I think PhoneGap is doing great work, they're obviously getting better, and I don't mean to diminish what others have poured so much effort into.
But, are there any successful apps made with PhoneGap? Writing apps in HTML5 is constantly hyped, but there isn't a single HTML app out of the dozens on my iPhone except Netflix. PhoneGap's app gallery doesn't have a single app I've heard of.
(The Netflix app isn't too pleasant, either, unfortunately.)
> But, are there any successful apps made with PhoneGap?
Define successful. Because, let's be honest, if I need an application for my company that will be used internally, does it matter if you haven't heard about it? Don't get caught look at this from just one point of view.
The new LinkedIn and OkCupid apps are primarily HTML5 based. Not quite the same, but every new release of the Facebook app seems to have more of its existing views replaced by HTML5 counterparts.
The FT app is based on html5. Initially, they had an app, but transitioned quickly to html5. Takes a wee bit longer to load, but barely notice that anymore. The experience otherwise is pretty much the same. And for what its worth, it's the best news app on my ipad.
Mobile browsers are getting better and better, and apple's iOS happens to have the best. I think the app store distribution mechanism is the main reason you don't see many html apps. It's the big entry point, there's a huge network effect and its cool to say "we have an app for that". Maybe facebook's project Spartan will spark the inevitable switch to html. I mean, check out twitter or kindle on the ipad... what are they lacking in?
"Since PhoneGap Build uses Apple's standard development process to build applications, you will need to sign up for their developer program to build iOS applications on PhoneGap Build. You will also need a Mac to configure your certificate and provisioning profile."
Check out AppMobi[1], it may be what you need - at least, from my brief glance at it, it looks like it: build iOS and android apps using HTML+JS, no need for a Mac or the iOS developer kit. The core tools are free too, but they charge for services such as compiling your program for iOS and such. They also have something called DirectCanvas which is basically HTML5 canvas without the rest of the browser cruft, for higher performance canvas apps (eg, games - they have built in support for the Impact JS game engine, for example).
I'm writing really a very large app for the company I work for. We're using PhoneGap with HTML and JavaScript and have many plugins.
What we are not having problems with is the fact that we only really have a single thread to do everything. All I can say is that I'm glad it wasn't my idea to build it this way.
This is a surprisingly often ignored limitation of the browsers. You need threads to achieve decent performance given any significant complexity, and mobile CPUs are going multi-core.
Speaking as someone writing a fairly major HTML5 iOS app using Jo and PhoneGap: this looks like a very helpful way to take the make-work out of the case where you have an app that uses no native functionality, and is not in any way optimized for best appearance.
That's not a knock - a lot of people have that use case, and spend a lot of time on their own systems for deploying to multiple platforms. Consider internal apps, for example, that don't have to be massively visually slick and polished.
But ... given the very large differences between even similar platforms, and even between versions of platforms, you're not going to be getting much from this if you are building ultra-slick apps in which you really do need consider, say, how hardware acceleration or browser quirks fit into the picture.
Nice, and I use PhoneGap for Android, but you lose all the niceties like access to hardware buttons (which means you convert limited screen space to menus) and keyboard and intents and whatnot.
I had to write some plugins to get my game working on Android (and there are still compatibility problems around opening intents), so PhoneGap apps definitely lose something in the usability department.
And of course animations are not successful in this environment.
Ads are a pain too, if that's important to you, with the Google Admob/Adwords migration happening and the mobile web vs app ambiguity.
PhoneGap seems helpful as a part of the app's main UI, but native chrome is still important to completing an app's functionality and usability. I don't see how Build solves that use case.
Great service - I've used it to build a modest application or two for Android and iOS. One caveat: Phonegap plugins that include native components (for example, the Facebook plugin) can't be included in apps built with Phonegap Build (yet).
What plugins have you been using? Last time I look at pg, the plugins I found were alpha quality or just abandoned. I'd love to hear what's current. Thanks.
I started looking at PhoneGap but wasn't happy with Jquery Mobile for the UI. I am now trying out Titanium which offers a similar promise of ease for web/Javascript developers but with more native UI elements. So far so good but developing in Aptana/Eclipse-based Titanium Studio is a drag.
The more "consumer" your app the more likely it needs to be mobile. But I think there is probably a large class of apps where PhoneGap/Titanium make sense. Definitely in the internal business category where the audience is finite and the look-and-feel is secondary to the functionality and cost/ease of development and maintenance.
