Develop Reference

Limitations of Video Capture in Phone Gap + Native Plugins

I am developing a mobile app targeting the iOS and Android platforms. The app will consist of:
A relatively simple 'user login/signup and listing of database items' type of interface, powered by an already built webservice from and existing web application.
A video capture and upload feature using native plugins.
I have done extensive research on PhoneGap for the last week, and have determined that even considering the well documented issues and limitations of PhoneGap, it is well suited for the 1st part of my app.
However, given the limitations of the PhoneGap Capture API ( org.apache.cordova.media-capture ), it is not appropriate for capturing video for upload, mostly due to the lack of control over video specs. (On most devices, video captures will be enormous HD files that are not suitable for upload, even on Wifi, and certainly not over 3g/4g.)
Given my resources and timeline, I've determined that building native apps in both Java and ObjC are impractical, at least for now. I have very little ObjC and Java experience, but I am fairly confident and eager to learn these languages if need be.
That said, I am considering 2 options:
The first, and probably most rational, is that I pick the platform with the greater market share of my existing user base (iOS), suck it up, and go native.
The second, and perhaps lofty option, is that I develop a hybrid app in PhoneGap, targeting both platforms, and circumvent the limitations of my video capture ability by building native plugins for Java and ObjC using PhoneGap's plugin API, thus reducing development time on the rest of the app, and using native code only where it's needed.
The requirements of my video capture plugin would be as follows:
Have complete control over the specs of the recorded video, most importantly resolution and bitrate. (Presumably with AVFoundation, and the like in Adroid SDK).
Control the user interface of the video capture functionality.
Obviously, I am aware that these tasks are very possible on both platforms when developing in the native api's as is evident by existing apps in the market. (Vine, etc..).
My real question, is what are the limitations, and issues with extending native functionality via PhoneGap's Plugin API? There are almost no examples of work done in PhoneGap with this level of native implementation of video capture. The one example I've found is this plugin, VideoCapturePlus, which although I haven't been able to get to work, seems promising.
I am especially interested to find out if anyone out there has successfully implemented native plugins in PhoneGap with this level of complexity, or if it is a rabbit hole I will wish I hadn't gone down.

I have essentially gotten to the bottom of this question, that I am sure others are and will face. I will address the topic in 3 parts:
Can I do [something] in PhoneGap (as opposed to in native iOS or Android SDK)?
This is a question I'd imagine many developers considering the PhoneGap framework find themselves asking, as did I. The short answer is YES, YOU PROBABLY CAN.
How do I do [something] in PhoneGap?
Plugins! Here's the rub: Cordova (PhoneGap) in all it's brilliance is extremely limited in the way it accesses native hardware features, especially when you get into video/photo/audio capture.
This is where plugins come in. There are thousands of PhoneGap plugins at this point. Many are as simple as 4 lines of Java and Objective C to get over some simple thing that PhoneGap just won't do. Others are large projects with lifecycles of their own.
In my case, it became very clear very early on that I was not going to be able to build my app with the video capture functions that existed in PhoneGap. That said, I went shopping for plugins. By the end of my project it had taken 2 plugins that extended video functionality and four more to do other small various things I needed. In a few cases, the plugins I found did not have everything I needed, and I wound up contributing bits of code. If the projects are active on GitHub, I highly recommend this.
In the end, there were things I wanted to do that I could not find plugins for. I still have plans to build some of my own, but am not there yet. Bottom line: Outside of gaming and other 3d rendering applications, you'll be hard pressed to find something that can't be achieved with a PhoneGap plugin.
For those interested specifically in video capture, these are the 2 plugins that got me over the hump in my project:
VideoCapturePlus
Video Screenshot
Should I build my app that does [something] in PhoneGap?
Of course, this question is up to each developer, and what the goals of the app are. In my case, a simple app that among other things captures and uploads photos and short videos was quite possible. There are certainly cases in which the parameters and goals of the app make it such that native development is the best option.
That said, for most solo devs or small teams with limited resources and little or no Java or ObjC experience, the answer to the question, "Should I consider PhoneGap?", would be [in my best Jim Halpert voice], "Absolutely you should". As an added bonus, I will say this: In my case, the HTML5 layouts, and much of the front end JS that were used for both the Android and iOS versions of my app are largely reusable for the mobile web version of my app. Being able to maintain a single codebase for those three things offers efficiency that even larger resourced organizations shouldn't overlook.

