As i am going to develop mobile web app for all devices. My question is, if the browser is not support html5 kind of stuff, Whether Sencha will support HTML4?
Thanks in advance,
srini
[sencha person] #Sri. Sencha Touch works on Android 2.1 and Apple iOS ONLY for release 1.0, and will be supporting RIM, Nokia etc. devices as they add modern browsers to their phones that can support javascript and CSS at reasonable performance and correctness.
[Update: We've tested the new RIM Blackberry Torch, and will be adding it to our support list - probably in release 1.1]
A majority of existing phones (Nokia featurephones etc.) are not capable of running a web application because they lack javascript performance, CSS support and even full HTML capabilities. In our (opinionated) view, the only phones (today) that can support a proper web app experience are Android 2.1+ and Apple iOS.
Well, I cannot give a definitive answer, but given that ExtJS (the name until recently) still supports Internet Explorer 6, I'd guess so. They are double-licensed as GPL + proprietary license, so cannot just drop support for something outdated since that would piss some/many paying customers.
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Closed 12 years ago.
Possible Duplicate:
Technology to write iPhone, BlackBerry and Android phone at the same time?
Edit - guys, we need one more vote to close this. This question is a dup (read the comments)
I've heard that Apple banned such tools. Ok, so Apple lifted their ban in September. Still, the question holds - is there a sane way to develop apps to these two platforms without writing nearly everything twice?
Is there something I'm missing, or is the current state of affairs really that every company that develops a cross-platform legally has to maintain two code bases?
Apple reversed their ban in early September after receiving some pressure from the FTC and EU. However, unless you plan on using a third-party tool such as Adobe Flash Pro CS5 (I believe you can create AIR apps that will run on Android this way, as well as the much publicized iOS functionality), you'll have to maintain two codebases anyway, as Android apps are written in Java and iOS apps in Objective-C, two vastly differently languages with vastly different APIs.
You can always use standard HTML5 technologies to make a pure web app. Apple has two tracks for apps: native apps through the App Store written in Objective-C, or web apps that have only the restrictions of the underlying HTML5 technologies.
If you don't like pure web apps you can even merge the two and make a custom app that displays heavily customized web-like content in an embedded browser view (UIWebKit on iOS). Android and iOS web browsers frameworks are from WebKit and very close in features/appearance/conformance.
Instead of starting from a viewpoint of "I can't do X on Apple's closed iOS" start with "Can I do this in any supported application technology, even if its web-based or a web app hybrid, available across all platforms?"
I've done some research on this recently and have found a few companies that can to do this for you.
Appcelerator Titanium Mobile. They make a product that allows you to write your code in Javascript. I've found that the business logic, like networking, files, etc are write once, but the UI has quite a bit of if(android) else \iphone logic to get right. Apps will look native.
FeedHenry. They are more of a HTML based solution, but have a broader support of devices. More than just iphone and android. The sdk is still pretty early, and work can only be done in their special ide that is web based.
Phonegap. A javascript/css/html based framework that targets the iPhone, Android, and the Blackberry.
There are plusses and minuses to all of the solutions. Depending on your app's complexity, it may be a good decision to pick a platform like those to develop on. Coding an app could be much faster if the features they support are right for your app. Right now, it seems that they are all in early release phases and don't support a full toolkit that a developer would be used to, like a debugger, full IDE support, etc. Also, many of them build to a lowest common feature set, so you may not get all of the new release features as they come out, you would have to wait for a particular version of the platform to be released in order to have them.
XMLVM: Android to iPhone
XMLVM can translate your Android code to Objective-C for iPhone. But as what I know you still need a Mac to compile the iPhone application.
Android has the NDK (native dev kit) to allow C and C++ code to be included in APKGs and called from Java via the JNI. Apple's toolchain will also deal with both; the code that will be different will be the platform interface code, mostly in Java on Android and ObjC on iOS.
This is only useful when the bulk of your application is in C or C++.
An alternate would be to go with MonoTouch and the upcoming MonoDroid, if everything works out you could basically code C# on all platforms including of course Win7 Mob.
It looks promising but haven't tried it myself yet.
In September, Apple lifted some of the restrictions in the iOS license that had made it difficult to do cross-platform development. See this press release. I'm not familiar with the details of the current license, but you can get a copy through their developer program.
Another possibility that would be the Rhodes framework, if you like MVC, ORM, and Ruby.
take a look at the System.getProperty() values with android the vendor shows as The Android Project. I haven't looked at the iPhone or the IPad since I don't have one but hopefully they have something changed for their's too. But this will only work with java that I know of.
A friend of mine told me that some frameworks (PhoneGap and/or QuickConnect) can transform my HTML/JS/CSS code to an iOS App.
Personally, I hate this kind of frameworks because when you get a bug, it's very hard to debug. But, on the other hand, as i'm starting learning iOS programming, I find Objective-C hard to learn.
Did anyone tried these tools? What are their limits? What about performances?
Thank you,
Regards.
