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Sometimes I feel like the only person who is NOT a PhoneGap fan. It just has so many oddities (white flash on Android for one) and the apps never seem to work a
by Yarnage 15y ago
Sometimes I feel like the only person who is NOT a PhoneGap fan. It just has so many oddities (white flash on Android for one) and the apps never seem to work as well as anything native.
Am I missing something? Serious question, not trying to troll.
- untog 15y agoI haven't used it extensively, but it's one of few ways to make a truly functional app using just JS+HTML5- allowing you to skip past Java, Objective-C, etc. Of course, there are huge prices to pay for that- particularly on the UI front. But if your mobile app is a very small part of your business (as opposed to the primary offering, which it is for many) then it can make sense. I've actually ended up making an app that's a hybrid of native (for top bar navigation) and one big webview for the rest: http://www.taxono.my/ http://www.taxono.my/ I think it's come out as very close to a native experience- it's just a case of putting the time in to make it so.
- funkyavocado 15y agoThat's a great looking app. Can I ask what framework you used?
- untog 15y agoI had to use Appcelerator because I need background processing as part of the app- none of the HTML5-only frameworks offer that (AFAIK). If you don't need background processing, I wouldn't recommend it- I'm looking for ways to move away from it.
- MatthewPhillips 15y agoVery nice looking app. Are you using Leaflet for your maps?
- untog 15y agoYep. I was very, very impressed. Coming from the Google Maps API I never expected that a web map view could perform as well as a native one, but it does.
- MatthewPhillips 15y agoIndeed, I maintain my own Leaflet fork for a project I am (occasionally) working on and I am won over as well. Are you using the Mapquest open data? Your maps are beautiful by the way.
- untog 15y agoI used OSM data with a sprinkling of NYC government data. If you're interested, I blogged about the process: http://blog.untogether.co.uk/post/17554554409/i-had-no-idea-how-to-make-custom-maps-so-i-learnt-by http://blog.untogether.co.uk/post/17554554409/i-had-no-idea-...
- quanfucius 15y agoGreat job on the app! How's the reception been so far from taxi cab companies?
- untog 15y agoThanks! I haven't got to the stage of approaching taxi companies yet- right now the app is really just a developed concept that I've entered into an app-making contest (http://2011.nycbigapps.com/submissions/5832-taxonomy http://2011.nycbigapps.com/submissions/5832-taxonomy) . It has VC investor judges, cash prizes, etc.- basically, I'm waiting to see what happens. If it gets a fantastic reception then yes, that's time to start approaching cab companies about direct booking etc.
- tluyben2 15y agoWell, you cannot deliver apps on iOS/Android/WP7 at the same time for a small budget in a short time natively. With Phonegap you can. Most companies really don't care that it is not that polished because most users don't care. We are talking about apps for the average company, not for companies where the app IS their business or anything like that. The pizza chain with nice revenue rather has a Phonegap app THIS WEEK on all platforms which works a bit flaky, but works, than having to wait a few months to churn out different versions tweaked and tuned for all seperately.
- MatthewPhillips 15y agoAll you're observing here is that the mobile browsers are not as developed as their native runtime cousins. This is an indictment of the browsers (and perhaps the platform owner's priorities), not that of PhoneGap.
- tomjen3 15y agoThe simple answer? It is good enough. Not great, but good enough.