Is it appropriate to use a website as mobile app - android

I know embedding a website in an in-app browser in a mobile app could reduce the performance, but since the type of website I'm developing is more or less a blog, I was wondering if the performance should be negligible.
I have searched through Google for any posts addressing this issue and there seems to be none.

you can do that, but I suggest you to take a look at Progressive Web Apps (PWA) concept and using it.

Yes. Its very easy to use website in mobile app.

Related

How to make android application for responsive website

I am having mobile compatible website, it is highly responsive and do all what I need in mobile.
I just like to have an android/ios application, either it can represent my website as container.
Do we have any tool for the same. Is there any way to achieve it, as I do not want to use any mobile hardware like camera, geolocation and any other.
If any container of android or ios can provide a simple interface by opening my site in it, it will be a great option.
Kindly share your view on the same.
Have a look at this article about layouts.
A mobile application provides a different user experience than a mobile website. In your case if you don't want to use the mobile version of your site in the browser, then you need to create an application with a native UI.
For Android:
In my opinion, you should consider using the Empty Activity template from Android Studio to add a WebView inside it that will point to your website.
For iOS:
Seems like iOS Dev kit has the same kind of view.
For Windows Universal Apps:
Their Dev Kit has it as well.
Alternative:
If you feel more comfortable with web technologies, you can consider using Apache Cordova to build a mobile app from web sources.
Conclusion
All the native solutions presented are not that hard to implement (Less than a few hours), they just need you to play a little bit around with the native developing.
Cordova, the web-to-mobile solution, would also need you to play around with it.
Happy mobile developing !

Android app and Web Interaction idea

I am new to android development, I have a website that is for online shopping and I want to make an android app so the smart phone users can also access it. It will use something like PHP post/get, JSON, JavaScript to get values from server and submit forms from app. My question is after doing all these, mean HTTP Connection and all that, is there any need to make a special website for mobile device too, that will be compatible with mobile device? or no need of this, just to open it in mobile app? I have googled it but can't find something useful.
I think most of visitors will visit the normal site instead of installing a unknown app.
It's your own choose, if i have the the choice i would choose both (web and app).
I think it's important to have a user and mobile friendly website.
At least you could make your website responsive so that user have the choice whether they will install a Native app or use the 'web' app.
I've met the same question.
Apps are good-looking and functional.
But the thing is, especially in China, almost everybody around me uses "Wechat" as a daily app. The most important thing Wechat can provide is an entry. By establishing an official accounts, customers can be easily linked to your mobile website. And 1)it's way more convenience than Apps. 2)Mobile website has a less developing cost than an App. 3)With HTML5 spreading to mobile terminals, the interfaces can be cool and the function can be amazing.
So, for middle/little companies, I personally recommend mobile website.

Mobile game made as website, used in app

I'm thinking about making a mobile game (say something like Wordfeud).
Now I would like to publish this game on Android, iOS, WindowsPhone, facebook and normal browser.
I could go native on all these platforms.
BUT
Since a want it to be a multiplayer game, most of the functionality will be done via a c#.NET webservice with SOAP calls or something.
Now for another project i'm make a mobile website working in WebView (android) and the same website already works in an IOS app.
So.. why not make a jQuery/HTML5/.NET mobile website and some small apps just as a shell to get them in the marketplaces. That way everything will be in one place and updates/bugfixes will be a walk in the park.
What do you think?
Cheers
If you check the Apple Review Guidelines, you could see :
Apps that are not very useful, unique, are simply web sites bundled as Apps, or do not provide any lasting entertainment value may be rejected
You will be able to launch your android one, but you may have your iOS web bundle rejected.
I suggest to have a look to this page before posting to the app store
I think there are a lot of problems with this. If you look at tools that try too help you do this kind of thing, the most powerful ones being Google PlayN and Monkey. There are still a lot of semantic differences between a HTML/Flash/SilverLight game and a Mobile one, The most obvious being differences in input devices and screen resolution sizes.
It's also important to realize that the cost of integrating the different platforms (ie facebook vs. non-facbook, depending on what type of game you're making) may be significant.
Google PlayN: http://code.google.com/p/playn/
Monkey: http://www.monkeycoder.co.nz/
I think that there are 3 things I always see in html5 apps :
-very bad integration to the different platforms
-bad performances, web based is way slower than native.
-nightmare to maintain.
I strongly encourage you to go the native way if you want to do a quality app.
HTML5 is not all wrong. I think it is the right choice if there are big time/budget constraints and/or you don't care about the quality of the app (for exemple if it will be only used internally).
Final thought : why SOAP ?? REST is faster and is not harder to implement.

