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Phonegap Essentials
Phonegap Essentials

Phonegap Essentials: Use PhoneGap to build cross-platform mobile applications quickly and efficiently

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Phonegap Essentials

Chapter 2. Mobile Platform Support

A major key to development in a framework that supports hybrid applications lies in the ability to provide access to as many as possible mobile platforms. In this area, PhoneGap has managed to keep the pace and add new platforms as they achieve significant market penetration. In this chapter, we will go over the platforms that are currently supported and the features that are available to a specific platform. In this chapter we are covering the essential topics related to mobile platform support:

  • Supported platforms
  • PhoneGap Build
  • The PhoneGap Developer App

Supported platforms

As the PhoneGap platform has been evolving, the number of supported platforms has been rising all the time. Some platforms were dropped due to the loss of popularity and new ones were added to it. The following page shows the updates for platform support: http://docs.PhoneGap.com/en/4.0.0/guide_support_index.md.html#Platform%20Support.

The following platforms are supported in the latest version of PhoneGap:

  • Amazon Fire OS
  • Android
  • BlackBerry 10
  • Firefox OS
  • iOS
  • Ubuntu Touch
  • Windows Phone 8
  • Windows Phone 8.1
  • Tizen OS

However, not all the platforms support the available plugins and features that they provide. It depends a lot on the type of the platform and feature that is supported by the device. As it started with iOS, it has the best coverage of all the basic features, and extended features as well through plugins. The second most supported platform is Android as the other platforms are not represented in all the plugins because it is usually required to create some native code...

PhoneGap Build

There are a lot of questions about the difference between PhoneGap and Cordova, and PhoneGap Build is usually the answer. PhoneGap has the built-in support for managing PhoneGap Build directly from the command-line interface while Cordova doesn't. Until the introduction of the command-line interface, building an application for multiple platforms required you to run different development environments at the same time. This has changed a lot with the introduction of the PhoneGap Build in 2012.

PhoneGap Build is a cloud-based answer to the issue of building applications for the various platforms that are not supported on the operating system you use. PhoneGap Build can be used as a cloud compiler that generates applications for every supported platform, though the support for all PhoneGap platforms is limited. In the latest version, it supports only three major platforms: iOS, Android, and Windows.

PhoneGap Build makes it very simple for you to develop applications. You...

The PhoneGap Developer App

The PhoneGap Developer app is a great addition to supporting the various mobile devices without needing to build and install separate versions into the various devices. It provides a simple testing utility for developers who want to check out the interface from the user's perspective and not just run it in the emulator. After installing the PhoneGap Developer app, you will be able to connect to your PhoneGap desktop app in order to view and test your work on the device instantly.

You can read more about it at http://app.PhoneGap.com.

The PhoneGap Developer App

Currently, the PhoneGap Developer app is being supported on all the three major platforms. The URLs to the app stores for each platform are as follows:

How to use it

To...

Summary

This chapter was an overview of the supported platforms in PhoneGap along with the features that each platform supports. As one of the most supported platforms is Android, we will be using it for the following examples in this book. Next, we took a quick look at PhoneGap Build, which is one of the main differences between PhoneGap and Cordova. In the end, we got to know about another tool that is great for testing the usability of the application directly from the physical device without needing to build and install the application on the device.

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Description

PhoneGap is an open source framework that allows you to quickly build cross-platform mobile apps using HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS. PhoneGap Build is a cloud service that allows you to quickly develop and compile mobile applications without SDKs, compilers, and hardware. PhoneGap allows you to use its existing plugins or create new ones, as per your requirements, to enhance your mobile applications. Starting by installing PhoneGap, you’ll develop an app that uses various device capabilities through different plugins and learn how to build an app in the cloud with PhoneGap’s Build service. You’ll discover how to use PhoneGap to create an application view, along with how to use a camera, geolocation, and other device capabilities to create engaging apps. Next, you’ll augment applications with PhoneGap's plugins using minimalistic code. You’ll explore the app preparation process to deploy your app to the app store. By the end of the book, you’ll have also learned how to apply hybrid mobile UIs that will work across different platforms and different screen sizes for better user experience.

Who is this book for?

If you are a mobile application developer in iOS or Android, or a web application developer who wants to learn how to make cross-platform mobile applications using PhoneGap, this book is perfect for you. To make the most of this book, it will be helpful if you have prior knowledge of HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript.

What you will learn

  • Get to grips with the fundamentals of PhoneGap to get started
  • Set up a development environment for Linux, Mac OS, and Windows
  • Use Cordova CLI, workflows, and Plugman Plugin manager to create mobile applications efficiently
  • Understand the development workflow to create native crossplatform mobile applications
  • Embed plugin support to transition to PhoneGap or use it to enhance existing applications
  • Improve your mobile development knowledge using objectoriented programming (OOP), reusable components, and AJAX closures
  • Be empowered to build your own mobile apps quickly with ease
  • Discover tips and tricks to make app development fun and easy
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Publication date, Length, Edition, Language, ISBN-13
Publication date : Sep 07, 2015
Length: 178 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781785284687
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Table of Contents

9 Chapters
1. Get up and Running with PhoneGap Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
2. Mobile Platform Support Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
3. Command-line Interface Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
4. Plugin Support Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
5. First PhoneGap Application Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
6. Accessing Native APIs Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
7. Accessing Media Content Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
8. Application Development Workflow Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon 4
(3 Ratings)
5 star 66.7%
4 star 0%
3 star 0%
2 star 33.3%
1 star 0%
Trejder Nov 02, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
PhoneGap lets you to build extensible, content rich mobile applications and deploy them to many mobile platforms (including iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Amazon and other), from single source code base, with just a snap of your fingers. And "PhoneGap Essentials" by Ivan Turkovic lets you jump into learning and coding process at once and publish your first application in a matter of day or two.There are many books on beginning your journey with PhoneGap and mobile applications developments. All or most of them full with examples, screenshots etc. What I particularly liked the most in "PhoneGap Essentials" are side notes, comments on nifty things, you should pay attention to, and extra information, that is provided by the author. Aside of general information and knowledge of PhoneGap itself and easy to follow examples, I found most interesting one of additional chapters, where Ivan Turkovic is talking about visual frameworks, you can use to enrich look & feel of your PhoneGap applications. And where he lists all pros and cons of these frameworks in an easy to understand, yet very useful advantage-disadvantage list.I'm the reviewer of "PhoneGap Essentials" book and I was responsible to catch all the errors and mistakes found in it during writing process. However, I'm not affiliated in any way with PACKT Publishing (except for being an unpaid reviewer for them) and above review is solely my own point of view.
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Vinay Nov 26, 2015
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Packt has done a wonderful job of publishing this book.
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Stefano Sep 27, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 2
Letto in un paio di ore. Certo, aiuta ad installare l'intero sistema, e da l'approccio per scrivere alcune semplici app, ma il codice è limitato a semplicissimi esempi sui singoli plugin base. Nessun accenno ai dati, nessun accenno alle UI se non una facciata di riferimento ai framework più usati per costruire UI. Troppo troppo poco per 16 euro.
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