Wrapping apps in Dropsource

Has anyone had success building their app out in Bubble and wrapping it with Dropsource or another platform to submit it to the app store? Not just using Bubble as a back end but actually building the entire thing out. I’m seeing a lot of people having issues and am considering switching my front end development to Dropsource. My only issues are that Dropsource is not nearly as user friendly as Bubble so it’s gonna set me back awhile to learn another platform.

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Hey,

We have launched an app to the app store, we created the app in Bubble and wrapped it in Superview Wrapper. Firstly, you can’t really wrap in drop source, because their web view element isn’t super flexible and it wouldn’t display the page in a reliable way. Dropsource could be a good route to learn depending on how complex your app is, as Dropsource’s capabilities are restricted (Ex: dynamic table tile sizes isnt possible) as it is still new.

Several Bubble companies offer a Bubble to “Native” (not really native) service including cobubble.com and Convert Your Bubble Application Into Native iOS & Android Apps. Im not sure how those services are but they are available from reputable sources.

How complex is your app concept?

Thank you,
Nic
assist%20bubbler

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Hey Nic,

Thanks for the response! The app isn’t super complex - somewhat comparable to a basic social media app like an Instagram but with different user types. I’ll have ~10 “pages” of showing/hidden groups.

How’s your app running with the Superview wrapper?

Superview is a decent starting wrapper, slow load times and random crashing is an issue. We also did extensive testing with different phone types (Emulators don’t always show issues) and found that there was a lot of issues with floating groups which can be an issue. Picture uploaded also doesn’t work and usually causes and app crash.

Thank you,
Nic
assist%20bubbler

Hello, have you tried Thunkable with Webviewer component ?

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Hi Mikey,

Thanks for asking the question . I am at the same stage , I was about to start trying to use dropsource, but it looks like they are introducing a new pricing model which would mean 999 per annum per app so almost 2k a year for to cover both platforms ios and android. from what I read about it , so I am at the stage where I do not know if it would be worth it to put in all that effort to learn and understand it and still have to pay that much especially if you just want to test an app out since I do not think the free plan allows you to actually deploy the app… Just wanted to share this , just in case you didnt know about it. MAybe if there are some bubblers who have built fully in bubble and are looking for a wrapper can contribute their ways of getting around it…

I’m toying around with Kinetise and Thunkable right now. Neither are anywhere near as user-friendly as Bubble, but the plans are very cheap and they build native apps so we’ll see how it goes.

I haven’t had a need to do any native mobile work yet, but I’ve often stumbled upon Kinetise and Thunkable in my searches. They both tick some of the boxes that are important to me in constructing mobile apps, but I don’t have any experience as of yet.

Another tool I’m currently playing around with is called Supernova Studio (supernova.io). It takes Sketch files and generates native iOS, Android, and React Native app code, but there isn’t yet a method of incorporating live data without coding. It’s supposed to come in future releases.

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Thanks for the heads up that’s incredible. I’m playing around with Supernova right now. As you said, there seems to be no easy way to connect a backend without coding. I wonder if there’s an easier way to do it for those of us who aren’t familiar with coding.

You can have an app in 30 min (native and wrap) with jasonette.com, free too.

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update: https://jasonelle.com/

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Have you had any success with this? I tried with a larger app previously and couldn’t get anywhere with it. I think it was too large an app.

I tested it before and it was awesome. There’s no (in my opinion) too large app to work with (but has to be on separate pages). As I can build an external app with Bubble (working very nice in iOS and Android), no need for me to have an app on stores at the moment. Have you try back? Too large app in Bubble and not optimized will give you anyway bad results on any computer :wink: (as you probably know already). The only CON with it now is the author is probably not anymore on this round (planet). Sad for the community.

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How difficult is the process?

What level of coding knowledge does this require?

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It is simply scripting actions under a json file. You can ‘wrap’ it in 30 -60 minutes. Complex part is to setup things with iOS :slight_smile: And is FREE open source.

I am also interested in how to wrap a bubble app with jasonette/jasonelle. For example how should you transform the bubble app to json? Or am I looking at it from a incorrect point of view?

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Eventually we have to open seriously the subject. Here the topic is Dropsource. Take time to read and test jasonette, it take minutes. After, depending of your needs, you can build a complete native or hybride native with it.

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Yes @JohnMark but is this a nocoder option? Or do you need to be a traditional coder? The whole point of Bubble is you don’t need to be a traditional coder, so if it requires coding skills it really doesn’t help the rest of us on here.

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Totally for no coder, that’s why I recommend it. :slight_smile: Eventually we can integrate jasonelle with Bubble.

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