I'm maintaining a plethora of apps for one of my clients all of which have native projects for each of the three main platforms. The apps are relatively simple in functionality. My client wants to always take advantage of the latest features in each platform for marketing opportunities. They also want to appear to be a native app (responsive, not laggy). I haven't followed cross-platform development very much lately, so that's why I'm reaching out to SO.
My initial idea is to write a C++ library that has all the functionality shared by the three platforms. Then, for each platform, I'll write some network, file access, and UI-code that connects the abstract library code to the concrete platform.
Of course, this is exactly what cross-platform systems aim to do. Would it be a waste of my time to write the above myself when this has already been done by platforms like PhoneGap? My concern is that I would be dependent on a third-party. If I write the code myself, I have full control, and I will always have access to the latest features.
Hope to get some pro's and con's.
Thanks!
Yet a third option (after Facebook's React Native and Microsoft's Xamarin) is Google's new Flutter and as the other answers suggests "then writing the Windows app purely natively". BTW, React Native does have Windows support the lack of which in Flutter could be a plus or a minus depending on how you look at it.
Have you considered using React Native for iOS and Android, then writing the Windows app purely natively?
There are tons of articles out there about pros and cons for React Native.
PhoneGap is just a web, written in HTML, CSS and JavaScript. React Native actually renders native components for iOS/Android.
There is also Xamarin. It supports multiple platforms and uses c#. The new features from the native languages all work great.
Related
So I created an app on android studio and now my boss wants me to get it to work on Apple devices.
Is there a short cut to get an Android App to work on Apple devices ie iPhones, iPads and so on.
I really don't wanna create a whole other version for Apple devices.
Impossible. An option is to create hybrid application using Xamarin or Flutter which will run on both iOS and Android. That means you need to migrate you current implementation to hybrid app.
There are several options to do it and each of them has pros and cons so choose wisely.
Hybrid App
A hybrid app allows you to build a cross-platform mobile application with web technology. There are plenty of options you can use like Ionic, PhoneGap or React Native. But since you have built an Android app with the native code I assume, those existent features need to be rewritten in order to run on an iOS device.
Xamarin/Flutter
They are both create a native-like experience. The advantage of them comparing with hybrid app technology is the performance would be better in general. But again, it doesn't mean that you can just create an iOS app without changing any code, you'll still need to rewrite most of part in your app.
Kotlin Native
As an android developer, you're probably familiar with Kotlin. It's officially supported by Android team and It's 100% interoperable with Java. Kotlin can also be compiled to run on multiplatform including iOS. By this way, you'll be able to reuse a lot of existing Kotlin code on both Android and iOS so you don't need to use a new language to rewrite all the functionalities you had done on Android. The cons are It's an experimental feature so It's young and could change on the future and the reusability doesn't mean that you don't need to learn iOS platform.
I am looking for a Multi-platform mobile app development framework.
Key features i require are:
Support for Background Services for synchronization
Database support
Which frameworks are better suite for these?
My research comparing React Native and Xamarin so far says that react native used more often in industry and has more developer support available but officially they only have 'headless-js-android' for Android for running services. Xamarin on the other hand has the support for running services on both platforms.
I need some guidance from someone who has worked with both technologies.
Thanks.
The following is a list of multi-platform mobile apps development frameworks:
Adobe PhoneGap: https://phonegap.com/
Appcelerator Titanium: http://www.appcelerator.com
Sencha Touch: http://www.sencha.com/products/touch
Ionic: https://ionicframework.com/
Sinpalm: http://www.simpalm.com/services/sencha-touch-development-developer
Check them out and let me know which one got your attention.
This is an oversimplification on the way they work:
They allow you to create a user interface with HTML5 and JavaScript.
Then, via JavaScript injection, they provide you with a standard API framework.
This JS API framework is a common interface to both Android and iOS. Therefore, you only focus on coding against the JavaScript API framework. Behind the scenes, they have libraries that will execute this API in the respective device.
Most of them allow you to use the database and other features provided by the respective OS (Android/iOS). You only need to check which supports the feature you need better.
Is it Reccommended to use JNI and C++ Code to make a shared library code between IOS and Android ?
I'am asking this because i think it not just saves us plenty of wasted time for implementing same logic in both platforms but also we will have the speed of a C++ core Backing the logic-process of our modules.
Update :
I ask my question in another way :
is it recommended to share a C++ Library for core functions of Android And IOS versions of a similar app ? or it would be better to completely migrate the codes to a multiplatform language ?
Since I remember my needs back then, I know that hybrid apps were not an option, Also JNI is not used for making cross-platform apps but the best use is to drive hardware peripherals via native UNIX scripts for Android or run c++ code on Android. So if we omit PhoneGap, Appcelerator, Ionic etc we will be facing several cross-platform technologies that have attracted many developer attentions so far.
Xamarin:
The framework was founded by the same people who have created Mono, an Ecma standard-compliant, .NET Framework-compatible set of tools. Xamarin offers developers a single C# codebase that can be used to produce native apps for all major mobile operating systems.
Unlike many other frameworks, Xamarin has already been used by over 1.4 million developers from around the world. Thanks to Xamarin for Visual Studio, developers can take advantage of the power of Microsoft Visual Studio and all its advanced features, including code completion, IntelliSense, and debugging of apps on a simulator or a device. Xamarin Test Cloud makes it possible to instantly test apps on 2,000 real devices in the cloud. This is by far the best way how to deal with the heavy fragmentation of the Android ecosystem and released bug-free apps that work without any major issues.
But being honest I didn't enjoy my first time face-to-face meeting with Xamarin. There were so many bugs and also speed and performance problems were bothering.
