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I am interested to find out if there are any good platforms that are cross platform compatible for business apps. I know that Adobe AIR for Mobile is good for business apps and can be compiled for both Android and iOS devices(iPhoone/iPad). Outside of AIR, I don't know of any. I've looked at Corona, Unity, and Shiva 3d, but these seem to only be oriented towards game development.
My problem using AIR for Mobile is that from the experimental apps I've done in this fashion, the performance of AIR apps on Android and iOS always seem to be sluggish. Are there other SDKs that support a more responsive "write once deploy everywhere" model?
here you'll find a great article - http://mashable.com/2010/08/11/cross-platform-mobile-development-tools/
it contain mainly 5 of them -
1) RhoMobile
2) Appcelerator
3) WidgetPad
4) PhoneGap
5) MoSync
if you are looking for great performance then go for Appcelerator. It convert JS code in native app.. so performance is as good as native app.
Did you look at MonoTouch and Mono for Android from Xamarin? http://xamarin.com/
They say you can re-use up to 90% of your application logic across iOS and Android phones and tablets, and Windows Phone and then create device-native user experiences / UI with access to all the native platforms API and device sensors.
Have a look at PhoneGap http://phonegap.com/. However, testing this myself I have also found slugish performance. Having looked around on the web there is a strong battle of native vs the write once run anywhere solutions with the native option seeming faster.
check out www.madewithmarmalade.com.
Its allows you to write directly down to the bare metal, creating a single native binary that means you don't compromise speed, which I've found the problem with a number of proposed solutions.
There an English outfit, part owned by ARM, so the tech is pretty good.
For $499, you can't go wrong.
There is also AeroGear you can try.
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I’m getting started with using Cordova/PhoneGap for Android/iPhone app development and am very confused with the number of frameworks out there. I have taken tutorials by Christophe Coenraets (here and here) as a starting point and managed to get something working, but my current problem is getting a nice UI.
The tutorials mentioned above use http://topcoat.io/topcoat/ and http://goratchet.com/ but both of them seem to have very little support. But these really appeal to be because they are so lightweight and are independent of the functional aspects of the code.
I've looked at http://mobileangularui.com/ which looks great, but I'm really confused by "Build HTML5 Mobile Apps with Bootstrap and Angular JS" on the homepage - can I use just the UI "layer" or does it need both Angular JS and Bootstrap. And are these essentially different, competing frameworks?
Finally, I've created test apps with these and they all work fine on my Android 4.2 phone, but all of the have various issues (usually will not scroll) in my older Android 2.3 phone - do these modern frameworks not support a phone of that age?
Thank you in advance.
Why not try Ionic Framework
I have used ionic, angularJS, phonegap/cordova together for Android/iPhone development and its quite nice. Not that hard to learn and quite fun to work with.
Choosing Mobile frameworks is based on the requirement of the app. There are various frameworks available, most popular and widely used are jQuery Mobile, Sencha Touch and others..
This article has introduction to Cordova/Phonegap and comparison to some of the Mobile Frameworks, you can choose it based on the requirement. For best practices in Cordova, it is always better to use SPAs - SinglePageApplications for that jQuery Mobile and Angular/Backbone can be combined.
Angular vs Backbone!
For your other question on older phones like Android 2.3 phone:
These frameworks are built for/using many features like HTML 5, CSS 3, localStorage, local database as well and others.. so HTML 5 support is not completely supported in older phones/Android versions, also local storage, sqlite and many others..
You can check the support for HTML 5 here, also for others you can check in the same website or Mozilla Developer Network for JavaScript.
First and foremost - your Cordova applications should adopt the SPA (Single Page Application) design. Loosely defined, a SPA is a client-side application that is run from one request of a web page. The user loads an initial set of resources (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript) and further updates (showing a new view, loading data) is done via AJAX. SPAs are commonly used for more complex client-side applications. GMail is a great example of this. After you load GMail, mail views, editing, and organization are all done by updating the DOM instead of actually leaving the current page to load a completely new one. More.....
Examples of SPA libraries(UI) you can use in your Cordova applications are:
1) AngularJS
2) jQuery Mobile
3) Kendo UI
4) Sencha Touch
5) Backbone
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I'm developping now a social network (I can't tell exactly of what) and I want to hear some opinions.Should I use phonegap or use android and iOS?.
I asked the same question when I first started our App, but my answer was easier because I have a "time" restriction which result in us choosing PhoneGap. Here are some of my reasonings:
Do I really know how to write native app? No.
Do I know HTML5, css, and javascript? Bingo.
