Clarification on webviews - android

...
However, you shouldn't develop an
Android app simply as a means to
view your website. Rather, the web
pages you embed in your app should
be designed especially for that
environment.
I was reading this in android documentation. https://developer.android.com/guide/webapps/best-practices
I don't totally understand what the last line means. I know that web view is used to load urls in android activity.
Web view simply loads a url in app. But can it be used in another way. Can anyone explain me what does it mean and how can I do that? Please provide some details.

However, you shouldn't develop an Android app simply as a means to view your website.
If the app is for viewing your website, we can as well use the browser for that.
Rather, the web pages you embed in your app should be designed especially for that environment.
Say there is a terms and conditions screen in your web site that you don't want to develop for mobile apps. This single screen can be loaded on a web view inside your android app.

Related

How android application and web application working?

I'm a little confused because I couldn't understand how android application working at the same time with web application . for example I have a web site and I wanna have a android app for my website and how can i programming at the same time , can i build my android app with php ?? this is the main question i have and i don't understand what i should do and how web site and android app working . for example Amazon has a android and ios app at the same and Amazon has a website , how those thing working together ???
You can build a webview app that is app where you can display HTML with Css and maybe also JS.
That is what google said about webview app:
By default, a WebView provides no browser-like widgets, does not enable JavaScript and web page errors are ignored. If your goal is only to display some HTML as a part of your UI, this is probably fine; the user won't need to interact with the web page beyond reading it, and the web page won't need to interact with the user. If you actually want a full-blown web browser, then you probably want to invoke the Browser application with a URL Intent rather than show it with a WebView.
You can find more information about a webview app is here: https://developer.android.com/reference/android/webkit/WebView.html
If you have any other questions about it feel free to ask.

Create full mobile app vs Create app that goes to a server which handles mobile

I have been playing around with PhoneGap for a little while, and getting it set up to work correctly with Google Drive API is proving to be far more difficult than setting up a website which does the same.
I am wondering if it would be more to my advantage to cease trying to make the full app work with phonegap, and instead use phonegap to access a hosted site.
Note that I do not wish to open the site in the default browser. The goal would be to make it appear to be an application (no borders, url, back button, etc), but have the web server handle everything behind the scenes.
I know PhoneGap has an In-App-Browser available. Is this something that is possible with it? Or does it only function for more limited use?
Thanks
You can definitely use a WebView for your app, which display the webpage but give you the ability to control the layout around it. Running a WebView instead of native code may cost some performance but it's doable.

WebView apps and rejections

This is my first time on StackOverflow, so I come with two questions at the same time because they are related :
1 - I have a website that works great on my local server. It is made on Joomla. I heard about the "WebView" thing that iPhone and Android offer and I would like to know if it is possible, still in 2015/2016 to make an app that is basically just a WebView of a website ?
2 - If yes, I saw on old forums (earliest 2014) that Apple rejects WebView apps. Is it still the case nowadays, is there any "tricks" I should know about it ?
Thank you very much
Yes you can make the WebView only app but it should be mobile responsive
No apple don't reject the app with only webview in it but the website should be mobile responsive and you have to fill all other info to approve it(I know because I have few apps with webview only).
I don’t have any knowledge for iOS but I can tell you about android one:
In android devices you can open a web site through 2 different ways, the first one is through web browser and the second one is the one you mentioned web view. Web view is a system component for Android OS that allows your application to display content from the web page directly inside it (the application).
Yes it is still available for Android you can make one.

Simple Browser/Website web app mobile app/shortcut

I have a website/web app which I want to make available on mobile devices.
The website is responsive and can be used inthe mobile browser, but I want to make it available on google play / app store. My question is: how could I create a simple app that is actually a browser, which would run natively on the phone but load my web page in full screen?
Any simple solutions or frameworks?
Well there are different approaches to solve your questions I am trying to give you some rough idea with following two approaches.
Easy and simple one
1) Use web views and call home page url that's all.
For better performance.
2) Create a REST apis with only required data for your mobile app . And then use either web view or create your own views and show it to user . In this case if you create your native view then app will perform faster but development will take time.

Android Application that points to a web app

I have a web application that is optimized for mobile viewing, so that it can be used on all smartphones (Android, iPhone, etc).
The development of the web application is nearing completion, but I would also like to have an actual downloadable app that users can put on their phones. All this app would do is literally point to the web application and ask them to log in.
Is this something that can be easily done, or will I need to develop full fledged Android and iPhone applications separately that interact with my web app somehow?
Thanks in advance.
PhoneGap is a tool that essentially will do what you are asking out of the box. If you are somewhat familiar with native development, you can also create a simple app where the main view is a web browser (see WebView (Android) or UIWebView (iOS)).
Try this.
Create apps from any web content.

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