I'd like to develop an application with versions both for PCs (Windows, Mac, Linux etc) and mobile devices (iPhone, Android etc). I would like to share/reuse code between these platforms as much as possible below the GUI layer. The GUI layer itself may be specific or shared between some platforms. I'd like to use web technologies where possible, so prefer to do shared code in JavaScript and at least PC GUI in HTML.
There are no fancy GUI requirements, but focus is rather on synchronizing and storing/searching a lot of data (possibly gigabytes) and receiving notifications about updates on it.
What (set of) application development stacks would you suggest?
Update: Specifically, I'm looking for the tools or libraries that:
Can produce installable applications on each platform (installable exe, apk etc).
Allow the applications to run completely offline using synced data.
Minimize the number of different APIs and implementations my shared code needs to worry about (same database API, as few different DOM implementations as possible, etc).
F ex, I could make an HTML-based Adobe Air application for PCs and then use PhoneGap on mobile. Or are there better offerings for my use case?
Web is your friend. You're going to need a web-based api and a web-based database. Presumably you're going to be creating a web site as well, so as you're creating the web site you should be looking to put all of your business logic into an API (or creating controllers which can output to either XML/JSON as well as HTML for your front end website).
This way the GUI can be created natively on each platform, and most of the "business logic" goes through the server.
You could even create one GUI (web-based) which can be "responsive" (i.e. changes depending on the device you're viewing it on.. see Twitter's Bootstrap for inspiration) and all you would need to create natively is a web browser/web view based app which would be a window onto your website.
If you're set on cross platform dev then Mono looks like your best bet. It claims to be cross platform onto Windows, PC, Linux, iOS and Android - although as you already suspect you will be creating separate apps for all. You might be able to package the business logic into frameworks or plugins which can be shared across all the platforms which might suit your needs. Its expensive though - for a company it'll be fine, but if this is just a "side project" then it might be a bit too pricey.
Related
I'm on a bit of new ground here and perhaps this is a repost (if so>sorry).
I need some pointers on which direction to go. I have previously made an android app and found myself using most dev time on the UI. I wish to design the UI with HTML5 and distribute it to android and iOS .
I researched a lot about native and hybrid in order to focus my effort. Came across a bunch of platforms like PhoneGap, Appcelerator, Trigger.io and AppGyver (found the latter two appealing). But now I'm confused...
I basically wish to to make an intraweb environment that allows a team to develop HTML5 content that feeds data into a database while keeping the development and database under strict version control.
Thinking of such a setup
Local server hosting the source HTML5 code and database(s) - git upstream.
Development is then done by git on desktop computers
The mobile/tablets pulls the source (git origin) and creates instances that pull request the data entries to upstream (and thereby all other remotes)
Multiple units can work on the same instance and contribute to pull request data to the origin. They see changes right away (logic should assure no conflicts - thinking of pinging the devices)
No need to distribute new app via app stores if some new html5 is added (no behavior changed so no manifest violated).
Currently I'm considering making a native app that has a webview and performs git commands, but I'm fearing that I will get stuck (have no iOS programming experience). Is this overkill?
I'm not at all against the hybrid suppliers - just wondering if they will let me achieve what I aim for.
If anyone has some links to online tutorials on how to archive similar task or can provide usefull hints/pointers then I would appreciate it.
I'll upvote all answers that helped me and set the solution for the one that helped me most.
I worked some years with web technology packed into native apps. You have to consider two things.
First, your app will be just a simple HTML page or it will have fancy UIs, very dynamic UI interaction and animations? If it is complex and very dynamic, stick with native apps. The main advantage of them is the performance, it is VERY superior to WebView packaged apps in HTML5.
Second, the WebView have MANY usage restrictions. It is not like the Chrome browser that you use in your phone/tablet. Too fancy operations will likely have problems with WebView, and the extra time you've spent constructing UIs you will spend working around very annoying little problems.
Another concern, using git bundled in your app will be hard to integrate with the WebView due to its sandbox restrictions. I surely would not recommend to go that way. If you don't use the native phone hardware, like camera and others, you can show in the WebView a remote HTML5 site. It is a much more simple and secure option.
Another thing to note. These packing JavaScript libraries have different objectives. The Cordova (PhoneGap extends this with some Adobe powered features) goal is to make available to your JS code the native phone features, it has nothing to do with UI. The Ionic that was mentioned is focused on UI development. There are other libraries that are focused on UI and are used with PhoneGap/Cordova. My suggestion for fancy and dynamic UIs using HTML5 based technology is the Sencha Touch framework, that is bundled in ExtJS 6 now. Although they are paid framework and require advanced Javascript programming. The learning curve is very big.
Concluding, if your goal is faster UI development and the apps are simple, you can go with Cordova and another UI-focused framework. But I suggest to forget the complicated Git "on-the-fly" app update. If your app uses many native features and has very complex and big UIs, stick to native due to performance.
Another thing to note, well developed native apps consumes (in most cases) much less network bandwidth and battery lifetime.
