Phone Gap and BC?

[Biz Cat Rich]

HI,anyone try building a phone gap app using BC, and more importantly BCweb apps or other modules?

I realize phone gap can;t use server side code, but wondering if I build a web app like a recipe db, that is mostly done in html and css, would/could it be ported to a phone gap app?

I am sure the possibilities are endless if this works, if not, any chance this is in the works?

[Liam Dilley]

That's not how phone gap works Rich.

You can use coding software to build apps but the way you code and the resulting compiling to form an app is not BC at all.

How you source the data for your app can be from a server but your direct accessing data or JSon output from that server for example.

Currently you can not create a .xml or JSon file with a list of web app items etc on BC to tap into.

Keep reading up on phonegap to get the idea of what it is.

[Biz Cat Rich]

Yes, I get what phone gap is, I didn;t think the a webapp could be added into the applicationdirectly, more like just a webholder or hidden browser,

just thought since adobe aquired it, maybe they had some plans for it to be used with bc?

Phone gap compiles a mobile website into  a downloadable app, so I was thinking if I build a mobile site and then wrap it in a pnone gap app,  then they get an app that simply pulls the live website pages from the server,

Basically its just same website they would get if they browsed to it on a phone, but people like apps, so I think I may try to basically build a phone gap app that pulls in my mobile web site, only for the sake of having a user "thinking" they are downloading a dedicated app as an icon on their phone, even i prefer a dedicated web app, its so easy to go to, rather than opening a browser or even bookmark.

Just thinking out loud, appreciate the input.

[Liam Dilley]

Nothing to do with websites really. It is apps. You need to treat them as seperate things. Only thing you would access from websites is, as I mentioned data and they need to be in specific formats.

Phonegap is not mobile websites into downloadable apps. It is Mobile apps. The tools you use though is in a format where web designers and developers who do not know the coding platform for say IOS or Android to produce apps and have them compiled into apps.

Think you got the wrong idea of what phonegap is.

From the home page:

Developing with PhoneGap gives you the freedom to create mobile applications for iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone, Palm WebOS, Bada and Symbian using the web code you know and love: HTML, CSS and Javascript.

[Biz Cat Rich]

Yes, but its so you don't have to chide in the native platform of iPods Android etc, we can build a site in normal html 5 , and phone gap turns  it into a downloadable Web app for those platforms, that's what I an doing, just thinking of ways to build a phone gap app but inude some remote  content, BC or otherwise,

[Biz Cat Rich]

Liam, I thimk i recall you mentioning once that you dont use dreamweaver, so that may be why you think i am confused with phonegap. phonegap is integrated into dw now, so you can create a mobile site usingjquery mobile, then compile it o phonegap in one click. you cant create games or things like that but you can create some great native apps, ive created a few already, and they work and look great when using jquery mobile ui elements etc.

[Liam Dilley]

No not really.

DW is not just html website making either, you can code pyhon and direct IOS apps in if if you wanted, it is not just websites either.

Even in your post here you got the wrong concept. Do not think have site or make site then convert it to an app.

Any app you produce in this mindset will not be an effective or good app.

Compare true apps on your phone or ipad etc now. Top ones are nothing like a website.

[Biz Cat Rich]

Sure a native app is no comparison for a mobile site, but those lines are getting grey with all the new tech out there, and I get your drift that mobile sites are not "real" apps, but thats not really what i am wondering about , obviously the value of any app is what the client and user think. Facebook mobile and the facebook app are identical on my phone, maybe some better features in the native app, but they "do" the same thing, and I always open the app, because its an icon on my phone,

My point is that app from itunes or google play, is much better channel to get people to use your service, whatever that service is or looks like when you wrap it up visually in a web app or a native app.  Many news sites have their sites available as a native app, is it not a real app, it is, but they do it for the marketing benefits, I know I'll open the engadget app, before i would bother opening the mobile site, it's identical content and UI basically but the app is faster and simpler to use on a phone.

our claim as to what a real web app is, is technical not visual, Mobile gmail website, and the android and ios gmail app are almost indistiguishable, 99% of the users don;t care that one is a native app, other than it can be installed on their phone, making it way easier to use, this benefits both the user and the client.

With that in mind, say a client has a recipe site, and its responsive, pc-mobile al good,  but wouldn;t it also benefit them to use phonegap to make their site a downloadable app even if it looks the same?

[Biz Cat Rich]

Plus i am not trying to make the next angry birds here , hahaha, i am trying to build an app that serves the client, if they want a easy way to accomplish a specific task,  either for customers, or in this case, within their staff, then this is the perfect avenue, sure i can make it as a mobile site and I have, but sometimes clients want the easiest way to make sure their staff would do something, and a web app with a simple form is easy if its on all the staffs phones. sure its just a form, but it makes it so easy when its a icon on their phone, and there is no mistaking what to do, call it a controlled environment in a web app.

and no, not ust any old website can be made into a app with phone gap, thats not how dw and phone gap work together,  you have to build it for phone gap using jquery mobile and then its an easy one click to conpile right to phonegap

[Liam Dilley]

Yep, but do not think websites. Mobile Applications are not websits.

For that you just do responsive web design or mobile version of the site. Phonegap is different and you need to keep that in mind.