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.
Related
Can you advise whether there is any way to get the dynamic, visual content from the website in the Android mobile app?
To explain it better – this is what we offer to the customers on computer & mobile device (any of those 2 visual, interactive toursis placed on the website through iframe):
https://itoma.co.uk/our-online-virtual-tours/
Instead of a browser on the mobile - we want to give our customers the same experience in Android app (with extra functionality already there) e.g. imagine this app with this added feature instead of pictures of a building.
Any ideas on how to deliver it please on Android?
Any apps that you'd know that already achieved that so we could check it out please?
...
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.
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.
I ask a suggestion about a user Experience issueaccessing a browser URL on a mobile phone:
how can a "basic" user EASILY can access a web app on the browser of a handset (mobile phone/tablet, with possibly a solution not dependent on the specific OS (as usual: Android (mainly I'm interested on this OS)/iOS/Windows Phone/etc. on the handset ?
In other terms:
How can I set a simple OS-indipendent (BROWSER-indipendent) URL desktop-shortcut ?
I explain better:
I realized a simple html/css/js/bootstrap web app (e-commerce) to be used from a handset. Some screnshots here:
https://twitter.com/solyarisoftware/status/478946171420155904/photo/1
https://twitter.com/solyarisoftware/status/477373808551411712/photo/1
The web app (that user access through the browser of the handset) could be a possible valid alternative to an expensive native app. But I have this problem:
because my application is an e-commerce (in food realms) that could be used by a vast body of people tipically "inexpert" ... in facts many users that access phone apps have difficulties to just enter a URL on a web browser...
I confess I get bored myself to enter a long URL, let say:
http://mysuperbecommerce.com/mymarketplace/myshop
so, how to do to SIMPLIFY the access to the URL for the lazy/inexpert users ?
I thinked about some possible solutions:
SOLUTION 1. A BROWSER DESKTOP URL SHORTCUT
(obvious! you could say!) Of course, but this is not so perfect:
- is usually a specific feature of the browser... and by example in my case, with an Android phone, with Chrome. Dolphin and native Android browser I get confused myself to save and retrieve shortcuts ...
- is dependendt by the OS
SOLUTION 2. "DIRECTORY" APP LUNCH AN "INTENT"
I thinked about a native app that just act as "redirector", I read here and there some Android code: the native app just start and run the "Intent" giving a URL to the browser... make sense ?
Maybe something interesting here:
Adding URL shortcut to mobile screen through a link on the website
Nevertheless I'm asking if there is a better way, maybe an (Android) app just made with this scope ? (I didn't find it)
SOLUTION 3. HYBRID-NATIVE APP
Ok... Embed the web app in some Hybrid-native framework (as Phonegap/Cordova)
Any suggestion welcome!
Thanks for your patience
giorgio
A possible "solution" for Android OS I used
is this very essential "Web Shortcuts" app:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.unknowndevelopers.bm
BTW, There are someones similar: "ShortcutToURL" or "URLWidget" apps.
Is not a perfect solution, any alternative suggestion still welcome.
The company I work for is exploring creating "an app" version of their online video delivery webapp. The webapp is HTML5 and streams video. Nothing too scary but a lot of the stuff is server-side authentication with third party video hosts, code that will never be in a mobile app for security reasons.
The webapp has a lovely mobile stylesheet that works fine. We want an app that:
Shows a quick splash screen (and even that's optional)
Load the existing mobile website (not include it within the app)
And have the ability to specify an icon, give it a name and then shove it in the relevant marketplaces. That should satisfy the marketing department and it means I stay in control of what the app actually does.
Yeah, it's possibly the laziest app development ever... But, what's the simplest way to generate something like this? I was imagining there might be something out there already where you feed it your starting URL, splash screen, icon and name and it hands you back a multi-platform app.
Note: I'm not looking for something to create an app that looks like the mobile website and I'm not looking to put the content of the mobile website inside the app, I essentially just want a browser that loads the real mobile site.
Have a look at https://www.shoutem.com/. They provide a service similar to what you seem to be looking for but they charge royally for it. Considering the extra features you can easily add with their service your marketing department might just smell profit from using it and may therefore happily sign it off with their well known satanic smile.
There are a number of websites which provide easy web app development for a website. One of the famous is App Maker . Others include:http://www.viziapps.com/ and http://ibuildapp.com/
Since posting this, I have found:
http://www.websitetoapp.net/create
Feed it a URL and an Icon and it'll give you an Android app. Pay $5 and they'll disable adverts. Seems like it might be perfect for the Android half of this project.
Now, is there anything out there that will do this for other platforms?