First, you have to understand that PhoneGap is just a embedded webview/browser inside of the resulting native app. You still have to use native code to build PhoneGap App, so you can consider learning PhoneGap as step 1 toward learning how to write native app.
PhoneGap has taught me a lot about the native app and project structure on each platform. I pretty sure it will be easier now for me to write native app than if I were two months ago.
We develop single application for multiple clients. Part of our agile approach, PhoneGap has allow us to get the application out to the client for review, feedback, and quickly make changes to fit the client need with regards to UI layout and design. Once the client approve the design; obviously, we can always convert the design to native App if the client is willing to pay for the extra effort.
If you want a good app and you are willing to put some time in it, go native.
As a matter of fact, always go native
Well, if you intend to start with something not that complex, I would say go Phonegap.
As you probalby know, the big advantage is that the HTML/JS code you produce is packed into several platforms (Android, iOS, symbian, etc..). However if you need to have more specific services like Background services to interact with the user and so on, you surely will need to develop natively, at least this part.
For example, if you need a service to warn user of updates, etc, you'll have to develop the central application (your html assets) and a background service for Android, and also a bacgrounf service for iOS, it's not possible to reuse code in this case.
So, depend on what you are going to aim at.
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I am looking for some cross platform game development frameworks. The game i am focusing on wouldn't require high-end platform dependent resources. Just a simple card game. I believe HTML5 platform would work fine but I am not sure which one.
Secondly, I want to implement multi-player functionality in the game. There are 2 things which i am not sure about
If i want to allow four friends to play one game, how should I do it? Does mobile platform has something like LAN or some other inter-connectivity options?
I want to give online multi-player options as well. Is there any server/framework which provides such functionality?
P.S:
This is my first ever project on any mobile app. Corona is good but it isn't free.
EDIT:
I am looking for some Free framework.
If it's a mobile app, try Corona SDK. You can use it to make games (or apps) for iOS, Android, and I think NOOK and Kindle Fire. It's also very easy to learn. I started using it when I was twelve, and I learned it in an hour. A simple card game could be done in less than a few hours.
As for multiplayer, you could use AutoLAN (http://developer.coronalabs.com/code/autolan or http://www.mydevelopersgames.com/AutoLAN/) for both local and online multiplayer, though I've never tried it. It used to be something like $20 but now it's free.
cocos2d-x is the best known cross platform game engine for 2D games.
Here is link: Cocos2d-x
Here is some good discussion on best cross platform game engine. click here
(1) You could in—in theory—build a networked game that communicated over SMS messages, or something wacky like that. But the general presumption these days is that people running apps and games on phones have Internet via 3G, 4G, WiFi/etc.
(It could be an interesting exercise to write a game that can be played over Bluetooth on two phones in a remote mountainous area where's no reception...but I'm not sure how big that market is.)
So the decisions come down to the usual ones for a networked app. Are you going to make it peer-to-peer so that the only software involved is one app per player on their phone? Or will you do have a server sitting out on the Internet that each client connects to, and the game is run without any player connecting directly to any other?
(The latter is easier for various reasons. One of the more interesting reasons why peer-to-peer card games are hard has to do with one client trusting another when there's no "game master". The Wikipedia article on Mental Poker may be illuminating.)
(2) Can't vouch for it myself, but people on the net appear to like mages on Android. iPhone, I dunno.
But if you're doing this as a learning exercise, you might try tinkering around from scratch just to get a better handle on the issues, rather than jumping in the specifics of any particular framework. Use JSON messages and talk to a simple server written in whatever server-side environment you feel most comfortable with (Node? Rails? Django? PHP?(no!) :P)
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I'm debating between Phonegap and RhoMobile for cross platform mobile application development. I'm a web developer with experience in Ruby as well as the traditional web technologies (HTML, CSS, and Javascript). The backend of this application will be accessed via a web browser and built with Rails. What are my chief concerns when choosing between these platforms? Which would you recommend I go with and WHY?
Thank you
Personally, I'd recommend PhoneGap because (at the time of this writing) PhoneGap has a website dedicated to it's development while Rhodes does not, and support for PhoneGap (Documentation, community, etc) is more readily available. Both frameworks can do just about the same thing by providing your phone's Web View with HTML tied to native features with JavaScript APIs. In terms of performance, they are identical because the only indicators of performance are the capabilities of your phone's web view. Plus, PhoneGap's branding is stylish and modern.
Comparing with Adam Blum's answer point by point:
No one is stopping you from implementing a Model View Controller arrangement of your code in PhoneGap.
No one is preventing you from using an Object Relation Mapper (or similar) with PhoneGap. Try googling for "backbonejs" or "angularjs".
