Create Your First App For Ubuntu

Jun 21, 2012

Last night I created a tutorial video for how to get started creating your very first app for Ubuntu. In the tutorial I show you how to create a simple web browser by generating a new project, customizing the user interface, writing some code, and then generating a package.

You can see the video below:

Can’t see the video? No problem, click here!

Don’t forget to take part in the Ubuntu App Showdown (there are plenty of app ideas here)!

This post available under a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike license.

16 Comments

Benjamin Kerensa on June 21, 2012 at 6:56 am

.< why not “sudo apt-get install quickly”

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Kwabena Aning on June 21, 2012 at 10:16 am

Thanks for this tutorial, looked at galde in the past but didn’t really get into it much. This has rekindled my interest. Can you make this source code available on a VCS somewhere?
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Nekhelesh Ramananthan on June 21, 2012 at 1:47 pm

Excellent tutorial! The most detailed I have seen in a long time. Please continue to make more of these..This could easily turn into a series which will raise the interest of everyone using Ubuntu to develop their own app. I mean this is so incredible!
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Neha Sharma on June 29, 2012 at 12:23 pm

After adding this line

self.scrolledwindow.add(self.webview) I get the following error:/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/gi/overrides/Gtk.py:391: Warning: g_object_set_property: construct property “type” for object `Window’ can’t be set after construction Gtk.Window.init(self, type=type, **kwds)Traceback (most recent call last): File “bin/myapp”, line 33, in myapp.main() File “/home/neha/myapp/myapp/__init__.py”, line 33, in main window = MyappWindow.MyappWindow() File “/home/neha/myapp/myapp_lib/Window.py”, line 35, in __new__ new_object.finish_initializing(builder) File “/home/neha/myapp/myapp/MyappWindow.py”, line 40, in finish_initializing self.scrolledwindow.add(self.webview)AttributeError: ‘NoneType’ object has no attribute ‘add’And I am stuck. Help please
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Simone on September 8, 2012 at 4:36 pm

Great tutorial. If you will ever do a second one, could you explain how to set application preferences and how to make application to read them when it starts? You could even make a blog post asking what people would like to see in a next tutorial.

Thanks for listening 😉
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??????? ?????? on September 11, 2012 at 8:22 am

Could someone tell me what programming language (or environment) should I start with, in Linux, so it will be easier for me if there is a need to change it or learn a new one later.
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Elison Slipknot Maggot on December 9, 2012 at 1:31 am

property: construct property “type” for object `Window’ can’t be set after construction Gtk.Window.init(self, type=type, **kwds) Traceback (most recent call last): File “bin/mybrowser”, line 33, in mybrowser.main() File “/home/elison/mybrowser/mybrowser/__init__.py”, line 33, in main window = MybrowserWindow.MybrowserWindow() File “/home/elison/mybrowser/mybrowser_lib/Window.py”, line 35, in __new__ new_object.finish_initializing(builder) File “/home/elison/mybrowser/mybrowser/MybrowserWindow.py”, line 41, in finish_initializing self.scrolledwindow.add(self.webview) AttributeError: ‘NoneType’ object has no attribute ‘add’
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SimplySimon on May 5, 2013 at 4:49 pm

When I run the programme after adding the refresh() command I get the following Warnings and am unable to view the url entered into the address bar.

/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/gi/overrides/Gtk.py:391: Warning: g_object_set_property: construct property “type” for object Window' can't be set after construction Gtk.Window.__init__(self, type=type, **kwds) /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/gi/overrides/Gtk.py:391: Warning: g_object_set_property: construct property "type" for objectMybrowserWindow’ can’t be set after construction Gtk.Window.init(self, type=type, **kwds) [email protected]:~/mybrowser$ quickly run /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/gi/overrides/Gtk.py:391: Warning: g_object_set_property: construct property “type” for object Window' can't be set after construction Gtk.Window.__init__(self, type=type, **kwds) /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/gi/overrides/Gtk.py:391: Warning: g_object_set_property: construct property "type" for objectMybrowserWindow’ can’t be set after construction

Gtk.Window.init(self, type=type, **kwds)

Could you advise me on what I might have done wrong.
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Uddhav on July 26, 2013 at 7:31 am

This is one good “tutorial” ..I liked it ! Thank you !
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Vipan on September 24, 2013 at 5:06 pm

I am following this tutorial but getting following error.Please help at your earliest

self.scrolledwindow.add(self, webview) NameError: global name ‘webview’ is not defined
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- David Bailey on October 14, 2013 at 5:38 pm
  
  I got this problem too – to fix: make sure you have typed self.scrolledwindow.add(self.webview) not self.scrolledwindow.add(self, webview)
  Reply
Vipan on September 24, 2013 at 5:38 pm

I am also getting same error
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Alexiscanny on December 10, 2014 at 6:40 pm

This is an amazing tutorial….really thank you Jono
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e-jambon on October 30, 2015 at 12:49 pm

Thank you, great tuto
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Jake on November 13, 2017 at 6:31 pm

Really well-done tutorial, very focused and covering some difficult concepts in an easy way for some of us non-programmers. I spent over an hour here watching the video, taking notes, doing some quick searches because the way you covered this all was very easy to follow.

I just came across Quickly (have not tried to install yet) and hoping that activity is still somewhat active. Most of the stuff I’m coming across is pretty dated (2009-2013). Thanks for the tutorial (bookmarked for re-watching). It has inspired me to try and work out a simple GUI program I’ve had in my mind for a long time.
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CreeperDude372 on December 28, 2018 at 4:42 pm

Quickly is dead.
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