What are the analytics tools available for a mobile web similar to the "Flurry" which is meant for mobile native applications?
Piwik
Piwik is an open-source Web analytics application developed using PHP and MySQL. It has a "plugins" system that allows for utmost extensibility and customization. Install only the plugins you need or go overboard and install them all – the choice is up to you. The plugins system, as you can imagine, also opens up possibilities for you to create your own custom extensions. This thing’s lightweight – the download’s only 1.9MB.
FireStats
FireStats is a simple and straight-forward Web analytics application written in PHP/MySQL. It supports numerous platforms and set-ups including C# sites, Django sites, Drupal, Joomla!, WordPress, and several others. Are you a resourceful developer who needs moar cowbell? FireStats has an excellent API that will assist you in creating your own custom apps or publishing platform components (imagine: displaying the top 10 most downloaded files in your WordPress site) based on your FireStats data.
Snoop
Snoop is a desktop-based application that runs on the Mac OS X and Windows XP/Vista platforms. It sits nicely on your system status bar/system tray, notifying you with audible sounds whenever something happens. Another outstanding Snoop feature is the Name Tags option which allows you to "tag" visitors for easier identification. So when Joe over at the accounting department visits your site, you’ll instantly know.
I think the most popular is google analytics www.google.com/analytics/
big advantage is that almost all platforms (ao. android, ios, web, ...) are supported, this makes it easy to compare the performance of all your online properties
Related
At the moment Flutter web support is available in the beta channel. If you test Flutter web demos you may notice that selecting and copying text into clipboard isn't possible.
However, this is how mobile applications work. In the Amazon mobile application you can't select and copy all the text elements. In the Amazon website you can.
So, is Flutter web support aimed only for implementing application-like websites (like games, visualizations, utilities etc.) or will it be good also for implementing content oriented websites (like stackoverflow.com for example)?
we want to create an internet platform, where for registered users the following is done:
1) Tracking of the applications they open during they are "checked in" on the page
2) Tracking of their web surfing
3) In regular periods a picture is automatically taken by the built-in camera of the laptop (not Smartphone) and uploaded to the platform.
I know, sounds like brave new world;)
Is a server-sided framework like Rails with client code in JQuery sufficient for it?
Or is an own client application in e.g. objective-C for MacOS necessary?
Thanks,
R
You can do 2 using almost any of the web application frameworks + javascript.
1 is impossible unless the there is an application running in the desktop or a browser extension that is communicating with your website.
However the 3 sounds very alarming from a privacy standpoint. But if the users are willing and is aware of it then it's not an issue.
As far as I know, JavaScript does not natively support accessing the web camera. But Flash does!
Fortunately for you there is a library which combines both Flash and JavaScript that can take a web cam snapshot. It's called jpegcam. There seems to be another one called jquery web cam plugin. Also read this question - https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3922723/using-a-webcam-with-javascript
Wondering if someone could point me in the right direction, as I am unsure of the correct terminology. I am looking to create a mobile website, which loads in a browser based application (iPhone, Android).
I have seen this done before. For example, the bank of america application is actually installed via the App Store, however, it is simple a browser window that loads the Bank of America mobile site (which is built to look and function like an app).
I find this to more cost-effective, as developing a mobile app is less intense, as opposed to developing applications for 2-3 different mobile platforms.
Can someone provide insight into the terminology or methods used to accomplish this? Looking for articles, examples, etc.
Thanks in advanced!
I would suggest to use IBM Worklight.
Worklight is an Eclipse-based visual development and server platform for mobile apps. Using Worklight and popular open technologies, you can build, test, deploy, and manage your smartphone and tablet apps for iOS, Android, Blackberry, and Windows Phone devices, with maximum code reuse and per-device optimization.
Worklight supports open technologies such as HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, Apache Cordova, and popular JavaScript frameworks such as jQuery, Dojo Mobile, and Sencha Touch.
Worklight offers extensive runtime libraries and client APIs that expose and interface with native device functionality.
Worklight includes a browser simulator so you can test and optimize the user experience of your mobile content on varying mobile devices.
Worklight consists of an IDE (Worklight Studio), a Java-based server, device runtime components, a web-based console for managing deployments, and an application center.
for more info see
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mobile/worklight/getting-started.html
Take a look at PhoneGap or Appcelerator, two of the bigger names in this "native wrapper" technology.
Hi I have been recently exploring some of the Javascript mobile frameworks that can be used for developing mobile web apps like Sencha, JQTouch, JQuery mobile etc.
I know the adv and disadvantages of both.
I just need some recent stats which show the market's adoption or opinion.
I tried three ways to develop mobile applications.
First method is to use frameworks that will take your html/css/js files and package them into mobile applications depending on your targets (BlackBerry, iPhone, Android, ...). I used PhoneGap (known today as Cordova). I didn't like it at all because the UI's rendering is so ugly on some devices and the user experience is broken. I had to use it with jQuery Mobile because it gave me a good UI design start. I tried some Phonegap Android generated applications on my personal device and it's really horrible. Some of them got rejected by Apple because of that ...
Second method is to use Appcelerator Titanium SDK. One word to sum it up: Awesome. One language to use (javascript) to create your UI/Controller. It's so easy to learn, so powerful to develop with and it has many out-of-the-box functionnalities (like facebook API, Yahoo Query Language, ...) that will allow you to put in place solutions easily for both Android and iPhone. BlackBerry is coming soon. What I liked the most is that it converts the written Javascript into the targetted platform with the default UI. It's really great. And, above all, the UI is easily customizable (with a css like system).
