I have a quick question regarding to mobile development, I'm new at this, so please excuse me if I have some mistaken concepts. The scenario and question is the following:
I have a mobile site developed under .Net Framework 4.0, MVC3, Jquery Mobile, HTML5, and CSS3 that looks and works really well from any mobile browser: iOS Safari, Opera Mobile, Android Browser and Blackberry Browser.
I would like to create an app that has a browser in it with the address bar hidden to show this web application and don't let the user see the web address of this web application. The reason why I want this behaviour is this: we have a banking web application site that is intended to be used only through the mobile application. We don't want to create separate apps for each platform, so we would like to use some of those multiplatform frameworks like Phonegap, Appcelerator or such.
I only want to know if it's possible to get this achievement on Phonegap or something like that.
Thanks in advance.
This can be done really easily using Appcelerator.
http://developer.appcelerator.com/apidoc/mobile/1.0/Titanium.UI.WebView
Code:
var webview = Titanium.UI.createWebView({url:'http://www.appcelerator.com'});
var window = Titanium.UI.createWindow();
window.add(webview);
window.open({modal:true});
However, if the app is only using that one webview and no other form of functionality, Apple could well reject it for not using any native functions.
See this note in their documentation...
12.3: Apps that are simply web clippings, content aggregators, or a
collection of links, may be rejected
Hope that helps!
if all you are going to do is host the app inside the webView then I would suggest that PhoneGap is better suited for that approach to mobile application development.
Appcelerator utilizes the native controls/ UI of the platform to build applications and since it is not your intention to use them it is just extra baggage.
Related
3 mobile app categories exist in my understanding
Native app - built using java for android and objective-c/swift for ios
Hybrid app - built using HTML, CSS, Javascript but wrapped for each platform using Cordova (Phonegap), Iconic, etc...
HTML5 app - built entirely using HTML, CSS, Javascript and can be opened in mobile web browsers
I have the following questions:
Is a web application converted into an android app using a Webview placed in the category of a native app? Please clarify.
When you build an HTML5 app (category 3 above), you write code in HTML, CSS and Javascript but do you use a Webview or do you just access the HTML pages using a mobile browser?
Can a hybrid app be opened in a web browser in addition to accessing it as a native app?
Can one upload an HTML5 app to the app store? I understand it needs no approval. Can it even be priced?
What kind of apps are predominantly developed in companies?
Should the HTML, CSS code be made responsive before it can be used in Cordova? If no, can Bootstrap be used before using it in Cordova?
Thank you for your help in advance!
Is a web application converted into an android app using a Webview placed in the category of a native app? Please clarify.
This is probably more in the second category - you download the app from the app store and it exists as a real app on your phone, but it just displays a webpage. It's similar to Phonegap or Cordova, but less evolved.
When you build an HTML5 app (category 3 above), you write code in HTML, CSS and Javascript but do you use a Webview or do you just access the HTML pages using a mobile browser?
You just access it normally in a web browser, and it's coded exactly like you would code your desktop website.
Can a hybrid app be opened in a web browser in addition to accessing it as a native app?
No, a hybrid app is really an app - you must launch it on your phone like you would launch any other app.
Can one upload an HTML5 app to the app store? I understand it needs no approval. Can it even be priced?
If by HTML5 app you mean something not made with Cordova or contained in a Webview, then no, it can't be submitted to the app store, since it's only a website. If it is wrapped in Cordova or even in a simple Webview, it can be uploaded normally to the app store and even be priced, as it's an app like any other one.
What kind of apps are predominantly developed in companies?
Most companies want to build native apps since the look and feel is much better. Some companies will settle for the second category because it's cheaper, and some other, like a local business, will just make sure their website looks good on mobile (third category) since an app would be overkill.
Should the HTML, CSS code be made responsive before it can be used in Cordova? If no, can Bootstrap be used before using it in Cordova?
