Adobe PhoneGap

PhoneGap is a mobile development framework produced by Nitobi, purchased by Adobe Systems. It enables software programmers to build applications for mobile devices using JavaScript, HTML5 and CSS3, instead of device-specific languages such as Objective-C. The resulting applications are hybrid, meaning that they are neither truly native (because all layout rendering is done via web views instead of the platform's native UI framework) nor purely web-based (because they are not just web apps, but are packaged as apps for distribution and have access to native device APIs). From 1.9 version onward it is even possible to freely mix native and hybrid code snippets.

The software underlying PhoneGap is Apache Cordova. The software was previously called just "PhoneGap", then "Apache Callback". Apache Cordova is open source software.

History

First developed at an iPhoneDevCamp event in San Francisco, PhoneGap went on to win the People's Choice Award at O'Reilly Media's 2009 Web 2.0 Conference and the framework has been used to develop many apps. Apple Inc. has confirmed that the framework has its approval, even with the new 4.0 developer license agreement changes. The PhoneGap framework is used by several mobile application platforms such as ViziApps, Worklight, Convertigo and appMobi as the backbone of their mobile client development engine. Adobe officially announced the acquisition of Nitobi Software (the original developer) on October 4, 2011. Coincident with that, the PhoneGap code was contributed to the Apache Software Foundation to start a new project called Apache Cordova. The project original name, Apache Callback, was viewed as too generic. Then it also appears in Adobe Systems as Adobe PhoneGap and also as Adobe Phonegap Build.

Early versions of PhoneGap required a person making iOS apps to have an Apple computer, and a person making Windows Mobile apps to have a computer running Windows. After September 2012, the "PhoneGap Build" service allows a programmer to upload his source code to a "cloud compiler" that generates apps for every supported platform.

Design and rationale

The core of PhoneGap applications use HTML5 and CSS3 for their rendering, and JavaScript for their logic. Although HTML5 now provides access to underlying hardware such as the accelerometer, camera and GPS, browser support for HTML5-based device access is not consistent across mobile browsers, particularly older versions of Android. To overcome these limitations, the PhoneGap framework embeds HTML5 code inside a native WebView on the device, using a Foreign Function Interface to access the native resources of the device.

However, the use of web-based technologies leads many PhoneGap applications to run slower than native applications with similar functionality. Adobe Systems warns that applications built using PhoneGap may be rejected by Apple for being too slow or not feeling "native" enough (having appearance and functionality consistent with what users have come to expect on the platform).

Supported platforms

PhoneGap currently supports development for the operating systems Apple iOS, Google Android, LG webOS, Microsoft Windows Phone, Nokia Symbian OS, RIM BlackBerry and Tizen. Support for recent versions, such as BlackBerry 5 and 6 and Windows Phone 7, is being implemented now. Bada (the operating system used by the Samsung Wave S8500) support is "coming soon". The table below is a list of supported features for each operating system.

Feature	iPhone /iPhone 3G	iPhone 3GS and newer	Android 1.0 – 4.2	Windows Phone	BlackBerry 10 and PlayBook OS	4.6–4.7	5.x–6.0+	Datei:Bada operating system.png Bada	Symbian	webOS	Tizen
Accelerometer	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Vorlage:N/a	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja
Camera	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Vorlage:N/a	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Vorlage:Partial
Compass	Vorlage:N/a	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Vorlage:N/a	Vorlage:N/a	Ja	Vorlage:N/a	Ja	Ja
Contacts	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Vorlage:N/a	Ja	Ja	Ja	Vorlage:N/a	Ja
File	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Vorlage:N/a	Ja	Vorlage:N/a	Vorlage:N/a	Vorlage:N/a	Ja
Geolocation	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja
Media	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Vorlage:N/a	Vorlage:N/a	Vorlage:N/a	Vorlage:N/a	Vorlage:N/a	Vorlage:Partial
Network	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja
Notification (alert)	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja
Notification (sound)	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja
Notification (vibration)	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja
Storage	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Ja	Vorlage:N/a	Ja	Vorlage:N/a	Ja	Ja	Ja

See also

• AppGyver Steroids Tooling to develop, iterate and distribute PhoneGap-based apps across the two major smartphone platforms – Android and iOS – with no requirement for Xcode or Eclipse.
• Multiple phone web based application framework
• List of rich Internet application frameworks

Bibliography

• Matt Gifford: PhoneGap Mobile Application Development Cookbook. 1st Auflage. Packt Publishing, 2012, ISBN 978-1-84951-858-1, S. 320 (packtpub.com). 
• John M. Wargo: PhoneGap Essentials: Building Cross-Platform Mobile Apps. 1st Auflage. Addison-Wesley Professional, 2012, ISBN 978-0-321-81429-6, S. 384 (phonegapessentials.com). 
• Jamie Munro: 20 Recipes for Programming PhoneGap: Cross-Platform Mobile Development for Android and iPhone. 1st Auflage. O'Reilly Media, 2012, ISBN 978-1-4493-1954-0, S. 76 (oreilly.com). 
• Joshua Marinacci: Building Mobile Applications with Java: Using the Google Web Toolkit and PhoneGap. 1st Auflage. O'Reilly Media, 2012, ISBN 978-1-4493-0823-0, S. 86 (oreilly.com). 
• Andrew Lunny: PhoneGap Beginner's Guide. 1st Auflage. Packt Publishing, 2011, ISBN 1-84951-536-0, S. 328 (packtpub.com). 
• Rohit Ghatol: Beginning PhoneGap: Mobile Web Framework for JavaScript and HTML5. 1st Auflage. Apress, 2011, ISBN 1-4302-3903-4, S. 700 (apress.com). 
• Thomas Myer: Beginning PhoneGap. 1st Auflage. Wrox, 2011, ISBN 1-118-15665-X, S. 336 (wiley.com). 

External links

• Vorlage:Official website