So I want to make an app to scrape random inspirational quotes from a website, then show me them on my Android phone. What steps do I need to do this? Preferably I'd be able to do it in Clojure... if not that, then Ruby, if all else fails Java.
What do I need to do to write the app and importantly, to deploy it?
Hm, that's a very general questions with not a lot of info, but here are some random pointers for different parts of our question:
Enlinve: Scraping with Clojure
An Enlive tutorial
Screen Scraping with ScrAPI: A screencast on scraping in Ruby
Mechanize for scraping in Ruby (Nokogiri and Hpricot could also work)
Rhodes for Android development with Ruby
An Android application is developed in Java. You can also solely use C++ in the most recent version, but I think that's not what you're looking for. There are, however, a few hacks you can use to write less Java.
Are you familiar with Mirah? Mirah looks a lot like Ruby but it's statically typed. You can use Mirah to develop Android applications. Have a look.
You can also use Ruby, by taking advantage of the JVM (JRuby). Daniel Jackoway developed Ruboto in last years' Ruby Summer of Code. Ruboto allows you to develop Android applications in Ruby. Have a look.
Concerning site scrapping, one option is to use Nokogiri as Michael mentioned. It'll work in both Ruby and Java, but in the latter you'll have to hack a bit — not everything is currently working. There are a lot of HTML parsers for Java as well, namely HTMLparser or JerichoHTML.
Android applications are officially developed in Java/C++ but, as you can see, there are other options. Don't forget to take into consideration that by choosing these other options you won't be able to take advantage of the Android SDK.
The path of least resistance on Android would be Java. The app works basically like any other "screen scraper": pull the page, parse it, and display the information. How easily it is to parse will depend on how well structured the content is on the original site. If it happens to have an RSS feed you can probably use one of the many open-source Java RSS Parsers.
If you already have a server side program to acheive this, you can create a webview activity in android to show the same. So you can create your server side program in a language of your choice.
For me phase 1 would be to write a web app and access it using the Android web browser. You can use a JavaScript library such as jqTouch to make the web app look just like a native Android app, and you can access the geolocation api from the browser using HTML5.
I've built an iPhone app demo using this approach with compojure on the server and deployed to google app engine. It worked well.
Cheers,
Colin
Related
I wanted to get a more experienced opinion on something I recently found out. A couple of months ago I set a goal to build myself a mobile app, and the first thing I did was go to developer.android.com and begin reading documentation on how to go about doing this.
I've invested a lot of time in understanding Android Studio and how to make simple apps (and I'm just now getting the hang of it all), but I just recently read about frameworks like PhoneGap(which let web devs who know HTML,CSS, and Javascript make apps too).
Before learning Android, I taught myself web dev through the Odin Project, which taught me a fair amount of HTML, CSS, and Javascript (little iffy on this language, but I'm sure it's something I could pick up easily since I already have a bit of experience).
I'm wondering what you guys feel are the limitations of using these frameworks and whether I should switch over to them, as opposed to continuing with Android since things are beginning to click for me.
Thanks!
I have developed apps for both Android and Phonegap. Phonegap takes advantage of your web development experience and lets you build mobile apps with ease. But it's not a replacement for Android API itself. A good phonegap application requires knowledge about web development and Android API.
However if your aim is to develop an android application, and you are comfortable with web development and Android, I would advice to take Android API.
Phonegap as wonderful as it is for web developers, and startups who can't afford to have dedicated resources for Android, iOS separately, has its limitations.
Performance : Phonegap app's performance is not at par with a native
android application.
Functionality : As one would expect you can't have all the functionality support a native android application has.
Look : You could easily tell apart a phonegap application from a native one. Given phonegap renders all the content in a webview, the look of native ui elements is lost
I think you will always need access to the native API to make good apps.
At least the navigation should be native, so that your app has the look and feel that the user expects, and so that stuff like the back button get correctly handled for you.
Even if there is some plugin that does that for you in a perfect way, I believe it's beneficial to know how Android works.
In the end, frameworks like PhoneGap add a layer inside your app rather than removing one, and it's always better to understand what goes on inside your app.
So the time that you've spent learning native Android won't be lost.
However, it makes sense to use HTML/JS if you want to share code between different platforms.
I think this article from Basecamp shows a very compelling example: https://signalvnoise.com/posts/3743-hybrid-sweet-spot-native-navigation-web-content.
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 am new to PhoneGap, and I have several questions:
I need a way to develop an application that will have iOS, Android, and other platform compatibility. In other words, I want to write 1 app and get compatibility versions for different platforms.
By reading the "Get Started" guide linked by the PhoneGap website, I found there are different procedures for different platforms. So to have compatibility versions across platforms, do I have to go one-by-one and change all of them if I make a modification to my app?
Also, what exactly is PhoneGap Build? It seems like I can avoid all that hassle mentioned previously and toss my app into the PhoneGap Build? Do I really not have to do anything besides writing the app? What if I need to make changes?
And finally, I've read that PhoneGap works with HTML, CSS, and Javascript, but not PHP. What if my app needs to contact a server? Can PhoneGap handle that?
Thank you for bearing with all these questions!
PhoneGap achieves platform compatibility by embedding a webview within your application. Therefore you can apply your knowledge in HTML, CSS, JavaScript and it additionally provides ways to interact with native features (e.g. camera, gps, ...).
