I have got a fully working phonegap 1.6.1 application, built in HTML5. I'd like to make this page refresh itself from the internet (replace the in-app html file with the online one, and save it for later), but when it is not possible, just do nothing.
It is on Android (2.3.7 & 4.1.2)
Is it possible?
I would really appreciate if you could send me a code (script) that helps.
P. S. I'm doing the job in DreamWeaver without any databases, etc.
Thanks in advance!
You need to whitelist your website in order for it to be allowed to take over the WebView provided by PhoneGap.
http://docs.phonegap.com/en/1.9.0/guide_whitelist_index.md.html
https://build.phonegap.com/blog/access-tags
Are you wanting to replace the actual html with what is found on the corresponding web site or are you trying to update content on the page? One is possible the other is not as your html index is compiled into the adk and not really editable on the fly, per se. You may update content dymanically from the web, but I'm pretty sure it is impossible to re-compile your apk on the android device itself.
However, if your html file is nothing more than a web view or iframe of your web site, then it will work, provided the app may reach the internet. The problem is that your app will not work if not connected to the internet. However, you could write a js routine to pull a default html view when internet access cannot be had.
Related
I have just created a website based on prestahsop template (PHP + SMARTY), and I have made it work online.
Now I want to migrate the project on mobiles. I searched for several means of doing that, finally I am about to use PhoneGap for my solution.
But I have no idea if that can encapsulate the whole project on the mobile platform, and ideally be launched on Apple store. If not, I would like to get some advice to make changes.
Anyone having former experience can come to help? Thanks so much!
In addition to andre3wap response, you can use Prestashop Webservice API to link your application to your website. I've already done this in the past, the tricky part comes when you need to create an order in your Prestashop website from your application. But it's completely doable.
You will have to create an HTML + Javascript application with PhoneGap, that calls Prestashop via Ajax requests. If you want your application to work offline (and only create the order when the customer is back online) you will have to load every products on installation and sync when the app is online.
It's a lot of work.
EDIT related question: How to integrate prestashop with android?
If your web site only consists of HTML pages, yes; PhoneGap will be able to do most of the work(Just upload your HTML pages in a folder to build.phonegap.com for the conversion), there are other methods that can do the conversion, but that one is easier to me. (Read their documentation)
If your web site was created from a server side language, NO, phoneGap will not be able to fully convert it into a full fledged HyBrid App.
It gets very tricky when it comes on to Server Side scripting + phoneGap. What you can do is build html pages, and create "APIs" to load the data in the APP and use JavaScript to parse the data respectfully. (That phoneGap can handle)
You can read this article for an even more detailed explanation:
Usefull Article
I'm trying to do some simple website application for displaying my website and add some specific functionality to it.
My idea is to do something like Facebook app for mobile. Simply I need to display a website and replace File input - users should be able to capture a picture from camera or pick it from gallery (multiple select) and attach it to a post.
TL;DR;
Check images in the bottom.
What I have tried:
Using Cordova with Camera and Image picker plugin and displaying webpage in InnAppBrowser
Taking pictures with camera and picking pictures from gallery and then uploading them to server - there is a lot of examples of it.
What troubles I have found:
InnAppBrowser is forced fullscreen so I cannot resize it and place some buttons for picking pictures under it.
What do I need:
I just need to somehow attach images (from gallery or camera) to form file input or upload them to some kind of api instead - the api would process images on server and return some IDs which I can use instead of file input in the form on page to attach images to the post. Some hidden input where I would just insert IDs of uploaded images to be attached to the post (I'd write some if conditions into my PHP script).
I need my application to be multi-platform (Android, IOS, WP) so that is the reason I'm using Apache Cordova. I've tried lot of solutions and I've searched like for 5 hours. But I wasn't able to find anything useful.
Have somebody some experience in this way? Did somebody make some kind of that application?
If you can suggest any solution (it is not important to be a Cordova but it must be multiplatform) I'd be glad!
Thanks for your time!
Images
There is screen of desktop version with normal file input:
There is my vision of mobile application version with camera and image picker option right under web browser:
I guess I was not clear. The technical answer is Cordova/Phonegap are not for creating website applications. This means technically there is no "correct way" to do what you are asking.
