I'm trying to implement some CSS animations in a phone gap project. The animations run fine on an iOS device but not on my Android. In fact some things like dashed borders aren't even rendering.
Do I need any special vender prefixes for Android within a phonegap project?
PhoneGap uses native browser engines. So in android, it uses WebKit.
From PhoneGap
web view used by PhoneGap is the same web view used by the native
operating system.On iOS, this is the Objective-C UIWebView class; on
Android, this is android.webkit.WebView.Since there are differences in
the web view rendering engines between operating systems, make sure
that you account for this in your UI
This tutorial may be helpful for you. It shows how to target for specific browser(means specific render engine).
Hope this helps!
Take care because since version 4.4 (only) Android does use a Chromium based webview (I think before it was simply a webkit-based webview).
The WebView prior to 4.4 has a bad reputation as far as I've read.
This is another reason to use the Crosswalk project which has a Cordova plugin and permits to embed a specific version of Chromium, so that all your apps are using the same WebView engine no matter the SDK (a a cost of a big APK)
Related
I'm new to Cordova and Phonegap. I've encountered a problem where some CSS3 cannot be displayed properly on my (old) Android.
So I wonder if Phonegap compiles the webpages into code (perhaps Java) or just simply wraps it and uses a native browser to open it.
I ask this is just simply out curiosity and wonder if I can implement ways in other forms to help it render.
Phonegap just uses a WebView (Which is essentailly a browser) control where it displays your webpages. Now each phone uses a different WebView control, and also this control varies among different versions of android. So if some parts of your page are not displayed correctly inside the phone's web browser, they won't show up correctly inside a phonegap app.
UPDATE:
A solution to this problem might be this:
"[Third-party WebViews] are platform-independent so that we no longer
have to deal with issues between Android versions," said Bowser, who
spoke Thursday at OSCON in Portland, Ore. An API will be provided so
that these WebViews work like plug-ins, and Bowser mentioned it will
support the recent Android OSes, such as KitKat, Jelly Bean, and
Gingerbread.
I am writing an application which requires access to the microphone of a device to determine instantaneous volume levels. The app will have a web version, iOS version, and Android version, and must be compatible with as many devices as possible, since the particular user base our application targets may not be able to switch browsers easily.
At first, I looked into using HTML5 for my application. However, it does not seem to be viable for my purposes, because I can't find any cross-platform way to get instantaneous microphone input and many users may be using an out-of-date version of their browser, which would not support HTML5. Is there any tool which alleviates these challenges and would allow me to use HTML5?
As a replacement, I began looking into Apache Flex. It seems to have all of the features I seek: It is cross-platform, allows me to access microphone volume levels, and will work even on very old devices, as long as they have Flash installed. However, many people predict the imminent death of Flex and strongly argue against using it, opting rather for HTML5. For my purposes, is Flex an appropriate tool, or would it still not be recommended?
You can achieve it by using PhoneGap or similar backend app which can host a webview and allow you to access native api through JavaScript or JSObject.
For front end, you can use HTML and keep your UI standard across all devices/platforms.
PhoneGap is little bulky but on Android and iOS, you can create a minimal app by hosting WebView and customize it to create JavaScript bridge and write your own native api.
Can a Flex application that was designed for use on a PC be run on an iPad, iPhone, or Android-based mobile device?
Seems like a simple enough question. Visiting http://www.adobe.com/products/flex.html yields a picture of a dude running a (presumably) Flex application on an Android. So at first glance, the answer would appear to be "yes." End of story.
but yet…
There is so much (mis)information out there on various tech sites that suggest Flash-based technologies simply won't run on iOS or other mobile platforms. Why is this? Perhaps they mean to say that Flex won't run "out of the box" and requires a plugin? Or do they mean it won't run at all?
Every time I think I've reached a definitive conclusion, some post on SlashDot or CNET directly contradicts it. So what's the scoop? Can one take an existing Flex application and run it on iOS/Android? (I realize there are screen size issues to consider so the app might not run effectively. I just want to know if the runtimes are available on the mobile devices to allow the Flex app to launch at all.)
Sorry for the noob question. My background is WPF / HTML5. Adobe technologies are completely foreign to me.
I wrote a lot below if you'd like to read it enjoy, if not sorry for taking your valuable bytes :) I directly answered the questions up here first:
Why is this?
It's a confusing matter read below for the why details.
Perhaps they mean to say that Flex won't run "out of the box" and requires a plugin?
Or do they mean it won't run at all?
Using the flash builder tools (the bin folder in the SDK) you can compile for native desktop application, desktop web browsers, native iOS application, native Android application. Android with FlashPlayer plugin installed will show Flash content within the web browser, iOS will only run the ones compiled with AIR, not in the the web browser but as a native app.
Every time I think I've reached a definitive conclusion, some post on SlashDot or CNET directly contradicts it. So what's the scoop? Can one take an existing Flex application and run it on iOS/Android?
Yes, if using AIR and run as a native app on all three platforms (the desktop Flex API is for the most part a superset of the web Flex API), your other points about performance and form factor are valid and should be considered though. The nice thing is you can write your model/controller code in a common library in AS3 then write separate presentation layer interfaces that all share the library.
