Developing downloadable mobile apps using HTML5 and PhoneGap Apache Callback Ron Perry, CTO, Worklight Inc.

Agenda Downloadable (native) apps vs. Web apps HTML5 web apps vs. Downloadable apps Using HTML5 in downloadable apps: the hybrid model How hybrid apps work Advantages and disadvantages Writing an app with PhoneGap The concept Accessing device APIs Our experience with PhoneGap 2

Critical HTML5 features are supported on mobile 3 iOS5Android 2.2, 2.3 WinPhone 7.5 Canvas Audio Local Storage Geolocation Video CSS3 borders, anim Web Applications SVG Elements CSS3 position:fixed Drag & Drop Files WebGL IndexedDB, WebSQL Desktop:

HTML5 makes mobile web apps possible 4

Native apps can still do much more 5 Video Processing VoIP Audio Processing Access Camera App-Store Presence

Downloadable (Native) Apps 6 File System (on Mobile Device) Native App (Java/Obj-C/C#) Mobile OS

Mobile Browser Web Apps 7 Web App (HTML, CSS, JS) Mobile OS Web Server

Hybrid to the rescue 8 Advantages Portability Reuse of existing skills Access to device APIs App-store presence Combine HTML/CSS/JS with native code User interface in HTML/CSS Logic and interaction in JS Special functions written in platform- specific native code

Hybrid Apps 9 File System (on Mobile Device) Mobile OS Native Container HTML, CSS, JS

Full Native Speed as Necessary ReasonableAvailable Low Overhead Hybrid App Development Comparison 10 Native Device Access Speed App Store Approval Process FullVery FastAvailableMandatory Development Cost Expensive PartialFast Not Available ReasonableNone Web

Architecture of a hybrid app Native container: Creates instance of UIWebView / android.webkit.WebView / etc. Navigates to main html file Implements listener/handler for requests coming from JS code Activates JS code when necessary HTML5/CSS3/JS code: Implements UI and app logic Activates native handlers through OS-specific mechanism (custom URL scheme) Receives responses through JS handlers HTML resources can be packaged into downloadable app for performance boost 11

PhoneGap – Open Source Framework The de-facto standard for hybrid app development Now in transition into becoming Apache Callback Provides: A template implementation for the native container Implementation of the JS Native bridge for 6 mobile OSs OS-independent JS APIs for activating device functions 12

PhoneGap provides JS access to device APIs 13

PhoneGap run-time (native+JS) is part of the app 14

Example: raising a native alert from JS code 15

Example: getting device info 16

Example: accessing the camera 17

Worklight Platform: PhoneGap-based client-side The Worklight Platform provides an enterprise-grade infrastructure for mobile apps Includes features such as security, authentication, data-integration, push notifications, diagnostics, direct update and more We chose PhoneGap as the basis for our client-side technology, (while exposing the PhoneGap APIs) and are very happy with the result! 18

A couple of Worklight-based apps 19 Lotte Card (Korean credit card company): Combines 150 HTML5 screens with a native augmented reality screen Developed very quickly for iPhone and Android RealNews (for iPad): Developed by RealCommerce, Worklights distributors in Israel Lists hot Israeli news articles by # of likes Freely available on the app store

For More Information 20 ResourceLocation PhoneGap Sitehttp:// Apache Project Pagehttp://incubator.apache.org/projects/callback.html Worklight Webinarshttp:// Thank You!