These frameworks are handy if you are coming from web development world. Since they allow you to develop using HTML/CSS/Js you'll be able to get going quite rapidly.
Even though they offer more interaction with the native capabilities of the device (contacts, camera, accelerometer, etc.) than pure web development (using Sencha Touch or jQuery Mobile for example) they are still more limited than a native application.
Webkit
Most of these solution are focused on devices using a WebKit based browser for the rendering. Which is used by many of the main mobile OS :
Symbian, iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Bada, etc.
Main exception being Windows Phone which uses Internet Explorer
Cross-platform
Their goal is to enable cross-platform development ever by wrapping your web development into a native app (PhoneGap, Titanium) or by "translating" to the appropriate language for the targeted device (RhoMobile Rhodes, MoSync).
iPhone specific
Aiming several platforms implies that some phone specific features might not be so easily supported. And the UI won't look as native since it's targeting different OS. So if you are only aiming iOS4 you could maybe try some of the more specific solutions such as:
iWebKit
Ansca Corona
Performances
For standard apps you should'nt notice much difference. But if you are planning to develop games some of these frameworks are probably not the best solution. Corona claims to be appropriate...
Caution
If you plan to develop a commercial application beware of Apple's policy.
Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine
Many applications using these tools/frameworks are still accepted but there is nothing official.
Edit: As stated by Rydell the policy has changed since September 9.
1.i dont have iphone, so may i know does iphone come with pre-installed flash lite 2.0 or above? if answer is Not, if a web page that embed flash lite app. can it prompt user of iphone to install flash lite easily ?
2. where can i get list of phones that support flash lite 2.0 and above?
As Ben states, the iPhone doesn't support Flash of any variety.
Regarding (2), there is a list on the Adobe website which may be of use.
No, the iPhone does not support Flash (lite or otherwise). Apple has been very clear that they have no interest in adding this support. Can't help you with (2).
Unfortunately mobile Flash support is not high on Apple's priority for one reason or another. For a complete list of Flash enabled phones go here: http://www.adobe.com/mobile/supported_devices/operators.html
No and never forever.
Read this: http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/
Apple's legitimate concern I believe is with the Flash plugin sucking down resources. Anyone who has used Flash on anything other than Windows (Read: MacOS and Linux) can affirm that the plugin is pretty horrific. It leaks memory and grinds on the CPU on both platforms, and it has for years now.
My understanding (it was reported about 2 months ago) is that in its frustration Adobe tried delivering an in-house built version of the Flash plugin. Unfortunately, its battery life was pretty awful. This was linked off Hacker News and is clearly anecdotal, but FWIW: tumblr.
However, I also believe the new builds of Flash allow you to compile apps for iPhone, which is probably a more reasonable route to go. As I recall you could embed an iTunes Store URL in your page and direct iPhone users to grab the app.
Exists an universal phone developement language?
I mean, for example, php or java or whatever
Edit : We have to develop a few phone applicatons, and we are looking for the best reusable language in differents devices (Blackberry, iPhone, Motorola, etc)
Java is as close as you'll come, but it's no where near universal (iPhone doesn't support it!)
Since iPhone's language isn't used by anything else either, it's pretty much a given that you won't find a universal solution.
Rhodes by Rhomobile is a Ruby framework for building cross-platform phone applications. It allows you to build a single application that works on all major smartphones: iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Symbian and Android. (The only obvious omissions seem to be OpenMoko and PalmOS/webOS, but all the phones you listed are supported.)
The way Rhodes works, is that you write your application in Ruby and your UI in HTML. A Ruby implementation, the Rhodes framework itself, your application scripts and your HTML files then get packaged up into what looks to the phone's operating system like a single native application. Rhodes then runs a webserver inside of the phone and serves the application from there, using the phone's builtin web browser UI component and a JavaScript UI library for making the web app look like a native app. (E.g. iUI for the iPhone.)
There was a nice introduction to Rhodes (with live coding) by the Rhomobile CEO at the Mountain West RubyConf 2009, the video is available at the Confreaks website.
Java (more specifically J2ME) will work on most phones. Googles Android and Blackberry development involves Java too. On Symbian-phones you can develop in C and there is an interpreter for python. If you are aiming for the iPhone market you have to stick to Objective-C and the Cocoa Touch framework.
There is no universal language, nor universal runtime that is supported by all of the major platforms. Two major players are Java on J2ME, BlackBerry and Android devices and Objective-C on the iPhone.
You might want to check out Symbian phone OS, it is intended as a common OS originally a joint collaboration between Nokia, Motorla and Ericsson. see: www.symbian.org/index.php
HTML + Javascript + CSS
PhoneGap!
It is the only cross platform mobile framework that I know of. Has feature support for iPhone, Android and Blackberry
http://phonegap.com/
Well!!! Most of the phones support java. What are you trying to do? Learn a new language?
Java is probably the closest you're going to find.
Even if you can do it, what good does it do to write a mediocre application that doesn't really take full advantage of whatever device it is on?
