I am currently in the early stages of my project which is an ERP application that I plan to sell to enterprise clients. I heard about the Force.com platform but I'm confused on what benefits will I gain if I use it and not develop my own. Can you please explain why should I use Force.com or any PaaS?
Regards,
I think it has a simple answer. Building and operating such a platform is not an easy and trivial task in both business and technical perspective.
Of course, you may choose to develop your own platform but i think it would take a long time with much more money and efforts. I know it because I have been working for a company which is developing such a platform ( Viravis ).
Related
I am very interested in using BlueMix for mobile development. Really interested.
I've created a couple of stub app's using iOS9+ and Swift. And I can see that there is real potential.
My question is. When I look at the educational materials and toolkits available I get the impression that IBM are no longer investing in this area. How can I be sure that BlueMix and Mobile will receive investment? How can I be sure that BlueMix will support future versions of iOS?
I know some might think this is too general a question. The problem I have is that IBM is such a huge company I have no idea who I can approach for an answer directly.
As you mention this is certainly not a technical question. That said, if you would like reassurance that the mobile SDKs (including Swift) are a major focus feel free to monitor the Bluemix Mobile Services public-facing Github where you will see daily activity as work is done to bring all the BMS SDKs up to the latest and greatest releases for the iOS, Android, and Hybrid platforms.
I've already read this:
IBM Worklight - Which features a Native app cannot use?
but it's a little old now and I'm asking:
what kind of features are still missing while developing a native cross-platform mobile app in the realm of business applications & banking tools using Worklight (are JSONStore and Direct Update still unavailable? There are further features missing?);
what are the CONs, in general, of working with such framework despite of using native SDKs (like the cross-platform struggle to keep up with the native platform roadmap, framework infrastructure weight, performance issues, general trade offs, etc.).
Any reference to Worklight documentation is welcome.
Thank you in advance
The essence of native development differs greatly than that of hybrid development.
In native development Worklight provides a set of APIs that allow you to work with the Worklight Server and the features that surround it (as listed in the question you've linked to),
Whereas in hybrid development you also get features related to the client-side. These client-side related features are meant for web development, so there is no correlation between the two (native and hybrid).
what kind of features are still missing while developing a native
mobile app in the realm of business applications & banking tools using
Worklight (are JSONStore and Direct Update still unavailable? There
are further features missing?);
So the list has not changed much:
Starting Worklight 6.2, JSONStore is supported in native development as well
Push Notifications in WP8 is now supported in native development as well
As for Direct Update... this feature is meant to update web resources, not native resources. Also, such updating of native resources is not allowed by the platform so there is no Direct Update support in native development.
what are the CONs, in general, of working with such framework despite
of using native SDKs (like the cross-platform struggle to keep up with
the native platform roadmap, framework infrastructure weight,
performance issues, general trade offs, etc.).
You handle native development as you would always handle it. The framework only provides you with the tools to use what Worklight provides on the server-side.
I am a C Sharp.NET & Silverlight developer and now thinking to swicth to SmartDevice development specially for iPhone & Andriod based phones. I have looked over web and found some cross platform development frameworks like
http://developer.openplug.com
http://www.phonegap.com/
http://android.xamarin.com/Welcome
but not sure about which to choose. Naturally I would like to keep my learning curve less but also would like to choose platform which provides more power, so I am looking for your suggestions and 'Getting Started' tips and also which device you think will be in demand in future iPhone or Android ? .
Thanks,
Maverick
I wouldn't recommend any of those. The problem is, that those "cross-platform" development frameworks, still aren't cross-compilable. This means you still need to develop an application for each platform, but you can reuse heavy calculations if you are using models af MVC.
Another thing is that those frameworks still aren't 100% native supported, so you'll loose some features from the native frameworks when developing applications.
I've read a lot of articles and to be honest, these cross-platforms seems to be dying out, cause both Android and iOS are moving very fast in each their direction and the cross-platforms cant keep up. But it's still up to you.
In would recommend you to choose one of those platform and learn it from scratch. With your C Sharp background, maybe iOS and Objective-C would be the most natural choice.
Enjoy
Edit: Regarding you last question:
I dont think it matters which one you choose, both will be domination for a long time. You should pick the one you can identify yourself with.
since you are C# dev, go for MonoTouch. I heard good things about it.
