The document discusses various aspects of cross-platform mobile application development, including the characteristics, advantages, and challenges associated with native, hybrid, and cross-platform apps. It highlights frameworks like PhoneGap, Apache Cordova, and Titanium, emphasizing the importance of understanding different programming languages and tools for successful mobile app development. The conclusion suggests that webkit serves as the new virtual machine in developing mobile applications, allowing JavaScript to integrate seamlessly with native code.

1. Cross Platform
Mobile Applications
https://www.webprogr.com

2. Topics
Understanding Mobile Apps
• Cross Platform Mobile App Development
• PhoneGap
• Native Mobile App Development
• Hybrid Mobile App Development

3. Understanding Mobile Apps

4. Characteristics
Touch based
Accelerometer
Compass
Location aware

5. Characteristics
Camera and Voice Recording
NFC (Near Field Communication) turning
phone into Credit Card, Access Card, Business
Card Exchanger

6. Shopping Applications

7. Characteristics
Push Notification
Notifying the User proactively

8. Challenges in building Mobile
Applications

9. Challenges – Mobile App Dev
Windows 7
Fragmentation with many operating systems

10. Types of Mobile App Dev
• Native Mobile Apps
• Cross Platform Mobile Apps
• Hybrid partly Native partly Cross Platform

11. Native Mobile Apps
When To
• Long Running Services
• Complex N/W comm.
• Canvas based Apps
• Only Few Platforms
When Not To
• Replica Web Apps
• Standard Restful
• Widget based apps
• Many Platforms

12. Cross Platform Mobile Apps
When To
• Complex backend Apps
• Standard Restful
• Widget based apps
• Many Platforms
When Not To
• Long Running Services
• Complex N/W comm.
• Canvas based Apps
• Only Few Platforms

13. Hybrid Mobile Apps
When To
• Fairly Simple UI
• Complex Backend
• Quite few platforms
Why To
• Some parts of app are common
• Rest parts are different
• Use Cross Platform to develop
common part
• Use Native to develop the
weight lifting parts

14. Cross Platform Mobile App
Development

15. Cross Platform Strategies
Common
Platform
e.g WebKit
Mapping to
Native
PhoneGap
Apache Cordova
Titanium
Cross Platform
Source Code

16. WebKit Platform
• All Mobile Platforms have something common that is a
Modern Browser
• All these browsers are based on WebKit - Apple and Android
• Moreover all these platform support showing embedded
browser in Applications ( WebView)
• Strange enough all these WebViews provide hooks from
javascript to java and vice a versa
• In short WebView is the new Virtual Machine 

17. Mapping to Native Code
• Say Application is written in JavaScript
• The JavaScript code is running in Interpreter
• The Interpreter internally forwards calls to the native code
• Limitation being the you can only map to subset of code
available on all target platforms. 
• OR you allow for fragmentation in api, like Titanium Mobile
does for involving Android services

18. Mobile App Dev Frameworks
Common Platform
• PhoneGap / Apache
Cordova
• Titanium Desktop
Mapping to Native
• Titanium Mobile
• Rho Mobile

19. Apache Cordova / PhoneGapMobile app development

20. PhoneGap / Apache Cordova
• Only platform to support 6 Platforms

21. PhoneGap Prerequistes
• Need to be acquainted with Android, IOS, BlackBerry, WebOS
• Need to be expert at HTML/Javascript or framework like GWT
• Need to be acquainted with JavaScript libraries like
• Ionic ,Angular.js
• Prototype
• Etc
• Or Ajax framework like GWT
• Use existing IDEs like Eclipse or Xcode, PhoneGap has no IDE

22. Titanium Mobile

23. Titanium Architecture

24. Titanium Prerequistes
• Need to be acquainted with Android, IOS programming
• Need to know JavaScript
• Use Titanium Mobile IDE to configure projects and use Text
IDE to edit the code

25. Native Mobile App
Development

26. Native App Development
• Basically you need to hire experts who can
• Build Android, IOS, BB, BlackBerry and Windows mobile apps
• Devs should have experience to deploy apps on market
• Devs should have experience on various devices
• QA should know how to automate things on devices/emulator
• Have concrete plans on
• What is Trial app?
• How does user upgrade?
• Use in app billing to have fine grained control
• Plan for risks if this is your companies first Mobile App
deployment

27. Hybrid Mobile App
Development

28. Hybrid App Development
• Have Web Developers for Common UI
• Have native code experts for heavy weight lifting
• Use frameworks like PhoneGap to glue the above two pieces
• Measure at every milestone to keep track of effect of changes
• Use Automation to regress every layer

29. Comparison
Titanium
• Gives out native app
• API is more proprietary
• UI has Limitations
• UI will be fast
• Much better User Experience
• Portal Code can not be
reused
• Extensions are possible
• Limited support for
HTML/Javascript
PhoneGap
• Gives out a mobile web app
• API is less proprietary
• UI possibilities are unlimited
• UI could be slow
• User Experience will get
better with enhancements
• Portal Code can be reused
• Plugins are possible and easy
to implement
More will come out of discussion, comments are welcome

30. Conclusion
• Webkit is the next Virtual Machine.
• Js work anywhere

31. Cross Desktop App Dev
• Following are options worth considering
• Nokia QT (webkit based)
• Titanium Desktop (webkit based)
• Adobe Air (flash based) but slow
• Java
• Many more

32. JavaScript to Native Channel
• Assume a single channel from Javascript to native and back
from native to Javascript is present
• This Single Channel can provide infinite control to the native
code. One needs to just add more code to the native end and
add new messages for it to be exposed.
• However, understand that Javascript is single threaded and
the callbacks will execute only if there is no javascript running.

33. Cross platform app
development
For your next mobile app development project for multiplatforms
Contact us at www.webprogr.com/contactus.html
For more on Apache Cordova Phonegap mobile app development here
https://www.webprogr.com/phonegap-experts.html
Phone: +1 703 495 5847 Email: mktg@webprogr.com