PhoneGap allows developers to build cross-platform mobile apps using standard web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It works by packaging a web app into a native app that can be deployed to various mobile platforms through a common set of APIs. PhoneGap provides access to device functionality like contacts, geolocation, and cameras. It is promising because it allows developers to write code once and deploy it across platforms, reducing development costs compared to building native apps for each platform separately. The future of PhoneGap includes it becoming an open source project under Apache called Cordova, with improved plugin architecture and broader device support.

1. PhoneGap
Now and the Future

2. About Me
• Tim Kim
• Dev at Adobe/Nitobi
• @timkim
• timk@adobe.com
• <3 JS, SC2, and movies

3. What is PhoneGap?
A way to build cross platform native applications using web technologies

4. What is PhoneGap?
1) Write a web app using HTML5 technologies
JS/HTML/CSS

5. What is PhoneGap?
2) Package your web app into PhoneGap
Common device interface: PhoneGap API
Extend: PhoneGap PlugIns

6. What is PhoneGap?
3) Deploy to multiple devices
iOS, Android, Blackberry, WP7, WebOS, …

7. What is PhoneGap?
PhoneGap API:
• An interface to the most common set of
device functionality
• Contacts, GeoLocation, File, Camera, etc…
• All accessible through JS
• docs.phonegap.com

8. What is PhoneGap?
PhoneGap API:
Geolocation:
var win = function(position) { console.log(position.coords) }
, fail = console.log(‘I failed’);
navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPostion(win, fail)

9. What is PhoneGap?
PhoneGap API:
Vibration:
navigator.vibrate(1000)
navigator.vibrate([1000])
navigator.vibrate([1000, 500, 2000])

10. What is PhoneGap?
PhoneGap API:
App life cycle events:
document.addEventListener('deviceready', appInit, false)
document.addEventListener('pause', appPause, false)
document.addEventListener('resume', appResume, false)
var appInit = function() {
alert('app initd')
}
var appPause = function() {
alert('paused')
}
var appResume = function() {
alert('resume')
}

11. What is PhoneGap?
PhoneGap PlugIns:
• A way to extend your PhoneGap app if you want
to access more than what the PhoneGap API
provides
• Process: Write a native implementation then use
JS to call that native function (Cordova JS!)
• Currently a work in progress but check out
https://github.com/phonegap/phonegap-plugins

12. What is PhoneGap?
PhoneGap PlugIns:
Some examples:
• Child Browser
• In App Purchasing
• Barcode scanner
• Twitter

13. Why PhoneGap?

14. Why PhoneGap?
• Need a dev who knows the platform
• Multiple code bases
• Longer turn around time to get releases out
to all platforms

15. Why PhoneGap?
Write Once Debug Everywhere

16. Why PhoneGap?
PhoneGap Build

17. Why PhoneGap?
• Upload your app to PhoneGap then
build and compile in the cloud
• No need to download sdks
• Free open beta right now
build.phonegap.com

18. Who Makes PhoneGap?
• Nitobi/Adobe
• IBM, RIM, Microsoft
• Various individual contributors
• Apache

19. How to Use PhoneGap
• Demo

20. Where Are We Going?
• PhoneGap donated to the apache
foundation!
• Now exists under the name Cordova
• Contribute back today:
incubator.apache.org/cordova/

21. Where Are We Going?
The Adobe years:
The original creators of PG – Nitobi aquired by Adobe
• No more client work! Full time work on PhoneGap
Integration with other Adobe products
• DreamWeaver
• And more…

22. Where Are We Going?
• Apache Licensed – free and open source
• Our device api specs follow wc3 standards
• If browsers ever decide to implement the wc3 specs, then
your app is future proofed

23. Where Are We Going?
• Cordova JS/Unified JS:
• Fragmentation started to creep into PhoneGap.js
as more platforms added
• Now we use a modular syntax to define PG
components
• Everything is a plugin now

24. Where Are We Going?
• Cordova JS/Unified JS:
Easy to add new platforms or extend an existing
platform
Wishing for installable, discoverable, removable
plugins
• Similar to NPM
• Command line tooling soon!

25. Where Are We Going?
Concerns:
• Security
• Privacy
• Permissions
• Capabilities
• Performance

26. Where Are We Going?
More device support:
• Ios
• Android
• BlackBerry 5+
• webOS
• WP7
• Bada
• …What’s next?

27. Thank you!