ASNA Go

ASNA Mobile RPG includes ASNA Go, an integrated shell for your Mobile RPG apps for iOS- and Android-based devices. This shell allows developers to use extended features of the mobile device, such as reading barcodes, not generally available to HTML5-based mobile apps. The alternative requires creating mobile apps with languages such as Java and Objective C. This is a very labor-intensive process and, unlike Mobile RPG, requires you to create a specialized app for each mobile platform (ie, one app for Apple devices and one for Android devices). ASNA Go puts advanced mobile features easily in the hands of RPG developers. ASNA Go improves your mobile apps’ user experience in several ways:

• Apps run in full screen mode with no browser buttons. This provides your Mobile RPG apps the maximum possible amount of screen real estate.
• Device orientations can easily be locked to make formatting and optimization of your apps’ displays simpler.
• ASNA Go saves the state of your app: if users follow links out into the wider Web they can return to their place in the Mobile RPG app by simply tapping an icon.
• Provides barcode integration with your mobile apps.

Using ASNA Go with Mobile RPG is optional. If you don’t need the features ASNA Go provides, Mobile RPG works fine on modern phone browsers.

ASNA Go in action

The image above shows ASNA Go inaction. At a glance, the differences are subtle, but they are important. They include:

• The browser’s top URL bar is gone. While you can’t see it here, the ASNA Go app icon can be configure to go automatically to your app.
• The browser’s lower bar is also gone. Beyond providing more screen real estate, with ASNA Go the user has no “back” button—the user navigates the app within the app.

ASNA Go provides your app more affinity with the phone’s capabilities. This provides tight integration between your app and the phone’s camera—especially for scanning bar and QR codes.

Using ASNA Go

1. ASNA Go is available for download at
   • iOS - the Apple app store (look for the ASNA Go logo; there are a lot of apps named Go).
   • Android - the Google Play Android Marketplace (again, look for the ASNA Go logo; Go is a popular name).
2. ASNA Go must be downloaded onto each device that requires the expanded functionality.
3. Once downloaded, ASNA Go provides an integrated shell for your ASNA Mobile RPG apps. You launch your Mobile RPG apps in ASNA Go by entering your mobile app’s Web address. To quit using the app, close ASNA Go like any other app.

Available settings

• At startup
  • App URL: This field can be populated with the address of your Mobile RPG App
  • Always use this URL: By turning this on, users can completely skip selecting the URL; Go will attempt to take them straight to the selected URL on startup.
• App orientation
  • Allow Orientation: This option sets which orientations ASNA Go uses; ASNA GO is most useful if the ASNA Mobile RPG app is restricted to a specific orientation. Options are:
    • Only portrait (default)
    • Only landscape
    • Portrait and landscape
• Barcodes
  • Scanner Settings
    • General settings
      • Use flash light - determines if the barcode scanner activates the device’s flashlight.
    • When a barcode is found - selects signals the signal the barcode scanner uses to announce that it has recorded a valid barcode. Options include:
      • Beep
      • Vibrate
      • Copy barcode value to the device's clipboard

Limitations of ASNA Go

• Platform support
  • ASNA Go supports iOS and Android devices. It is not available on other mobile operating systems (Windows Phone, Blackberry).
• iOS limitations
  • iOS 6 minimum - ASNA Go is not supported by earlier versions of iOS.
  • iPhone optimized - ASNA Go is optimized specifically for iPhone, other iOS platforms and form factors may result in less than ideal presentation.
• Android limitations
  • Android 3.0 recommended - ASNA Go is supported on Android devices running version 3.0 (honeycomb) and later. Limited support may be available on Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), but older versions are not supported.
  • Major distributions (those present in most phones and tablets) are supported, but more specialized distributions may not be.

Privacy concerns

Why does ASNA Go for Android or iPhone require access to your device’s camera? As ASNA Go supports the full functionality of Mobile RPG applications it requires access to the camera for:

• Reading barcodes, for the barcode control
• Taking snapshots, for the image control

No user-related data is transmitted to ASNA using ASNA Go.