Bite the bullet and choose to do great implementations on a selected subset of mobile platforms.
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Closed 10 years ago.
Have any well-documented or open source projects targeted iPhone, Blackberry, and Android ? Are there other platforms which are better-suited to such an endeavor ?
Note that I am particularly asking about client-side software, not web apps, though any information about the difficulties of using web apps across multiple mobile platforms is also interesting.
The HTML5 standard has support for releasing stand-alone HTML5 apps. Essentially a HTML5 app is a bundle of HTML5, JavaScript and CSS files that will run stand-alone in the browser of the desktop or device. You can distribute them like any other program, including selling them on the iStore for the iPhone.
The support for this is patchy at the moment but is likely to improve tremendously in the next year or two.
Google for HTML5 apps for information and resources. A good introduction to HTML5 is the online book "Dive Into HTML5" by Mark Pilgrim. This is a work in progress, but sufficiently complete to be useful.
There are 2 [newish] solutions to exactly this issue:
rhomobile
and
phonegap
I think there best chance for cross-platform mobile success is the Web. Just write a very simple Web application for what you want to achieve. It should work on the Nokia S60browser, Iphone and Android.
That's already a lot of mobile devices...
Appcelerator, PhoneGap (acquired by Adobe, plus it's now standardized as Apache Cordova), Intel XDK (formerly called appMobi) and Rhodes (acquired by Motorola Solutions) are all open source and create hybrid apps (natively packed with html ui, with the possibility to add some of your native controls).
If it's a game, your only professional choice for a free engine that can be used for commercial development is Unity3D. For 2D games, cocos2d-x is also available. Additionally, Vuforia can be used for AR and LiquidFun for physics.
XMLVM (via Coke and Code) and EdgeLib currently seem to be the most mature options. EdgeLib is aimed primarily at game developers, and according to Coke and Code, the XMLVM developers are difficult to contact.
The iPhone uses Objective C, the Blackberry Java SE with RIM functionality and Android another custom version of Java. I could possibly see how you could combine the latter two but there is no functionality (without jailbreaking) of running Java applications on an iPhone.
The best bet I've seen so far is something like Qt that will run on Windows CE, almost certainly shortly Symbian, some Java platforms and the three major desktop OSs.
redfivelabs have implemented the .Net compact framework for the S60 platform
Titanium Mobile from Appcelerator looks interesting. You develop your app in HTML & Javascript and upload to their server where it is compiled into a native application of the target platform (currently iPhone & Android)
For the iPhone there's currently no such notion as Open Source as the Apple iPhone SDK NDA forbids publishing code. They also forbid posting code on any non-Apple site or even non-Apple discussion forums on iPhone development. As soon as the NDA expires (will it ever?) we'll start having Open Source iPhone apps.
Suprised MoSync hasn't been mentioned here already.
Update (2014 January - present): the project is abandoned.
I started to use a really cool cross-platform SDK called EdgeLib. It allows you to use a simple API and you can compile your projects to a variety of platforms: Windows Mobile Pocket PC, Windows Mobile Smartphone, Symbian Series 60, Series 80, Series 90, Symbian UIQ, Gamepark Holdings GP2X, Gizmondo and Windows desktop.
I know iPhone, Blackberry, and Android are not on that list but the developers mentioned that these platforms are on their roadmap.
EdgeLib looks promising and has an iPhone beta announced but not open yet.
jQuery Mobile Alpha 2 Released
Nimblekit
Sencha
Phonegap
Appcelerator
Well BlackBerrys don't really have Java SE, they have Java ME, with a lot of additional librarys provided by RIM. Same goes for Android. The only cross-platform apps you'll ever see on mobile devices are probably written in strict Java ME, which runs on most devices. However, just like JavaScript between different browser, Java ME has is quirks across different devices, so source code changes may be necessary.
I found one game engine for dat
MoMinis games are available for distribution and are supported on Android, Blackberry, Symbian and J2me devices. MoMinis games include a wide range of casual games – including arcade, puzzle, time management, strategy and brain-training mobile games.
mominis
Phonsai is new in the market for cross-platform mobile develeopment "without coding"
It is mixture of do-it-yourself mobile development and content management
You can customize all applications. No templates.
It is SaaS. Totally web based with java web start.
Work with 2000 mobile phone models.
Very simple GUI and no coding. Just copy and paste.
It has create, send and report modules.
And at last it has 4 emulators inside so that it is a WYSIWYG concept.
You can reach Phonsai at http://phonsai.com
We have a cross platform mobile development platform called RAMP. It covers both feature and smart phones from midp 1 to Android. The platform is mostly aimed at secure commercial applications but it is pluggable so you can do almost anything with it.
For more information and access to the platform have a look at:
virtual mobile tech
S60 on Symbian OS has alot of interesting projects happening relating to desktop/server languages to move applications mobile. Some interesting ones:-
Python: sourceforge
Ruby: ruby-symbian
Mozilla: mozilla
S60Webkit: S60browser
POSIX: openc_cpp