Where to start in regards to building an online App with Adobe tools?

[GameViewPoint]

I'm at the planning stage of an online app, and I'm currently looking at which is going to the best (i'e quickest/easiest/most options) path to take to build it.

I want it to be HTML5 (I'm aware that's a whole heap of tech under one name, but for convenience sake let's use that term)

I already have a subscription to the creative cloud so have access to all the Adobe tools. I don't know much JS, but I do know AS3, some Obj-c and I'm sure I can pick up JS/CSS3 fairly quickly.

My questions are fairly simple.

1. What Adobe tools are best suited to the job?
2. How best to use the suggested tools?
3. Any online app these days need to use a database, how would I incorporate that? I'm a big fan of parse.com is it possible to use that with any of the suggested options? or it's best not to and use an option available from Adobe?
4. Finally the obligatory mobile issue, what tools/methods can I use to make my app work well on mobile? either via phoneGap or just by making it responsive?

Thanks for any advice!

[Nancy OShea]

#1 Depends on what the exact goals of your project are. 

• What is your APP supposed to do?
• Who is your target audience?
• How will they be interacting with said APP?

#2 Depends on your skill set and the points in #1 above.

#3 Not necessarily true.  Again, it depends on what your APP is supposed to do.

#4 If you're building an APP for a particular device (iOS or Android for example) use the tools specifically designed for that device. 

http://www.lynda.com/Dreamweaver-CS5-5-tutorials/Building-Android-and-iOS-Apps-with/83788-2.html

Nancy O.

[GameViewPoint]

Ok let's say I wanted to create an App like Linkedin?

Regarding point 2, I don't know much JS, and I'm all for tools making my life easier but the site having the functionality that I want it to have is the most important thing and I'm sure I can pick up JS pretty quickly anyway.

[Nancy OShea]

I think one of the problems is understanding your terminology.  An App is an application.  A web site is a site that may or may not contain Apps.

LinkedIn is a sophisticated, dynamic web site built with custom server-side programming and databases.   You can't do that with JavaScript alone.

Which server-side databases and programming languages are you planning to use?  If unsure, ask your web host which programming languages you can use with your server.

If you want your site to perform well on mobile, tablets, laptops & desktops, learn all you can about Responsive Web Design with CSS Media Queries.

Responsive Web Design

http://coding.smashingmagazine.com/2011/01/12/guidelines-for-responsive-web-design/

Introduction to CSS Media Queries

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/dreamweaver/articles/introducing-media-queries.html

DW CS6 Fluid Grid Layouts (6 min video)

http://tv.adobe.com/watch/digital-design-cs6/creating-adaptive-designs-using-fluid-grid-layouts-in-d...

DW CS6 Fluid Grid layouts (17 min video)

http://tv.adobe.com/watch/learn-dreamweaver-cs6/using-fluid-grid-layouts/

Step-by-Step tutorial -- Building Fluid Grid Layouts in DW CS6

http://www.adobe.com/inspire/2012/08/fluid-grid-layouts-dreamweaver-cs6.html

Nancy O.

Message was edited by: Nancy O.  I fixed the links.

[GameViewPoint]

Thanks for the info.

I have a pretty good understanding of the terminology For example would you regard twitter as a website or as an online app? Of course it depends on how you define the concept of a "website" and an "app" but either way we are basically talking about the same thing which is a website which has many multiple dynamic functions (server and client side) for it's users. I'm also taking this one step further and including the concept of holding persistant data on it's users via a database.

You asked in regards to the database. I'm a fan of parse.com, and it has a good JS tutorial on it's site which uses it's own service, plus backbone.js and JQuery. However seeing I have a subscription to the creative cloud, and all the new HTML5 tools that come with it (leaving dreamweaver to one side for a moment) I was wondering if any of these tools or new services from adobe, allow me to create a linked-in style site, without resorting to say a 3rd party service such as Parse.com? And if not, then equally how could these new HTML5 tools (this time including DW) be best used with a 3rd party service such as parse.com?

You see the HTML5 tools from adobe seem a bit nebulus to me right now, other than creating some basic animation, I can't quite see what they are going to be used for. If however they can be used as an integrated suite to create dynamic sites an a fashion which is more straightforward than just hard coding them with DW then that's a different thing, and something I would be happy to be made aware of

[Nancy OShea]

I guess I'm having trouble understanding what you want.

Parse.com appears to be a backend for developing mobile apps only.

Mobile apps are device specific (iPhone, Android for example) which is not the same thing as a web site app like LinkedIn or Twitter which works on any web device.

So which is it?  Are you building a web site or a mobile app?

Nancy O.

[GameViewPoint]

Parse has a Javascript SDK.

https://www.parse.com/docs/js_guide