Does it matter much what your website is programmed in (PHP/.NET/ROR etc) with regards to having an iPhone or Android app interact with it?
No, it doesn't matter and if you are trying to build a mobile browser based app, then it won't matter. But if that website provides API , then you can create your app however you want.
If you are making use of service calls, you need to bother about the service request/response formats (xml/json...) and its parsing methods... you need not to worry about the language used to implement those services.
No, it does not matter at all.
Related
I'm a little bit confused now. There is a weather and stock widget on the iPhone. Is it possible to create such a widget yourself? I don't want to talk about new features in iOS 5 here. I only want to know it in general (iOS < 5).
Here I found the introduction guide with the help of Dashcode.
Wikipedia also states that this is not possible. I always thought it would be.
So are there only web apps and native apps possible?
PS: What is a widget exactly? A combination of native app and HTML, CSS, Javascript? Only HTML, CSS, Javascript? A cocoa application?
No, iOS does not currently allow the creation of widgets. The weather and stock widgets you're talking about were created by Apple. There are no APIs to write your own.
As of iOS8, its possible. 3rd party apps will be able to create widgets for the notification center.
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2014/06/02Apple-Releases-iOS-8-SDK-With-Over-4-000-New-APIs.html
This isn't a Guide for iOS Widgets, it's Guide for Mac Dashboard Widgets.
You can't
create iOS Widgets
change how the iOS Notifications Appear
With Dashcode you can create Web Applications for both iOS and Mac. It's a combination of HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Those Web Applications are only available on the Web (e.g. Safari). If you wan't to create a native App you have two possibilities:
Create a real native Application in ObjC
Create a Web Application (e.g. with Dashcode) and load it into a UIWebView, this requires also ObjC.
Advantages
Web-only Application (Browser-App)
You don't need a Apple Developer Account
Easy to port to Mac and other Smartphones
Unreal-native Application (Browser-App in a native App)
Easy to port to other Smartphones
It feels like a real native app
Your app is on the App Store
Native Application (Real iOS-App)
You have full access to the iPhone Frameworks (e.g. Contacts.app)
Your app is on the App Store
Disadvantages
Web-only Application (Browser-App)
The user needs to know your URL
You're not in the App Store
Unreal-native Application (Browser-App in a native App)
You need to pay 99$/year for an Apple Developer Account
It could feel like it's not a native app
You have not the full access to the iPhone Frameworks except you use something like PhoneGap or ObjC
Native Application (Real iOS-App)
You need to pay 99$/year for an Apple Developer Account
You can't port your app easy to other Smartphone
You need to learn ObjC
No, currently thats not possible. But you can, and should, file a feature request at bugreport.apple.com so that this issue gets some attention.
There is no reason you can't create a widget like component using javascript and display it in a uiwebview. This works equally well in android and iOS
A few years ago when I was involved with java server pages development I put together a tutorial of using dashcode to wrap java or javascript components.
http://www.jsfcentral.com/listings/A21034;jsessionid=A15086803ABF96A63DB1AB5405C9A329?link
We are developing web browser application for mobile phones and I am trying to figure out a way that I can gain access to the camera and take a photo and then upload it to the internet. But so far what I was suggested is to use phonegap and create native application. Phonegap is fine but it is not what I am looking for because my client wants to design forms and these html forms somehow will be able to trigger the camera and take photo and upload it to a server. Do you think developing a native API for every platform and having access to its functions from the web browsers is possible? What your suggestion would be?
(Note: My customer only want application that can run on mobile web browsers no native application runs on I-Phone, windows mobile, Blackberry and Android)
Thanks a lot...
Web apps (not wrapped in native code as Kumar details) cannot access all device hardware and sensors. Location support is available on iOS and Android, but camera access is only available on Android (via JavaScript). Similarly, device motion APIs are not accessible on Android, but are on iOS.
As you can see, support is sketchy and if you are truly looking to use such features, you are better off (and in many cases, realistically looking at) writing native apps for each platform you intend to support.
HTML5 is not yet at the point where it can replace native apps. It can do some of the things that native apps can, but even then performance is suboptimal. Currently, native apps may be more difficult and time-consuming, but they are necessary.
