I am beginner in designing user interface for web based mobile apps. Is there any software on Mac OS X that i can use to develop user interface of web based mobile apps easily without using too much of CSS or HTML5.
E.g I developed some pages using Microsoft PowerPoint for Mac. Since my app requires a lot of pictures any program with easy drag and drop features would do. Thanks!
For web based mobile apps you mean mobile app written with web technologies such html5 or css?
Because i don't think that drag-and-drop UI builder exist, apart from MIT App Inventor, but it will generate java code.
You can use a framework like http://phonegap.com/, but it will require html5, css and javascript.
Related
I am planning to develop an ecommerce application for web browsers and mobile platforms. I am a java developer. I will prefer java as a backend technology but I am not confident which technologies are best for front-end.
can anyone tell me which technologies are best suitable for front-end for below platforms:
1. browsers web application
2. android app
3. ios app
First of all, AFAIK you should choose those technologies that will help you be more productive!
According to me, native-fan, I suggest you use PhoneGap (CSS, HTML5 + Javascript FRAMEWORK) for your purpose.
PhoneGap helps you to write one application which you will deploy for android ios or browser. You may also need to adjust your UI Features (such as width/height etc) to match a given device.
Many cross platform solutions has come out for ios/android/tablet,etc, why not just use web instead? web is the best solution for cross platform and using javascript in HTML5 can achieve plenty of features. So we could develop web-based cross-platform application instead of mobile apps and all you need is a browser (might be different from desktop browsers). However, consider some special features in mobile apps, like sensors, we could implement a javascript framework for mobile apps to achieve mobile features. Any thoughts on that? is it doable?
There are attempts for Mobile Web App Frameworks Ionic (AngularJS). Why stick to native apps? Here's a good benchmark why-mobile-web-apps-are-slow. The main reason - Javascript is too slow for mobile apps for now to fit every app requirements.
I am going to create a mobile web application that will run on all web enabled mobile browsers. It will involve searching and booking of hotels and flights. We already have a desktop applocation developed in JavaEE, MySQL for the same.
What do you suggest I should use - PhoneGap or Titanium for this task?
What are the advantages and disadvantages to use each?
And what technologies should I know or learn to use each of these?
Phonegap
What is PhoneGap Trying To Accomplish?
The purpose of PhoneGap is to allow HTML-based web applications to be deployed and installed as native applications. PhoneGap web applications are wrapped in a native application shell, and can be installed via the native app stores for multiple platforms. Additionally, PhoneGap strives to provide a common native API set which is typically unavailable to web applications, such as basic camera access, device contacts, and sensors not already exposed in the browser.
To run a PhoneGap application on a native emulator/simulator, developers will generate a project for each of the native platforms they wish to support, configure that project’s “web root” directory in Xcode, Eclipse, or whatever native toolchain is needed, and then run the project using that tool.
Strengths of the PhoneGap Approach
Any native platform that supports a web view or web runtime can be a PhoneGap platform.
Anyone who can write HTML, CSS, and even a small bit of JavaScript can wrap up a web page in a native app and distribute it as such. The barrier to entry in using PhoneGap to package web pages as native apps is extremely low.
Weaknesses of the PhoneGap Approach
The quality of the user interface in a PhoneGap application will vary based on the quality of the web view and rendering engine on the platform. The Webkit-based rendering engine on iOS is strong, and provides the best performance. The Android web view is functional, but has some notable limitations.
PhoneGap also cannot be extended with native user interface. The end developer’s application its self lives inside a web view, and user interface is rendered in HTML.
Titanium
What is Titanium Trying to Accomplish?
The goal of Titanium Mobile is to provide a high level, cross-platform JavaScript runtime and API for mobile development (today we support iOS, Android, and the browser, with BlackBerry 10 and Windows Phone coming soon and eventually, respectively). Titanium actually has more in common with MacRuby/Hot Cocoa, PHP, or node.js than it does with PhoneGap, Adobe AIR, Corona, or Rhomobile. Titanium is built on two assertions about mobile development:
There is a core of mobile development APIs which can be normalized
across platforms. These areas should be targeted for code reuse.
