Im looking for a mobile SDK that has the following for iOS and Android (BB and Win Phone are bonuses):
-In-App Purchases
-Notifications
-Native UI
-Camera
-HTTP (need to get info from different websites)
Preferably just have to write all of this once and it work on all platforms (optimistic I think)...
What are the frameworks that support this? I have looked at RhoStudio which is what I plan on using but would love alternatives as I am not overly familiar with Ruby (but will learn it if it's the best option).
You can use NSBasic App Studio and Phonegap Build. It seems to do what you want, and it works on Windows. With Phonegap Build you can build for iOS (developer account needed), as well as Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry, WebOS, and Symbian. I personally have used it before and it's quite good. You can get a free trial, and the full version is $99.
What about Sencha touch? I don't know if this is what you are looking for so just a suggestion.
Related
I want to develop a Meteor app that will be deployed for web and mobile app (Android & iOS). I will use Windows on my dev machine. I will use WebStorm as my IDE.
What are the easiest ways to get my app deployed into the app stores?
I want to minimise extra configuration effort and duplicate code.
=== Supporting info ===
Some possible solutions I've come across are:
nitrous.io - but costs money
Vagrant - but looks complicated
When I run >meteor install-sdk android I get This command is not yet available on Windows. since it's not supported.
I'm asking this questions in March 2015, when official Meteor for Windows is still a release candidate and there are no plans to for mobile support on Windows in the near future. (See: https://stackoverflow.com/a/27698104/1369798)
Buy a Mac.
As much I loathe, them, I got a bottom of the range Mac Mini. I discovered there are many aspects of Meteor that don't work on Windows. Another one is their testing framework, Velocity.
Testing? Who needs that... :/
I am using http://www.macincloud.com since a couple of days, you can pay per hour. Those remote desktoped Macs have almost everything pre-installed you need for developing (besides the actual meteor stuff).
Definitely not a good idea if you want to check weather your app runs smooth in the ios emulator. But good enough for building and deploying iOS & Android apps!
I am using Nitrous.io for anything not compatible with Meteor Windows. When you register you get enough credits to run a small VPS like the one you can have at Digital Ocean for 5$. You can also refer friends and do some other stuff to get extra credits.
They also have a great desktop tool to synchronize files between the Nitrous.io and your computer.
So, I think it is a good choice and definitely easier than the Vagrant option!
In December 2015, the situation is still the same. I had a hard time today deploying my Meteor app on Android. I wrote down my findings, I hope it helps you too. It's here: https://geekycarrot.blogspot.com/2015/12/deploying-meteor-app-on-android.html
In a nutshell: It is possible without buying a Mac, but you need a Linux operating system, at least in a virtual box. You need to install an Android SDK on the Linux system. Building the app from the Linux console is somewhat tricky, but it can be done by the steps I described. Deployment can be simplified to one click with a short Linux-side and a Windows-side script.
I'm currently planning a cordova app targeting Android, iOS and Windows Phone 8.1. No I'm wondering on which build workflow I should rely on. On the one hand there's builind via the command line interface (CLI) of cordova, on the other one there's Intel XDK (for Linux in my case).
Is thre anyone who has experiences with one or both types and could share his/her knowledge with the community? Are there any bottlenecks with Intel XDK? Is it usable or not worth a try. Is it hard to production-build the app for those 3 platforms on myself (at least android doesn't seem too hard)?
Bye The_Unknown
The question will be flagged shortly, I am sure. :-)
The XDK is pretty good, but is possibly overambitious in some areas. I'd like to see them dump the AppDesigner (GUI builder) portion of it, and focus all efforts on the remainder of the toolset. It is integrated with Crosswalk for Android so it is quite slick for that platform. There is a brand new release of the XDK out in the past couple of days. Their new cloud build service is not building for WP8 right now, so you would need to use the legacy service (which is accessible within the IDE). As a general aside, the team supporting it at Intel is remarkably active on their support forums and appear highly responsive when I've seen production-related issues arise.
