your apps.
Just tap on a highlighted app to migrate it. You should then see the message “Thank you – this app has now been successfully migrated to the new platform.” and the red highlight will be removed. You can then use and update your app as before.
Once you have updated to Mabui 77 go to “Studio”. Template apps that you have published will be highlighted in bright blue to indicate that they need to be migrated. You will also see a message asking you to migrate your template apps.
Just tap on a highlighted template app, and you will be taken directly to the publishing screen. Use the “Start pre-migration checks” button followed by “Go to publishing” then “Migrate app”. You should then see the message “Thank you – this app has now been successfully migrated to the new platform.” and the blue highlight will be removed from studio. You can then update your template app from studio as before.
New users will require Mabui 77 in order to use the migrated template.
After you have migrated your app, existing users will not be able to open it until they have updated to Mabui 77. They will be prompted to do this, with a link to the Play Store.
After you have migrated your template, existing Mabui users will not be able to use it until they have updated to Mabui 77. They will be prompted to do this, with a link to the Play Store.
Before you migrate your app, new users of Mabui 77 will only be able to install or run your app if they give Mabui permission to access their Google Drive account. The description of your app that is shown to these users in the “Install apps” screen includes some text to indicate that the app has not been migrated and requires additional permission to access.
For this reason you should migrate your app as soon as possible.
Yes, but after the owner has migrated the app you will need the Mabui 77 update to access it.
Future Mabui users will probably deny permission to access their account details and Google Drive, so it will become difficult for your app to gain any users.
Once you have installed Mabui 77 on all your devices the folder is not required. However we recommend that you leave the folder in place for now. It will act as a backup of your app as it was when you migrated. In the unlikely event of a migration problem we will be able to restore your app from this file.
Yes, but you will not be able to open other people’s apps that have not been migrated unless you give the accounts permission again.
Also, you will not be able to automatically share Google Drive folders and files, for example when adding Google Drive folder modules such as “Drive folder image gallery”.
Yes, but if you have not given contacts permission Mabui will not be able to set the Google Drive sharing that allows other users to access the attachment.
However, you can turn link sharing on yourself through the Google Drive app or a browser.
By default this will use “Anyone with the link can view” (if you are collaborating on a Mabui drawing with other users you will have to set link sharing to “Anyone with the link can edit”).
Yes, but to set up these modules in your app you will need to give the accounts permission so that the selected folder and files can be automatically shared.
Alternatively you can withhold permission and update the file sharing settings with the Google Drive app or browser.
Be careful as without link sharing these modules will not work.
Yes, as long as the folder and files you want to include are shared on Google Drive. See the previous answer.
No. All local media files added to apps in Mabui 77 will be uploaded to the Mabui server, not Google Drive.
In a future release we plan to offer users the choice, but the Google Drive upload and sharing may still require contacts permission, as it does now.
If you select the “Public network” option in the Mabui Publishing screen, your app will be added to the public area of the Mabui platform. This means that your app will immediately be available to all other Mabui users from the “Install apps” screen (“Public” option selected).
If you select the “Private network” option in the Mabui Publishing screen, your app will be added to your own private area of the Mabui platform. This means that your app will not be available to any other Mabui users from the “Install apps” screen.
Your app will be available to you from the “Install apps” screen (“Private” option selected) on any of your devices (assuming that you have selected the same Google account as on the original device) andrikofarmakeio.com.
You can add users to your private app in two ways:
1. If you know the email address for the Google account of a potential user you can add them to your app on the “User management” screen before sharing the app with them. They will then be automatically able to run the app on their devices.
2. Share your app with selected email contacts on the Publishing (from Studio) or Sharing (from installed app) screen. Go to the “User management” screen and you will see a user record has been added for each contact. Tap a user and select “New authorisation code”, followed by the “Email authorisation code” button.
Your contact will receive a user name and code which they must enter to gain access to your app. The email address of their user record will automatically be updated with their Google account address, giving them permanent future access.
1. When a Mabui template app is installed by a user, a complete copy of the template is generated, and then automatically published as as a new private Mabui app belonging to that user. The user can then customise the app in any way they wish.
2. If you create a template app (by selecting the “Template” option in the Mabui publishing screen) your app will be added to the public area of the Mabui platform. Unlike a normal public app however, each user that installs the template will generate their own unique copy as described above.
Template apps can only be updated from the Mabui studio. Unlike normal private and public apps, templates can be re-published.
1. Open your published template app from the Mabui studio screen.
2. Make your updates.
3. Go to the publishing screen – you will see the message “This template app has been published…” Click on “Start pre-publishing checks”.
4. If everything is OK click “Go to publishing” then “Publish my app”.
5. Your updated template will now be available to the public.
You can transfer your studio apps to other devices using the sync icon on the main screen as follows.
1. Click sync, then select “Upload studio” on device 1 – this copies your data to your Google Drive
2. On device 2, make sure Mabui is registered with the same Google account as device 1.
3. Click sync on device 2 and select “Replace local studio”. Your studio data will be downloaded to device 2.
If you do this, please remember that it is in essence a manual backup and restore process where the studio data on your device is overwritten rather than merged (please note this is different from published apps that do automatically merge their data across multiple devices). Care is therefore required to make sure you don’t overwrite valuable studio data.
Mabui does compare the dates of the data on GDrive and your device and tell you which is most recent but otherwise managing this is up to the user.
However, if you go into the Google Drive settings from the main Mabui screen (triangular icon), there are two levels of automation available for this process.
1. “Sync studio on multiple devices” – if checked, every time Mabui is started it will check for a more recent version of your studio on GDrive and give you the option to download it to the device, or alternatively prompt you to upload your local data if that is more recent. If the dates match there is no action offered.
2. “Automatically sync latest studio” – if checked this will do the upload or download automatically whenever Mabui is opened or closed.
Firstly ensure that you selected the same Google account when you installed Mabui on device 1 and device 2. If you didn’t, you will need to uninstall Mabui from device 2, reinstall from the Play store and select the matching Google account.
On device 2 go to “Install apps” from the main screen and select the “Private” option. You will see a list of all your private apps – just tap an app to install it.
You can now use your app on both devices.