Last night I learnt that it is possible to develop apps for Android using HTML, CSS and JavaScript, much like you would do a client side website. Is this a widely used approach? Because I have started to learn developing with the SDK but I naturally know more about HTML, CSS and Javascript, so I'd like to leverage that knowledge if possible.
So basically my question boils down to this: Are Android web apps as good as native apps? Can the same functionality be achieved through web apps?
Regards
Renault
Check http://www.phonegap.com/start/#android
PhoneGap is based Web Technologies HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
It's very simple to use it. Try it.
Check out Appcelerator Titanium
While other HTML/Css/JS frameworks run your apps inside a web-browser-like environment, Appcelerator claims to run your apps natively. And it seems (almost?) all the functionality that can be achieved through native apps can also be achieved through their SDK.
They also have several convenience features like directly running the app on an emulator or a device, packaging the app for deployment etc., and Titanium Developer runs on Windows, Linux and OS X.
Related
I know there is WebView in android, but I do not want to display web page, but just create whole interface of mobile application with html, css and javascript.
I am web developer and i know these technologies most, so it would be great for me to create android UI with it.
I tried basic android views and layouts but i don't like them.
That's called hybrid mobile development. You can use HTML, CSS and JavaScript to develop apps that works on several mobile OS (Android, iOS and -I guess- Windows Phone).
Do feel free to check PhoneGap (http://phonegap.com/).
It has advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages: Fast development, multiplatform.
Disadvantages: Performance (With native development you can take control of several features that varies from os to os), Debugging (You cannot debug as you would do with Android Studio or Xcode)
Please, am a web developer. I just built a web app for a school to manage their results and fees.
Now, i intend to build an app on android and ios so its 'easier' for both staff and students to get notifications and interact better.
Is JQuery mobile the asnwer?
Thanks for your reply
jQuery Mobile doesn't create an application for Android nor for iOS, it only makes websites look better on said platforms.
To create a real, native, application for Android you should use Android Studio. To do the same for iOS you need XCode and MAC OS X.
But, if you prefer to write websites, Apache Cordova does what you need. Allows you to create apps for any platform using your usual HTML, CSS and Javascript.
I'll drop the link here so you can check it out.
https://cordova.apache.org/
Another approach is creating a basic Android and iOS app that simply opens a web page (your website), but it is most of the time lacking in performance. If this last approach interests you, just look up "WebView" for Android, "UIWebView" for iOS (Obviously you'll need Android Studio and XCode)
EDIT
This is an old answer, now a ton of different technologies exist to build multiplatform applications, without even losing out on performance (for example, see react-native)
If you have already built the app using JQuery mobile and want to make it into an app I recommend looking at Cordova (PhoneGap) https://cordova.apache.org/
For notifications etc I found https://www.pushwoosh.com/ to have the best integration
I am currently developing Android Applications and would like to enter into IOS developing. Many have advised the use of cross platform development tools. I hav searched and found nothing solid. Can anyone suggest a good cross platform deveoping IDE for IOS and Android. Please give suggestions that is sure to work.
I have worked with these both Cross platforms. these are simple to use.
Appcelerator Titanium for cross platform applications.
Using this you can Create rich native iOS, Android, hybrid, and mobile web apps from a single JavaScript-based SDK
PhoneGap
Developing with PhoneGap gives you the freedom to create mobile applications for iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone, Palm WebOS, Bada and Symbian using the web code you know and love: HTML, CSS and Javascript.
Cordova/PhoneGap works well between iOS and Android but the down side is that you have to use HTML and javascript to implement your application. Native elements such as maps require quite a lot of work although there are many plugins for them. Unfortunately plugins are not standard.
Style sheets and html are good, because they make it relatively easy to scale the application over the huge array of screen sizes.
Window phone has problems with standards and old models are quite slow, but perhaps there is an improvement in WP8.
Even after searching PhoneGap's website and their support group, I still cannot find an answer to my question:
Currently, I'm planning on developing an application that should exists as a pure HTML5 application, being able to run in any modern browser (Google Chrome, Safari, etc.) as well as on Android/iPad as native mobile applications.
So my question is:
Is it possible to use the same code base to develop both pure HTML5 applications as well as native mobile applications with PhoneGap?
PhoneGap is in effect a runtime environment for HTML, javascript, and any CSS that may accompany your code. So in short:
Yes, but it is recommended that you have some knowledge of Objective-C if you want to develop any iPhone app with extended functionality. If you have the right dimensions/proportions for the code there is no reason why you cannot simply copy that code into PhoneGap and compile it.
See, the support for #HTML5 varies from browser to browser, and varies a lot from a desktop browser to mobile browser. If one has to convert web-portal to a mobile application that can easily be done through Phonegap, you can refer to this link also. https://build.phonegap.com/ It worked fine for me.
Now lets come to Phonegap, what phonegap does is it has created wrapper through javascript that calls the native apis. Now to show content they use WebView object which renders your html5 page in your app. And you can create your own wrappers too. Not that much difficult.
So if your app is only a web based portal, that does not need much native access, you can easily reuse one codebase make #cross-platform apps using Phonegap. Else you need to go for hybrid apps.
How Titanium works with android?
And it is easy to work with titanium for developing android applications?
If you already know JavaScript, HTML, CSS, then you can easily create Android apps with Titanium.
Another advantage is Titanium support multi-platforms, e.g. the apps you written can also run on iPhone as well.
As with any extra / higher-level layer you get portability and narrow down the API set. Also, it depends on whether you prefer Java (language and dev.toolchain) or you are accustomed to web scripting languages.