hello guys,
I am again here with my new blog, today
I want to share with you my experience with cross platform mobile
application development .
sometimes people ask me what should I use sencha or titanium? (A kind of stupid question)
The question should be
First : Tiatnium or Phonegap?
Second : if Phonegap : sencha or
Jquerymobile ?
if I choose phonegap what to use with
phonegap sencha or jquery
I will disscuss pros and cons of each
platform
Lets first start with Phonegap
PhoneGap
it self is only a layer between javascript and Devices, and
generally its only browser, you can use native javascript to operate
DOM or you can use frameworks such as JqueryMobile or sencha.
Phonegap is itself very good to use as
an option for cross platform app, we can implement any android
functionality with phonegap, but we need to use something like
jquerymobile or sencha for UI like requirements, here is something
that goes against my decision of using phonegap with my mobile
application
Now lets discuss few popular options to
use with phonegap
Jquery+Phonegap : I can not say
anything good about jquery mobile. Here I describe what all issues a
developer faces when he starts with jqm along with phonegap for app
development
white screen between pages
sometimes a white screen is seen when
user switches between pages, this really makes a worse user
experience
issue on github that confirms:
bug open for two years now!! tells a
lot about JQM with phonegap
side panel won't scroll but background
content will
there are many issues as listed here
https://github.com/jquery/jquery-mobile/issues/4024,
some of them more than 2 years old
app performas too bad doest look like
native just looks like a mobile website. Is this that you want your
application to look like?
another issue that is still remanins
issues, version after version launch for JQM but issue remains
Oh
yes and the most important issue for me. PhoneGap apk file is near
2mb, Sencha touch apk is 600kb. For exactly same functionality.
Jquery + sencha : I did not find any
issues like jquery with sencha its cool
but it is something that is a not as
easy to learn (especially for native Developers who work Android apps
with Java)
Sencha touch is a MVC framework with
javascript, If you go with using this option for your app, you should
avoid reading official documentation atleast to start with (poor
documented)
there are many better tutorials
available for Sencha app
here is app with 4+ ratings developed
for iPhone platform
for Android
Here is sample sencha app on playstore
Titanium
This is something that I prefer when it
comes to cross platform, but by no means I support cross platform app
development. Another fact that more than 94% of applications are
still native in market
I found Titanium development much
faster as compared to native Android, just write a line of code and
you are done with integrating google maps to your app !! isn't it
exciting :)
Facebook is inbuild, just pass your
appId and secret code and done, Cool. Even in Alloy framework with
Titanium Twitter is also integated
Drawbacks:
- apk size is much much large as compared to native apps.
- When it comes to interacting with hardware like I needed a custom camera for my app, any cross platform approach fails here
Xamarin:
This is a newer technology for cross
platform app developemnt, this is based on microsoft technologies,
Xamarin team is working with Microsoft on this technology, you can
try this technology if you are good with c#
I will write more about this in my next
blog
Please weigh in with your suggeestions
Thanks