React Native
React Native is developed by Facebook and used by Instagram, Airbnb, Walmart, Tesla, Baidu, and many other Fortune 500 companies. It is an open-source version of Facebook’s React JavaScript framework. Because React Native uses the same UI building blocks as regular iOS and Android apps, it’s impossible to distinguish a React Native app from an app built using Objective-C or Java. As soon as you update the source code, you can see the changes instantly manifest in an app preview window. Should you ever feel the urge to manually optimize certain parts of your application, React Native lets you combine native code with components written in Objective-C, Java, or Swift.
The ones I mentioned above are not the only options, but since now they are the most used frameworks between programmers. But beware that Flutter is being publicly announced by Google in Google IO and maybe it may be going to create a hit soon.
Read a number of questions on writing in just one language for both iOS and Android and what I learned is that it depends on the special functions you need. What I want to build is a very simple app that will ask the user what he or she is doing. We need this for billing the customers but my co-workers keep forgetting to update their time-sheet, so I want to write this little app that pops-up every x minutes and asks them what their doing. At the end of the day the list will be sent by e-mail or whatever.
Anyway.... is a pop-up from an app from the background a 'special' function? Can a general language be used on both for this?
Edit: I have searched for crossplatform tools, but all replies talk about specific functions that still require native coding. That is why I was wondering if something as simple as a popup with question and entering / saving a text, would be native or could easily be handled with a crossplatform tool.
You may use Xamarin to create a cross platform applications. I am satisfied with Xamarin platform at the moment. I have been working on native iOS, java for Android also.
Please keep in your mind that, it would be great if you are familar with these platforms because Xamarin is just a wrapper of methods which exist in the native platforms. Since I am familar with native Android and iOS, it makes me comfortable when I work on Xamarin platform.
My personal recommendation is to stick with Native platform. But if you have to work on cross platform, I believe Xamarin is a good option.
Pros:
If you are familiar with C#, it will help you a lot to develop an application for android, ios and windows platforms in Xamarin.
It is demanding platforms, and many big companies are looking Xamarin developers especially after the Microsoft acquisition.
Cons:
You need to buy a license.
There are other platforms as well, but I did not use any of them. Here are some of them
Cordova
HTML5
Unity
PhoneGap
Appcelerator
Corona
Qt
You may find useful the following urls
http://appindex.com/blog/ten-best-cross-platform-development-mobile-enterprises/
http://www.developereconomics.com/pros-cons-top-5-cross-platform-tools/
For sure what you describe can be achieved with using Ionic. Its a free solution and it comes with a lot of good documentation to get you up and running quickly. You'll need to use AngularJS for developing apps with Ionic so that might be a good solution if you know your way around that framework, or if you are familiar with Javascript or have done some web development before.
On regards to your question regarding native functionality (by popups I assume you mean notifications) Ionic sits on top of Cordova so there is a huge amount of native plugins that you can use to implement native functionality. You can take a look at plugins here.
Hope this helps!
I hope this question is specific enough. I have a client for whom I made an iOS native app and an Android native app (same app, different platform). It's a fixed pixel design (I made this work for Android somehow:) and it works on iPad, iPhone and most Android devices (with some letterboxing). Now I am asked to write the same app for the Windows store and they want me to use HTML and JavaScript. My question is, when I use HTML and JavaScript, would it be "easy" for me to use this code into some sort of hybrid solution (PhoneGap, etc)? The app doesn't need much complicated functionality but does need to support push notifications on iOS and it needs to be able to play videos, preferably HLS. Any advice on what the best hybrid solution and do hybrid solutions allow you to build for Windows 8?
I'm a cross-platform developer working on PhoneGap and Titanium Appcelerator. The correct answer is "It depends". Currently the state of cross-platform development is not very recommendable. Yes, you can write plugins for PhoneGap and it does support windows phone but you will have a ridiculously hard time getting them to communicate with each other properly. I learnt this from experience.
If it was a hacking/hobby project to further the cause then I would say go for it but for a time-bound client project like yours, I would recommend against cross-platform solutions and go native instead. Plus native always gives considerably better control, speed and ease of development. You will probably develop it faster in native than cross platform anyway. I've played around with windows SDK and it seems easy to use and well-built with good documentation and you can use C# which is similar to Java since you have already used it on android.
You can also build windows 8 desktop apps using html and javascript natively but this isn't present in windows phone 8 yet.
As I mentioned, If you don't need too many native controls, then you can go cross-platform. For your requirements, it can be done. If you have already developed android and ios apps and only need windows app now, then going native would be easier. But if you have to make all 3 then you can go cross platform if your requirements are restricted to what you mention. Here's a good quora thread that discusses the pro's and cons:
http://www.quora.com/Is-Titanium-good-for-developing-iPhone-apps
Take a look on Xamarin
Main idea - they brings real native code for all platforms.
They have instruments to compile C# code that it can be used at all platforms
For example you should create UI in XCode (for iPhone) and use ModoDevelop to create DAL/BLL, then you can re-use C# code base over all other platforms
They have cross-platform iPhone/Android/WP7/W8 samples on GitHub
Also see Q&A on Stackoverflow tagged Xamaring
We are starting to build multiple apps for multiple clients both in IOS and Android native platforms. The problem is we are going completely native which is taking too much time.
I would like to look at the linked in method (http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/10/a-behind-the-scenes-look-at-linkedins-mobile-engineering/) which is a more hybrid approach using HTML and native code.
The problem is I don't think Phonegap is that good - good for prototyping but maybe not for full versions of apps as it can be a bit slow and a bit buggy.
I would like to look into doing a model where we create like 65% HTML and 35% native to that device (like linked in)
Would anyone have any suggestions for this? Would people say we need a massive development team to pull such an approach off?
I welcome thought:)
Thanks