Hybrid apps for iOS/Android/Windows 8

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

I'd like some direction about developing a multi-platform mobile-app

There are so many tools out there for mobile development that it's information overload. I'm a programmer as well and would like some opinions on what would work best for my requirements. I don't own a mac and have no plans on purchasing one if i can help it. The app i'm trying to build seems relatively simple. I also want to have IPhone and Android versions of it, with possibility for Windows phone in the future.
needs to be a free version with youtube videos - so access to the youtube player
i'd like to be able to embed some articles - not sure about this one, either just text or pdf etc.
needs to have the option to upgrade to a paid version.
the paid version would be a subscription based service.
the paid version would be serving video content from S3(or other better sources)
the paid version needs to have a notification/push service where i can push content to the app on a monthly basis.
So, given all these, i've looked at appcelerator, phonegap, xamarin and lots of other services. They all seem good but given the requirements, i'm starting to lean a little bit towards phonegap as this is not going to be a game and it's a service primarily and it can handle both Iphone and Android as well.
Thanks for your input.

I think PhoneGap is your best bet, I've spoken to quite a few Mobile Application Development Company's around my area and they all speak highly of it. Phonegap has recently came into the possession of Adobe so you can expect it to become a more highly supported/documented platform that you can create multi-platform apps from. Plus it meets your requirements
I'm avoiding PhoneGap myself at the minute because I want to get to grips with Obj-C and C# to expand my knowledge of different programming languages but if I was trying to target as many platforms as possible, PhoneGap is top.

Which approach should I take for my mobile application?

We will develop a, social network integrated mobile application which will need to access native device capabilities but 90% of the logic will be implemented in the HTML5/Javascript code posted by Ruby back end to the device. Thus, we would like to update or change the logic/GUI of the app without user involvement. We have strict deadline and have to support iOS, Android and Blackberry.
In this case, what approach would you recommend us? We considered the approaches below but could not decide since we do not have any experience with mobile development even if we are experienced in Ruby, C/C++, Java, Javascript, Flex.
Our considerations:
Develop native apps for each platform and embed the native browsers
to implement our logic, which can take too much time.
Use one of the frameworks for cross-platform development such as
PhoneGap or rhomobile. In this case, we are afraid of facing some performance issues. We would love to hear the experience of developers with those frameworks.
Use Adobe Air for accessing the device and its WebKit component for the rest.

First, I hope you understand that there is no simple answer. At this junction, having been looking at cross-platform solutions for mobile development for two years, I feel that in order to get fully native UI look, and to access all the device and UI features, one is forced to produce native application on each platform.
But, since you asked about cross-platform tools, here's a list of the main contenders:
Sencha http://www.sencha.com/products/touch “Sencha Touch is the world's first app framework built specifically to leverage HTML5, CSS3, and Javascript”
Dojo http://dojotoolkit.org “Dojo saves you time, delivers powerful performance, and scales with your development process”
Phonegap http://www.phonegap.com “PhoneGap is an open source implementation of open standards”
jQuery Mobile http://jquerymobile.com “Touch-Optimized Web Framework for Smartphones & Tablets A unified user interface system across all popular mobile device platforms”
Rhomobile http://rhomobile.com “Free and open source mobile application framework”
Titanium from Appcelerator http://www.appcelerator.com
There are plenty of comparisons online, including on SO, and this fellow actually tried to use several platforms, code included.
Anecdotally, I have seen Phonegap produce a rather iPhone-centric look, that may not mesh well with Android, plus showing performance problems when loading screens (there may be workarounds via pre-loading). Also, access to more complex devices was limited, or at least lagging. Rhomobile is a good fit for data-driven apps (simple display of large databases), but architecturally could show performance issues, so check for yourself. Personally I did not get into Sencha, Dojo seemed a little small, and Titanium showed dated architecture. So next time I'm attempting a cross-platform app, I'll give jQuery Mobile a serious try.
Let us know what you pick and how it works out.