If you want to use the same code in Cordova, you should design your HTML and CSS to be responsive - making a website responsive later takes longer and is harder than just coding mobile-first from the start. bootstrap, like you mentioned, is a good starting point.
I have a responsive web site and I need to make Android and iOS app for it to be published in each platform store so I am asking about the process/steps or the tool to do that. Can I use TWebBrowser component in Delphi XE 8 as a Firemonkey project to make these apps and make the site adjust its layout automatically according to the device used ? or there are other steps I should use ? or I should use different tool than Delphi ?
I'm no web developer, but I know that making a website responsive is done on the server site. This way, if your mobile user opens Safari or Chrome, your site will be responsive and will adjust its limits to the device.
If you need to make native apps for each platform, you would have to replicate your website in native code and use API calls OR use whatever framework (like Firemonkey). Still, if you make an app with just a webview and load the website, it still won't be responsive.
I have a web application that is optimized for mobile viewing, so that it can be used on all smartphones (Android, iPhone, etc).
The development of the web application is nearing completion, but I would also like to have an actual downloadable app that users can put on their phones. All this app would do is literally point to the web application and ask them to log in.
Is this something that can be easily done, or will I need to develop full fledged Android and iPhone applications separately that interact with my web app somehow?
Thanks in advance.
PhoneGap is a tool that essentially will do what you are asking out of the box. If you are somewhat familiar with native development, you can also create a simple app where the main view is a web browser (see WebView (Android) or UIWebView (iOS)).
Try this.
Create apps from any web content.
I am gonna develop a mobile application for multiple devices, say iPhone, iPad and Android Devices like Samsung Galaxy, Samsung Tab and Samsung Galaxy Nexus,
The application is about listing set of information from webservice to list in the application, So I decided to go for Mobile Web app using jquery mobile,
I want to publish the app in Appstore and Android Market, So I want to wrap the Mobile web in to a Native app, I thought an idea of implementing it in a UIWebView in iOS and WebView in Android,
Another option I found out is phoneGap,which provide an SDk to wrap an Web app into a Native iOS or Android App.
Can you people suggest me , Is it better to go with WebView in your native application, or is it really required to use phoneGap, Whether apple will approve my Application if I am using Mobile Web app in a UIWebView, Kindly Suggest.
Note: In my application there is no real need of Using any native functionality of iOS like, Camera, Contacts etc, I just wanna have a list with information fetched from the Webservice.
If you don't need any of the native features phonegap/callback gives you, do not use it. It's a bloated project that will probably add a ton of features you don't need, if you only need a wrapped web application.
Just use a regular webview, enable JS, caching etc and load your HTML into it.
Use phonegap. http://phonegap.com/
If u use it you can use the phonegap build service to generate apps for all platforms via it. you will only have to worry about the js, html part of the app, like you said.
Or if you dont want to use the phonegap build, still creating your own apps with phonegap is way easier as you dont have to write ANY native code.
There were some issues in Phonegap before because of which Apple was rejecting Phonegap apps previously. Thats fixed now, so thats no problem. :)
I have a fully-working web app that is accessible using Android's browser.
The annoying part is the url bar uses a lot of the screen. Is there a way to make this web app a native Android app? I've read that webview can be used to embed a web site within the Android App.
Unfortunately, I only know web programming languages and have no Java experience. Will I still be able to do this on my own?
You certainly will need some learning in java, you can start with reading the following :
Webview documentation
A very detailled tutorial (quite hard if you haven't any java basics)
A basic tutorial on webview usage.
Have you looked at phonegap. It comes with a standalone app with a WebView embedded in it and with native android functionality support. You just need to provide your html/javascript app to it and you're done.
You can use a web app called MIT App Inventor
and get it done in less than 10 minutes, it's very easy, intuitive and requires no programming skills at all.
all you need to do is create a new project,
drag and drop a WebViewer component, on the right set the home url,
and your done! just connect to an android phone via USB to install the app
and you can even download the .apk to your computer, sign it and publish it on Google Play