Cross platform Web apps
- 2. Abstract Introduction Mobile Development Web, Native vs. Hybrid Mobile App Technology Challenges to Deliver Cross-platformApps The Proposed Solution User Interface (UI) Technologies Positives and Negatives Conclusion References
- 3. Mobile applications have gained momentum in many sectors in agriculture. But developing apps is still a challenge as it needs platform fragmentation and also there are changes in mobiles technology. It is hence a great benefit to identify common frameworks and solutions that allow developers to leverage single codebase and deploy it on multiple platforms, both on different mobile devices and mobile webs.
- 4. The single code-base for an application is used to produce any number of immutable releases that are destined for different environments.
- 7. It is a type of software that works on multiple operating systems or devices , which are referred as platforms.
- 8. Technology challenges to deliver cross-platform apps lie in essential difference between 2 types of applications: Mobile web app Native app Mobile web apps reside on server without installation on devices, and both debugging and fixing are possible in real-time execution. These apps cannot access mobile device’s features like camera and motion sensors.
- 9. These are developed for specific type of mobile device and could take advantage of device functionality including file storage. The main drawback of native apps is that they must be developed seperately in each platform which increases developing time And once it is modified, developer needs to push all users to update their app to receive services.
- 10. Taking the advantages of 2, is native mobile app embedding web content inside a thin container. Hybrid apps are installed through appstore, run on the device and provide access to enhanced native device hardware, but are written primarily using HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
- 12. Development of native apps for different os require usage of different programming languages and architectures Android apps are developed using Java in Eclipse with Android Developer tools support Ios apps are developed in Xcode, using Objective-c, swift and cocoa framework.
- 13. To overcome this, we bring a solution that builds on single codebase and deploy cross-platforms, both mobile browsers and different os, without any change in configuration. The core concept involves Adobe’s PhoneGap framework, which enables wrapping up of HTML, CSS and JavaScript code into different mobile packages for cross-platform deployment. Instead of using a database management system, the solution uses JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) for data storage and transport.
- 14. With the help of PhoneGap Build service, development will only need to be focused on mobile web with consideration of app compatibility, but also the functionality is limited to the scope of HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript for PhoneGap supported file types. The development is based on jQuery Mobile (JQM) framework, while other options include Bootstrap and Sencha.
- 15. The JQM framework provides many features such as an Ajax navigation system that brings animated page transitions and a core set of UI widgets. It also offers several custom events that build upon native events so that, for example, developers can have the page load and display dynamic content from JSON objects or database without breaking the layout. Ajax allows users to display content selected from a list of links, into the same page.
- 16. For many apps, users only consume data stored in a database that is not frequently updated. In this case, the database (or data files) can be placed on the client side. That is, from the perspective of the native app, the app can always run in offline mode since no information is required from the server. The benefits are obvious that the data traffic of using the app is minimized and the system does not require any server-side configuration to support the app.
- 18. JSON(Java Script Object Notation) has the advantage in processing simplicity. It is essentially serialized JavaScript object that makes it fit better client side scripting, which is primarily done in JavaScript. Given JSON as the storage format, the idea is to construct object-based data representation and store the data object in JSON files . Upon using the data, the app loads the JSON files from the same relative file path via Ajax.
- 20. While applications are getting diverse and user bases are expanding, there is no one clear platform of choice. During this tug of war, application developers are faced with the debate of whether they should be designing cross-platform apps or multiple apps for different platforms. Depending on the goals and features of your app, you could either benefit or lose from cross-platform mobile apps.
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