I hope these informations help you =)
I might suggest looking into Ionic, it is a quote:
Powerful HTML5 SDK that helps you build native-feeling mobile apps using web technologies like HTML, CSS, and Javascript.
Ionic is focused mainly on the look and feel, and UI interaction of your app. That means we aren't a replacement for PhoneGap or your favorite Javascript framework. Instead, Ionic simply fits in well with these projects in order to simplify one big part of your app: the front end. We recommend reading Where does the Ionic Framework fit in? to get a good understanding of Ionic's goals.
Ionic currently requires AngularJS in order to work at its full potential. While you can still use the CSS portion of the framework, you'll miss out on powerful UI interactions, gestures, animations, and other things.
What I get from this is that Ionic integrates with PhoneGap.
I'm not sure how well this will help, but I think it will be useful in your search.
PhoneGap - Is as of yet, the single most comprehensive suite that allows you to leverage HTML, CSS and Javascript in a way that will give you the ability to have a single source solution and publish to the mobile landscape.
Using your scenario:
Create your application in local Webserver (Intranet)
Utilize the PhoneGap API to improve data access and UI.
Publish to GIT/SVN for versioning
Build with PhoneGap (Build Service - a cloud service that takes the zip of source code and then you choose your platform)
Publish as Private/Public to the Device Target (IOS, Android, WPhone)
In this way your HTML5 Application and your Published/Packaged App on the Devices you chose would be identical; and the WebApp and DeviceApp will remain in synch.
Useful PhoneGap Tutorials:
PhoneGap Tutorial 1
PhoneGap Tutorial 2
Hello everyone and thanks for viewing this question :)
I am an indie to-be-developer and want to make apps for android, windows 8 desktop and metro.
After having read through a lot of forums and blogs, I believe that perhaps to make the best looking(native-feel) apps I have to learn
Java for Android
HTML,CSS and JS for Metro
Something else for Windows desktop
What I need your help in is, whether there is any one particular language which I should start with which will make my journey better ?
By app I mean something to do with sharing and transferring of files.
P.S. Read that Python might be perfect !
Do you agree ? Please suggest something.
As Tanis alluded to, you'll need to determine where your goals are in terms of "rich functionality versus maximum reach" - and from your "best looking (native-feel)" comment, I'd say you're leaning toward "rich"
Pure HTML5/CSS/JavaScript will give you the greatest reach because of browser ubiquity, BUT you can still use HTML5/CSS/JS for native development for modern Windows 8 applications and via PhoneGap for Android and other mobile devices. Having one code base AND supporting native features across those platforms would be difficult, if not impossible, but with the right design and architecture you should be able to get a great amount of reuse of your HTML/CSS/JS assets.
Another option, since you've mentioned Windows Desktop as well, is to use WPF and XAML with C#. You can build native Windows desktop applications with it, and those same technologies (XAML/C#) are one of the three primary development options (along with HTML5/JS and C++/XAML) for modern Windows 8 (nee Metro) applications. For the Android piece of it, Xamarin's Mono for Android lets you reuse many of your C#/.NET assets for deploying native applications to Android (and they have MonoTouch as well to add iOS to your arsenal!)
As for Python, productive and powerful language, and great for backend services - like the plumbing for sharing and transferring files - but it wouldn't be my tool of choice for building mobile apps.
If you want the highest level of cross-platform compatibility, a web-app (typically HTML, CSS, and JS) would be best. Making a web app will help ensure that your app works on nearly every device with a web browser, and you only need to maintain one code base.
The trade-off is that you often lose some features, such as the use of some of a phone's sensors.
If you want to make native apps for each, then I would suggest Java (particularly for Android) or C/C++ (particularly for desktop environments).
Python is an excellent starting language as well (and codeacademy has some great tutorials), but isn't as directly applicable to app development as Java or C/C++.
I am new to PhoneGap, and I have several questions:
I need a way to develop an application that will have iOS, Android, and other platform compatibility. In other words, I want to write 1 app and get compatibility versions for different platforms.
By reading the "Get Started" guide linked by the PhoneGap website, I found there are different procedures for different platforms. So to have compatibility versions across platforms, do I have to go one-by-one and change all of them if I make a modification to my app?
Also, what exactly is PhoneGap Build? It seems like I can avoid all that hassle mentioned previously and toss my app into the PhoneGap Build? Do I really not have to do anything besides writing the app? What if I need to make changes?
And finally, I've read that PhoneGap works with HTML, CSS, and Javascript, but not PHP. What if my app needs to contact a server? Can PhoneGap handle that?
Thank you for bearing with all these questions!
PhoneGap achieves platform compatibility by embedding a webview within your application. Therefore you can apply your knowledge in HTML, CSS, JavaScript and it additionally provides ways to interact with native features (e.g. camera, gps, ...).
