I am new to mobile development with a requirement to develop applications for Android and IOS. My programming background is in C#.
Which is the best language and framework to start developing mobile applications?
Is it better to use native development or use cross-platform frameworks?
Please suggest frameworks and languages with respect to ease of development, development support etc..
I am no expert in Cross Platform Mobile Development (in fact, I was just searching for a cross platform mobile development languages/frameworks), but you could take a look at Xamarin, especially as you have a C# Background.
You may also want to take a look at Apache Cordova (and Adobe Phonegap), they use HTML+CSS+JavaScript.
I recently found Flutter, the development language is Dart and it's an early stage OSS project (as of 2016 october) and Haxe. They both seem like active projects, so worth following the progress on GitHub.
If I had to choose and I already had skills in C#, I'd go with Xamarin.
I strongly recommend you give a try to Flutter... It just came out from Google... It's in Beta, but Google heavily used it until now in production mobile applications. It uses Dart, as a programming language and it's awesome. If you have a background in C# (or similar languages, like Java for example) you won't have any problems - it's quick to learn and there are a bunch of tutorials already.
Do a search on YouTube for Flutter, and also on medium...
Here's the website link: http://flutter.io
You can also download some sample applications with all the Android / iOs widgets you can use in a Flutter application. Here's the app for Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.flutter.gallery&hl=en
The key difference between Flutter and React native for example is that there's no Javascript bridge... and it compiles to native code. You also write the code once, and it will work by default both on Android and iOs... Hack, you can even switch to iOs widgets on an Android phone.
It's AWESOME!!!
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'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.
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 have developed a project on android but now I want to make it compatible for ios also. How a project could run on two operating system?
I would suggest doing some research on cross-platform development such as https://xamarin.com/.
You should be able to use the general logic behind your android app to develop the code using xamarin.
Android and iOs are totally different platforms so basically you cant just run an Android app on iOs. But you can try using cross-platform tools like Xamarin to publish your app in several different platforms. For example in Xamarin you write your app with C# and publish it on iOs and Android at the same time.
There are different flavors you can use to develop on both platforms. It all depends on your skills and preferences, or whether you want to learn something new. The most popular languages are the following:
Xamarin - Used mostly as a plugin with Visual Studio, and based on the C# programming language.
Cordova - An Apache language which lets you develop for both platforms.
Phonegap - the Adobe flavor of Cordova.
Sencha - If you are more into JavaScript, you can use this flavor to develop apps for both IOS and Android.
Kindly note that all of the above are subject to subscription and payment, although flavors like Sencha come with a free version too.
Hope this helps.
is it possible to develop android apps using Visual Basic? if yes, how?
i have been working with it for a while and eclipse is quite difficult to use. i'd seriously prefer using VS
MSDN has a fairly useful library article about cross-platform development in Visual Studio with links on how to install and use the Xamarin or Apache Cordova tools.
Xamarin seems to only support C#, but maybe you could look at using a tool such as ILSpy to decompile a binary created from VB into C#
It is possible to develop android apps using VB.Net and Xamarin.Forms.
Xamarin allows you to develop cross platform apps using .Net framework - however, Xamarin users in most cases use C#.
Source - Xamarin.Forms using Visual Basic.Net
Another way would be using ionic framework, cordova or phonegap (pretty much the same, with different GUI's).
You will code the app in JS, HTML and CSS and can compile it as native app for iOs, Android and other devices.
You can read more here
It would be possible yes, but I'd recommend you to take a look at Android Studio.
It's a very nice IDE using Java to develop android applications.
You can also use Intel XDK. Very easy to use and flexible in choosing a framework, like Ionic or Jquery Mobile.
Yes, you can develop Android apps using Visual Basic. Look at the product called "B4A" (Basic4Android) by Anywhere Software.
It's basically like developing in VB6 for Android, and has built-in visual designers and emulation connectivity. You write all code in BASIC and it compiles down to native Java and APK files. No special frameworks or runtimes are required. Unlimited in its capabilities due to its ability to use Java code in modules (if desired), it's a truly amazing product. it's also as popular as ever. 100% of the code you write will be in BASIC - NO JAVA, C#, or anything else). If you ever want to know where all the VB developers went, now you know.
You're welcome. :-)