Develop mobile applications using JavaScript

Address: http://blog.frontendforce.com/2010/05/mobile-application-development-using-javascript/

Translator: Jiang Yujie

 

 

Javascript is not only used for web pages and website programs. You can also create real-time applications, server solutions, desktops, and mobile applications. There are two types of mobile applications: Web applications in browsers and local applications. Local applications are usually faster and more powerful because they have access to devices such as file systems, sensors, and cameras. Local applications are usually written in the language specified by the mobile phone, such as objective-C and Java. Therefore, independent developers usually use HTML + CSS + JavaScript solutions. Fortunately, thanks to the latest technology, we can easily switch web applications to real local applications.

Titanium appcelerator

Video (http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf? Clip_id = 8730218 & Server = vimeo.com & show_title = 0 & show_byline = 0 & show_portrait = 0 & color = & fullscreen = 1)

 

This horrible tool allows you to use the Web technology you know to create powerful mobile apps for iPhone, iPad, and Android through local control (BlackBerry will be supported later. These technologies include HTML5, css3, JavaScript, PHP, Ruby, and python. In addition, it has recently updated the documentation.

You can use any framework you want to use (such as mootools, jquery, and prototype) and use the latest features of css3 and JavaScript. This is because the titanium program actually runs in the smart embedded WebKit (Safari) window. Starting from titanium 1.0, only JavaScript simulators except WebKit webview are available. As Mitchell wrote:

In titanium 0.8, the webview of WebKit is used as the core, surrounded by GPS, user interface, camera, and data mapped to the operating system. In titanium 1.0, developers can now choose to build the objective-C on the iPhone or Java on Android by directly binding the API to the operating system.

If you have learned the titanium mobile phone API, you will find how simple it is to use geographic positioning or mouse gestures. You can even connect your application to Facebook with just a few lines of code.

Phonegap

Like titanium, phone gap allows you to use HTML and JavaScript to build applications for multiple mobile platforms, including iPhone, Google Android, Saipan, palm, and blackberry. Here you can see the features currently supported by these platforms.

Frankly speaking, I only use titanium, but phonegap seems to be a good choice.

Quickconnectfamily and niblekit are also available. The first is quite powerful, and the second lacks documentation and does not support cross-platform (only for iPhone and iPod ). I also recommend iwebkit, but its homepage has recently been hacked (I'm not kidding ...).

You may be interested in frameworks that make your work easier. For example, if you want your app to have a special iPhone interface and appearance, try:

Jqtouch

It allows you to easily create an iPhone application running on a WebKit browser (you can also use titanium or phonegap to create a local application ).

In addition to jqtouch, there is also an option: IUI. You can find it in Google Code.

If you want to select a lightweight and non-jquery framework, you can try webapp, which is designed to simulate the real user GUI of iPhone and iPod Touch.

Xui

We heard your words. What is another JavaScript framework ?! When using phonegap for development, using modern JavaScript (such as prototype, mootools, Yui, ext, and even jquery) will lead to slow loading time. The biggest reason is that these libraries are too large, mainly because they contain a large number of cross-browser compatibility code. So far, there are few browser implementations and different requirements on the mobile phone platform. Therefore, consider xui.

I have already said enough...

Cappuccino

This framework is designed for non-objective-C developers. capucchino introduces objective-J.

Objective-J is a new programming language based on objective-C. It is also a superset of JavaScript, which represents any valid JavaScript code is also available objective-J code. Anyone familiar with JavaScript and object-oriented principles will not have any difficulty in learning objective-J. Familiarity with objective-C is helpful, but not necessary.

You can use this framework to create a mobile app that is as good as a desktop app (thanks to titanium ). Take a look at some examples: 280 slides, mockingbird or GitHub.

Iprocessing

Using the above framework, you may not be able to create 3D applications and games. So with iprocessing. It is an open programming framework that helps people develop local iPhone applications using processing language. It is a combination of the processing. js Library and the JavaScript Application Framework on the iPhone.

Video (http://www.youtube.com/v/tENliJSMEB8&rel=0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1)

Do you know another framework worth mentioning? Please reply to me.