With PhoneGap you write one general web app, tweak parts for the specific platform (sometimes you do not have to this at all) and build it for that platform. The latter can be handled with PhoneGap Build service: It takes your webapp and bundles it for the mobile operating systems out there (Embeds it within a Java app on Android, an Objective-C app on iOs)
PhoneGap is able to communicate with a server hosting a PHP script just as every other web application. Trying to dynamically load resources from remote sites can be quite a hassle but this is another question.
traumalles is correct. All your HTML/Javascript/CSS is running from within a webview on the device. Your code is, therefore, all "client-side." You can communicate with a server just like with any other page. When they say PhoneGap isn't compatible with PHP, they mean only that PhoneGap can't execute PHP code like it's a server, because it's not. It's just loading your webapp in, basically, a browser.
One other important question is what exactly do you mean with "other platforms" phonegap does provide many functionality for nearly every platform but the different webbrowser of the mobile devices have their problems and limitations.
For example are there many problems if you want to provide your application on a WindowsPhone Device because the Webbrowser has a few limitations which will cause your app to not look and behave like a native app.
Just look a bit through the phonegap API you will see that some functions are just available for IOS or for Android and there are a few only Blackberry methods and so on.
So you really have to be careful when a framework tells you it will work on all devices.
So i really don't have a problem with phonegap i worked with it very great but there will be limitations you have to deal with.
If you primarily want to develop for IOS and Android you can really achieve great native like results !
I need to develop an Application for both iPhone and Android platforms. I am looking for a cross-platform development frameworks. The important factors need to be taken into consideration are :
The App will be running in intranet environment (with NO internet
connection).
Drag and drop features will be available in this App.
Needs to use the barcode reader library.
Needs to use map (it will probably be a custom map)
Receives Push notifications (currently I have mqtt in mind, since
there is not internet connection)
If possible I only want to maintain only one source code for both platforms. I have done some research and I found 2 frameworks which are PhoneGap and Mono(touch and droid).
PhoneGap seems to be slow.
Mono need two code base for 2 platforms, only the libraries can be
shared (correct me if I am wrong). This is my another worries about mono: http://redth.info/2010/04/09/is-monotouch-now-dead-in-the-water-what-does-apples-new-iphone-developer-agreement-mean
I know the native is the best but for the sake of maintenance and reusing our developer talent (which are C#, HTML, JavaScript) we need to find out the second best option.
Note : Please bear in mind the first 5 features listed on top for your answer.
Thanks in advance.
UPDATE:
After exploring a few more tools, I like the performance of Appcelerator as well. But writing the whole app in JavaScript looks very messy to me and can't use OOP. And the extra package size of (5~7 MB) is also something to take note for frequent releases environment. I like to hear from you guys as well. I will be updating our decision in coming few weeks.
This recent article here may be helpful. It contains a rundown of several new cross platform mobile frameworks including Mono, Appcelerator Titanium, Rhodes, PhoneGap, MoSync and Moai.
From reading your requirements I'd say that either MoSync or Titanium might be the best fit for you. Apart from PhoneGap, which is really just a web app running inside a mobile browser (and might be the reason you thought it was slow), they all generate native UI code apps.
You may want to look into this article comparing 5 different cross-platform mobile development tools.
This Wikipedia article may be helpful as well.
go for http://www.appcelerator.com/
They first compile code in native code so performance is like native and they have barcode reader, push notification (via urban airship) too...
How about doing a hybrid application, using a mixture of native code and HTML5. Write native code for all the IO, and heavy lifting, and for the GUI use jQuery or similar in a web control embedded in your app. Android has a web control that allows you to interact with javascript. I assume you can do the same with Apple. I'm trying to do something similar myself using Monodroid, and its looking very promising, although I discovered Monodroid does not have native Javascript interface yet.
Just so you know, we were using Appcelerator at my last company, and the performance for Android was less than desirable. Our lead developer found the Mono products, and hasn't looked back.
I have been developing an Android application for about two months now, and the guy I'm writing it for wants me to use this instead of the android SDK so we can deploy the application for multiple smart phones: http://rhomobile.com/
he says you can write the application in one language and it can be deployed for most smart phones. Has anyone used this website to do something similar? Any advantages or disadvantages I should know about and tell him? Maybe someone could give me a better explanation on what this really does.
I'm current a one man army. He wants the application out for most smart phones but can afford to hire more developers.
Rhomobile will start up a small webserver on your phone and then show a webview that is directed to this webserver. You are able to write all the application logic in ruby in a way you would do it if you would write a web app that is deployed on a real web server. Rhomobile uses CSS etc. to have the app look look a little bit like a native app.
If you know Ruby you will get an App fast but it will look crappy and the user experience will be crappy too. A similar framework is appcelerator titanium they will let you write the app in Java Script and then compile it into a mix of javascript, webview and native components that run on an Iphone and on an Android phone and titanium has a much nicer user experience then rhomobile.
Visit their pages and test some of the apps that they are promoting as showcase for their frameworks.
As many developers writing apps in Objective C have learned using HTML for the view and styling with CSS styling libraries is a great way to create attractive native apps. Rhomobile's Rhodes uses this approach as well. We used to let people use whatever CSS they wanted and they could choose to use IUI, JQTouch, IWebKit, WebApp.net or any other library along with Rhodes. The best external apps all seemed to use JQTouch for styling and animated transitions.
Recently we decided to ship with our own fork of JQTouch (which we made work on Android) in order to make this even easier. The recent Rhodes master branch created apps with JQTouch builtin makes such attractive apps even easier to build, as the stylesheets are included with Rhodes scaffold-generated apps.