There are platform-specific APIs, UI conventions, and features which
developers should incorporate when developing for that platform.
Platform-specific code should exist for these use cases to provide
the best possible experience.
Strengths of the Titanium Approach
Get access to a wide array of native features and functionality out of the box, from user interface components to socket interfaces to notification system integration.
Weaknesses of the Titanium Approach
Titanium platform is only available on what have been deemed the most critical mobile platforms at present: iOS, Android, and the web.
Some user interface components do not yet perform as well as their native counterparts under some circumstances, such as very large table views with highly customized layouts.
Source Link : Comparing Titanium and PhoneGap
Hope this helps.
Both Phonegap and Titanium are free for developing mobile application and to develop apps using Titanium, you should need basic knowledge in javascript since it is simple javascript combined with Titanium API while we can use most of web technologies like HTML, Javascript, CSS etc. It's purely depend on what type of application you want to create. More simply if you want to create simple app that does not contain graphs and drawings you can simply use Titanium but if your app contains graphs you should use Phonegap.
I am .net developer. I want to develop an application for mobile devices. As i am a web developer i am well versed with web technology & scripting languages. I am a big fan of JQuery so, i found something Jquery Mobile Framework for mobile application development.
So, I've got few questions:
Will this framework help me develop web applications or only for designing purpose?
Can i use my Jquery knowledge to implement web application using Jquery Mobile Framework?
Can i use Jquery AJAX in mobile app development?
It won't help you build a mobile "application" but it will help you create a mobile enabled web site.
It will help you build the front end of a mobile web application.
Yes
Yes, if you are referring to mobile web applications.
The back-end technology you use does not matter. I've built several .NET MVC sites using jQuery Mobile, which have all worked pretty well.
jQuery Mobile will help you build a website, you can then view that website in a browser or package it into an app. If you want to create native applications out of HTML/CSS/JS then you will need an intermediary step that lets you run a webview as your app. PhoneGap is an example of a framework that allows you to use native APIs while building your application in HTML/CSS/JS.
Your knowledge of jQuery will come-in handy but you will be forced to think about a jQuery Mobile website differently. For instance, pages are not HTML documents, but pseudo-pages that can be in separate documents but can also have multiple pseudo-pages inside a single HTML document. And because remote documents are brought into the DOM via AJAX (for animated transitions), you need to code your site to use unique IDs across the whole site, not just from page to page.
Absolutely! jQuery AJAX makes creating dynamic websites and native apps easy. You basically just load a bunch of views (in HTML/JS/CSS) into the app. package and then your server does the modeling. One cool thing to take into consideration is that since you are running from a mobile app., there is no domain from which the response is sent, so there is no cross-domain-policy to worry about.
If you have not yet checked-out PhoneGap, do so, and also see the documentation on the jQuery Mobile website regarding how to create PhoneGap applications using jQuery Mobile:
http://jquerymobile.com/demos/1.1.0/docs/pages/phonegap.html
What's the intent behind a framework like Dojo or jQuery Mobile in the context of developing a cross-platform app?
I want to rapidly prototype a mobile app GUI that includes a schedule/calendar. In this case, would I use Dojo instead of just PhoneGap because I would want to also have a web browser based app that goes alone with my mobile app?
Mobile JavaScript frameworks like those provided by Dojo or jQuery theoretically allow you to
write mobile browser independent client side code for web based applications. In other words, you as the developer do not need to be concerned with writing specific code for each mobile browser.
Dojo (or other JS mobile toolkit) and PhoneGap are generally complimentary. PhoneGap is for access to native device services which aren't yet reflected to the browser, like camera or telco access. Dojo and the other toolkits generally let you create mobile-style UIs (may also run on Desktop browser, but would look like a phone) and handle things like touch and scroll gestures. And, as Peter says, cross-browser issues are also handled for you.