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An HTML5 app turned native in 10 minutes with PhoneGap Build?

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Re: An HTML5 app turned native in 10 minutes with PhoneGap Build?

#32
post #20
post #8

But there is reports that Apple will not let you through since jQuery mobile animations perform too poorly, oups. If you read the first answer on the page he links to it sounds like the application was missing a lot of optimisation and was overall executed poorly.

I work at a big bank and we're developing a very complex application using only jQuery Mobile and Angular JS & fastclick.js. If properly executed, the app runs beautifully and very, very smoothly. Even as a webapp it performs exactly as native. JQM is beautiful if you really know how to use and know what you're doing. We're deploying on 20 devices with only one code base and it works flawlessly, it's amazing. We only…

No, what you are doing is likely not that complex and just a series of forms and buttons, which jqm is fine for. If you are doing anything truly interface heavy and complex, the hard parts either having nothing to do with jqm or can't be done in jqm smoothly.

And your single codebase likely has a UI and ux that feels wrong on all platforms.

(I built two of the largest US banks mobile apps using Yui and jqm. )

Re: An HTML5 app turned native in 10 minutes with PhoneGap Build?

#33
don't be mystified. all of this comes from your lack of knowledge and experience of native development. if it works in a webview then making a 'native' app out of it is not going to be complicated - you make something with a webview and the html or whatever other source data in the package.

its not magic, its not even hard, you just happen to not know about how it works... if you are interested this is easy to fix with google and experimentation. :)

knowing about android sdk versions is something you would also know if you were an android developer. its everywhere from the first time you install an sdk or ndk - i agree that Google suck at developer tools and docs, absolutely 110%, and this is a good example of that - a lot of their tools I consider 'unshippable' they are so bug riddled and unusable - but thats a tangent.

i do wonder though why even use a native app like this? isn't a web app more friendly? you certainly won't get any of the performance benefits of native code without some real heavy lifting on the part of the framework/library/sdk. isn't a landing page asking you to download a native app just annoying? i know its popular but its just a UX fail however I look at it...

Re: An HTML5 app turned native in 10 minutes with PhoneGap Build?

#34
I built Fitwatchr for Fitbit (http://www.fitwatchr.com/apps.html) using PhoneGap Build and absolutely love it. I can develop locally in Chrome, switch between Android/iOS using the DevTools, then deploy using Build. Coupled with Kendo UI Mobile, which auto translates the UI of your app to fit the platform, it took days to get a basic prototype running instead of weeks. Highly recommended!

Re: An HTML5 app turned native in 10 minutes with PhoneGap Build?

#35
post #19
post #18

Now, this is pie-in-the-sky thinking, but I'd love to see something like Xamarin, that uses JS (for logic) and HTML/subset of CSS (for presentation) that builds cross-platform using native widgets. Hey, one can dream, can't they?

I think this will stay a dream for a very long while. If Xamarin would create controls based on the lowest common denominator of each platform (with regards to functionality), the capabilities of said controls would be very limited indeed, likely only useful for the most basic of apps.

Mmm, yeah that's a good point, I didn't think that quite through, and to be honest I've not used Xamarin myself. How does it handle the UI layer? Is it re-done for each platform, using C# but with the Android UI and iPhone UI classes?

Re: An HTML5 app turned native in 10 minutes with PhoneGap Build?

#36
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work at a big bank and we're developing a very complex application using only jQuery Mobile and Angular JS & fastclick.js. If properly executed, the app runs beautifully and very, very smoothly. Even as a webapp it performs exactly as native. JQM is beautiful if you really know how to use and know what you're doing. We're deploying on 20 devices with only one code base and it works flawlessly, it's amazing. We only…

No, what you are doing is likely not that complex and just a series of forms and buttons, which jqm is fine for. If you are doing anything truly interface heavy and complex, the hard parts either having nothing to do with jqm or can't be done in jqm smoothly. And your single codebase likely has a UI and ux that feels wrong on all platforms. (I built two of the largest US banks mobile apps using Yui and jqm. )

[deleted]

Re: An HTML5 app turned native in 10 minutes with PhoneGap Build?

#37
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work at a big bank and we're developing a very complex application using only jQuery Mobile and Angular JS & fastclick.js. If properly executed, the app runs beautifully and very, very smoothly. Even as a webapp it performs exactly as native. JQM is beautiful if you really know how to use and know what you're doing. We're deploying on 20 devices with only one code base and it works flawlessly, it's amazing. We only…

No, what you are doing is likely not that complex and just a series of forms and buttons, which jqm is fine for. If you are doing anything truly interface heavy and complex, the hard parts either having nothing to do with jqm or can't be done in jqm smoothly. And your single codebase likely has a UI and ux that feels wrong on all platforms. (I built two of the largest US banks mobile apps using Yui and jqm. )

Do you talk like this in real life to people? If I told you about an app I was making, you would tell me its garbage, then brag about what you built?

Unless you've actually been in my environment and used my app that we've been developing straight for the past year, kindly fuck off.

Re: An HTML5 app turned native in 10 minutes with PhoneGap Build?

#38
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work at a big bank and we're developing a very complex application using only jQuery Mobile and Angular JS & fastclick.js. If properly executed, the app runs beautifully and very, very smoothly. Even as a webapp it performs exactly as native. JQM is beautiful if you really know how to use and know what you're doing. We're deploying on 20 devices with only one code base and it works flawlessly, it's amazing. We only…

Happy to hear that, I will update the article with your comment, I also saw people with lot's of issues with long list & jquery mobile while looking but since it's a framework that basically can be use by anyone I guess I should have expected that some people would submit unoptimized apps with jQuery mobile.

I want to make an in depth tutorial from the ground up to app store about just a simple app using Phone Gap and JQM. Maybe accompanied by a web cast as well.

Re: An HTML5 app turned native in 10 minutes with PhoneGap Build?

#39
post #18

Now, this is pie-in-the-sky thinking, but I'd love to see something like Xamarin, that uses JS (for logic) and HTML/subset of CSS (for presentation) that builds cross-platform using native widgets. Hey, one can dream, can't they?

Titanium tries to do that, with extremely variable results.

Re: An HTML5 app turned native in 10 minutes with PhoneGap Build?

#40
post #33

don't be mystified. all of this comes from your lack of knowledge and experience of native development. if it works in a webview then making a 'native' app out of it is not going to be complicated - you make something with a webview and the html or whatever other source data in the package. its not magic, its not even hard, you just happen to not know about how it works... if you are interested this is easy to fix wi…

> i agree that Google suck at developer tools and docs, absolutely (...) a lot of their tools I consider 'unshippable' they are so bug riddled and unusable

This absolutely mystifies me. Especially after coming in from the iOS development stack, the android sdk's, simulator, et al, are shockingly bad. And it's been YEARS now.

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