README.md

AiaGenerator

This project is a source generator. Add an .aia file to your project, mark it as C# analyzer additional file and also as Copy always, and the generator will generate a .aia.cs file with public methods that correspond to Procedures blocks in your AppInventor project.

Installation

To use this generator in your project add this to your csproj file:

    <ItemGroup>
        <ProjectReference Include="..\AiaGenerator\AiaGenerator.csproj" OutputItemType="Analyzer" ReferenceOutputAssembly="false" />
    </ItemGroup>

Adjust paths as required.

You might also want to add this to be able to observe generated files:

    <PropertyGroup>
        <EmitCompilerGeneratedFiles>true</EmitCompilerGeneratedFiles>
        <CompilerGeneratedFilesOutputPath>..\tmp</CompilerGeneratedFilesOutputPath>
    </PropertyGroup>

See the Integration.Test.csproj file for an example.

Usage

Go into AppInventor, create a block diagram with Procedures, export it - it will save an .aia file. Add that file to your project, and mark it as C# analyzer additional file and also as Copy always, and the generator will generate a .aia.cs file with public methods that correspond to Procedures blocks in your AppInventory project.

Any procedure with a name that start with Invoke is not emitted, it is assumed to be part of your own partial class implementation. See the example HelloPurr.aia file (import it into AppInventor).

Example

This diagram:

Gets converted to this code:

namespace Testa {
    [Aia]
    public partial class HelloPurr {
        public async Task<bool> MAIN() {
            async Task<bool> LocalFunction2() {
                bool Success = false;
                bool Failure = false;
                int Count = 1;
                async Task<bool> LocalFunction1() {
                    while ((!(Success) && !(Failure) && (Count != 3))) {
                        if ((await Detect("Select All") && await Detect("Unload"))) {
                            await Click("Select All");
                            await Click("Unload");
                            Success = true;
                        }
                        else {
                            if (await Detect("Taskbar Icon")) {
                                await Click("Taskbar Icon");
                            }
                            else {
                                Failure = true;
                            }
                        }
                        Count = (Count) + (1);
                    }
                    return Success;
                }
                return await LocalFunction1();
            }
            return await LocalFunction2();
        }
        
        public async Task<bool> Detect(string Template) {
            return await Invoke_Detect(Template);
        }
        
        public async Task<bool> Testa() {
            async Task<bool> LocalFunction5() {
                await Click("Taskbar Icon");
                return true;
            }
            async Task<bool> LocalFunction4() {
                await Click("Taskbar Icon");
                return true;
            }
            async Task<bool> LocalFunction3() {
                await Click("Taskbar Icon");
                return true;
            }
            return await LocalFunction3() ? await LocalFunction4() : await LocalFunction5();
        }
        
        public async Task Move(int x, int y) {
            await Invoke_Move(x, y);
        }
        
        public async Task Click(string Location) {
            await Invoke_Click(Location);
        }
        
    }
}

TODO

This is a very incomplete project, but it is a good start.

Things to work on:

• The namespace used is Testa - make it a bit more relevant to the project somehow.
• The generator only picks the "first" block diagram it finds in the .aia file.
• Not all block types are supported, I only implemented the ones I needed thus far.
• Invoke methods are hard coded into the generator. In the future I want to use reflection to insert them appropriately.