In this post I’ll show you how you too can learn at Pluralsight for free the next six months. As you may know, I already have (and truly recommend) Pluralsight subscription. However, the may not

As you may know, I already have (and truly recommend) Pluralsight subscription. However, the may not struck you as the cheapest option and I found this original link today on Fossbytes where they show how you can get six months for free at Pluralsight. No credit card, coupon or other BS.

Here are the steps:

1. Go to signup.live.com and create a new Microsoft Account. or skip it if you already have one
2. Go to my.visualstudio.com and sign-in with your (newly created) Microsoft account
3. Click on Get code and then on Activate.
   
4. You’ll be taken to the Pluralsight website to activate and redeem your 6-month subscription.

And even though these steps sound “sound”, one of my friends reported that the Pluralsight link ends with a 404 page. Is this also your scenario or did you guys manage to work it out?

#Learn at Pluralsight for free the next six months https://t.co/WhkeDbIXpH pic.twitter.com/Rc3KRviEbZ

— Nikola Brežnjak (@HitmanHR) February 15, 2016

Ok, true, this “news” is few days old now and I’ve been slow to post about it.

Nevertheless, this is awesome news as I’m really excited about the 2.0 version, which follows closely the Angular 2.0 version. Btw, I wrote a tutorial about how to post data from Ionic 2 app to php  server, in case you’re curious you can find it here.

You can read the docs over at http://ionicframework.com/docs/v2/, but to quote the official post:

we’ve focused on performance boosts, architectural improvements, cross-platform theming, support for Angular 2, support for the mobile web, and so much more!

In case someone is still doubting Ionic, they state a very interesting fact:

Ionic has seen widespread adoption, with over 1.9 million apps built by everyone from individual developers to small startups to large enterprise businesses from around the world.

And, in defence of why Angular 2, here is their response:

Today, an Ionic and Angular 2 app is just TC-39, standards-compliant JS. While it may look different from what you’re used to, the benefit is the entire web industry is moving towards this standard set of technologies, so your skills will adapt to other projects beyond Ionic and Angular 2. That wasn’t the case with Angular 1.

Ionic 2 styles UI components based on the platform in which it’s being displayed, and the great news is that they’ve added material design for Android apps.

I totally agree with the following:

Ionic is pretty much the only major mobile framework out there that lets you adapt your app to the app store as a native app and put it on a web server to provide a great mobile web experience with no changes required.

#Ionic framework 2 is in beta https://t.co/Nyy2QQZqRf

— Nikola Brežnjak (@HitmanHR) February 15, 2016

The team from Ionic announced their new 1.2 version today. This should get you very excited because the things these guys are making are truly praiseworthy.

As they say in the report:

• it has over 100 bug fixes
• uses native scrolling by default on all platforms (which means better responsiveness on Android especially)
• new Slide box component (use the new <ion-slides> tag)
• support for Windows 10 and Edge, which runs on the new Windows Phone 10 platform
• if you want to build a mobile website, you’re fully and officially encouraged to do so (not just an app for the app store). As many of you know, this was not the case so far.
• new <ion-input> tag
• dropping support for the raw HTML and CSS versions of Radio and Checkbox, instead you’ll have to use directives <ion-radio> and <ion-checkbox>
• better integration with Cordova plugins in terms of better console log error output
• Ionic Native
• …

You can read the full report on their blog post: http://blog.ionic.io/announcing-ionic-1-2/.

@ionicframework Awesome Ionic 1.2 is out! Mobile website mode supported! https://t.co/QsdhghpPdP pic.twitter.com/pvFpZVARvg

— Nikola Brežnjak (@HitmanHR) December 10, 2015

Ionic publically announced Ionic Market on their blog.

On the market (http://market.ionic.io/) you can buy (and even sell):

• project starters (Firebase, Parse, Heroku, etc…)
• plugins (swipable cards, timepickers, maps, etc…)
• themes (material design, tumblr alike, etc…)

There are even some free ones available at the moment, so you may want to check that out.

Since other markets emerged and you could have found similar items on sites like themeforrest, it comes as a nice and warm surprise that the Ionic team basically said they approve that:

We also want to help the markets that have popped up naturally, rather than compete with them.

Additionally, a statement that reimburses that is:

In addition to being able to sell your wares directly on the Ionic Market site, you can also link externally to your existing marketplace, where users can purchase your add-on on the site where you’re already selling it. This effectively makes the Ionic Market just another way to help developers find your add-on.

