Hi All,
I’ve given up on using Bubble for mobile so I want to try something like dropsource. I don’t have the slightest clue as to where to start to get and return data to and from bubble. Is this what an API is for?
Is there any resources I can go through to help out?
Thanks
Ali
Hi Ali,
I don’t have experience using Dropsource but I want to know why you give up on using Bubble for mobile?
Thanks
William
Dropsource lets you use a Swagger file for integration to Bubble. There are a few threads on forum.dropsource.com about this integration, and their support team is super fast at responding.
@william1 Dropsource is a tool used to create native mobile apps, whereas Bubble ends up with hybrid apps. With a native app, you’re closer to the metal of the device and get access to more of the device APIs, as well as (usually) better performance.
pretty much what @potentialthings said. A bubble mobile app at best will just be like visiting a website… a true native app is faster and can use more features from a phone. One big roadblock I hit was the image upload. When using the “image uploader” in bubble and using something like @natedogg 's course to upload to the android store it will not work. This is an issue with using webview apps. In general everything is getting away from this. Facebook tried to use this for their earlier app if i recall and went away from it as well…
Hello everyone, Sue from Dropsource here. I’ve actually just posted a tutorial on connecting to a Bubble API in Dropsource so hopefully it’ll be helpful: https://help.dropsource.com/docs/documentation/integrating-with-dropsource/api-tools/connect-your-app-to-bubble/
Having done a bit of experimenting with Bubble over the past few weeks I’ve found it worked really well with Dropsource, I also used a Bubble API for this photo saving app: https://help.dropsource.com/docs/resources/app-walkthroughs/photo-saver-app/
Welcome Sue! Glad to see you over in the Bubble neck of the words. Hope you enjoy your stay!
Cool thanks Sue - I’ve built extensively on bubble and was looking to make a native app via bubble so this is a great help. Thanks very much!
Cheers guys, any questions give me a shout here or over on the Dropsource forum!
Hi Sue,
In the API documentation that talks about the Bubble Privacy tab you say:
“If you don’t want to implement user management and simply want all of your API data to be retrievable without the user logging in, you can skip the privacy setup and use an API token from your Settings section instead.”
What I take from what you have said is that it is ok to NOT to set any privacy if this is the case even though I HAVE implemented User management.
When you say “skip the privacy setup and use an API token from your Settings section instead” then for the above example, I would just tick all my data table checkboxes? Is that correct?
The API only gets and posts data? So I would have to recreate all my design, workflow logic, and conditional logic inside Dropsource again?
If I need to recreate everything, and as this would take a while, do app stores have this concept of limiting app names? For example, can there be only one app called ‘Gym Ninja’ - if so, is there any way to secure an app name like you can register a domain name and hold it? Or could I go live with a Bubble mobile wrapper app and then swap over to the Dropsource native app when it’s ready so that the app name is at least mine?
Thanks in advance for your advice,
Jess
Hi Jess, apologies for the delay, I’ve been away for a few days.
This isn’t something I’ve tried to implement, what you’re describing is what I would try (if you’ve handled who can see what in the workflow logic I’d expect you not to need privacy rules) but you will essentially need to test it to verify whether it works that way in practice.
As far as I know this will be correct if you just plan to use your general API token for auth.
Dropsource can only connect to your Bubble app data via API requests, so yes you would need to recreate your UI / functionality in the Dropsource editor. The advantage to this is that your mobile app will be truly native, so the user experience is improved over e.g. a web app optimized for mobile.
I believe you can add an app with just the name in e.g. itunes connect and upload the actual app later.
Hope that helps!
Thanks!
Hi everyone, I’ve been getting a lot more comfortable with Bubble and I’m loving it. Dropsource did make the webview wrap process easy but due to some sizing issues and native behavior issues with my app, I decided to just rebuild it and use the API tutorial to connect to bubble’s database.
For me, following the “connect your app to bubble” tutorial on dropsource just isn’t working for me. It appears to skip a few steps and although I’m pretty good at reading between the lines and handling the details that may be missing, I’m still having no luck. I have no errors but my app never “builds”.
Has anyone successfully logged a user in via the api and would you mind sharing the steps you followed? I think I’m getting lost in the dropsource “events” area and API requests.
James do you still need help?
Hi Eric,
Thank you for asking. I’ve yet to be able to use an api to post and get pictures from bubble to dropsource. I’ve tried editing the json file and following the tutorials on dropsource but I have no luck. Their photosave app tutorial did work for me but they don’t show how everything is built in the json file and the bubble database so I wasn’t able to follow that part within my own api setup for my own app.
I would welcome any advice. I ended up using static pictures to solve my problem temporarily.
@jamesonvparker, yes there are some steps missing in the photo saver app tutorial.
Read the below thread on dropsource and you will get all the missing steps. Specifically read the first post and thr post by Sue. Let me know if you still have issues.
For images to display via API on dropsource, do the following;
Hello Sue,
I follow the tutorial and i have this message
“The provided url did not point to a valid JSON file”
the URL is : https://myapp.com/api/1.1/meta/swagger.json
I have the same issue with two app
the End point exist and app is deployed
Thanks for your help
Hey @loic.hennocq, did you remember to replace the “myapp.com” with your app’s name.
If you just copy and paste your swagger url that you entered into dropsource in a browser url what do you see?
If you’re seeing some json content, copy this content and go to https://editor.swagger.io and replace whatever is in the left editor with your copied swagger specification. If there are any errors in your swagger content the editor will tell you.
Hello,
yes, of course, I replaced myapp.com by the domain name of my app, when I copy the URL into a browser to test, I just end up with my 404 page
That means there is something wrong with your url. If you don’t mind can you send me your url in a private message and I can check for you if you typed it correctly.
