building apps with phonegap

Building Apps with PhoneGap

Andrew LunnyNitobi Software

@alunny

Sunday, August 22, 2010

• Vancouver BC

• Web and Mobile development/consulting

• small-ish: ~18 employees

Nitobi Software


One Good Bit

http://www.webmonkey.com/2010/08/how-do-native-apps-and-web-apps-compare/




There are some things the web does very well.

There are also some things native apps do very well.

PhoneGap aims for the union of these.


What is PhoneGap?


PhoneGap is a cross-platform, open source mobile development framework for using front-end web technologies to build (and sell!) native mobile apps.


Cross-PlatformWrite once, test/debug/rewrite everywhere


• Today

• iOS, Android, BlackBerry 4.6+ (forwards compatible), Palm WebOS, Symbian WRT

• Soon

• Windows Phone 7, BlackBerry widgets (5.0+, not backwards compatible)


Cross-Platform != One Codebase

back button? menu?


MIT Licensednow and forever

“The MIT License states explicitly the rights given to the end-user, including the right to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or se" the so#ware.”

Just include the copyright notice in your source code, and you’re done


github.com/phonegap

The license grants the right to:

• Build apps• Sell apps• Build and sell services using PhoneGap• Customize PhoneGap

• Contribute back• Not contribute back


It is a requirement of the project that PhoneGap will not get your app rejected by Apple.


PhoneGap plays by the rules

• for iOS, PhoneGap is an Objective-C static library, built with XCode, using techniques Apple devs have recommended

• jailbreaking is not required

• additional software on the device is not required

• same for all other platforms


Your app can still be rejected• It probably will if

• your app is just a wrapper around a mobile web site

• you load all application code from a remote server

• it violates the TOS

• It probably won’t if

• you take advantage of native functionality

• you offer unique content

• you offer a great user experience


It can also be featured on the app store


Remember Wired?Sunday, August 22, 2010

What PhoneGap gives you

• Offline by default

• Access to hardware sensors (device-dependent)

• Accelerometer, GPS, Orientation, Compass

• Media integration

• OS integration

• Camera, Contacts, File System, etc


And anything else you wantPhoneGap is a native

project, and it’s all open source. If you need any

native code, dive right in.


• HTML(5), CSS as usual

• JavaScript handles all of the application logic

• persistent storage (SQLite db, localStorage)

• network requests (cross-domain XHR, since we’re running from file://)

• view templating


We use what’s there

• Browser/web view on the device

• (A) WebKit: iOS, Android, Palm, Symbian

• BlackBerry: pretty bad - will be WebKit in OS 6.0

• Windows Phone 7: “evolved” IE7 (between IE7 and IE8)


What isn’t PhoneGap?


UI Framework - a bit of a mixed bag

• jqTouch, Sproutcore Touch, Cappuccino

• Sencha Touch (licensing permitting)

• jQuery Mobile (when it ships)

DOM framework

• your favourite one will work (jQuery, Prototype, Dojo)

• we develop and recommend XUI - github.com/xui


Solution for all problems

• Don’t write games, video editing, VNC apps - the performance won’t be there

• Similar when dealing with large datasets and files

• Not a replacement for a mobile web app


@[email protected]

nitobi.com / phonegap.com

Thanks!


mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

building apps with phonegap

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