Mobile App Development Platforms
Android
The first app I developed was an android app (see details on my site http://home.exetel.com.au/rosewine/BasicDataEntry/help.html ) – it was pure, it was fun, I had to add a heckload of Eclipse plugins to get it going, I nearly literally had an arm tied behind my back, because I broke/snapped my right arm, and it was in a sling.
This was fun – BUT arduous: I would never do it again…
ACTUALLY, I WOULD!– I would use ANDROID STUDIO – it contains all the Eclipse and Java, and associated plugins I require, with no effort required to “swim“ through and “acquire” each plug-in.
PhoneGap
PhoneGap provides the promise of developing apps that are both Android and iOS compatible (though it may not be simple).
I did not use it to develop my first mobile app because JavaScript – PhoneGap’s programming language – did not provide an AWS-SQS interface at the time.
With PhoneGap, you develop your mobile web-app using HTML, CSS and JavaScript – much as you would with a client-based website. It uses the WEBVIEW control on your phone to render all these. Communications with your server needs to be implemented via JavaScript.
There are today two flavours of PhoneGap – but the two are pretty much two sides of the same coin:
- Apache-Cordova – This is the free open-source version of the product.
- Adobe-PhoneGap – Derives from Apache-Cordova, and is in-sync with the latest Apache releases. The Adobe-PhoneGap desktop development software is free, and so are a few other tools. However, Adobe provide added-value tools (E.G. debuggers, etc.) which require purchasing a license – and they are possibly worth the money once you have stepped up from amateur to professional development.
Outsystems
This is – what’s called – a “low-code” solution to mobile phones apps: through an intricate graphical – almost magical/pyrotechnical exercise – at one of their labs (at Karstens Sydney) I produced a rudimentary web/mobile application: (1) a RESTFUL backend server with a database, and (2) a frontend mobile app that worked on my phone (which happens to be an Android, but it should work on anything).
The MOBILE bit is based on Apache-Cordova (formerly PhoneGap). Pretty snazzy, as it will fit all mobile phones – not just Android! There is a catch: they own your source code, you use their “cloud“, you have no access. (I think they give you the source in a period of time after you discontinue with them: I see this as OK, and at the same time – a caveat: several months – or whatever – after divorcing them: I end up with source code that I am not familiar with).
Aware IM
I know this product less, but looked at their YouTubes: like “Outsystems” they support a backend web-app, and an “Adobe-PhoneGap” (as opposed to Cordova) frontend for your phone (again, done graphically through a “low-code” approach). Could be OK: I talked with a potential client who claimed that “AwareIM” had a better price-deal than “Outsystems“. (Then again, he had never heard of “Outsystems” and may have been too invested in “AwareIM” to switch mindsets).
I corresponded with a representative of Aware IM – based in Hornsby: you don’t get any source code at all: the server-side stuff is on their cloud, the mobile frontend is exposed via a QR Code – and that’s that: no source. (At least “Outsystems” obliquely promise to give you the source when you divorce them).