How Penguin Apps Builder Works?

We are going to show you how Penguin Apps Builder works and go through the entire process of creating an application.

Once you’re registered, you will access this page:

You can either start by creating an application or, if you are a reseller, creating your white label administration interface. A white label administration interface enables your clients to handle the everyday management of their applications by connecting to your domain name, rather than by accessing apps.penguinapps.biz Your clients won’t see us at all.

Now we are going to examine the process of creating an application.

Enter the name of your application. Say, for example, “Jim’s Burger.” and click on “Create”.

You will access this page:

Just choose from one of the available templates to get a prebuilt app with features in it, colors and content, or choose the blank template (or just close this template window) to start with an empty app.
Then this page appears:

You can see 5 steps to get your app done: Design, Colors, Features, Application, Publication. Let’s see them one by one in details.

1. Design

• Choose your template

We’ve just see it. By clicking on the button “Choose your design” you will be able to change the template of your app. Take care if you have already chosen some colors and images for your app, they will be replaces by the ones of this template.

• Choose your layout

Then choose your layout:

A layout is the type of icons tab bar of your app. If you are ok with the one of your template, you can skip this step. Otherwise you can choose a new tab bar for your app:

…According to whether you would like your application to be a single row of icons:

a double row of icons:

• Choose your homepage image

From there you can upload the background images that will be used for your homepage. Be sure to upload an image for all screen sizes to match every devices (iPhones, iPads, Android phones and tablets)

If you check the option “Use into all your application’s page”, this image will be set as a background image for all your application’s page.

If you check the option “Hide iOS status bar”, the status bar displaying the time, battery level, etc will not be displayed in your iOS app.

You may also choose the country of the app, it is useful only if you use some features like Mcommerce to display the good currency, and you can also change the font used in your app.

2. Colors

Here you will be able to choose the colors of your application. Click on the elements to the left and you will see on the right in the preview that the element in question will twinkle for a few seconds.
Here are a few explanations to get you started using the graphics palette:

You may begin by using your mouse to choose the color spectrum that you are looking for and then choose the hue. If you know the color’s hexadecimal code (or RGB), you may directly type this code into the fields provided and then click Enter.
Keep in mind that Apple will not validate your application if you choose a kaleidoscope of clashing colors. A design tip: If you are not an expert, keep it simple, for example with white letters on a dark background. Avoid fluorescent colors in particular and you will have the best chances of having your application accepted by Apple.
Here you’ll find some tips that will help your application get accepted.

In “Choose your icon colors” you can activate the option “Transparent”, this way your icon tab bar will have no background color.

3. Features

Adding pages / features to your application:

This part will enable you to create pages / features to your application.

To add pages / features to your application, just click on the features that you wish to add:

To find out what these features represent and what you can do with them, please see the heading on this subject.

The features will be added here:

And, of course, in your application, as you can see in the preview on the right:

Each page corresponds with a feature. This means that each page will have a specific format and function. For example, ‘”News” enables you to display a short news brief and an optional photo to illustrate it, and gives the users of the application the opportunity to give feedback on the news. “Discounts” enables you to create a page with one or more discounts, and so on. Once again, if you have not already seen it, we recommend that you consult our header on the various pages / features.

Fill in a page / feature:

To configure a new feature, most of the time you will have to click on the  on the right after having added this feature to your app:

Then fill in the fields according to the features.

Note that you can have other options for a page:

With “Manage” you can edit, view, remove a previous setting.

With “Background” you can choose a background image for this page.

With “Design”, if available for this page, you can choose a new way of displaying your items in this page. Here is an example for the Discount feature:

There are 4 layouts available for a discount page.

To rearrange the page order of your application:

At this point, you have added pages to your application and would like to change the page order. To do so, just hover the mouse over one of your features in “Your pages”.

You will see this icon . Click, drag and drop the icon from your page to the position where you would like it to be. The modification will be visible in the application preview to the right.

4. Application

Here you will provide additional elements necessary for the release of your application.

Home icon:

This icon appears on users’ handheld devices once they have downloaded the application. Example on an iPhone:

Just click on “Modify your icon,” upload the desired image and adjust the dimensions.

Startup image:

The loading image or splash screen is the first image that the user will see when he launches the application. We offer various elements that you can arrange, and you can also upload your own elements.

4. Publication

Here you will enter the additional information necessary for the release of your application.

General information:

Application name: This will be the name of your application in the Apple and Android stores. Choose a short name with less than 30 characters. The name of the business is commonly used. This is here you can change the name of your app if you need to.

Description: Describe the features that your application offers. An example would be “Get your loyalty points directly on your mobile device.”

Keywords: Keywords enable the user to find you in the Apple and Android stores. Enter the name of the business and other appropriate keywords. If your business is a pizzeria, examples would be “restaurant, pizza.” Separate the keywords with commas.

Main category: Choose the category in which you would like your application to be displayed. Generally shops are listed in “Lifestyle,” while restaurants are listed in “Food and Drink.”

Secondary category: Choosing this category is optional.

Apple information and Google information:
Before your application is submitted, you will need to open an iOS developer account (for Apple products: iPhone and iPad) and a Google Play account (for Android). These accounts are requisite to release applications in the Apple and Android stores. You will pay $99/year for an App Store account, and $25 lifetime for a Google Play account. These accounts enable you to release as many applications as you wish; you will not pay for each application.
If you do not yet have a developer account:

• Click here to create an Apple account
• Click here to create an Android account

Once you have created the accounts, you must enter login information for these stores in the fields provided:

If you are a reseller, or whatever, and want to create a custom url for your webapp (aka mobile website), you need to go in the “Settings > Domain” menu. It’s not mandatory to publish your app, but in “Settings > Domain” you’ll be able to custom the url of your mobile website with your own domain url.
Click here to see the process of creating an address for mobile sites.

YOU’RE DONE! All you have to do is click on   and as soon as your payment goes through, we will submit your application to the stores.

To make sure your application is accepted by Apple, make sure you know the ground rules for all applications.