Personally, I put in place apps that can: Take a photo with the device then send it to a remote server, send messages to twitter/facebook, advanced geolocation, etc.
Third method: Native! It would take time if you target both iPhone and Android but, the big advantage is that you can create anything you want without being tied to a Framework for areas such as games, augmented reality , etc.
In my opinion, if you want to create simple applications with some nice features (weather, twitter feeds, sending on a facebook wall, ...), use Appcelerator Titanium SDK.
It converts your code into NATIVE.
If you have time to spend learning native languages, do it. It's the best way ;)
Hope it helps.
Regards.
I've summed up my thoughts on the whole "native vs. web" discussion in a blog post here: http://www.springenwerk.com/2011/09/thoughts-on-mobile-ui-design.html
In a nutshell: You can't get around getting to know the platform you are targeting if you want to provide a great user experience. Plus, you shouldn't try to mimic native UI/UX in a web application, it will only disappoint your users.
here are some pros and cons of native apps vs. web apps:
Native apps:
Native apps have more security
Native apps have higher user engagement, it has higher click-through rate (CTR) among the ad-serving publishers
When it comes to aesthetics and overall user experience, it is incredibly difficult for web apps to trump native apps
you don't have to buy a server and maintain it, therefore, for small businesses it is the ideal solution, not web apps which require a server.
Web apps:
it's cross platform - that means your one app will work on both iphone and android
cheaper and faster to develop and maintain
you will find programmers easier than native apps
updates are easier
Check out this post for some more opinion - http://www.thorntech.com/2013/01/html5-vs-native-apps-which-will-win-the-mobile-app-development-battle/
In particular, the last paragraph is worth noting. If you go down the path of building an HTML5 app, it is worth having some type of background "syncing" of content so you are not always pulling it from the web in real time. The app will be much more responsive if you load HTML pages from disk.
From my experience, the success rate of a native apps are much better than html or javascript based ones. I do not have sufficient numbers to back it up, but these are some issues that may crop up when trying to build html5 apps for different platforms. e.g.
Browser OS or webkit differences can cause unexpected bugs, css issues that could take quite a while to debug.
Your app is running on top of a webkit browser engine which takes up additional resources.
Older or non-smart phone devices may not have a modern webkit engine.
Nevertheless if you have good web skills over native, then getting an app to the market the quicket and cheapest route would be html5. Some apps lend very well for html5 such as data listing, and text content driven apps. I have written a writeup on HTML5 vs Native on my blog. Hope its useful.
Is there a sane way to develop a cross platform Mobile app? We want these to be native apps on each platform, and not necessarily some kind of web page.
Currently we're thinking to split it into two languages:
C# backend (business logic)
--> Standard C# app for WP7
--> App built on MonoTouch for iPhone/iPad/etc.
Java backend (business logic)
--> Standard Android Java app (MonoDroid version of C# not ready
yet)
--> Standard Blackberry Java app
We could also develop initially in C# and use one of the conversion tools out there to get our C# converted into Java as a starting point.
Is there another approach? Our skillsets include mainly include a strong C# .Net background, and minor Java experience.
We don't really want to go low level and use something like C/C++ to get the job done. These are usually going to be simple LOB applications that communicate to some web service.
Side Question: how do game devs like the makers of Angry Birds do it?
UPDATE:
MonoDroid is now officially released. So it seems you would only need to use Java for the BlackBerry. We are considering not developing for BlackBerry at all, because developing for the other 3 platforms has been simplified. There is definitely some cost involved, as MonoTouch and MonoDroid are both $399 and you would also need a license for Visual Studio (this doesn't include cost for App store, etc.).
There's no good simple answer that I know of for all mobile platforms. You can use development environments like Appcelerator Titanium, which cross-compile to native code on various platforms (right now, for instance, I think Titanium supports iOS and Android, with plans for Blackberry). However, these usually have a limited API that you have access to, and you still end up needing to design different UIs for the different platforms (in my commercial work, I have never successfully used such a platform)
You could also design all the business logic in a web-services back end, and then just write "thin client" apps for each platform. This works, but of course requires network access when the end user wants to use your app. (Usually it'll be there, but sometimes may not)
Ultimately, I usually end up doing what you propose -- writing the basic business logic in a couple of different languages as generically as possible, and then bundling that in with custom UI/device code for each platform. Haven't found a better way myself....
(BTW, I believe games like Angry Birds are written largely in OpenGL and then loaded onto the OpenGL processor on each platform. But I could be mistaken...)
Those are some great answers. I agree, x-platform development is still very primitive. I'd like to add 2 points:
1) You do not need to write your backend in different languages. Choose one language (based on your comfort level, performance etc. criteria) and then connect from your platform-specific apps directly to the backend. If your backend is server-side code, one way of talking to it would be via XmlHttpClient. If it's a piece of native code common across various apps and is written in say C++, you can use JNI from Java and wrapper assembly from C#.
2) Another reason for avoiding x-platform tools is that you'd always need to wait for them to support the new APIs released by the platform vendor (Apple, Google, MSFT etc.). Once these companies release new APIs, the tools will need to be updated and only then will you be able to use the new APIs.
I don't think this is (easily) possible, if you're not using some HTML5 (jquerymobile etc.) in a WebView in your own app (looks like a real app, but still you will somehow see that it's not) instead of the normal browser. You can still use some native API from the device (accelerometer,...).
There are (commercial) platforms like Sybase Unwired Platform that help you in generating some client code. Afaik for Blackberry and Windows Mobile even some UI can be generated out of the business objects on the server. But to me it sounds that this might be too heavy-weight for your case.
Regards,
Martin