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IDE for developing PhoneGap HTML5 Apps

vinisketch.com

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Re: IDE for developing PhoneGap HTML5 Apps

#2

Post by Yarnage »

Sometimes I feel like the only person who is NOT a PhoneGap fan. It just has so many oddities (white flash on Android for one) and the apps never seem to work as well as anything native.

Am I missing something? Serious question, not trying to troll.

Re: IDE for developing PhoneGap HTML5 Apps

#3

Post by untog »

Yarnage wrote: post #2

Sometimes I feel like the only person who is NOT a PhoneGap fan. It just has so many oddities (white flash on Android for one) and the apps never seem to work as well as anything native. Am I missing something? Serious question, not trying to troll.

I haven't used it extensively, but it's one of few ways to make a truly functional app using just JS+HTML5- allowing you to skip past Java, Objective-C, etc.

Of course, there are huge prices to pay for that- particularly on the UI front. But if your mobile app is a very small part of your business (as opposed to the primary offering, which it is for many) then it can make sense.

I've actually ended up making an app that's a hybrid of native (for top bar navigation) and one big webview for the rest:

http://www.taxono.my/

I think it's come out as very close to a native experience- it's just a case of putting the time in to make it so.

Re: IDE for developing PhoneGap HTML5 Apps

#4

Post by tluyben2 »

Yarnage wrote: post #2

Sometimes I feel like the only person who is NOT a PhoneGap fan. It just has so many oddities (white flash on Android for one) and the apps never seem to work as well as anything native. Am I missing something? Serious question, not trying to troll.

Well, you cannot deliver apps on iOS/Android/WP7 at the same time for a small budget in a short time natively. With Phonegap you can. Most companies really don't care that it is not that polished because most users don't care. We are talking about apps for the average company, not for companies where the app IS their business or anything like that.

The pizza chain with nice revenue rather has a Phonegap app THIS WEEK on all platforms which works a bit flaky, but works, than having to wait a few months to churn out different versions tweaked and tuned for all seperately.

Re: IDE for developing PhoneGap HTML5 Apps

#5

Post by MatthewPhillips »

Yarnage wrote: post #2

Sometimes I feel like the only person who is NOT a PhoneGap fan. It just has so many oddities (white flash on Android for one) and the apps never seem to work as well as anything native. Am I missing something? Serious question, not trying to troll.

All you're observing here is that the mobile browsers are not as developed as their native runtime cousins. This is an indictment of the browsers (and perhaps the platform owner's priorities), not that of PhoneGap.

Re: IDE for developing PhoneGap HTML5 Apps

#6

Post by MatthewPhillips »

untog wrote: post #3
Yarnage wrote: post #2

Sometimes I feel like the only person who is NOT a PhoneGap fan. It just has so many oddities (white flash on Android for one) and the apps never seem to work as well as anything native. Am I missing something? Serious question, not trying to troll.

I haven't used it extensively, but it's one of few ways to make a truly functional app using just JS+HTML5- allowing you to skip past Java, Objective-C, etc. Of course, there are huge prices to pay for that- particularly on the UI front. But if your mobile app is a very small part of your business (as opposed to the primary offering, which it is for many) then it can make sense. I've actually ended up making an app t…

Very nice looking app. Are you using Leaflet for your maps?

Re: IDE for developing PhoneGap HTML5 Apps

#7

Post by tluyben2 »

Downloading this now! It looks great so far, cannot wait to try it. I have tried many of these tools coming out; most are browser based and horrible to work with (besides being slow, they basically don't work usually :). So very curious; will give you feedback.

Re: IDE for developing PhoneGap HTML5 Apps

#8

Post by untog »

MatthewPhillips wrote: post #6
untog wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't used it extensively, but it's one of few ways to make a truly functional app using just JS+HTML5- allowing you to skip past Java, Objective-C, etc. Of course, there are huge prices to pay for that- particularly on the UI front. But if your mobile app is a very small part of your business (as opposed to the primary offering, which it is for many) then it can make sense. I've actually ended up making an app t…

Very nice looking app. Are you using Leaflet for your maps?

Yep. I was very, very impressed. Coming from the Google Maps API I never expected that a web map view could perform as well as a native one, but it does.

Re: IDE for developing PhoneGap HTML5 Apps

#9

Post by MatthewPhillips »

untog wrote: post #8
MatthewPhillips wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very nice looking app. Are you using Leaflet for your maps?

Yep. I was very, very impressed. Coming from the Google Maps API I never expected that a web map view could perform as well as a native one, but it does.

Indeed, I maintain my own Leaflet fork for a project I am (occasionally) working on and I am won over as well. Are you using the Mapquest open data? Your maps are beautiful by the way.

Re: IDE for developing PhoneGap HTML5 Apps

#10

Post by dthevenin »

tluyben2 wrote: post #7

Downloading this now! It looks great so far, cannot wait to try it. I have tried many of these tools coming out; most are browser based and horrible to work with (besides being slow, they basically don't work usually :). So very curious; will give you feedback.

You are welcome to give feedback :-)

We try to develop some thing like xCode for HTML5 apps so I hope VSD fits developers needs.

d.

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