It’s been a few years since I’ve been in the Xojo world and I see some things have changed (Android woo!). I was deep in it, went to conferences and wrote daily in it for some big projects. I was the in-house evangelist at my organization. Things happened and I moved on to a new job where I have to use FileMaker mostly.
I’m really interested in branching back out to write native apps and am wondering what you all think if it’s worth the (unfortunately increased) cost of the pro license or not. Wishing I’d asked this a month ago so I could keep an eye out for BF or CM sales.
I was and would be targeting Web and console and then would need mobile.
What are some of your favorite newer features? How has the roadmap felt in terms of actual progress?
Whether FileMaker or Xojo, please check out the MBS Plugins for both.
For the Xojo price, just try without a license to develop something. You need the license when you like to deploy something. So you could just order the license or wait for the next sale, maybe a Spring sale.
On the new features, I think Libraries is a big change. Allows anyone to bundle code and sell as an add-on.
For the roadmap, please remember that Xojo Inc. often talks about doing things years before they actually deliver. And since some of the roadmap items takes long to implement, they come out as preview/beta first. Not a big problem usually, but don’t promise a feature on the roadmap to your clients.
What are some of your favorite newer features? How has the roadmap felt in terms of actual progress?
Have a look at the available Roadmap items under the main list. I have been shocked at how quickly Xojo have added so many huge-featured items in such a small amount of time, making the outstanding list look paltry.
But there is also much ‘hidden’ progress on outstanding bugs.
I am not sure that new features start in beta mode. OK, some of them do, or are labeled such. But observing how new features are introduced, I feel that Xojo uses the approach of MVP (as in minimum viable product) when releasing new features, something often found when the development team follows one of many Agile methodology variants. The new features receive improvements or enhancements over a few releases until fully developed or mature. One case in point is Jade. It works fine within a limited scope (clearly not the scope users hoped for, but that is for another discussion). Additional scope will be added over the next few releases. Not beta, but not the full functionality either. Just a minimum viable product.
I have tried making Android apps with Xojo, starting from scratch, around 12 times over the last few years.
Always, I get ‘so far’ and run into compile errors or missing features I have no workaround for.
Each time, I eventually set it aside and resolve to give it another go after a few months. I know some people have managed to create simple apps, and I applaud them.
So very much, others’ views may differ.
Don’t get me wrong - I love Xojo on the desktop, and I have success with iOS development, but…
converting an SQLite blob to a memory block is broken meaning that the Android app cannot convert anything in binary form other than simple photos.
Not only is the debugger painfully slow but many of the variable values do not change as one steps through the code.
Copying and pasting from a fully functional iOS project to an Android project, even just methods and properties not controls, is fraught with pitfalls, inscrutable errors, etc.
Some people are having better success with Android than I have and I can only conclude that their needs and goals are different than mine so YMMV. Note also that this is based on experience with 2025 r2.1 as I have not yet had time or the will to try again in 2025 r3.0 (and the blob to memory block conversions error has not yet been marked as fixed and it is essential to my project).