Iam using this rhomobile rhodes for my cross-platform development App which will run in Android, Blackberry and iPhone.
We have developed application and sucessfully runned in all devices without any issues. we used ruby for backend webservice call, And remaining app is constructed with HTML5 and java Script. I didn't face any issues regarding rhomobile.
intially we faced memory issues, But later on we resolved this issue by implementing local storage for our App. For android it wont supports local storage so we used Rhom Storage only for Android Device.

Sounds like a project doomed to fail.
If I were you, I'd build a mobile-friendly site for all 3 platforms if deadline is tight. What native features do you even need, first off? If it's something like a camera, you're better off just build a native app for all 3.

Downsides of using Appcelerator Titanium (or equivalent)?

At our company there is a huge push for cross-platform (iOS and Android) development. Appcelerator Titanium is being considered (and seems to be the only thing that's being considered) to achieve multi-platform development without extra development time.
Everyone here can think of reasons to use Titanium. For reasons against using Titanium I guess the performance of the resulting "native" app from Titanium may not be as good as an app written in Objective-C for iOS. How significant would the difference be? Are there other reasons to not use Titanium (or equivalent)?
Note: I may write Titanium but reasons may not only be Titanium specific only. All reasons in support for coding in platform language (e.g. Objective-C, Java) qualify.

The Good:
Can create iPhone apps using very simple Javascript.
The Bad:
Apple has been rejecting some Titanium apps due to private API calls but Appcelerator hasn't responded to requests for help, nor updated their SDK. http://developer.appcelerator.com/question/123785/app-has-bee-rejected-by-non-public-api
"Native Widgets" are used, but only nominally: there's a layer of
logic and abstraction between them and your code; and this layer
changes their behavior and reduces their speed. The difference is
visible in the Showcase apps.
API docs are perpetually out of date. (no process for refreshing).
A wiki was created, which is becoming out of date. Editing only
allowed for employees.
Github projects do not have wiki enabled.
Appcelerator isn't true open source: they do not accept contributions from the community: The
titanium_mobile project on github has a long list of open pull
requests.
The help forum software has many technical & design weaknesses.
Email notifications from the help forum often do not work.
Staff rarely answers questions in the Q&A forum. Haven't been seen
in months.
Showstoppers appear continuously in "all the little gaps":
Correctly displaying images on the iPhone 4
Correctly loading images in a scrolling list
Although the platform does simultaneously support iOS and android,
the library/framework does not. A lot of runtime testing (if/then's)
is needed in apps that will work on android and iphone.
Continually releasing new products but not fixing existing products
and website problems. The "new" products are announced while in beta
and release candidate phases.
"Chat with Sales" app not attended to.
Appcelerator does not take down outdated training videos.
Stretching the truth and bait-and-switch with pricing: a 30% sale
only applies to yearly memberships, not month-to-month. The blog
posts & marketing materials do not state this. Only upon checkout is
this shown.
[Seen 8/13/2011] Another way in which Q&A forums are broken: The order of
results for a search is trashed: each page of results orders its hits
from oldest to most recent, at the bottom of the page. Go to the next
page of results (i.e. 51-100), and again, the 1-year-old hits are
first, with 6-weeks-old at the bottom.
My Unanswered Questions:
[Seven unanswered Q&A questions not shown: I don't want to be personally identified by Appcelerator staff
and receive sub-par treatment.]
Results:
Am spending many hours trying to discover an API in the absence of documentation, and hacking to discover workarounds. This time is wasted, and would have been better spent simply learning to make apps in XCode & Objective-C.