A quick comment I would make is that the more your app may depend on "non-core" Phonegap plugins (i.e. not the ones that are part of the Cordova/Phonegap base like Camera or Notification) the more you will be pushed into building the apps for testing rather than doing emulated or on-device debugging in one of the harnesses.
Personally I am taking the approach of using the XDK, but minimizing my reliance on the various XDK plugins when a standard Cordova plugin will work. I figure this way if I need to switch to Cordova or Phonegap Build at some point, the migration should be fairly painless (or at least easy to determine needed changes), while in the meantime I do get some of the niceties the XDK provides.
I have worked with Intel XDK before but i haven't taken a look into it for over half a year so i don't know what updates have been applied to it recently. I have only worked with cordova for an hour or so and my experience with it until then wasn't great to say the least.
In my opinion it's still better to create native platform apps for each platform. It will cost more time and requires more knowledge, but it will give the users all the UX they are used to from their own platform. This will make a more unified experience for users and they will appreciate it. And ofcourse there are endless amounts of tutorials online.
Hope my answer helped you a little
I'm a web developer in ASP.NET, C# and looking to start some mobile development. I'm aware Apple uses Objective C and Android uses Java, is there a way to create an app for both platforms or do I need to buy a Mac and some books on objective c and Java?
Thanks
You can use http://phonegap.com/ or http://www.appcelerator.com/platform to write cross-platform apps.
Rumour has it that Delphi XE3 (Due to come out soon) can be compiled onto Apple, Android, Windows 8 etc.etc. so if you can hold out a little longer that should be good!
For now, you are better using a mac (with XCode) to program for IOS or OSX as Apple is very particular and you need certificates for devices, projects, development and distribution etc.etc.etc.
Android i believe you have a bit more play with, but at the moment it is 2 seperate languages. Check out the DEV centres:
https://developer.apple.com
developer.android.com/
There are ways to create apps for both platforms, especially if you know web technologies : PhoneGap and others.
But like specified in the doc, you will most probably need an actual mac if you want to build to iOS
Although there are workarounds
You could use PhoneGap or Appcelerator. Haven't tried them myself, though. But with those tools you could build for both Android and iOS.
Since you are a .Net, C# developer, i recommend you to use Mono for Android, it comes with cost but will save you time and easy to deploy
http://xamarin.com/monoforandroid
The best way to be truly cross-platform is to develop for the web. I would include this in your consideration of development strategies, in addition to PhoneGap and Titanium, as Peter mentioned. You do not have as much access to core OS features, but that is improving all the time (see http://mobilehtml5.org/). Whether or not this is feasible depends on what you are trying to accomplish.
I'm facing a dilemma: I have a solid ASP.NET development experience in C# and looking to start mobile development. I have done research and know that there are some hacks for getting a development environment for iOS on windows, and recently after Apple lifted ban on 3rd party dev apps, Adobe Flash CS5 can be used to package iOS apps. I do have some prior experience with Flash and AS2.
So my question is: should i use Flash CS5 for iOS and MonoDroid for Android or should i just get Mac and learn Objective C for iOS and learn Java for Android? What would be the most practical solution?
Thank you in advance
EDIT: In the end, after trying out both Java Development in Eclipse against Android SDK and Mono for Android, I decided it's best to write Android apps in native environment. Eclipse FTW! As for iOS, I think it will also be best to use native Mac tools and Objective C.
While there are ways to get around using Objective-C for iOS development, I'm going to recommend that you learn it anyway. You need a Mac to deploy anyway, you might as well use it to develop as well.
Objective-C is bloody bizarre when you first start using it, with its strange square brackets and odd ways of doing things. However, once you've spent some time writing code in it, a change happens in your brainmeats and you suddenly realize that this is really an elegant way to work. Xcode is also quite an excellent IDE.
You can start with the iPhone Applications Programming lessons on iTunesU from Stanford. It's free, and covers what you'll need to know pretty throughly.
Worst case, you've learned a new language, and how Apple thinks iPhone apps should be developed. Even if you ultimately use something else, that understanding will help you out long term.
