[dba-Tech] Developing Mobile Apps

Jim Lawrence accessd at shaw.ca
Fri Jan 13 13:04:09 CST 2012


Hi Bryan:

So your recommendation would be to keep away from implementing JQuery
reliant apps? Does JQuery have much a larger gallery to work from? Is Sencha
a better library? How is the learning curve?

I had not heard of the Phonegap designer (http://phonegap.com/)...thanks for
the heads up. Is PhoneGap's XUI library very complete? 

Jim


-----Original Message-----
From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Bryan Carbonnell
Sent: Friday, January 13, 2012 5:35 AM
To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues
Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] Developing Mobile Apps

My early impressions are that for developing HTML5 cross-platfom apps
with Phonegap is fairly straight forward. If you can write HTML5 then
you can write a fairly sophisticated app.

My biggest issues so far is the directory structure and how to keep
the files for the different platforms separate. iOS, Android and
Blackberry ALL require different directory structures and different
versions of the Phonegap files. So wholesale copy/pasting of the
html/js/css files doesn't work. If you add in Sencha or JQuery mobile
to the mix, then they have different versions as well.

Code managing is going to be my biggest headache I think.

I also used JQuery Mobile in one Proof of concept app. It felt "heavy"
and made the apps loadtime and response slow, or at least feel slow on
the actual devices. In the simulators they felt fine.

So I tried a second PoC replacing JQM with XUI and my own CSS and that
felt better from a speed standpoint. It also seemed to give me more
granular control of the look. I'm sure JQM does give me the
granularity that I want, but since I'm not really familiar with JQuery
Mobile (of JQuery in general) I may not be giving it a fair shake for
ease of customability.

So on the whole PhoneGap is working great for the apps I need to
write, for now :)

Bryan

On Thu, Jan 12, 2012 at 6:52 PM, Hans-Christian Andersen
<hans.andersen at phulse.com> wrote:
> Bryan,
>
> I'm really glad to hear that!
>
> Let us know how it works out for you and what you experience with
developing mobile apps with PhoneGap is like.
>
> - Hans
>
>
>
>
> On 2012-01-12, at 1:34 PM, Bryan Carbonnell wrote:
>
>> Hans-Christian,
>>
>> Thanks for putting me on to PhoneGap. I just got approval from my boss to
>> go ahead with a cross-platform mobile app pilot.
>>
>> She was very excited about the proof of concept apps I wrote.
>>
>> I get to do development work again. Woo hoo!
>>
>> --
>> Bryan Carbonnell - carbonnb at gmail.com
>> On Nov 23, 2011 8:12 PM, "Hans-Christian Andersen"
<hans.andersen at phulse.com>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi Arthur,
>>>
>>> If you want a platform agnostic app, might I suggest developing
Phonegap.
>> This will allow you to develop your app like a web application using
tools
>> that may perhaps already be familiar to you (HTML, JavaScript, CSS, etc).
>> To add to that, you could use a web platform like Sencha Touch (or jquery
>> mobile, though I believe Sencha touch has better performance and
features).
>>>
>>> Developing it for Android will not make it platform agnostic and will
>> significantly reduce your audience (especially a paying audience).
>>>
>>> The downside is that there is a limit to what you can do (ie. making 3D
>> games or photo editing software).
>>>
>>> Have a look at Phonegap though. They support quite a range of platforms.
>> Oh, and they are based in Vancouver as well.
>>>
>>> Best regards,
>>> Hans-Christian Andersen
>>>
>>>
>>> On 23 Nov 2011, at 11:11, Peter Brawley <peter.brawley at earthlink.net>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 11/23/2011 1:05 PM, Arthur Fuller wrote:
>>>>> I have an idea for an ever-expanding mobile app, which consists almost
>>>>> entirely of unrelated tables. My current sketch involves about a dozen
>>>>> tables, all of them read-only: they will serve as on-the-spot lookups
>> and
>>>>> seldom if ever change (and any changes will be made by me, not the
>>>>> end-user). Think of it as an on-line reference.
>>>>>
>>>>> Never having tried to write a mobile app, any suggestions for tools to
>> use
>>>>> in tackling this? I would like the app to be platform-agnostic if
>> possible.
>>>> Eclipse and its Android Development plugin.
>>>>
>>>> PB
>>>>
>>>> -----
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> TIA,
>>>>> Arthur
>>>>>
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-- 
Bryan Carbonnell - carbonnb at gmail.com
Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well
preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out,
shouting "What a great ride!"
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