I have a reasonable workflow for developing an iFrame app for Facebook. It's reasonable because I can test the app on localhost with a local Apache in any one of a myriad of IDEs that support HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (Visual Web Developer, NetBeans, Komodo, Aptana).
But what if I want to develop a non-iFrame app with FBML? Is there an IDE for developing Facebook apps "locally" without uploading my work over and over to Facebook?
For those doing Facebook app programming in FBML, have you come up with a system of working with reasonable turnaround?
You don't need an IDE, you need port-forwarding.
Set up some local port to be public so you can run and test your Facebook app on a local dev server.
When I was doing FB development, I had one test app and one real app.
Like Andrew, I have my real app that holds the current release, and I have a sandboxed app that I use to deploy test versions of the app. Facebook restricts sandboxed apps so that only the developers can see them, so it lets me test against facebook's latest changes.
RadPHPXE2 by embercadero IDE have packages for facebook apps development
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The last two weeks I've been been writing a chrome app in order to update a microcontroller using the chrome.serial API. Now beeing almost ready with the main functionality and trying to publish the application the web store says "The app runs only on Chrome OS".
I'm afraid during development I missed the hint that chrome apps will no longer be supported. Unfortunately I can't easily port it to an extension or progressive web app since the app depends on the chrome.serial.* API
Does somebody know how to publish the app for Windows/Mac/Linux anyhow?
Or maybe how to port to a native app using the chrome.serial api?
Thanks
You can continue using the same Chrome App codebase with NW.js, but you will need to distribute to those platforms another way.
https://nwjs.io/blog/chrome-apps-support/
https://nwjs.io/blog/whats-new-in-0.13/
We will develop an app that we would like to distribute in through the following channels:
Android and iOS apps through Google Play and iTunes (the app will
use notifications extensively and presence in Google Play and App store is required)
Web app to run in web browsers on mobile devices
Web app to run in web browsers on laptop and desktop computers. We would like to support Chrome, Internet Explorer (starting from IE9),
Firefox and Safari browsers.
Our understanding is that Ionic is developed targeting primarily 1. and that the web apps in 2. and 3. above are not really what Ionic is intended for. We have looked around to try to understand if Ionic likely works for 2. and 3. and also made some quick tests ourselves.
From one of the links at the end: "Your webapp will run in desktop browsers yes, as it is made of html, css and javascript. The phonegap specific javascript calls (accelerometer, compass, file, etc) won't. Basically, if you stick to standard yes you will be able to port relatively easily your app to most browser, the job at this point being mostly a work of theming."
From another one: "I do know that FireFox is simply not supported. I don't know how well Ionic works in IE X."
To try it out we have built a limited version of our app in Ionic. From what we can see the app works for 1, 2 and 3. For example, it runs without issues on FireFox that is mentioned as not supported in the quote above. This means that to us it looks like the first quote saying that the web app will work in desktop browsers is correct.
I understand that this is a fairly generic question and might be hard to answer, but since we have found contradicting information when looking we are trying to understand more before making a decision.
Any feedback would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Markus
Is it a good idea to use ionic to build mobile web version of a website?
Can Ionic Framework run in desktop web browser like Chrome, Mozilla, IE9+?
http://forum.ionicframework.com/t/ionic-components-on-ie/1826
Phonegap web app in regular desktop browsers
http://ionicframework.com/docs/overview/#css-sass
Ionic is tested for mobile only. Internet Explorer for example is not tested and does not properly handle a number of features in Ionic. Desktop browsers act differently than mobile browsers.
Ionic is focused on building native/hybrid mobile apps rather than
mobile websites.
As such, our browser support tends to be whatever Web View API is
available to native apps on a given platform. For Ionic 1.1.0
"xenon-xerus", that means UIWebView for iOS 7+, and Android 4.1 and
up. Windows Phone and FirefoxOS support is on our roadmap.
If it's cheaper for you to test everything on all different desktop browsers than to develop a version for it sharing the same controllers and services --- go ahead but it won't come "out of the box".
Also, I recommend looking at Electron to build desktop apps from webapps.
ionic is targting mobile apps only , but you can develop your desktop app using node webkit and angular material for example and share some code between your apps
I've just started out with libgdx, a week ago.
I know now that there are 4 project folders, and so far I was only interested in Desktop and Android versions.
But then I realised that the Web-port of the game which is also simultaneously built along, is in JavaScript. And Facebook apps use JS and HTML and CSS right?
So say i'm making this Android game, and put out its Web-counterpart thanks to libgdx+GWT's magic. Will that work as a Facebook App?
It should work as Facebook does support HTML5 and JavaScript for its apps. For example, Sky Scraper City is build using HTML5. I have no prior experience with GWT but judging from the fact that GWT applications running in production mode are pure JavaScript and HTML (compiled from Java source), these applications may be made into Facebook apps.
We are trying to develop a hybrid app that can update itself by using css/javascript/html from the internet, instead of storing them in the phonegap project.
Like so
Html5 cache manifest in a UIWebView?
HTML5 AppCache in UIWebView
It now does work fine on iOS 5 and 5.1
In fact, inside phonegap index.html we do or location.href redirect to the web site. The web site has offline manifest, which allows the phonegap app to start and work the second time in an offline mode (after all resources were cached the first time). And changes to manifest do update the app correctly. I have tried terminating the app in the phone, and restarting it while the web site is down - it still works.
There are solutions that allow self update - for example the phonegap-based Worklight. So silent self-update doesn't seem to be an issue anymore.
So the question is, did anybody submit similar an app to appstore? There's potentially no code at all in the app, all it does is goes to the web site.
Apple appears to allow apps to download data updates and Javascript/HTML for use in UIWebViews. They even presented a WWDC session on data driven apps a couple years back.
But note this item in Apple's app review guidelines:
2.12 Apps that are ... simply web sites bundled as apps ... may be rejected.
The only way to know for sure if your app is acceptable is to submit it to Apple for review, as "similar" apps do not appear to set any precedent for any future approvals.
I am building a hosted mobile application so I can write once and deploy to many mobile platforms. My plan is to write a native application with a single screen that is a browser that navigates to my hosted application. Of course this is so our application is in the App Store, Android Market, etc.
Is it possible to use the PhoneGap JavaScript so my hosted applications can use local APIs? For example, I would like to be able to upload pictures taken from the camera.
Short answer: no.
More information: PhoneGap: It's possible to use only the phonegap.js and it's functions only in a Website (doesn't want an App only a Webpage)?
Short answer
No. You need to add pctures upload logic in each framework
In addition to what has been answer it will also depend on your application store offering. If you're intending to offer the app in the iPhone App Store, these kind of apps aren't permitted. In the guidelines it states that apps that basically launch a browser or UIWebView will be rejected.
Additionally, you could always create the app as a "home screen" app, that runs without the chrome, etc on the iPhone. Hope this helps.