Calling android native APIs from javascript functions of embedded WebView
Use JS to call Java code which will in-turn call the Camera API or whatever else you are looking for.
It's not going to be possible to do it on iPhone, the only known way of accessing the camera is through the Cocoa layer.
I searched arround for solutions and didn't find anything of really pertinent on the subject.
This is why, I ask you guys your help :-)
Assuming I have an application running with Rails 3 using Devise to authenticate the users.
I need to create mobile applications for Iphone/Android and WP7.
The mobiles applications should communicate/login/create/list, do whatever the website can do.
The mobile Applications could commuicate by parsing the XML .... but maybe there are already lib/frameworks or something more sexy ?
What would be the best way to communicate between my mobile applications and my Rails website ?
I'd use the xml or json output to share data back and forth; For authentication you can set (in initializers/devise.rb)
config.http_authenticatable = true
That enables you to send basic HTTP Auth headers with every request which devise will handle for you.
--
For creating a webapplication that is also possible to view in a mobile version for the website i'd recommend to check out this railscast: http://railscasts.com/episodes/199-mobile-devices
It sounds like, if the mobile app is just an interface to the web app, that you would likely be best served by creating a mobile HTML5 "style" within your web app, that gets served automatically when a mobile phone accesses your website. All of your code can be in Rails, which it sounds like you're already familiar with, and you've also got the advantage of keeping your codebase all together in one place - if you want to add functionality later, you just update your web app, and don't worry about updating 2 different mobile phone apps as well.
I have seen similar posts but couldn't find any answer..
Kindly advise whether its possible or not?
Are you talking about 3rd party applications or the inbuilt applications of the iPhone?
If you are talking about 3rd party application then forget it.. As told by #KingOfBliss apple restricts it.
And if you want to open inbuilt applications like camera, photo, contacts,safari web then you can do it.
You can get sample code for implementing all these from here...
Hope it helps...
hAPPY iCODING...
Applications can register a custom URL format, and then other applications can call that URL to trigger that application, pass it data, etc. Some of Apple's built-ins have URL formats that they've published, and some 3rd party apps have (and advertise) them too. If you're building more than one app, you can obviously customize your URL scheme to have your apps talk to each other more or less freely.
Apple restrict you to open 3rd party application, but you can open some application like safari,contacts,etc.,
I'm about to begin development of an iPhone app. The app itself is fairly basic, and I want a speedy turnaround time.
I'm a web developer myself, specialising in traditional web technologies such as PHP/MySQL; I have no experience in Objective-C.
My plan was to create a very basic iPhone app that is just a Safari service that passes some basic variables to a URL. That URL is the app built in PHP and housed on my servers, this way I can create the app very quickly without needing to outsource anything.
My question is whether apps of this nature would be accepted into the iTunes store, or would they be out-right rejected? Anyone's experiences or comments are very welcome.
Thanks
It could go either way, but mind bullet 12.3 from the App Store Review Guidelines:
12.3 Apps that are simply web clippings, content aggregators, or a collection of links, may be rejected
In my opinion, a simple UIWebView wrapper around your web site comes close to the definition of a simple web clipping. Your approval may very well hinge on your luck in drawing a sympathetic reviewer.
It really depends upon your application...These kinds of application have been approved in the past but again I am saying that it depends on many factors.
Try to test your app in every possible manner and also keep in mind the memory issues.
Best of luck!!!
Should be fine - its called a web app and there is software out there that will do just this for you.
All you need to do is to make a UIWebView and put your web app into it.
Also look at http://jqtouch.com. That gives you some idea of what you can do web-side. :)
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Yes, it will be accepted as long as you stick with HTML, CSS, JS and Obj-C on the client side. You still need to wrap it in an iPhone app. In my experience, the best way to this is to use http://www.phonegap.com/ or a similar framework.
You'll have the option of deploying you app through iTunes or as a regular web app (you users will be able to create a link to your web app right on their springboards)
It SHOULD be accepted, granted you test test test and make it look just like a native application. Also you'll have to make sure that your server is never down, or if the application can't reach it just display an error message. You also have to keep in mind that there are a lot of iPod Touch users, and they don't have access to the internet all the time. Which means that chances are you'll get a BUNCH of 1 star reviews