I have a website that uses flash. I would like to convert the website so that iphone / ipad users can see my website. I understand that Iphone / Ipad can't render flash. What would be the best-practice to convert flash website to iphone / ipad compatible?
I am thinking HTML 5.
[tongue in cheek]
It's not that it "can't" render Flash, it's that it's not allowed to.
[/tongue in cheek]
For Flash Video, html5 has <video> tags. Bear in mind, though, that not all browsers support video tags.
For basic animation, javascript has come a long way.
I'm starting to think that html5 is the new buzzword. The old one was "Web 2.0"
There's a brief example of someone porting a piece of Flash code into canvas/html5, here:
http://blog.mangrove.nl/?pageID=3&messageID=18436
I think the lesson is that it's possible, but there's not (yet) an automated method.
If you were starting from scratch, you could look at haxe which I understand can be used to create either Actionscript or Javascript code:
http://www.haxe.org
Hope this helps a bit.
Related
Could somebody list some things that you can do using native iPhone/iPad development but you can't using HTML5? I want to understand for what kind of apps is HTML5 usefull. I like it because it is an open technology which you can reuse to target other mobiles like android. I remember Steve Jobs said HTML5 is the future but I want to understand hat are it's limitations
The main difference I guess is that with an HTML5 app you don't have access to the native APIs and access to onboard devices (like the accelerometer, camera, etc.).
If you use something like Phonegap though you can have the best of both worlds.
Anyone know of any flash equivalent software for the iPhone. Need to do some simple masking, animation...
As others have said, you can use AIR, but I'm guessing you want this to run in the browser, not as some native app. That is, you want something you can put on a web page, not distribute as an application through the App Store.
If that is the case, try Wallaby: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/wallaby/
Wallaby can export certain Flash features to HTML5, which can be rendered in mobile Safari.
Hope that helps.
Depending on your exact needs (eg. if you want to work with timeline animations) then using the iOS packager part of AIR is a good option. For most uses however I would consider the performance of Flash iOS apps to be sub-par.
A development tool that is fairly similar to Flash programming-wise is Corona SDK:
http://www.anscamobile.com/corona/
Checkout Adobe's AIR. Its a run time that runs on the iPhone. You write in their flash language and then same code can run on iOS and Android.
I have a software that eventually will have some reports to be accessed via iPhone.
Once I am not willing to develop an iPhone app, I´d like to make these reports accessible via iPhone Safari browsers.
GMail in iPad uses HTML 5, so I guess I can do the same.
My question is where can I find some resources to learn best practices doing so and how can I test it in a PC computer.
Thanks
Here is a similar answer I've given: Exclusive CSS for iPhone/Android
For testing you can use Chrome or Safari, as they are both webkit browsers (which is what the iPhone uses). Safari can even render as the iPhone user agent.
Hope this helps.
Please take a look at PhoneGap, I think that is what you are looking for.
You can emulate the program in xCode, but you will need an Apple for that. For PhoneGap also..
From the app architecture view-point you should also consider introducing app-specific optimization such us:
Simplify the app (show only what you need for mobile)
Minimize Application and Data Size
Aggregate Images into a Single Composite Resource (Sprites)
Include Background Images Inline in CSS Style Sheets
Keep DOM Size Reasonable
Ensure Paragraph Text Flows
Avoid Redirects
We have a push based web-application. Recently, we planned to make an iPhone app for it. Much like Facebook has it's iPhone application as well as web presence. We are looking for a UI framework that can get us going quickly. I've leafed through PhoneGap and couple other JS based UI frameworks mentioned here. I am bit unsure what can suit us the best. So, I am looking for your suggestions.
Our constraints are as follows:
The framework should be JS based. We all are web-devs and want to avoid learning Objective C.
Framework should support iPhone's capabiilities as smoothly as a native app does. If not, we will prefer a JS framework which is the smoothest of all JS frameworks. So, this is the most important constraint.
It should support smooth swipe through screens, support rotation. Nice, if it can capture shake as well. But shake does not take preference over a better framework without shake support.
Nice to have -- with little or no modification in code, if the framework is supported on other touchscreen phones as well. Android and Symbian would be suffice. But again, we are focused on iPhone for now.
I am a bit curious to know what can be the best choice to start development with. I will be thankful if you share your experience with pros-and-cons of the framework that you have used.
Thanks
Nishant
I have been playing with following frameworks.
Jo
Sencha Touch
jQuery Mobile
These are for serving Web based mobile sites, they can then in turn be made into Apps for Android or iOS using PhoneGap
Of the 3, Sencha is the more mature project and has the most things out of the box. Jo looks very promising and would probably directly compete with Sencha. jQuery mobile is very interesting but just far to early to do any production code with it, too rough around the edges. jQuery mobile takes a different approach to the others as it is html based and it interperates the attributes on tags to turn things into tableviews or menus.
jQuery mobile is quicker to hack together and get your head around, where the other two take a little bit more thinking. But once you figure them out its easy enough.
If you don't want to serve the site via a url at all and want to just build an app then Appcelerator is the way to go. You write code in JS and it makes native Android or iOS apps for you. You will get access to pretty much the full Android/iOS api.
I have coded with appcelerator, however I am no longer going to use it and use one of the above frameworks, probably Sencha for just now. I can get access to the device native apis via PhoneGap and for simpler apps give a great experience cross device via a url.
In about 6 months, or sooner, I think jQuery mobile will be the daddy...
I have got a assignment to develop a IPhone application in HTML 5 & I really don't have any idea from where I have to start.
Please let me know which editor I have to use to develop IPhone application in HTML 5.
also, as I am a pure .NET developer, what other skills I need to write the program in HTML 5.
Thanks in advance.
When they say develop an iPhone application in HTML 5, what they are really saying is develop a web application that fits in the dimensions of an iPhone. So you do not need to know any Apple centric technologies. You can use your ASP.NET/HTML/Javascript/CSS skills.
If you need any rich interactions in your app, you will then need to use HTML 5 with the canvas element. I recommend using the library Processing.js which makes working with the canvas element much easier.
HTML5 isn't that different from HTML. For a great resource, check out Apple's developer site. Here's the section on Safari: http://developer.apple.com/safari/.
In terms of what editor you should use: You can use whatever editor you want! Notepad for Windows works fine ;) On the Mac, I prefer Coda or Textwranger. Dashcode will work too! In order to write HTML5, you just need to know HTML, CSS and Javascript (jQuery would help too).
And, what's more, since this is just HTML, don't forget you can test it in the browser on your desktop before you test on the iPhone or the iPhone Simulator (included in Xcode). I'd recommend testing in Safari first and Google Chrome second.
Good luck and welcome to the wonderful world of HTML5 and iPhone development!
Please let me know which editor I have to use to develop IPhone application in HTML 5.
Any you like. I usually go to Komodo Edit.
What other skills I need to write the program in HTML 5.
HTML, JavaScript and DOM are key, along with the new JS APIs introduced in the HTML 5 Drafts. CSS is all but essential and you'll probably want some skill at graphics editing. SQL will be useful if you want to use a database.