With PhoneGap you write one general web app, tweak parts for the specific platform (sometimes you do not have to this at all) and build it for that platform. The latter can be handled with PhoneGap Build service: It takes your webapp and bundles it for the mobile operating systems out there (Embeds it within a Java app on Android, an Objective-C app on iOs)
PhoneGap is able to communicate with a server hosting a PHP script just as every other web application. Trying to dynamically load resources from remote sites can be quite a hassle but this is another question.
traumalles is correct. All your HTML/Javascript/CSS is running from within a webview on the device. Your code is, therefore, all "client-side." You can communicate with a server just like with any other page. When they say PhoneGap isn't compatible with PHP, they mean only that PhoneGap can't execute PHP code like it's a server, because it's not. It's just loading your webapp in, basically, a browser.
One other important question is what exactly do you mean with "other platforms" phonegap does provide many functionality for nearly every platform but the different webbrowser of the mobile devices have their problems and limitations.
For example are there many problems if you want to provide your application on a WindowsPhone Device because the Webbrowser has a few limitations which will cause your app to not look and behave like a native app.
Just look a bit through the phonegap API you will see that some functions are just available for IOS or for Android and there are a few only Blackberry methods and so on.
So you really have to be careful when a framework tells you it will work on all devices.
So i really don't have a problem with phonegap i worked with it very great but there will be limitations you have to deal with.
If you primarily want to develop for IOS and Android you can really achieve great native like results !
I have to develop an app for the Ipad. It has to be non-browser based. That's a requirement and I can't change it.
I think it likely that the app would be useful on other tablet PC types and have a good chance of a second app which requires IPad and Android at a minimum; Windows and Linux would also be useful.
If it makes any differences these are "desktop" apps for tablet PCs and it is not envisaged that there will be any handphone development.
Is there a “Grand Unifying Theory” of cross-platform desktop app development? Is there a good IDE, preferably FOSS? I'd rather code C++ or Java and am less keen on Ruby or Python (through lack of experience) but would accept if there is no alternative.
I need a GUI builder, something like Borland Delphi or MSVC or the Eclipse Android plugin and I need a way of executing different code on different platforms (#ifdef Android … etc)
Any ideas, or should I just go ahead and code the current project for Ipad only and stick to browser based HTML5 + CSS3 with Jquery/Ajax for cross platform apps (the problem being that some will need to execute native system calls, like en/de-crypting a file and at least one app has to work in “local mode” if there is so internet access, so I guess I would have to bundle a web server (Apache) if I go browser based (in order to serve the web pages), which would not be necessary with a “desktop app”.
Any recommended IDEs, Web sites? Books? Thanks
The "grand unifying theory" is that core business logic should reside in the cloud; that allows your iOS and Android implementations to be just a thin GUI on top of this shared logic. Unfortunately, there isn't really a way to reuse the GUI, and even if you did, it would go against the intuition of users on one or both platforms, since you wouldn't be using the paradigms of those specific platforms.
Google App Engine provides a way for implementing your core business logic in Java on top of Google's cloud computing infrastructure at reasonable costs (development is free, cost is proportionate to usage, and one can put caps on how much one is willing to pay). There is an Eclipse plugin for developing App Engine applications. When developing for Android, you will similarly want to use Eclipse (there is a plugin specifically for Android development), although the Android SDK can be used just from the commandline (which is good for setting up a continuous build and test system).
For iOS, you will want to use the standard Xcode and the iOS SDK. Xcode is an IDE, but it is possible to build Xcode projects directly from the commandline using the xcodebuild command (also good for continuous building). The standard language for iOS applications is Objective-C.
You should take a look at jQuery Mobile. I used it to cross develop between Android and Playbook. I know that it also does iOS.
Maybe for you the downside is that you have to program in JavaScript.
I'm considering developing apps for Android and Windows Phone 7 that allow the user to read content from an online producer (newspaper/magazine/blogs etc). This provider has a REST API that should allow for straightforward access to the content. A few questions I have:
I saw an OData demo, where getting data from a feed was super easy, with no parsing of any sort required. Is it worth building an OData provider on top of the publication's existing API, just to make it easier for the mobile apps to get data?
I have heard that C++ can be used on wp7 and Android. Is there any reason to develop an app core in C++, then interact with the device APIs in C#/Java? Or is the core logic layer of the app so thin that it's not worth the hassle? It seems like there's really not that much to developing a publication reader app - basically just a GUI on top of an API that provides all the data.
Or, would it make more sense to just develop a mobile version of this publication's web site? Then there could be one service for all mobile platforms. What are the pros and cons of an app that runs on the device as opposed to a website specially built for mobile devices? (Like the Gmail, Google Docs, and GTalk "apps" for the iPhone.)
Thanks.
C++ is not a development language for Windows Phone 7. There are two development platforms for WP7: Silverlight and XNA. There is no possibility of interop with a C++ module.
As far as I know, C++ cannot currently be used to develop WP7 applications. I would check on that before you try to go too far down a cross-compatibility road.
That said, the UI between WP7 and the iPhone is really, really different - the backend code is so small in comparison to well-written UI later, I'd just write two separate apps. It may seem like a time savings but either your app is going to look like it does not belong to one platform or the other, or you'll be spending more time trying to keep the compatible stuff working OK on two platforms.