AppPresser 2: what’s new and when it’s coming

AppPresser was released in January of 2014, and a little over 2 years later we are proud to announce a much improved new version.

This is a major overhaul of most of our code, to allow for some great new functionality like offline mode. This release paves the way for doing things that were never before possible with AppPresser, such as downloading files to the device, viewing content while offline, and lots more.

We are also releasing a new theme that is lighter, faster, and cleaner.

AppPresser 2 is a big leap forward for building apps with WordPress, let’s talk details and release date.

Check out the Ion Theme and AppPresser 2 in action.

New Ion Theme

It’s no secret that we love the Ionic Framework.

We use it for Reactor, and for our custom app projects. We wanted to bring this same great experience to AppPresser, so we created a new theme for your apps that uses Ionic’s CSS framework.

The Ion theme is an overhaul of the looks, under the hood it has the same powerful features of our original AppTheme. It still has the awesome power of AJAX loaded pages, custom modals and app-style UI, and support for WooCommerce and BuddyPress. The BuddyPress UI is especially improved.

We did not use Angular or any of the Javascript elements from Ionic in case you were wondering, it just didn’t make sense.

Offline Mode

Ever since we released AppPresser our #1 request has been for offline.

The way AppPresser is built made this really challenging, but we decided to figure it out. We spent the last several months figuring out the best way to do it, then building and testing. We had to make a big change in how your apps work to make this happen, and it required rewriting most of the code in our extensions.

With AppPresser 2, you can now show offline pages and media to app users when they do not have a connection. The way it works is kind of open-ended, for you to customize as necessary.

How Offline Mode Works

When a user of your app goes offline, they are prompted with a button to go to “offline mode.”

This redirects them to offline.html, a file in your app package (not a WordPress page). You can add any content you want to this page, add multiple pages, and use device features through the Phonegap API.

If the connection is restored, the user is asked if they would like to go back online, which redirects them back to your AppPresser enhanced WordPress site.

To learn more about offline mode, please see our documentation.

What’s Possible With AppPresser 2

The biggest part of AppPresser 2 is laying the ground work for future functionality. Here are some examples of what is possible with AppPresser 2, with a little coding magic. Our plan is to make some of these things extensions in the future.

Offline audio/media: download audio files from your site, save them to the device and play them offline.

Offline forms: submit data while offline (or a poor connection), and wait until a connection restores to submit to WordPress.

Offline posts and content: distribute offline content such as articles with the app, or download it from your website and save for later use.

Fully offline apps: you could make a fully offline app if you really wanted to, but it wouldn’t be using WordPress.

More cool extensions: we still plan on adding features to current extensions, and developing new online features.

All of the features listed above would have to be custom coded, they are not available out of the box. The point is that it’s possible now, and it wasn’t before.

Pricing

AppPresser 2 is a free upgrade for all customers, there is no additional cost.

When Will It Be Ready?

AppPresser 2 beta is available to all Agency Bundle owners right now. If you purchase an Agency Bundle, you will also get access to the beta.

To get the beta files, visit your account, and click “View details and downloads” to get access to AppPresser 2 beta.

For everyone else, we expect a few more weeks of testing, and a final release hopefully late February.

Cheers!