How to setup PhoneGap without xCode installation? - iphone

I am beginner to PhoneGap app development. Below are my queries.
1. Is it possible to setup PhoneGap SDK without Xcode installation.
2. If YES then how to do same.
3. If NO then is there any way I can write a iphone application without Xcode installation(I dont want to pay 99$, because I m a begineer).
4. I have a MAC, Windows, Linux PCs. Tell me all the free SWs. Its ok if I am not able to test the application initially.

Is it possible to setup PhoneGap SDK without Xcode installation.
No.
If NO then is there any way I can write a iphone application without Xcode installation(I dont want to pay 99$, because I'm a beginner)
XCode is free. It's in the AppStore. The $99 is to give you the ability to distribute applications in the AppStore and run it on a device. You will still be able to develop and run applications in an emulator for free.

I you don't want to install the dev environment, you can use their cloud service to build native apps written in HTML+CSS+Javascript. It's free and allows you to target all the supported platforms.
https://build.phonegap.com/
You only have to upload your finished app and get a compiled, native app.

Related

Build for iPhone without being connected

I am wandering if it is possible to build a developer build in a file which can be downloaded from a/my server by my test users. As it is now I have to connect each device to my computer and build to it?
I have seen when building a phonegap build for iOS in Dreamveawer it generates a file I can install on my iPhone using a QR code?
Hoping for help and thanks in advance!
It is possible to do so but I'd suggest using the free and excellent TestFlightApp to manage distributing your developer builds.
If you do want to distribute an ad-hoc build on your own, then follow these instructions.
You can archive your app and save it for Ad-Hoc distribution.
Ad-Hoc distribution enables you to distribute your app through an HTML page, it means that clients could install the app using their iOS Safari.
http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/ToolsLanguages/Conceptual/YourFirstAppStoreSubmission/TestYourApponManyDevicesandiOSVersions/TestYourApponManyDevicesandiOSVersions.html

Do you need Mac OS X to develop iPhone apps?

I was reading some sort of article stating you need Mac OS X to develop iPhone apps.
Is there really such a restriction?
Can't you just download the SDK (and the iOS developer program) IDE to Windows?
Yes, you do need Mac OS X for that. Xcode (SDK) will only work on Mac OS X.
However, if the legal part for you is not really important you can install Mac OS X on your normal PC. Just google "Hackintosh".
You don't need an actual Mac, just Mac OSX. If you don't feel like buying a mac than you can get a hold of the image of Mac OSX and install it onto your PC using Virtual Machine software. I use VMWare to run MacOSX from my Windows 7 x64 machine. VM's are a great way to go, the driers can take a bit to setup, but once everything is working it's perfect. VM's even support ethernet so from within the VM you can browse the web, download mac apps. Install things like XCode or GameSalad. I suggest researching how to use Virtual Machines.
One near-solution is to run OS X in a Virtual Machine on a Windows platform.
You're then developing on XCode on OS X, in a VM on Windows.
This way, you don't have to buy a Mac, or dedicate the hardware to a "Hackintosh".
Of course, this may not be legal by the license terms; I'm only speaking about the technical possibility.
You absolutely need Intel Macintosh hardware to develop iOS apps. The iOS SDK requires Xcode and Xcode only runs on Macintosh machines. I think that any Intel Mac will work, but with how fast things are changing a newer machine will get you longer time before you are forced to upgrade the machine.
Nope, you need an Intel-based Mac to develop apps for iOS. There is no iOS SDK for Windows.
That being said, there might be a way to use something like PhoneGap to develop your app "elsewhere" and then create a suitable package for iOS as well as other mobile platform. I am not familiar enough with PhoneGap and similar tools to know about this angle with any more certainty though.
You can't, there is no iOS SDK for Windows, it only has a Mac version. However, there are various emulators for Mac out there that you can try to install onto Windows. I've tried this before and it did work, however the performance was really poor. If you really wanted to do iOS development. I would strongly suggest you to actually purchase a Mac.
One year later...
I am not familiar with the prerequisites for developing native iOS apps, but wanted to add the possibility of creating a hybrid mobile application. Usually even then one needs the native tools and SDKs for building the wrapper application. But PhoneGap provide a cloud-based build service, which seems to do the job:
"What about developer accounts and SDKs? Do I need to set those up
before starting with PhoneGap Build?
No! But you might want to install some of the SDK emulators if you
don’t own a particular device that you want to test a build for."
Source: PhoneGap Build service
I have not tested the service myself. Just wanted to give an additional path to consider.
To be clear for iPhone apps development required Mac Computers. Xcode and iOS SDK to lead through the app development.Objective-C is the programming language which is most required for iOS app development to build apps. And to be frank, there is a difference between iOS and OS X. iOS and OS X share more framework. So porting app works from OS X to iOS is possible with a little work. If you are a cocoa developer you would be adapt to these frameworks easier.
Check for more information: developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/Miscellaneous/Conceptual/iPhoneOSTechOverview/Introduction/Introduction.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40007898
You can just install MacOS X on windows platform with the help of VMWare which you can use both of operating systems simultaneously side by side.
If you try develop iOS app with cordova like tools, you can simply build with the required SDK and compile it as iOS app then test it on your iPhone or any virtual emulators.
So this is an old question but also the first to appear for me in Google and I finally found a legal way. In 2020 you can go with MacInCloud, costs one dollar an hour for a basic plan. You can code everything elsewhere and then just use the cloud service to deploy the final steps in Xcode. Don't know about installing on your own ipad for testing, haven't gotten there yet.
Yes, you´re gonna need a MacBook or alike to develop for iOS. In my opinion, one of the biggest problems of developing apps for iOS is that you regularly have to buy a new MacBook (or another Mac based technology computer), since over time the most current version available of xCode for your already recently outdated OS X becomes incompatible with the newest iOS.

