Does Titanium is the best way for Mobile Developer? - android

Hi a new programming with Mobile, Right now I had a little knowledge with android and iPhone, I wanna my progress work to be quick and have good result.
I research 2 day with Titanium and it seem good with android and iPhone, but the requirement is java script programming.
So, Do i need switch to javascript and work with Titanium?
please give some idea from your mobile experience!
Thanks;

titanium is open source too. and if you want to use community version than you don't have to pay anything to Appcelerator. And titanium will convert your code to native it will not run your code in web browsers like phone gap do.

Related

Building a hybrid app, where to start?

I know it's kind of an 'open' question to ask but I simply don't know where to start. Let me first tell you a bit of my experience/background so you know the level I'm at:
Build cd-roms with Lingo back in the days
Started web/front end development in the HTML3.2 era and kinda left off when XHTML was hot
Worked with Javascript 1.2 up till around 1.6 and later started working with Jquery
Actionscript up to 2.0, building websites and games
Did quite a bit of PHP/mySQL development. Build custom CMS' and later Drupal module development
All this was during internships or as a freelancer, everthing self thought by the help of books and such
So now I'm stuck with this idea to build myself an app. I've decided it should be an hybrid app as my target audience is very small but 60% is iOS and I don't want to leave out Android. Also I've been getting familiar with HTML5/CSS3 and started working on components for my app.
The basic concept for the app is that it's a layer on top of Google functionality: profile, calendar, circles and hangouts. Users will (eventually I hope) be able to create events for other users to rsvp to, they will be able to add eachother as buddies and chat about the events. A small step functionality wise but a huge step for me :)
I'm thinking of using the Crosswalk project for the Android version to counter the biggest issues around hybrid app development.
I've been reading up for the last months in preparation and the more I read the less I seem to know. Here's the stuff I think I should know more about;
Node.js
Gulp.js
Dev environment to work in (I once worked in Homesite, later Dreamweaver - don't laugh)
Packaging tools, etc etc.
Crosswalk project
Now I am not looking for some drag and drop software package to build an app in 3 days. I don't want to take the easy route per se, I don't mind a bit of a learning curve. I work on a Win8 machine, I know this isn't optimal but I can't change this.
Now where should I start? I was thinking NPM myself but you guys might think otherwise. Any good books on the stuff you think I need to learn to get me going?
Thanx for the advice!
I can share my experience with Cordova.
I work like full-stack developer and i'm quite expert to build responsive website, so the natural step to approach mobile dev was try Cordova.
First You can start to build HTML document totally responsive and try as webpage on your target devices.
A cool stuff, targeting mobile devices, is that You can use new CSS3 directive, without worry for compatibility with old browser.
First I installed Cordova following this tutorial.
https://ccoenraets.github.io/cordova-tutorial/create-cordova-project.html
Opening the folder /www on your project you can edit your app like a website, and you can also debug with the browser like a normal site.
To enhance the feature you will find a lot of plugins ready on github to extends the native functionality at the Cordova/phonegap project.
I suggest you also to build using onsen http://onsen.io/ a framework that let you use mobile UI easily.
Last tip that i can give you, if you target Android is try your apps on virtual machine, i use Genymotion https://www.genymotion.com/ that is much more fast then SD<
Good luck with your first app!
As you can imagine, there are a lot of framework where you can start.
Looking on your skills, maybe is better to use JS/HTML/css stack, but in this case, you will create an hybrid app in a webview.
In my opinion, webview applications quality it's only acceptable, but because of his productivity, in some cases could be the best decision.
Another good alternative is react-native. This framework allows to create a native application using javascript. React has his own markup language, is very similar to html. JS code is executed on native device using an embedder javascript engine, instead of webview, so, performances and experience can be compared to native applications.
And, at the end, my alternative, a framework I've made to write native UI and share business logic for each platforms. You can take a look on aj-framework https://github.com/bfortunato/aj-framework

Gwt for building an Android application

I am looking into building my first Android application and was wondering what is the best approach to take for an experienced GWT developer.
During my research I found phone gap which helps you develop for multiple platforms using Html CSS and javascript, when I kept searching I found mgwt and gwt-phonegap which I guess will be great for a GWT developer. Before I start really looking into it I wanted to ask the experienced phone developers around here if I am in the right direction. Maybe using the plain SDK will be easier for me, after all I only want it to run on Android based phones. Maybe someone can offer other alternatives ? My application is pretty simple but demands using some of the phone's APIs like location and notifications.
Thanks!
You might be interested in this video which explains the basic concepts around mgwt and phonegap: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V0CdhMFiao&feature=plcp
Of course there are many different ways that you can go with developing a mobile app and GWT and Phonegap is one of them.

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

Native Android development vs web mobile development

I have to develop as soon as posible an appication (for android) similar to foursquare, I need to store some details in the phone and retrieve some other data from a web service. I can develop with phonegap or like a native app. What option do you recomend? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each one?
I think that to develop an app similar to foursquare you need to develop a native app.
In fact I believe that you'll need to integrate the app with the use of the GPS and maps... this is not simple but this features are well documented.
Good luck :)
For as soon as possible, choose the platform you're more familiar with. Native development is in Java, Phonegap is in JavaScript and HTML. If you don't know either, hire someone who does - that'll be much faster that learning from scratch. Probably cheaper, too.

How develop Android applications?

I'm really new with this thing of "Android development" and I was really excited when I found Appcelerator Titanium, but now I got the big surprise, it doesn't work on my computer. What other alternatives are there for Android development specially if they include HTML, JavaScript and CSS for creating such applications?
Everything you need to know is on the official site http://developer.android.com/
There is a very popular alternative for making Android and iOS apps with only HTML and JavaScript. It is called PhoneGap:
http://www.phonegap.com/
I think it is exactly what your looking for.
I hope this helps.
My first port of call would be to try and get on the trial of Google App Inventor. It's a really neat way of making Android apps. You can find out more here: http://appinventor.googlelabs.com/about/
A list of various alternative web-tech-based development frameworks is here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_phone_web_based_application_framework
having said that, I have succeeded in running Titanium on Vista and Ubuntu, so if you post the error you are getting someone might be able to help.
App Inventor is fun, although it isn't Javascript based.
You may want to try out Unify, a framework for developing web apps for major platforms (in the moment iOS, Android, webOS - more coming in the future). It is open source and has been released a few days ago. :-)
http://www.unify-project.org/
http://www.unify-training.com/
Get the SL4A app for android. It lets you run python scripts on your android.
Also, look into webview. It let's you load html.

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