I bet this announcement made the authors very happy. Even more so, when they realize that Ionic Market takes no commission:

Because we wanted to encourage the creation of a vibrant ecosystem of Ionic add-ons that will mature over time, we’re not taking a cut on any sales. You can sell your add-ons directly on the Ionic Market through Stripe, so the only fees are the taxes and fees Stripe collects. Connect your Stripe account to the Market, and all funds after taxes and credit card processing fees go directly to you!

This, my dear friends, is just getting better and better with every new announcement they make!

From the official blog post, Ionic just announced a new shiny tool called Ionic Lab; which is a GUI tool that tends to be a replacement for the well know Ionic CLI for those who don’t quite like the CLIs.

Hmm, anyone like that reading this blog? I personally like using CLIs better, in general, but that’s just me I guess. <3 Terminal. However, I just might do an exception with this tool.

Currently, they only have a version for Mac (with a Windows version supposedly coming soon. Edit: windows version has been announced today (16.09.2015), and you can learn more about it on their blog) and you can download it from the official download page. Once you download the IonicLab.dmg file, just run it and drag the icon in the Applications folder, as instructed by the installer:

If you try to run the app via Spotlight, you may get an error “Ionic Lab can’t be opened because it is from an unidentified developer” like shown on the image below:

If you’re quite new to the Mac world (as I am), you can resolve this issue by opening up your Applications folder, locating Ionic Lab icon and right clicking the icon and selecting Open.

Now a similar popup will appear, but this time  with the Open option:

Select the Open option and you should get the initial Ionic Lab screen:

I tested this by dropping my IonicAdMob (link to Github project) application to it, and this is what happened:

At this point, even though I like CLIs more (as I noted in the introduction) I must say this is pretty awesome. Additionally, if you click on the PLUGINS tab you will see:

Here you can literally install the plugins by simply clicking on the checkboxes.

What’s even more exciting is that they announced that in the future they’re looking to improve it in terms of:

• including a one-click system setup
• adding Cordova plugin search
• adding Ionic resources generation for icons and splash screens
• adding Ionic Platform integration for push notifications
• adding Ionic Creator integration
• and quite some more things, which you can learn more from their blog post

All this, I must say, is pretty damn awesome and I’m really rooting for them so that they make all their plans into reality.

Bye bye, I’m going to play with my new shiny tool now for a while…

From an official blog post, Ionic Analytics Alpha

gives you all the data you need to better understand and optimize your push notifications, deployments, and much, much more.

The go on to say that

You can chart your app’s progress, from the time of its initial release, and see which marketing strategies were most (or least) effective. You can even gain insights into your app’s demographics, allowing you to see how well your app is doing within a given population.

Some of the data this will be able to provide is:

• How many people log into my app every day?
• How many of those continue to use my app after a week? A month? A year?
• With which parts of my app are users interacting the most?
• What are users doing right now in my app?

If you were like me – thinking that this will cost some amount, here’s what they say:

During the alpha period, Ionic Analytics will be 100% free. In the future, we’ll release tiered pricing based on usage and will continue to offer a free tier.

All this is indeed remarkable, as Ionic team released push support and live updates just few weeks ago. Also, for developers alike, they announced Ionic Market where you’ll be able to make plugins for other users (and, I guess sell them too?). So, IMHO Ionic is building an awesome ecosystem and I bet they’ll become the best hybrid platform! What is left to see is how will the actual price tiers look like.

Yesterday (10.06.2015) Ionic announced the Deploy Alpha which enables you to update your app without having to wait for the review & approval.

They say that

Ionic Deploy lets you update your app on demand for any changes that do not require binary modifications.

You can roll back to a previous version of your app, automatically apply updates, and control every aspect of the upgrade.

Also, the features that they list as upcoming are stunning to say the least:

• live A/B tests
• analytics
• multiple version deployment to certain “Channels”

This is pretty awesome to be honest, and really shows that there is future for Ionic framework and that it’s a great time to be a hybrid app developer.

You can learn more about it from the official blog post.

This is indeed awesome, as it hopefully means that Ionic is here to stay, so that all of us who use it won’t have to fear for it’s future – since it’s all awesome and stuff :). True, this seems more inclined towards business people, but the sole fact that with this more people will know about Ionic and won’t look you strangely when you say you’re developing iOS/Android apps with it by using one codebase.

Some news coverage about this:

• IBM and Ionic Empower Business Users to Accelerate Mobile App Development
• Make everyone a hacker: IBM MobileFirst & Ionic empower business users to prototype their own apps