Web to App Interoperability - Any live example?

I read an interesting article about Web-to-App interoperability. It states:
Android and iOS allow installed applications to respond to custom URIs
from the web. Since I’m not as familiar with iOS, I will only cover
how Android allows this to work, and how you can use this technique to
your advantage. There are several use cases for allowing your app to
handle custom URIs. The first one I’ll cover is simply launching your
application.
Basically, a link (clicked on a mobile browser) can trigger a specific action with an installed App.
I found it intriguing and I realized that the Google Play Market itself works the same way with market:// links.
My question is:
Can you provide (other) live examples in Android? And in Iphone?
I'm looking for good cases of this kind of "Web to App Interoperability" with both Android and Iphone applications.
Extra question:
Can you suggest a tutorial or reference to do this in Iphone?
Thank you very much.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
For the extra question, have a look here or here.
I know Spotify uses this. I believe Facebook does too.

Does it make sense to write an offline mobile web app in html5?

I am investigating options for a web app aimed at mobiles and one of the options is to write a standalone app that does not connect to the internet at all. Does it make sense to consider using HTML5 for this? The main reason for considering HTML5 as far as I'm concerned is the fact that it works cross-platform, but I just don't know if it makes any sense to consider this option if it will only be used offline once it has been initially downloaded.
Thanks in advance for your help!
As mentioned, this is definitely possible. I think the other answers don't quite give enough information, or understand the question, so let me provide a bit more.
Yes, it is possible to create a mobile app in HTML, either from scratch by using PhoneGap as the platform, or by using a mobile framework such as jQuery Mobile.
PhoneGap allows you to create true mobile apps using HTML5, CSS & JavaScript, and utilising the PhoneGap API to utilise features found in smartphones such as a camera, motion sensor, gps, storage etc.
Using jQuery Mobile, you'll be creating a mobile website, which must be accessed using the phone's browser, however you are able to incorporate this framework into the PhoneGap platform. This allows you to create a more native feeling app in HTML5.
I think the question you should be asking is what language should I use?. It doesn't matter if the app is used online or offline. What matters is what language or platform you want to write it in. There are downsides to using HTML5 to write mobile apps (speed, scalability, quality, approval to name a few).
I don't see a problem for doing so. HTML5 gives you ways to store information locally and a big set of other functionnalities. This could help you find if there is what you want regarding the mobile browsers (and Androïd's): http://caniuse.com/#feat=namevalue-storage
Then you may look into MVC frameworks like dojo toolkit (if you want widgets out of the box), backbone.js and so on.
Yes, it's possible. in fact many cross platform app out there is using HTML5 or javascript.
you could take a look on phonegap.com. It's cross platform using html5
Yes, it's perfectly possible to create an application with HTML5 (and javascript if needed).
Coding your app in HTML5 makes it easier to port to other mobile OS.
Just keep in mind that HTML5 is not definite yet, so you MAY have to rewrite certain parts after some time.
Phonegap can be used for this, as some already suggested.
If you're comfortable with java, but just want a HTML5 app so you can port it later,
you can use Google GWT (which converts java into HTML5 and javascript)
It's possible, but I don't think it's the best choice for an app that won't connect to the web at all. HTML5 offline apps are designed to work for the short periods of time where there is no web connection, not really for apps that will never connect to the web. Plus, HTML5 local storage is limited. I'm not sure what the limitations are off of the top of my head, but I think you'd be better off taking another route.
Definitely! There are already developers looking into it. HTML5 has native like capabilities, such as writing to its own DB and etc. Like they said, HTML5 is not definitive yet, so it might take awhile for it to be feasible and adopted by all.
Imagine 1 language to rule them all :)

Categories

Resources