I'm trying to build an application which must be cross platform and must work like a native android app. I have built apps on phonegap but never i have got a native app like feeling. Is there is a framework or anything of that sort which might help me to achieve this?
So far i have used
Jquery mobile, phonegap, appcelerator, trigger.io
Any advice suggestions and help are welcome.
And also i got this feeling or need when i came across this http://www.aldomatic.com/jqm/fb-menu-style/index.html and i wanted to build a facebook like menu which feels more like native but it should be HTML5 based app.
Unfortunately I cant think of any mobile web framework that will provide you full Android look and feel. There's only iOS look a like framework called Kendo UI.
Best thing you can do is stick with jQuery Mobile and use a theme that has a closest resemblance to a native Android look and feel.
There are 2 of them, some older and some newer:
https://github.com/enathu/jqmobile-android-holo-light-theme (Android 4 look)
https://github.com/jjoe64/jquery-mobile-android-theme (Android 2.X look)
Also jQuery mobile 1.3 has a sliding panel you showed us in your link. Even better, sliding panel used in your link is the jQuery Mobile panel.
I've recently found this one
http://www.jquery4u.com/mobile/nativedroid-free-theme-jquery-mobile-1-3/
it's the closest to native android theme i have found.
Hope it helps!
Related
I am having mobile compatible website, it is highly responsive and do all what I need in mobile.
I just like to have an android/ios application, either it can represent my website as container.
Do we have any tool for the same. Is there any way to achieve it, as I do not want to use any mobile hardware like camera, geolocation and any other.
If any container of android or ios can provide a simple interface by opening my site in it, it will be a great option.
Kindly share your view on the same.
Have a look at this article about layouts.
A mobile application provides a different user experience than a mobile website. In your case if you don't want to use the mobile version of your site in the browser, then you need to create an application with a native UI.
For Android:
In my opinion, you should consider using the Empty Activity template from Android Studio to add a WebView inside it that will point to your website.
For iOS:
Seems like iOS Dev kit has the same kind of view.
For Windows Universal Apps:
Their Dev Kit has it as well.
Alternative:
If you feel more comfortable with web technologies, you can consider using Apache Cordova to build a mobile app from web sources.
Conclusion
All the native solutions presented are not that hard to implement (Less than a few hours), they just need you to play a little bit around with the native developing.
Cordova, the web-to-mobile solution, would also need you to play around with it.
Happy mobile developing !
I need help?
Can i make android apps using only html5, javascript and css and from
scratch.
Yes. Build your web application with responsive view features and add a json manifest file to let the android browser add it to the home screen as an app. The next time your users opens your app by clicking on your app icon in the home screen it will work like an app(full screen,no address bar etc.,) . You don't have to even put your app in web store.
But the API's supported are minimal compared to a full fledged native app.
The complete list of supported api's here . You might be surprised to see some api's like the battery api, offline storage so have a look.
Real world example:
visit aliexpress in your mobile browser and add to home screen.
React Native is probably the most popular library for developing Mobile Apps using Javascript. Note that it doesn't exactly use Javascript, but is built on top of the React library.
Alternatively, there's a framework called Electron that uses Javascript,HTML, and CSS to build an application. It is built on top of Node.js. It was primarily made for building Desktop Apps. But you can use their Native Node Modules for building Mobile Applications.
You can find Electron here: https://www.electronjs.org/
The docs for the Native Node module for Electron: https://www.electronjs.org/docs/latest/tutorial/using-native-node-modules
yes, you can do. please check following:
http://phonegap.com/products/
It will help you.
What I am trying to do might not be quite difficult but I am confusing myself. I am trying to build an app only for Android that will play videos for my company.
As I am not an native Android developer what I did is using html, jquery and phonegap to create and bundle my app as a web view which will help the end user installing the app instead of going to a URL and then open it.
Now here the challenge starts for me, I am looking for touch optimized design which should look like a native app. I can use twitter bootstrap , foundation or any other CSS framework to make my design responsive. I also know how to make ajax based animated page loading which will help me in preventing complete page load.
The real issue: is css the only and right way to design a mobile app? Does apps like Facebook , Youtube also make use of Css to design their native apps?
I do not want to use jquery mobile because I simply don't like their design patterns.
Again, my question might seems to be foolish. What I want to use are industry standard tools to build my app, even if I have to dig into Android tutorials and learn it from scratch.
Any help ,links or guidance will be helpful.
Native apps do typically not use HTML/CSS, and instead use the widgets etc provided by the platform. That's what native means. Facebook recently switched from a web view/HTML5 implementation to native (at least on Android).
I am currently developing Android Applications and would like to enter into IOS developing. Many have advised the use of cross platform development tools. I hav searched and found nothing solid. Can anyone suggest a good cross platform deveoping IDE for IOS and Android. Please give suggestions that is sure to work.
I have worked with these both Cross platforms. these are simple to use.
Appcelerator Titanium for cross platform applications.
Using this you can Create rich native iOS, Android, hybrid, and mobile web apps from a single JavaScript-based SDK
PhoneGap
Developing with PhoneGap gives you the freedom to create mobile applications for iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone, Palm WebOS, Bada and Symbian using the web code you know and love: HTML, CSS and Javascript.
Cordova/PhoneGap works well between iOS and Android but the down side is that you have to use HTML and javascript to implement your application. Native elements such as maps require quite a lot of work although there are many plugins for them. Unfortunately plugins are not standard.
Style sheets and html are good, because they make it relatively easy to scale the application over the huge array of screen sizes.
Window phone has problems with standards and old models are quite slow, but perhaps there is an improvement in WP8.
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