For a website applications, all the pages are rendered from the website and controlled from the webpage/webbrowser.
For a mobile application, all the pages that the application can directly control are rendered on the mobile device. However, pages can be rendered (and/or created) from either the server or the mobile application, but the control of the page stays with the side that rendered (or created) the page. There is clear line between the two sides that can be moved, but at the *peril* of the programmer. (There are no points for being clever here, only added security issues.)
However, the Cordova and Phonegap do have plugins.The entire purpose is to use plugins to make certain task easier. However, there is a clear line between the phone and the website. To be clear on this last part, this means that all of the "plugin services" on the phone (accelerometer, contact list, etc.) are directly available to the application, and not the website. However, some of the "services" are also available as HTML5 APIs, such 'camera' and 'geolocation' – mixing the two is dangerous. The HTML5 APIs should remain on the webserver side, if used. The UX is different for HTML5. (I will not discuss HTML5 APIs any further, as they are beyond the scope of this discussion)
To make your idea work, you will need the following "core" (or equivalent third-party) plugins
file-transfer
camera (or equivalent)
inappbrowser
On the file-transfer and camera, you can do everything from the webserver, if you want. Then the only task for the end-user is to select the appropriate folder and image. If you do this from the server-side, then you CANNOT use the plugins.
If you want to use the plugins, then you cannot use a server-side generated webpage. You must create the form on the mobile device. This means the page and the form reside on the mobile device. However, if you write your webpage correctly you can dynamically add or delete elements. This means on the mobile side you have control over every step of the user experience and can enhance that experience.
On the inappbrowser, a common trick is to put the website in an iframe. However, you have no direct control on the iframe. Another common trick is to submit to the server via an API – then have the visible webpage update separately. Another common trick is to have a webpage with a websocket that could handle the webpage update. However, this could also be done with a push to the webpage, or have the webpage do polling of the server. Again, the App has NO direct control of the webpage.
This entire thread makes the following assumptions.
There is no "correct way" to do this task.
The images (photos) are stored on a website, and are publicly available for viewing.
It also assumes that no HTML5 APIs will be used.
If I interpreted your problem statement correctly, I believe what you are looking for is access to device native services - camera & gallery - from your mobile website.
A solution that fits your design requirements is for the browser to provide such services. Unfortunately WebKit and other browsers limit such support to things like Geoposition.
The way for Cordova to help you here is if your mobile website is an stand alone HTML5/CSS/JS application that can use CORS XHR or WebSockets to communicate with webindependent Web Services.
If you can bottle your website into a set of static html/js/css files that display content from dynamic web services then you are set. That same javascript can then call navigator.camera.getPicture(success, fail, options) and file-transfer the result to a waiting web service.
That camera api is not available to the InAppBrowser just as it is not available to WebKit Chrome/Safari/Edge. Trying to control the Mobile App via the InAppBrowser is most likely to fail due to security constraints.
What you might get away with is re-imaging your browser application as a series of discrete services that return raw html snippets suited for a new mobile app. Then write your Cordova app as the top level container that manages the navigation amongst the html snippets. This server-side rendering would be most useful if it was significantly challenging enough to overwhelm the mobile platform / web services pattern (think custom video server or expert system).
#Jakub,
Cedric has essentially stated it plainly. I will restate. You understanding about Cordova/Phonegap is not correct.
From: Top Mistakes by Developers new to Cordova/Phonegap
You have hit issue #5.
I QUOTE:
From Phonegap FAQ
A PhoneGap application may only use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. However, you can make use of network protocols (XmlHTTPRequest, Web Sockets, etc) to easily communicate with backend services written in any language. This allows your PhoneGap app to remotely access existing business processes while the device is connected to the Internet.
In addition, Apple frowns on using apps as wrappers for websites.
Quote Apple iTunes Guidelines - 2.12
Apps that are not very useful, unique, are simply web sites bundled as Apps, or do not provide any lasting entertainment value may be rejected
To be clear, your idea may be valid, but you will likely need to rethink your internal workflow. You likely want to keep the same UI and UX.