Use VirtualBox to compile iPhone app (via PhoneGap or Titanium) on Windows 7 machine?

Is it possible to use VirtualBox (https://www.virtualbox.org) to compile an iPhone app on a Windows 7 machine?
Specifically, we would like to utilize PhoneGap (http://www.phonegap.com) or Titanium (http://www.appcelerator.com/) to build the iPhone app.
PhoneGap requires Mac OS X Snow Leopard, which we would install on an instance of VirtualBox.
Has anyone done this before?
Yes, we understand this violates Apple's ToS. This is a prototype.
I would recommend looking into PhoneGap Build https://build.phonegap.com/
PhoneGap Build allows you to upload your source to their build service and get back app-store ready packages for a variety of platforms.
As far as I can tell, the only thing you need a Mac for in this process is to set up your provisioning profiles and developer certificate. Then you upload those to PhoneGap's service. From there it seems you should be able to use a non-Apple computer to develop and upload to the service.

How to setup Development Environment for iPhone Applicaiton Development on a Windows 7 Machine?

I am an Android Developer. I want to get into iPhone development as well.
As mentioned in many sites, to develop an iPhone/iPad application we need a mac with Xcode as an IDE.
Is there a way to develop, build and test an iPhone application on Windows machine.
I came to know that DragonFire SDK is one of the option to do that.
But please guide me through the installation steps and steps to be followed to set up Dragon Fire SDK.
and if possible provide some links where I can find some info on how to start writing iPhone application on Windows.
You can't developer iPhone app on windows in the for the native SDk (read Objective-C) you can use HTML apps and developer them on windows. Or use MonoTOuch (which will need to build the app on a mac).
And what is the problem with the Dragon Fire SDk, all the information you need is on there site.

Is it possible to run iOS simulator on a Mac without Xcode installed?

There are a few questions relating to this topic but nothing quite the same when it comes down to the details:
We would like to use the iOS Simulator without installing the rest of XCode on a macbook. It is an in-house laptop, and will be used by employees, but not engineers.
We already know how to run applications on the simulator without the source code and compiling required, but it would be nice to be able to install a 100MB app and application support that can run our in-house distribution app as opposed to a 2.4GB XCode installation. Any ideas? Thanks.
The Simulator app requires several other large directories from the Xcode distribution in order to work at all. The only official way to install all of those properly is to install the entire SDK from the dmg. Then you can experiment with deleting the hopefully "unneeded" directories. Be prepared to start over if you delete something that the Simulator requires.
You would have to extract the Simulator pkg from the Xcode DMG. The only thing is that the Simulator depends on having an SDK installed, that way it knows which iOS to run the app in.
Simulators are not available as separate/stand alone downloads.
No, you can't download ios simulator stand-alone