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App Inventor Classic to Shut Down on July 15

Submitted by hal on

June 18, 2015 - The converter tool designed to convert MIT App Inventor Classic projects to MIT App Inventor 2 projects has just been released. Note that it is carefully, and specifically designed to convert projects from the latest version of MIT App Inventor Classic to projects readable by MIT App Inventor 2 while maintaining the functionality, but necessarily not the same form of the projects. Make note, project files developed on other App Inventor systems may well not work with the converter tool and will not be supported by the MIT App Inventor team.

Full instructions for using the converter are available, but the first, and very important step, is to download a copy of your MIT App Inventor Classic project files to your own computer. For each project that you choose to convert, please open it in MIT App Inventor Classic, including opening the blocks, if possible, and then download the source .zip file. After that, follow the instructions to use the converter for each project file.

May 24, 2015 -- MIT App Inventor Classic will shut down on July 15, 2015. After July 15, 2015, you will not be able to access or edit your existing AI Classic projects. It will be impossible to create new AI Classic projects.

This shutdown applies only to AI Classic (AI1). App Inventor 2 (AI2) will not be affected.

MIT will not automatically convert your AI1 projects to AI2 projects. But MIT has provided a conversion tool that will help you convert the AI projects that are important to you into AI2 projects.

The process of converting an AI1 project to an AI2 project has several steps. For each AI1 project you wish to convert to AI2, you will need to do the following (you can do the first two steps now):
  1. Open your AI1 project in the most recent version of App Inventor Classic.
  2. Download the AI1 project as an AI1 source file (.zip) to your computer.
  3. Use the AI1 to AI2 conversion tool to convert the AI1 source file (.zip) to an AI2 source file (.aia).
  4. Upload the converted AI2 source file (.aia) from your computer into App Inventor 2 as an AI2 project.

These steps are described in more detail in a separate document. You must perform the first two steps before the AI1 shutdown on July 15, 2015. We strongly recommend that AI Classic users begin to download their projects as .zip files now, so you will be ready to convert them when the converter becomes available.

Because of differences between AI1 and AI2, some difficulties may be encountered in the conversion process. It would be a good idea to try to convert important AI Classic projects well in advance of July 15, as soon as the converter becomes available, in order to have time to deal with these difficulties.

You might also want to make screenshots of the designer screen and the blocks, in case your project needs to be rebuilt in AI2, or the result of the conversion needs to be extensively modified. Keep in mind that AI Classic projects will not be accessible after July 15. Developers must make their own AI1 to AI2 projects conversions.

Google announced this week that the Files API on which AI Classic depends is being withdrawn in July. This makes it impossible to keep AI Classic running past then, and we regret the short notice for terminating AI Classic support. Many AI Classic developers were aware of the impending demise of AI Classic since about October 2014 and were urged in the forums to manually convert important projects at that time. We hope the conversion tool will simplify conversion for most developers.