I have released a native Android application, which I built in Android Studio. After a rocky start, it is now doing alright in the PlayStore.
I hope to release an iPhone version soon, and I am considering my options.
My general approach will be redeveloping the project as a web application using Ruby on Rails, then converting that to an iPhone app somehow.
I am writing to ask more about this final step. What cost-effective ways are there to convert a web application to iPhone format?
I am aware I will need $99 for the Apple developer programme, and I would like to keep my overall costs close to that amount. I had thought of using PhoneGap. Are there any extra steps between PhoneGap and publishing on the App store?
Extra information, which might help contextualise my situation:
I do not have an Apple devices or software for development or testing. I’m not the Prince of Monaco, so I do not intend to spend on these things anytime soon. My app is called Victoriana, and it is a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure/ text adventure game. Pretty basic, really.
This is my first real project, and I first came into developing through tutorials and Android Studio.
It would also be my first time coding a web application or using Ruby, but for converting this non-complex project I am happy to learn something new.
Unless your app requires a lot of database interaction, Rails is probably too heavy-weight for what you need. If you're set on building a web app in Ruby then Sinatra is much simpler and a better option for beginners, but again depending on the complexity of the game, how you persist state etc, you might actually be better off with Javascript and a single-page app framework.
There really is no developing for Apple products without running macOS, but it is possible to do this within a virtual machine on a Windows PC.
Related
I'm in a situation where I'm looking at building a company website and in-house app (for ipad/android) with basic functionality; pretty much just a portfolio. This is for the company I work for who (for many reasons, some of which I agree with, some I don't) don't particularly want to outsource this.
I've got a fairly basic knowledge of webdesign and would be able to put together a fairly decent website on my own however the app is what is causing me a slight headache as I'm not an expert at coding by any means. So my questions are:
1) Is it possible to build an app that isn't hosted on the app store? We have no requirement for people outside of the practice to have access to the app, so it'd only need to be an internal build. How (given that ios is so locked down) would I go about installing an app such as this, if I built one?
2) I've seen myriad app-building websites, some of which output code for both android and ios, others that (apparently) wrap them as some kind of hybrid so they run on either (though my understanding is that these may be refused by the app store?) and others that are just html5. Do you have any recommendations or experience of any of these sites?
3) I don't mind purchasing software to help get the job done. I'm in the process of mocking up a prototype in Adobe XD; but after that I'm fairly at a loss.
Any help would be much appreciated.
Kind regards,
Chris.
Yes its possible to host the application outside of the app store. For this, you will need to register with Enterprise developer program (https://developer.apple.com/programs/enterprise/) . You need not deploy the apps to app store if you sign the app with an enterprise distribution certificate.
You can use the code got from these hybrid sites to build the application. I dont have recommendations now
Glad you're getting started in XD! That's always a great way to prototype!
App development requires knowledge of languages like Swift, C#, Objective-C, C++. However since you are familiar with basic web languages (html, css, js) I would recommend looking into Nativescript(https://www.nativescript.org/).
It's a platform that allows you to build an actual native app using web languages. Read the docs (https://docs.nativescript.org/), watch some tutorial videos(https://courses.nativescripting.com/courses/nativescript-with-angular-getting-started-guide/lectures/2692194), and you'll be up shortly. It uses xml but you'll catch on pretty quick if you haven't used it yet.
Best of luck m8
Cheers!
I know it's kind of an 'open' question to ask but I simply don't know where to start. Let me first tell you a bit of my experience/background so you know the level I'm at:
Build cd-roms with Lingo back in the days
Started web/front end development in the HTML3.2 era and kinda left off when XHTML was hot
Worked with Javascript 1.2 up till around 1.6 and later started working with Jquery
Actionscript up to 2.0, building websites and games
Did quite a bit of PHP/mySQL development. Build custom CMS' and later Drupal module development
All this was during internships or as a freelancer, everthing self thought by the help of books and such
So now I'm stuck with this idea to build myself an app. I've decided it should be an hybrid app as my target audience is very small but 60% is iOS and I don't want to leave out Android. Also I've been getting familiar with HTML5/CSS3 and started working on components for my app.