Miguel de Icaza is behind Xamrin. He wrote the most prolific .NET platform for UNIX, mono. I believe both he and his team have the capacity to bring you the most coverage for common features on Droid and iOS. My friend has a startup and is releasing an app shortly for iOS on Xamrin. It is a video streaming app.
HTML 5 will get you the most cross platform for the investment. Of course, like everyone else has said, if you need lots of native integration or if you want to use the latest APIs upon availability, you have to go native.
I'm working on guidance for development of mobile applications in a -mainly- .Net shop.
How do you tackle the different platforms when developing mobile applications from the perspective of a .Net developer? What are advantages and disadvantages of these approaches?
Probably the simplest approach is to just stick to web-based development (HTML5, jquery mobile, etc). But I can imagine this won't be enough for any and all applications.
I have looked at Titanium, which claims to be a platform where you develop in JavaScript, which is then "translated" to the native platform (android/iPhone). The lack of a 'declarative' (read xml-based) UI development experience seems like a disadvantage.
Another option could be the mono-based stack (monotouch, monodroid), where you don't really have a full cross-platform, develop once, deploy everywhere experience, but you can share your business logic and develop reusing part of your .Net skills and tooling. An additional advantage is that the same approach can be used to target Windows Phone 7.
Are there other options? Is it worthwile to even try this? What's your experience?
I am the head of mobile development for a government contractor that develops various systems for large government organizations, including Budget Management, Time Tracking, Radiological Monitoring and Assessment, and other much more intensive systems. We've been using jQuery Mobile with great success. Our clients have been universally satisfied with both the UI and UX afforded by JQM. We use ASP.NET's Razor engine for inline coding within the pages that drive JQM. Though not every possible feature is implemented in JQM by default, it's not that difficult to extend. I haven't yet run into any roadblocks I wasn't able to easily overcome.
As far as cross-platforming goes, we've found that the best option is combining JQM and PhoneGap. Titanium is seriously hindered by the lack of a XML UI engine as you said, and MonoTouch just isn't robust enough to do everything we need.
I am new to J2ME and what I have now is Netbeans 6.7.1 IDE. Is there any basic guide for developing Mobile applications in Netbeans 6.7.1? Please provide me the links.
Netbeans.org itself has great tutorials for mobile development in Netbeans. And that is what you need:
http://netbeans.org/kb/trails/mobility.html
For examples this is a very good Quick Start for Netbeans J2ME development:
http://netbeans.org/kb/docs/javame/quickstart.html
I think this book best source for J2ME with Netbeans:
Kicking Butt with MIDP and MSA: Creating Great Mobile Applications (The Java Series)
Book Description:
The release of MIDP 2.0 and the introduction of the new Mobile Service Architecture (MSA) are generating momentum for the Java ME platform. As more and more Java-enabled mobile devices become available and more service providers become open to third-party development, the demand for customized applications will grow dramatically. Now, there's a practical, realistic guide to building MIDP 2.0/MSA applications that are robust, responsive, maintainable, and fun.
Long-time Java ME author Jonathan Knudsen offers real solutions for the complex challenges of coding efficiency, application design, and usability in constrained mobile environments. Experienced Java developers will master MIDP 2.0 and MSA programming through clear, carefully designed examples. Downloadable code is available for both NetBeans Mobility Pack and the Sun Java Wireless Toolkit. Kicking Butt with MIDP and MSA's wide-ranging content covers:
Pushing MIDP's limits, and exploiting MSA's full power
Using MIDlets, Forms, commands, core classes, and invocation
Building effective mobile user interfaces
Designing graphics with the Canvas, the Game API, SVG, and 3D
Providing storage and resources: record stores, FileConnection, and PDA PIM
Internationalizing mobile applications
Networking via WMA, Bluetooth, Web services, and SIP
Parsing XML documents
Implementing audio and advanced multimedia
Securing mobile applications with SATSA and the Payment API
Building advanced location-based applications
Designing applications for multiple devices
Creating end-to-end mobile application architectures
Tell what platform you are developing on so that the tools available for you can be given.
Also, you most definitely want an emulator so that can test your applications directly on your computer (Saves time).
Honestly, can't give much more advice than to know java well and to use google + stackoverflow. Those are what I did and ended up developing a commercial app in j2me just fine.