This site is awesome. To try it out, I made a quick one page app, uploaded it, made signing keys, and got it to the Android Marketplace, all inside of a few hours. My first mobile app ever.
Nice. Anyone know how they achieved the transition effect? It's not a simple CSS3 transform. The bottom of the page seems to move first, then the top of the page is dragged over.
Maybe I'm missing something but given you write the app in HTML/JS it must be difficult to unit test your wrappers for the phonegap functions, as I assume you can't simply pull up your dev site from the phone's browser. I'm thinking particularly about things like the contacts or network status functions.
Funny I just released an application using this method yesterday. Too bad the Apple sales reporting site is down. I wanted to see how well HTML5 Apps sell.
[+] [-] adamjernst|14 years ago|reply
But, are there any successful apps made with PhoneGap? Writing apps in HTML5 is constantly hyped, but there isn't a single HTML app out of the dozens on my iPhone except Netflix. PhoneGap's app gallery doesn't have a single app I've heard of.
(The Netflix app isn't too pleasant, either, unfortunately.)
[+] [-] jasonlotito|14 years ago|reply
Define successful. Because, let's be honest, if I need an application for my company that will be used internally, does it matter if you haven't heard about it? Don't get caught look at this from just one point of view.
[+] [-] domhofmann|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pstr|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mikeklaas|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zeta|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] alexhaefner|14 years ago|reply
Phonegap is a great feel good piece of technology, that browser enthusiasts can point to and say, "See this is what you can do with the web".
[+] [-] maccman|14 years ago|reply
http://cl.ly/Aa4V http://cl.ly/Aa7P
[+] [-] zerostar07|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Urgo|14 years ago|reply
"Since PhoneGap Build uses Apple's standard development process to build applications, you will need to sign up for their developer program to build iOS applications on PhoneGap Build. You will also need a Mac to configure your certificate and provisioning profile."
:(
[+] [-] dkersten|14 years ago|reply
[1] http://www.appmobi.com/
[+] [-] joelhaasnoot|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Limes102|14 years ago|reply
What we are not having problems with is the fact that we only really have a single thread to do everything. All I can say is that I'm glad it wasn't my idea to build it this way.
[+] [-] nupark2|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] exratione|14 years ago|reply
That's not a knock - a lot of people have that use case, and spend a lot of time on their own systems for deploying to multiple platforms. Consider internal apps, for example, that don't have to be massively visually slick and polished.
But ... given the very large differences between even similar platforms, and even between versions of platforms, you're not going to be getting much from this if you are building ultra-slick apps in which you really do need consider, say, how hardware acceleration or browser quirks fit into the picture.
[+] [-] anothermachine|14 years ago|reply
I had to write some plugins to get my game working on Android (and there are still compatibility problems around opening intents), so PhoneGap apps definitely lose something in the usability department.
And of course animations are not successful in this environment.
Ads are a pain too, if that's important to you, with the Google Admob/Adwords migration happening and the mobile web vs app ambiguity.
PhoneGap seems helpful as a part of the app's main UI, but native chrome is still important to completing an app's functionality and usability. I don't see how Build solves that use case.
Still, it's a niche.
[+] [-] sunsu|14 years ago|reply
http://docs.phonegap.com/phonegap_events_events.md.html
[+] [-] zerostar07|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] anothermachine|14 years ago|reply
https://code.google.com/p/phonegap/downloads/list
[+] [-] ggoodale|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] drzaiusapelord|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|14 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] pbreit|14 years ago|reply
The more "consumer" your app the more likely it needs to be mobile. But I think there is probably a large class of apps where PhoneGap/Titanium make sense. Definitely in the internal business category where the audience is finite and the look-and-feel is secondary to the functionality and cost/ease of development and maintenance.
[+] [-] dendory|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pmdan|14 years ago|reply
So smooth.
[+] [-] MatthewPhillips|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ashrust|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|14 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] gto16108|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] forkrulassail|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] toblender|14 years ago|reply
http://defyent.com/#astro-dating
[+] [-] vinhboy|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jberryman|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Rotor|14 years ago|reply
I would think there would have to be some type of "compiler hints" for particular app device builds.
[+] [-] designium|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] czzarr|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dannyr|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nithinag|14 years ago|reply