Take a look at monotouch & MonoDroid (Coming Soon), it still requires a mac. But you can open your solutions in VS2010 and use resharper, and just use the Mac for deploying and building. Take a look at this Here to open monodevelop solutions in Visual Studio.
http://monotouch.net
For Android, I would recommend learning Java. I just started working with Android in Java on my Windows machine after developing some ASP.NET sites. I'm familiar with Java, but the syntax is so similar to C# that it's very easy to understand and pick up. So far it is more difficult figuring out and remembering the details of the architecture of mobile applications as opposed to the language. It also helps that there are a number of good books and online resources for converting from C# to Java and vice versa.
Update: I found a good post over on programmers.stackexchange.com that talks about C# vs. Java for Android development with good discussion on the pros and cons of switching: https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/33076/as-a-c-developer-would-you-learn-java-to-develop-for-android-or-use-monodroid-i
#Dimitri I was almost your identical skill set when iOS 2.0 was released. I decided to try and learn Objective-C and now its my language of choice. Its a bit different to start with but most of the changes are simple to learn. Whether you are programming for iOS using Objective-C or something like Monotouch either way you have to learn the frameworks. If you use Monotouch you will never be able to be on the bleeding edge of the iOS enhancements. Using Objective-C you will be able to use the latest beta APIs and ensure your apps work right. You will need a Mac to deploy to the App store so just bite the bullet and get a Mac. Get a MacBook Air 13"
I went the route of Monotouch for iOS and Java for the Android. Unfortunately, Monotouch still requires a Mac. I am currently participating in the MonoDroid beta, which looks pretty promising too. It's all a matter of taste. I should also note that, for the most part, HTML/Javascript is a nice way to get portable apps in some circumstances. I would expect HTML5 apps to become even more viable as tooling improves.
I choose to use the Mono, MonoTouch and Mono for Android technology stack from Novell. When coupled with a micro framework like MonoCross (open source in Google code) it helps me write applications for both iPhone and Android devices while leveraging a shared code base for much of it. I would highly suggest the same route, it has allowed me to implement numerous solutions for small businesses and enterprise customers alike.
I didn't have the ASP .NET experience like you, but I was a Pocket PC/Windows CE developer so C# and the .NET Framework were also my strongest tools when I started on journey towards Mono many moons ago.
You can do iOS,Android and Windows using Xamarin.
Android and Windows can be done easily but doing iOS on Windows was tough so far like networked mac is required for debug and development but things have changed now.
Microsoft has introduced Xamarin Live Player using which you can debug,develop and deploy the app completely in windows without the help of any Apple system but to sign and release the app to appstore you will need Apple System though
would like to build an app that can run on any of the new PAD's hitting market.
I don't want to limit our users to a specific OS.
What is the best solution to allow all these pads to use our app.
The app needs to be able to run offline.
Thanks!
You could write a web application and use HTML5 for off-line caching.
http://diveintohtml5.ep.io/offline.html
Alternatively, you could try and use Titanium Mobile.
http://www.appcelerator.com/products/titanium-mobile-application-development/
You should also spend some time reading this discussions:
is-there-a-multiplatform-framework-for-developing-iphone-android-applications
technology-to-write-iphone-blackberry-and-android-phone-at-the-same-time
Have a look a MonoTouch, it will let you write all your logic in C# over all the main mobile platforms. However you still need custom UI code for each platform, but as least it will all be in C#.
(Better then having to use C#, Java and Objective C)
You could use Adobe Air that could works in most of Mobile/Tablet operating system Iphone,Android and Windows 7. but im not sure if Apple will approve your App if you plan to released to the App market.
Another way to think about it is to create an HTML resources and then integrated in away seems native to the system its more work but you will have a higher chance to get approved from apple and the app look more integrated with the OS .
The obvious -- and currently free -- answer is to use Adobe FlashBuilder to develop iOS apps. There is an iPhone and iPad emulator included. This does not use xcode, but you get most of the features to work with, and you can also develop Android apps from the same set of code. Further, with minor modifications for mouse usage, you can also have the apps run on any desktop as an Air app.
Adobe's website has detailed directions for how to create iOS apps on Windows with Adobe Air, though the most useful instructions for Air are from untoldentertainment.com.