The basic concept for the app is that it's a layer on top of Google functionality: profile, calendar, circles and hangouts. Users will (eventually I hope) be able to create events for other users to rsvp to, they will be able to add eachother as buddies and chat about the events. A small step functionality wise but a huge step for me :)
I'm thinking of using the Crosswalk project for the Android version to counter the biggest issues around hybrid app development.
I've been reading up for the last months in preparation and the more I read the less I seem to know. Here's the stuff I think I should know more about;
Node.js
Gulp.js
Dev environment to work in (I once worked in Homesite, later Dreamweaver - don't laugh)
Packaging tools, etc etc.
Crosswalk project
Now I am not looking for some drag and drop software package to build an app in 3 days. I don't want to take the easy route per se, I don't mind a bit of a learning curve. I work on a Win8 machine, I know this isn't optimal but I can't change this.
Now where should I start? I was thinking NPM myself but you guys might think otherwise. Any good books on the stuff you think I need to learn to get me going?
Thanx for the advice!
I can share my experience with Cordova.
I work like full-stack developer and i'm quite expert to build responsive website, so the natural step to approach mobile dev was try Cordova.
First You can start to build HTML document totally responsive and try as webpage on your target devices.
A cool stuff, targeting mobile devices, is that You can use new CSS3 directive, without worry for compatibility with old browser.
First I installed Cordova following this tutorial.
https://ccoenraets.github.io/cordova-tutorial/create-cordova-project.html
Opening the folder /www on your project you can edit your app like a website, and you can also debug with the browser like a normal site.
To enhance the feature you will find a lot of plugins ready on github to extends the native functionality at the Cordova/phonegap project.
I suggest you also to build using onsen http://onsen.io/ a framework that let you use mobile UI easily.
Last tip that i can give you, if you target Android is try your apps on virtual machine, i use Genymotion https://www.genymotion.com/ that is much more fast then SD<
Good luck with your first app!
As you can imagine, there are a lot of framework where you can start.
Looking on your skills, maybe is better to use JS/HTML/css stack, but in this case, you will create an hybrid app in a webview.
In my opinion, webview applications quality it's only acceptable, but because of his productivity, in some cases could be the best decision.
Another good alternative is react-native. This framework allows to create a native application using javascript. React has his own markup language, is very similar to html. JS code is executed on native device using an embedder javascript engine, instead of webview, so, performances and experience can be compared to native applications.
And, at the end, my alternative, a framework I've made to write native UI and share business logic for each platforms. You can take a look on aj-framework https://github.com/bfortunato/aj-framework
I wanted to get a more experienced opinion on something I recently found out. A couple of months ago I set a goal to build myself a mobile app, and the first thing I did was go to developer.android.com and begin reading documentation on how to go about doing this.
I've invested a lot of time in understanding Android Studio and how to make simple apps (and I'm just now getting the hang of it all), but I just recently read about frameworks like PhoneGap(which let web devs who know HTML,CSS, and Javascript make apps too).
Before learning Android, I taught myself web dev through the Odin Project, which taught me a fair amount of HTML, CSS, and Javascript (little iffy on this language, but I'm sure it's something I could pick up easily since I already have a bit of experience).
I'm wondering what you guys feel are the limitations of using these frameworks and whether I should switch over to them, as opposed to continuing with Android since things are beginning to click for me.
Thanks!
I have developed apps for both Android and Phonegap. Phonegap takes advantage of your web development experience and lets you build mobile apps with ease. But it's not a replacement for Android API itself. A good phonegap application requires knowledge about web development and Android API.
However if your aim is to develop an android application, and you are comfortable with web development and Android, I would advice to take Android API.
Phonegap as wonderful as it is for web developers, and startups who can't afford to have dedicated resources for Android, iOS separately, has its limitations.
Performance : Phonegap app's performance is not at par with a native
android application.
Functionality : As one would expect you can't have all the functionality support a native android application has.
Look : You could easily tell apart a phonegap application from a native one. Given phonegap renders all the content in a webview, the look of native ui elements is lost
I think you will always need access to the native API to make good apps.
At least the navigation should be native, so that your app has the look and feel that the user expects, and so that stuff like the back button get correctly handled for you.
Even if there is some plugin that does that for you in a perfect way, I believe it's beneficial to know how Android works.
In the end, frameworks like PhoneGap add a layer inside your app rather than removing one, and it's always better to understand what goes on inside your app.
