I've been working hard to finish making my Android app, and now it's time to make an IOS version too.
I've noticed that Mac computer is needed to start with IOS apps, so I came into few questions since I don't have any Mac device in my home:
1) What is the most affordable developement enviroment for IOS developement?
2) Is there any tool or guide for Android --> IOS?
3) What is Xamarin? Does it allow to build apps for android & IOS together? and how effective it will be since I already made my Android app via Android Studio?
Looking for answers,
Thanks in advance.
I did not find answer to this questions in the web. what I found is 5 years old aged irrelevant answers.
congratulations for your new app.
1) You can have a look for OS X servers http://www.macincloud.com but in the long term I think it would be time and money saving to just buy a second hand Mac computer or a Mac Mini for 500 dollars or so.
2) They use different syntax and different APIs, so you won't be able to reuse most of your knowledge, I'd recommend you to have a look to the iTunes University Stanford videos.
3) Xamarin is a mobile cross platform framework, the main advantage is that your code is converted into native one, so the final touch uses real native components. In that case you have to use C# for the development and, of course, redo the whole project.
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I'm finishing my Masters Degree in Computer Science and i just had this idea for a Mobile App to solve a problem i've been having for the last year or so. I have good knowledge of Java and i know that it's a good language for Android programming, but the thing is that this App would be to target both Android and iOS users.
Considering this, how do mobile developers go about this problem? Is it possible to make the application viable for both platforms or usually it works as a separate application with the same funcionalities?
For either cases, what tools/programming languages would you recommend for me to develop my idea? I'm on my 4th of 5 years but we still had no contact with mobile development.
Any other sugestions you think i might need to take into consideration when starting to develop an app are welcome!
Java can't be used for cross-platform development, as of my knowledge, but here are some great choices out there for cross-platform development. Here are some:
Flutter - developed by Google (my personal favourite)
Ionic
React Native
Xamarin
The question is does a cross platform SDK suite your needs. If you need to interact a lot with native APIs then it certainly isn't for you and you'll have to build two separate apps.
Another downside to using cross-platform tools is usually app size (for Flutter around 3-5MB larger for a simple app).
Here is my take on why I prefer flutter:
It's easy to build nice material UIs, since Google includes many material widgets
There are a lot of plugins available at pub.dev
It has close to native performance, because in opposition to the other SDKs the dart code is compiled into native code.
Hope I helped! Good luck in the strange world of app development!
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.
I am building a management web application based on php + mysql, developed with CakePhp framework.
Now I have been commissioned to develop the mobile version, mainly for android and ios devices (no windows, until now...)
leaving apart that right now i have to study from scratch mobile apps development, the questions are:
I figured out that mobile version of the app cannot be written in php...i know that android is based upon java, but what about ios?
it seems that I have to develop the mobile twice (waiting for windows os request...), so the second question is if there is a tool that could help to write once and to port everywhere (it seems the original java definition...)
Cake, even early version of it, takes to themes very gracefully. Just add to your existing website a mobile-friendly template, customized a bit for your brand look, and you won't need to learn a thing about mobile apps.
I have a 30 line Java Android app which uses WebView to connect to our website. The website was the real development and it does all the work for scaling and adjusting. The app simply makes a WebView browser connection to it, plus it catches connectivity errors and uses Toast for some messaging. All is about 30 lines of Java, using Eclipse. The app is done, fully tested, signed and is being deployed to play store.
I want to have the same app supported on iphone and ipad. My question is this:
Is xcode and rewriting the app in Objective C the fastest and best path to port the app from Java/android to ios? Is there a shortcut? Is there a translation or transformation utility available?
Phonegap/Cordova doesn't seem to be applicable here (or is it?) as the app is not a js/html/Css app. I also understand that there are no plugins for ios in Eclipse. There are tutorials on how to do this in xcode (e.g., http://conecode.com/news/2011/05/ios-tutorial-creating-a-web-view-uiwebview/) but was wondering if there is a better path.
I remember a university project a few years back that was trying to build the translator from java to objective C plus all the needed ios libraries. Not sure if it became a product at any time.
Any pointers is appreciated.
The best path is using Objective-C or Swift in XCode, since WebViews are available in iOS too, and your app will be of a length comparable to the Android version.
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