Bridge the gap in Mobile Application development with PhoneGap

Dec. 12

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Today we talk about PhoneGap. If you are a regular reader of this blog you will know that last time we were talking about using HTML 5 to develop cross platform apps for mobile devices. If not then shame on you. Kidding. You can check it out any time on this link here.

Now Apache Cordova or as you would know it PhoneGap is an application development framework that allows you to build applications for 7 different types of devices by writing only one type of code. The good part is that you do not need to even maintain the native SDKs.

You need to develop your code in HTML 5, CSS3 and JavaScript encapsulate in the PhoneGap wrapper and the PhoneGap build will deploy to native code in up to 7 different mobile devices.

The framework has just recently come out of its beta stage and is a full blown development environment.

So how does this work? So basically what happens here is your basic model view controller logic at work here. The application is front-ended by HTML 5 and back-ended by JavaScript. What you do is invoke the libraries of PhoneGap in JavaScript to start your coding.

The rest is easy. You only need to modify your code slightly to avoid a few quirks with different devices ( especially the iPhone). Being a developer myself the first thing I noticed was that how easy it is to code. It is your regular HTML and javascript which is one of the easiest things to learn. You do not need to dabble in some object oriented languages like C#, Java or Objective C to code for this. This is as simple as programming can get. After you develop the source code you just upload your work to the Adobe PhoneGap build; an online cloud to compile your PhoneGap code and deploy it to various platforms.

If you have some working knowledge of JavaScript you can read through the Apache Cordova documentation and start coding yourself. You just need to acquaint yourself with some of the methods in each library and be aware of the technologies that are used in todays devices.

You can create programmes for the target operating systems like iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry 5/6/7, webOS, bada and Symbian. The newest feather in the cap is that you can now create apps for Windows 8 Metro interface as well. Stunned much?

You can work with all the features from accelerometers, cameras, media capture devices, GPS and all the bells and whistles that your device supports.

While this may not be a replacement for native development there is no doubt that this project might be further developed for this specific purpose. Right this will serve as a great option for Rapid Prototyping phase of your software development cycles.

If your needs are simple you should definitely use PhoneGap to build your applications and you will manage to create really fast and lightweight programmes for your devices.

Our developers have tried their hand at the framework and they are delighted to work with it.Take it out for a spin and maybe you might just fall in love with it. email us if you need any help.

Sources:

http://docs.phonegap.com/en/2.2.0/index.html

http://phonegap.com/