PhoneGap has an app generator called "Build" to publish apps to all platforms easily, which is free for open source apps and up to one proprietary app, $9.99/mo for up to 25 commercial apps. http://build.phonegap.com
PhoneGap supports a large number of devices, including Windows Mobile. http://phonegap.com/about/feature
PhoneGap has a plugin for Near Field Communication (NFC) that works on Android. iPhone 5 doesn't even have NFC. http://phonegap.com/2011/09/26/building-an-nfc-enabled-android-application-with-phonegap/ This will get you started with barcode scanning in PhoneGap: Phonegap Barcode Scanner
No IDE for PhoneGap. You'll have to use PhoneGap Build or use platform-dependent IDEs to test apps.
I will just add that these are the major differentiators of Rhodes versus PhoneGap (or Titanium):
Rhodes is the only framework with support for a MVC (Model View Controller) pattern
Rhodes is the only framework with both synchronization and an Object Relational Manager, making it ideal for data intensive applications
Rhodes is the only framework with an app generator
Rhodes has broader OS support (including the only one with support for Windows Mobile)
Rhodes supports more device capabilities. It is the only framework with Near Field Communications support, realtime hardware-based barcode scanning and signature capture
Rhodes has true full IDE with an integrated debugger and a device independent simulator (something PhoneGap does not)
If you go to the google group, I think you will see that few bugs are reported there. But make your own judgement after reading the content and executing the RhoStudio tutorial (which should take less than an hour of investment). Also regression testing is executed continuously on all Rhodes checkins.
If you judge the framework by the ability to create a native app with HTML and make some device calls, PhoneGap and Rhodes are both pretty much the same. And both have few issues with bugs, as this low bar is fairly simple.
The differentiators listed above (which I summary as "modern development techniques for information intensive apps") have an inherent complexity to them. With the help of the community and a large dedicated QA staff from our new owner Motorola, these differentiator features are all now quite mature, and do not exist in other products.
Really just my two cents, I tried both (and also Adobe Flex, Corona SDK, etc), and I prefer PhoneGap, similar to #Stephan Branczyk, I had quality issues with Rhodes.
I have also observed that Phonegap applications tend to be slow on Android while Rhodes apps work fine on pretty much all platforms. Also, Rhodes supports Symbian S40 as well, something which Phonegap lacks for now. Although the support for S40 might not be required for modern apps but still if you consider the enterprise scenario then this might be a possible usecase.
I would personally recommend RhoMobile.
Rhomobile has a very good documentation.
Rhomobile has an IDE(Rhostudio).
Rhomobile has multiple components like Rhogallery, Rhoconnect and Rhoelements. Which helps you start from developing mobile apps, synchronization and deploying it.
There are no much big difference b/w both the framework architecture, both of them makes use of WebView Component for rendering and native features with JavaScript APIs.
Since you are Ruby developer it would be very easy for you to catch up with Rhomobile.
I would recommend using Plain Android SDK, if you really want to build good quality apps. It might be a little pain initially to learn Android Platform APIs in Java but its worth the effort :)
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I'm working on a web project where it has become clear that having some Selenium-type automated acceptance tests would be very helpful. But the project is a web site for mobile/handheld devices, not desktop browsers like what Selenium supports.
Googling around a little uncovered Frank for iOS and Robotium for Android. Are these the two tools to use? Or is there something as good or better that might also allow me to use one tool for both Android and iOS?
You might also want to look into Cucumber which basically offers a high level language to execute tests. A test consists of a number of steps and the underlying step_definitions are written in Ruby.
Calabash offers step definitions for Android and for iOS like pressing a button, swipe, scroll, ...
Not sure though how this works out for web testing on mobile devices.
There are multiple tools that can test iOS and Android applications. Here is a selection:
MonkeyTalk: Free
SilkMobile: Paid, free trial.
EggPlant for mobile: Paid, free trial.
I never use any other for android but Robotium is best in my case.
EDIT:
Android WebDriver allows to run automated end-to-end tests that ensure your site works correctly when viewed from the Android browser.
Selenium - Browser automation framework
WebDriver is selenium 2 and it support both Android and iOS.
You could also consider SeeTest from experitest, it support both dom and image processing.
MonkeyTalk seems to be able to handle both iOS, Android and web. Disclaimer: I just started playing with MonkeyTalk and did not use Robotium.
Another option is Appium, a Selenium-compatible mobile automation tool that can automate mobile apps, including mobile browsers.
Looks like the answer is: Yep, those are the two standard tools right now (as of October 2011, when this answer was originally written).
There are services that may allow automated tests on both real (not emulators or simulators) iOS and Android devices including MonkeyTalk and experitest (as of this revision to the answer in April 2013).