A few years back we had Codename One LIVE!
It allowed developers to preview designs built with the old GUI builder on devices. Today we’re introducing the equivalent functionality for the new GUI builder and the Codename One Build app. Cloud Connect allows you to instantly see changes from the GUI builder in the app.

You can activate Cloud Connect using the new Cloud Connect button in the latest version of the GUI builder. Once it’s activated launch Codename One Build and open the side menu, you should see a new Cloud Connect option in the side menu.

Check out the new How Do I video that covers the whole process.

This is a remarkably useful feature as it allows us to instantly see the nuanced impact of choices we make within the GUI builder. Small alignment or boundary choices within the tool can have a significant impact when you’re running on the device. Fonts and styles can look very different on the physical device than they do within the GUI builder.

But even more importantly, scrolling behavior and editing is impacted by design choices. E.g. in the video I made the login form scrollable. This isn’t something I thought I needed initially, but as I played with the UI on smaller devices it became apparent that this form must be scrollable. Using cloud connect saved me from the frustration of “compile → deploy → repeat”.