Building mobile apps in-house. Subcontracting out mobile app development. • Mobile web apps, hybrid apps, native apps. • Selected frameworks and technologies. • What to expect in terms of cost. • Rules of thumb and things to watch out for.
Mobile web apps. The good. • Typically, a lower cost of development as compared with native. • Take advantage of an existing skill set. • Typically, a single codebase. • Use whatever technology you prefer.
• Not affected by app store review cycles. • Not affected by app store customer ratings. • Monetization benefits. • Not affected by arbitrary app store guidelines. Mobile web apps. The good.
• Geolocation - available on iOS & Android. • Offline support - available on iOS & Android. • Motion sensors - available on iOS and Android. • Camera access - available for iOS and Android. • mobilehtml5.org Mobile web apps.
Hybrid mobile apps • Common definition - a JavaScript driven, CSS styled, HTML5 web app, rendered in a web view that runs inside a native application. • What about native apps built using “non-native” technology, that don’t run inside a web view? • ActionScript (Adobe AIR) • C# (Xamarin) • Java (RoboVM) • C++ (Qt) • Ruby (RubyMotion)
What do we want from a hybrid app? • Cost of development on par to a mobile web app, or, at least, cheaper than native. • Some form of code reusability. Ideally, one codebase targeting both iOS and Android. • Little or no compromise when it comes to access to native functionality. (i.e. push notifications) • Better performance? Maybe? Hopefully. • Access to the app store.
Apache Cordova • JavaScript, HTML, and CSS, with native plugins. • iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone, and others. • The Cordova web view can run the entire UI, or just parts of it inside a larger native app. • No mandatory underlying web framework - use whatever you like. • No UI controls or styles - just the runtime.
Ionic • Built on top of Cordova. • HTML5, JS, CSS (Sass), with native plugins. • The goal is to provide optimized UI components for a more “native-feeling” app, and a broader set of generic plugins. • AngularJS
• Side menus that slide open and close on swipe. • Navigation with transition animations. • Gestures like on-tap, on-swipe, on-drag, etc. • Prevent keyboard from obscuring input fields. • Removal of the 300ms input delay. Ionic
React Native • All controls and behaviors are native. • Doesn’t use the DOM; no related performance issues. • The JavaScript thread that runs the app runs asynchronously to the rendering thread. • Native modules for things that aren’t yet available. • Can use underscore.js or anything else that doesn’t have a browser dependency.
Native apps • Objective-C, Swift, (C/C++) on iOS, Java & XML on Android. • Typically the most expensive option, but not always. • Multiple codebases. • UI components and behaviors are native. • Best performance (developer-bound). • App store advantages/disadvantages - same as hybrid.
Native apps - bits and pieces. • Certificates, and provisional profiles will take longer to deal with than you think. • Second platform 75% rule of thumb. • Beta testing with test flight still needs to go through an app store approval. • Basic push notifications, error monitoring, and analytics should not take a lot of time to implement.
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