5 ms·

Used Phonegap on 2 projects and I have to say, never again. If you want to have the job done right and you want a quality product, go native. We lost days(weeks

by isnie 14y ago

Used Phonegap on 2 projects and I have to say, never again. If you want to have the job done right and you want a quality product, go native. We lost days(weeks even) of time chasing an obscure bug in the location tracking of Phonegap. Also, the end result wasn't very good to be honest. It lacked the fluidity and responsiveness you have with native apps. sure, you can develop things 2 as fast but then you spend all the rest of the time just messing around to get that "native feel".

tb303 14y ago
seconded
papsosouid 14y ago
>It lacked the fluidity and responsiveness you have with native apps. Having only messed around with phonegap a little recently, I wasn't sure if this was a real issue or something I was doing wrong. Is the lack of responsiveness you describe a noticeable delay any time you try to interact with the app in any way? I made a trivial app that just has two pages, and switches between them when you click a button, and it was obviously, noticeably slow to react. Is that "normal" phonegap performance? I guess I am just hoping I did something wrong, because I don't see how anyone could possibly use phonegap if it really is that slow all the time.
- ryanwatkins 14y ago
  While there are performance issues in Webkit vs Native, for the trivial example the issue is usually the default delay in generating a 'click' event. Browsers wait 300ms to see if you're attempting a doubletap. You want to use a framework, or write some code to detect 'touchstart' for clicks to register with a minimum of delay. See https://developers.google.com/mobile/articles/fast_buttons https://developers.google.com/mobile/articles/fast_buttons
marknutter 14y ago
I've used it on a couple myself, paired with Sencha Touch, and I have to say it has been overall a very good experience. We were able to put out an Android and iOS version of our app in 2 months. Performance on older Android devices wasn't great, but on newer phones like the iPhone 4+ and Androids shipped within the last year, performance was damn close to native.
ch0wn 14y ago
Couldn't agree more. At the company I work for, we tried both Phonegap and Appcelerator Titanium and it both was a total disaster. We're back developing native apps and both the development and user experience is just so much better.
vellum 14y ago
I agree. I spent about a few weeks cobbling together a prototype, but most of it was spent trying to get it look and feel native. That plus debugging is a nightmare.
nobleach 14y ago
When you have a team that has no Obj-C/iOS development experience, you'll lose more than a couple of weeks. We have one Java guy on staff, and he's never touched Dalvik. Our usage of Sencha Touch has produced relatively good results. The sheer force required to write a native app for multiple platforms is too costly. If I hit a case that I can't handle in JS, I won't take the job.
willtheperson 14y ago
Not all apps use native controls. Not all apps should be built on PhoneGap. At my company, we need to build apps rapidly. By rapid, I mean 1 week for a testable product. I have a app skeleton that implements backbone.js and some "native" css controls ready to go. I can easily turn around an app in that time. Is it as fast as native? No. Do most people notice that? No. Does it prove the app concept we were trying to test? Yes. So we basically use it as a prototyping platform and if the app has a lot of users, we'll go native. From my experience, it's much faster to prototype in html5 than it is in obj-c.
- isnie 14y ago
  you're describing a totally different scenario, as a rapid prototyping tool I can totally see why you would choose Phonegap over native code. but as something to give to the end user? not so much. Although with Interface Builder and some wiring you can quickly mock something up as well. But it probably would go faster in Phonegap to go from PSD to app. I don't agree 100% with most people not noticing though. I do feel a smooth app adds to the overal experience. I tested the first app they showed in the Phonegap gallery and it has that typical Phonegap feel to it: laggy response and glitchy transitions. It gives the app a sloppy feel. Maybe people won't notice, but it's not a fun app to use.
matwood 14y ago
This has also been my experience. Phonegap should work for the subset of apps that could have just been done as a mobile app to start with. If you need to do anything that might push the device native is the only way to go.

by isnie 14y ago

tb303 14y ago

seconded

papsosouid 14y ago

>It lacked the fluidity and responsiveness you have with native apps. Having only messed around with phonegap a little recently, I wasn't sure if this was a real issue or something I was doing wrong. Is the lack of responsiveness you describe a noticeable delay any time you try to interact with the app in any way? I made a trivial app that just has two pages, and switches between them when you click a button, and it was obviously, noticeably slow to react. Is that "normal" phonegap performance? I guess I am just hoping I did something wrong, because I don't see how anyone could possibly use phonegap if it really is that slow all the time.

ryanwatkins 14y ago
While there are performance issues in Webkit vs Native, for the trivial example the issue is usually the default delay in generating a 'click' event. Browsers wait 300ms to see if you're attempting a doubletap. You want to use a framework, or write some code to detect 'touchstart' for clicks to register with a minimum of delay. See https://developers.google.com/mobile/articles/fast_buttons https://developers.google.com/mobile/articles/fast_buttons

marknutter 14y ago

I've used it on a couple myself, paired with Sencha Touch, and I have to say it has been overall a very good experience. We were able to put out an Android and iOS version of our app in 2 months. Performance on older Android devices wasn't great, but on newer phones like the iPhone 4+ and Androids shipped within the last year, performance was damn close to native.

ch0wn 14y ago

Couldn't agree more. At the company I work for, we tried both Phonegap and Appcelerator Titanium and it both was a total disaster. We're back developing native apps and both the development and user experience is just so much better.

vellum 14y ago

I agree. I spent about a few weeks cobbling together a prototype, but most of it was spent trying to get it look and feel native. That plus debugging is a nightmare.

nobleach 14y ago

When you have a team that has no Obj-C/iOS development experience, you'll lose more than a couple of weeks. We have one Java guy on staff, and he's never touched Dalvik. Our usage of Sencha Touch has produced relatively good results. The sheer force required to write a native app for multiple platforms is too costly. If I hit a case that I can't handle in JS, I won't take the job.

willtheperson 14y ago

Not all apps use native controls. Not all apps should be built on PhoneGap. At my company, we need to build apps rapidly. By rapid, I mean 1 week for a testable product. I have a app skeleton that implements backbone.js and some "native" css controls ready to go. I can easily turn around an app in that time. Is it as fast as native? No. Do most people notice that? No. Does it prove the app concept we were trying to test? Yes. So we basically use it as a prototyping platform and if the app has a lot of users, we'll go native. From my experience, it's much faster to prototype in html5 than it is in obj-c.

isnie 14y ago
you're describing a totally different scenario, as a rapid prototyping tool I can totally see why you would choose Phonegap over native code. but as something to give to the end user? not so much. Although with Interface Builder and some wiring you can quickly mock something up as well. But it probably would go faster in Phonegap to go from PSD to app. I don't agree 100% with most people not noticing though. I do feel a smooth app adds to the overal experience. I tested the first app they showed in the Phonegap gallery and it has that typical Phonegap feel to it: laggy response and glitchy transitions. It gives the app a sloppy feel. Maybe people won't notice, but it's not a fun app to use.

matwood 14y ago

This has also been my experience. Phonegap should work for the subset of apps that could have just been done as a mobile app to start with. If you need to do anything that might push the device native is the only way to go.