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Write your app in HTML5, upload it and get back app-store ready apps

build.phonegap.com

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Re: Write your app in HTML5, upload it and get back app-store ready apps

#91

Post by saurik »

flyosity wrote: post #9
domhofmann wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The new LinkedIn and OkCupid apps are primarily HTML5 based. Not quite the same, but every new release of the Facebook app seems to have more of its existing views replaced by HTML5 counterparts.

I'm fairly certain that the Facebook iPhone app does not UIWebViews to render anything. Their fast-scrolling tableviews are painstakingly crafted from scratch, natively, and (I believe) still use Joe Hewitt's framework for complex view rendering. I know some guys on the Facebook iPhone app team and they're die-hard Cocoa developers, I can't see them ever saying "screw it" and using a UIWebView with HTML.

It is easy to get fast scrolling pseudo-UITableViews using UIWebViews, as long as 1) the tables aren't /that/ long, 2) you change the grid size to something larger than default (to avoid checker-boarding), and 3) you decrease the deceleration constant to match those of normal tables. (Note: I know this from experience with a very widely deployed application: Cydia.)

Re: Write your app in HTML5, upload it and get back app-store ready apps

#92

Post by huskyr »

josefresco wrote: post #37
FooBarWidget wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't see why anybody would actually use jQuery Mobile and Sencha for web app development. I've tried them last week and they were impressive on a desktop browser. On a mobile device, not so much. Both jQuery Mobile and Sencha feel slow, very slow. The animations are choppy. Response times on clicks are way too long. Everything flickers like mad. Focus borders are drawn at all the wrong places. I can actually feel…

I agree somewhat, and would add that I wish jQuery Mobile would focus more on being a solid compatible framework for mobile 'websites' than in emulating the features/transitions of a native app.

Agreed. When i first heard about jQuery mobile i was hoping they would take the familiar jQuery syntax and add things like touch events and optimize it for mobile. However, you really can't make your own custom jQ mobile site without getting the 'app' thing. Also, you need to include the normal jQ library, which is a pretty big download and includes lots of cross-browser code for fixing old IE bugs.

Right now i guess either rolling your own framework or looking into alternatives like Zepto.js makes more sense.

Re: Write your app in HTML5, upload it and get back app-store ready apps

#93

Post by wallflower »

DenisM wrote: post #75
joehewitt wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some, but not all, table views were replaced with web views a few months ago. News Feed is one example that is now HTML.

Hm. How do you handle progressive loading? Do you even bother, or do you just load up the entire news feed and let the WebKit struggle with keeping images in-ram/in-cache etc?

Netflix uses an interesting WebKit-based approach for progressive loading.

Basically, they reuse cells like UITableView does.

http://cdn-0.nflximg.com/us/presentations/htmltvui/oscon-201...

Re: Write your app in HTML5, upload it and get back app-store ready apps

#95

Post by DenisM »

wallflower wrote: post #93
DenisM wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hm. How do you handle progressive loading? Do you even bother, or do you just load up the entire news feed and let the WebKit struggle with keeping images in-ram/in-cache etc?

Netflix uses an interesting WebKit-based approach for progressive loading. Basically, they reuse cells like UITableView does. http://cdn-0.nflximg.com/us/presentations/htmltvui/oscon-201...

Thank you, good sir!

Re: Write your app in HTML5, upload it and get back app-store ready apps

#96

Post by Limes102 »

nupark2 wrote: post #81
Limes102 wrote: post #69

I'm writing really a very large app for the company I work for. We're using PhoneGap with HTML and JavaScript and have many plugins. What we are not having problems with is the fact that we only really have a single thread to do everything. All I can say is that I'm glad it wasn't my idea to build it this way.

This is a surprisingly often ignored limitation of the browsers. You need threads to achieve decent performance given any significant complexity, and mobile CPUs are going multi-core.

Yep - Buttons are bad enough, but things like sliders are just the worst things imaginable!!

I thought it might be worth looking into web workers, but everything seems to interact with the DOM so that's not much help either.

Re: Write your app in HTML5, upload it and get back app-store ready apps

#97

Post by Limes102 »

pstr wrote: post #10
adamjernst wrote: post #2

I think PhoneGap is doing great work, they're obviously getting better, and I don't mean to diminish what others have poured so much effort into. But, are there any successful apps made with PhoneGap? Writing apps in HTML5 is constantly hyped, but there isn't a single HTML app out of the dozens on my iPhone except Netflix. PhoneGap's app gallery doesn't have a single app I've heard of. (The Netflix app isn't too plea…

Apple's "App Store" app on iOS uses HTML...

Haha - Indeed. It didn't load the style sheets for me once. Not a pretty sight.
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