I am using Titanium to create a application for Android. The app uses webview to load external HTML5 webpages. The webpage uses a manifest to cache the page and some assets. This works fine on desktop browsers and third party app browsers in Android (Chrome).
When I view the page in a webview in the Titanium build app, it seems that the manifest is not used, the page just loads everything from the server. The same problem occurs when I use the build in browser of my phone (HTC one X).
What I am trying to accomplish is that the pages are offline available, so that internet is not required tot view cached pages. Is there a fix for this problem, or should I go look in another direction to solve my problem?
the manifest file:
CACHE MANIFEST
# version 1
leerlingen.html
jquery.js
style.css
handler.js
NETWORK:
*
First: Titanium provides much more than a WebView. If you planned to display only web pages you maybe should have a look at PhoneGap / Cordova which might fit your needs in a better way.
As you've noticed not all browsers support HTML5 Caching feature as expected. I can't say if it doesn't work for Android in general or only for your specific version because WebKit usually does support it but it depends of the used WebKit version. And this could be different.
EDIT: It seems that (in native android) this feature can be enabled as written here: Application cache in HTML5 doesn't work in Android PhoneGap application. This is currently not possible in Titanium (there might be inofficial tweaks i don't know but from http://docs.appcelerator.com this is not possible).
Personally i'd prefer another solution. Cache data by myself and display it if there is no network connection. But this depends on what you try to achieve. Having few content which doesn't change often this would make sense. Having dynamically changing data (like twitter stream for instance) this would be difficult. Also it depends on your users and where they want to access your app.
And there is an open question: When you want to use all the caching features why do you want to create an app? Creating a simple mobile webpage would do the same job. When creating an app i wouldn't use the Caching Features of HTML 5. You should keep all the static resources in your app and simply load data from the network. This can be achieved by both Titanium and PhoneGap / Cordova. Titanium is more useful for a native UI and some native Features while PhoneGap / Cordova would be more appropriate for HTML5 based layout.
Just in case someone else is running in the same problems that i was facing, here is what i've done. HTML5's application cache does not seem to work in the build-in browser of Android and with that the webviews. In Titanium there seems to be no way to control the webview as to enable the application cache.
The work around for me was to use Titanium and it's httpClient function (Titanium.Network.HTTPClient) to request the files (HTML, CSS, javascript) and store it in the local app filesystem (Titanium.Filesystem).
i am planning to develop an hybrid application using phone gap. i want to download html pages,images & other resources from a web server instead of keeping it inside the phone gap application bundle.
is it possible to do so
is it the right way to avoid updating the application in the App Store frequently or
will android, iPhone, windows reject our application
Yes it is possible with phonegap, nothing can prevent you from loading html file from remote source. Here's my other answer on this question: https://stackoverflow.com/a/13996437/1848600
Unfortunately no. While we can say this is true, every error will brake every available app version, while if you create version by version customers will always be able to use previous ones. Also Apple apps store will ban such app.
Android/Win7-8 app will not be rejected, iOS will be rejected immediately. Here's my other answer on this question: https://stackoverflow.com/a/14436328/1848600, no point in repeating.
Yes, it's possible.
you have 2 choices to implement it. simple way is just start on web server url. but, you need a code for including cordova script file that matched target device.
another way is check & download files.
In this case, you need to write some code of phonegap for update-check, download contents & change start URL.
During you have no reason for changing native code, my answer is Yes.
exactly Apple doesn't allow to update app logic without AppStore or load page in web server, but i don't know really it is.
is it possible to programmatically access the website that is currently displayed within the Android browser?
As far as I know the native Browser doesn't handle plugins (please correct me if I'm wrong), so I thought that reading the browser cache would be an option.
Is there a more sophisticated way to get the currently displayed HTML?
Thanks in advance!
S.
is it possible to programmatically access the website that is currently displayed within the Android browser?
That would be a security violation, so, no. Also bear in mind that there are several Web browsers for Android.
As far as I know the native Browser doesn't handle plugins (please correct me if I'm wrong)
The standard browser app supports plugins, but not ones downloaded on the fly. So, for example, it supports the Flash plugin (on Android 2.2+), but you have to install Flash separately first.