How significant would the difference be?
AFAIK, Titanium will generate Objective C, so unless their stuff is woefully inefficient, I wouldn't expect speed to be a major issue.
Are there other reasons to not use Titanium (or equivalent)?
Well, that depends on how you define "equivalent".
Personally, when I get into cross-platform apps, I expect that I will use PhoneGap. That's for one reason: standards.
With PhoneGap, you're writing HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, as if you were writing an HTML5 offline app. All PhoneGap does is turn that into an installable package (e.g., APK for Android) and give you opt-in proprietary APIs for getting to device-specific stuff. Their expectation is to simply fill in the "gap" between what HTML5 on mobile supports and what native apps on mobile supports. Heck, it's even in their name. :-)
As a result, what you are writing is the same sort of tech you would use for a Web-based app, and it may even get to share some of the client-side code. You can use whatever you like from mobile frameworks (e.g., Sencha Touch, jQuery Mobile). And, if someday app stores support HTML5 offline apps, you might even be able to drop PhoneGap altogether, if you're not heavily dependent upon the device integration features.
Titanium lets you write in JavaScript, but the standards compliance largely ends there. You're using proprietary APIs for everything, including the whole UI. Personally, I'd rather back a more popular horse -- HTML5 in this case, more so than PhoneGap specifically. If for no other reason, it'll be way easier to hire HTML5-savvy developers than Titanium-savvy developers.
Neither PhoneGap, nor Titanium, nor any of the plethora of other options (e.g., Rhodes, Flash/AIR) give you all of the device capabilities. These engines will vary in their extensibility -- I know that PhoneGap has a plugin model, that Flash/AIR is pretty much only what you get from Adobe, and I'm not sure about any others.
Titanium has one advantage: you get a near-native UI, instead of an HTML-based UI. (I say "near-native" because some of their widgets do not necessarily have native equivalents on all platforms, so they roll their own as needed) For some apps and some audiences, that alone may tilt things in Titanium's favor.

Titanium/iOS specific answer, my 2c.
Native iOS vs Titanium
PROS
It's nearly as fast as native for most things.
The time needed to write a working prototype it's way shorter.
If you need to integrate javascript legacy code or libraries it will work provided that it doesn't use the dom.
Your javascript code needs to be well spaced and to include semicolumns where needed or the compiler will complain and eventually abort the build.
You can use Coffeescript or any other language that compiles to js
Automatic memory management is top notch, getting the same results in objc is always time consuming and sometimes debugging intensive.
You can write your own modules in native code to extend Titanium's capabilities.
It's open source.
They recently changed their support offering removing the 5 app limit, much more affordable.
You can change a view js code while running the app in the simulator, you will see the results when you reload the view you're editing. That's a boon :) (exception: there's no way I know of to reload the code in app.js)
CONS
Debugging is a pain. Haven't tried out Titanium Studio yet, it might be a big improvement.
Adding too many views tends to degrade performance faster than using native code.
The Titanium Developer app on Mac has plenty of interface glitches and you might find yourself restarting it pretty often.
In some versions the print to console debug statements are broken.
You will often stumble into cross-platform abstraction leakage.
Support on the forums is a bit light, many issues you will encounter are not big but still annoying.
Need to pay attention to JSON correctness, the included parser tends to be picky. Using eval is always an option.
Compile times and loading in the simulator are not that fast, titanium objc is pretty big.

Compared to Xcode, Visual Studio & even MonoDevelop, Titanium Studio feels slow (real slow), buggy (restarting several times each day, even reinstalling a few times) and of course you've got to deal with JavaScript... We found that the pain of developing in Titanium was too great, especially when you have competent iPhone & Android devs around so -
We looked long & hard into the best option for cross-platform dev & ended up using Mono - Touch & Droid. It's been great, we do actually share 80% of the code between iPhone & Android, & we're just beginning a port to WP, which is going well (again sharing 80% of the code). Of course it's not a miracle fix - you still need to know how to develop for each platform. I've even grown to like C# almost as much as Obj-C now :-)
Obviously, some will disagree.