So the time that you've spent learning native Android won't be lost.
However, it makes sense to use HTML/JS if you want to share code between different platforms.
I think this article from Basecamp shows a very compelling example: https://signalvnoise.com/posts/3743-hybrid-sweet-spot-native-navigation-web-content.
I have been researching PhoneGap and I'm now at an impasse and need some advice. I know that PhoneGap essentially 'converts' html5,css,JS sites to 'apps' for distribution, which leads me to my question:
Why wouldn't one simply utilize a webview within an activity to do the same thing and keep the app native?
The advantage of PhoneGap is that it provides APIs that enable your HTML/javascript to interact with the phone (e.g. camera, accelerometer, media etc.)
These APIs are standard across multiple devices (iOS, Android, WinPhone, Blackberry etc.). So you can write one set of HTML/javascript and deploy to multiple platforms.
If you just created a WebView you would not have the PhoneGap APIs and you would need to build containers on each platform you were interested in.
Good question I have searched me too, because we went in Phonegap solution and I think it is a wrong way for us.
The long story:
That is very true if you write once a UI with web developer skills than not needed to know native language and it compile, and ready for testing.
Web developers are more so higher the demand => developer price even cheaper.
When the client want a Milestone 1 for his great idea it will ask a few company, freelancers about development price and time. If is a very basic application version with Phonegap you will have the less development cost( off if your web dev skills are the same laver as platform dev skills) with webView at second place and last one the native.
The client is satisfied with app result buit with Phonegap and want to get more investors so it will make a presentation, where they are asking more features.
At Milestone 2 you will add a few features. Some are easy command line install and you get it, some aren't. Maybe you will be unlucky as you want a combination of 2 existing plugin with a few extras. The conclusion will be: you have to develop a plugin. At this point is already a very big sign of interrogation which is cheaper: the Phonegap + Phonegap plugin or a WebView. If you need 5 existing plugin and your has a little modification, than still Phonegap. But if you need only 1 plugin, only yours, than the web view is the proper way. There are also cases which makes the Phonegap stucture useless. Also there is a problem with version control system under Phonegap if you develop web files, and native code too: some are regenerating at each build time some not. Still is expensiver the native platform. Now the required features are developed. The client will make a demo for investors, where will be visible execution speed with this new features. Or here they will require optimisation, runtime speed-up or after publish to market they will see some are running with low end phones and not the ultimate, which ws used at demos and they will decide to go to Milestone 3 : speed up.
At optimisation, speed up (Milestone 3) you will decide as you need native GUI. After all GUI developed with web now you will need to throw out at fence and implement the side, maybe some parts need even NDK to speed up. No way to be good here with Phonegap. But you have hired web developers, or contracted that company. Now go back to that company , developers which can make native code. They will not start from 0, so they need to analyse the code, refactor and your development price will go up at least with 50% as you would start it from 0 with native.
Good Question, you still could use webview for that but you won't be able to access native functions like ringtone, camera, and all that, however, the app done that way will be regarded as a native app.
I would like to create a mobile app for iPhone, iPad and Android (don't need other platforms for now). I am a web developer, so building something using web technologies is great, but the end result must also be as native like as possible (the user shouldn't notice) the difference.
The application is not complex, it has a few screens with simple stuff like lists, toolbars, tab bars, transitions, etc.
I've researched a lot and the best solution so far for me looks Sencha Touch and PhoneGap.
What do you recommend?
Edit: I think that many things have changed over the last year so I think that many resources and other Stack Overflow questions ;) are old now, that's why I'm asking this.
A good option for mobile web development of simple apps is jQuery Mobile + Phonegap. If you are a web programmer, you will feel right at home. Both projects are actively developed so things are just getting better.
You first develop your app in a browser (Webkit, e.g. Safari) and then use Phonegap to put this web app on a mobile device.
Android
For creating Android apps, you don't even need other tools, you can just upload a zip file of your app to Phonegap Build (an online service) that will compile your app into an .ipk file, which you can just upload to Google Play! Easy.
iOS
For iOS it is a little harder, but still manageable. Here, Phonegap have created an iOS project, which you can open in Xcode, then drop your files in and publish the app to App Store. The process is harder, since you have to first take care of all the developer certificates, provisioning profiles, etc., so be prepared for some hair pulling!