Here's the very long version:
Using the flash compiler results in "bytecode" in the form of a file with a swf extension using the swf format, you can read a ton more about that here:
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/swf.html
To interpret the file you need some sort of run-time similar to some degree to running WPF/XAML/C# within a .NET framework context (either desktop or using silverlight on the web). In the case of adobe technologies (rough equivalence):
AS3 = C#
MXML = XAML
Flex = WPF+WCF (client side RPC not server side)
Flash Player = Silverlight
AIR (Adobe integrated runtime) = .NET
Framework Redistributable .dll(s)/.so(s) for desktop OSes
(Read this list very loosely please, I know XAML is preserved in the MSIL or whatever which is different because MXML is compiled to AS3 and only if a debug flag is set on the compiler does it include the debugging symbols, there's certainly tons of differences but I think this is an easy and correct enough model to use)
On iOS the browser does not allow for plugins in the traditional sense of netscape browser plugins or ActiveX plugins. For this reason you'll not be able to execute a plugin ie flashplayer or silverlight in the browser. Since Adobe did release a flashplayer for Android devices that does run in the browser it will work on those devices in the browser, however they have essentially thrown in the towel for supporting this long term, as they have to support the majority mobile device platform, iOS, in order to remain relevant (this was I think more a collective throwing in of the towel by Google, device manufacturers, carriers, Microsoft, all just following suit and trying to make the best business decision, WebKit and V8 or SpiderMonkey can probably do 99% of what Flash can do and better in some cases and WebKit will hopefully not splinter and will remain open source... frameworks and the browsers just need to get fleshed out and stabilized).
If the user installs AIR (or the runtime is packaged with the app) then a Flex/Flash (that is stuff coded in AS3 and/or MXML and compiled to a swf) can be transcoded/packaged to be interpreted by the run-time for that device correctly (be it iOS or Android or whatever RIM did, I don't think they have AIR for Windows Phone 7 and Win8 on ARM won't support browser plugins either). Part of the confusion is possibly from the fact that Apple denied the distribution of Apps that were "cross-compiled" which kept AIR out of the list of options for iOS for a good year, just after Adobe started announcing it was usable for that purpose (kicking Adobe while their down). Another part of the confusion probably comes from real vids of people who have 1 hacked their device or 2 were able to get open source alternatives to the flash player run-time to work on their iOS device (gnash was one I'm aware of from some occasional Linux tinkering, also possibly FAKE vids).
You can run Flex applications on mobile devices, but you cannot simply run any Flex project.
In Flash Builder ( Flex Ide) or in Flash Professional you can create mobile projects. These projects generate native applications for iOS and Android.
Last time I tried, the result and the available components where less than what I expected. So, if you can, I'll much recommend you go for something like Appcelerator.com or similar, which turns HTML5/Js code into native apps. I tried them, worked a lot better than Flex.
Short answer: No
Long answer: You can use Adobe's tools to compile your Flash/Flex app for use as a native iOS app. So you won't be able to embed the app in a web page like you normally could with Flex, but you can build it as a native app. Note you have to have Flash Builder 4.5 to do this.
It won't run on iPhone as a .swf file, but it will run on Android based devices that have adobe flash installed. It will also run on the BB playbook, which also has flash.
Flex is a framework.( Anyway it is very beutiful one which even sometime looks like complete different language ).
As soon as you are building AIR application it can run on various platforms like : Windows, iOS, Android, upcomming TV's, PlayBook, even .. into the future ( maybe/hopefuly ) on Windows Phone, plus Linux ( which AIR future is not very clear anyway ( but hopefuly Adobe will reconsider ) ).
So - application created with Flash Builder 4.5+ would probably run everywhere as soon as it is AIR application.
The compilation methoods is really simple, and you almost simultaneously compiling for everything you wanna to.
And one of the most important things here - your applications will run, work, look and feel the same way you were designed on one device. Flex is the thing which is responsible for everything to looks beutiful on each platform it is running.
For instance i am compiling currently for Android, and without even test i can clearly say that it will looks and feel the same way under iOS and Windows, and it will.
My team is in the planning phase of a multiplatform mobile app. We're considering Adobe Air/Flex or Appcelerator Titanium instead of native development, but will eventually be needing to use an external API that is ported to iOS and Android. **(one that harnesses the device's camera)
The idea would be to use platform detection and overloaded classes to determine which platform version of the API to import. Is something like this possible in either Adobe or Appcelerator? If so, would the native Objective-C or Java need to somehow be wrapped in Actionscript (if Adobe) or JavaScript (if Titanium)?
Any advice would be fantastic.
A near-term (no dates yet) release of Mobile Air will include native extensions. The native code will be written in the platforms' native languages. ActionScript interfaces will exist to interact with these extensions, the specifications for which have not yet been released.
http://active.tutsplus.com/articles/news/industry-news-week-22-2011/
Titanium is 100% native code.
How Does Appcelerator Titanium Mobile Work?
I am creating mobile application in asp.net webform targeting IPhone, Android and blackberry. I am using JQuery-Mobile for the same.
Below is my first page I have developed with jquery-mobile.
I don't have iphone, android and blackberry. So my questions are:
Best Simulator I can use on windows XP/ Windows Server 2008 for Iphone, Andriod and Blackberry
Also, when I am running the application on the browser it is looking wierd. I mean textbox size, buttons. Is this the way it looks on normal webpage or it's my faulty design?
As I am developing application in asp.net, do I need to install latest browser which support HTML5 and CSS3 because below browser is IE7.
An old IE is not the best choice to test the capabilities of a HTML5+javascript framework...
For daily basis it's quite ok to use Firefox or any WebKit based browser (chrome, safari ...)
Emulators are very helpful, but to be sure your product works well you will probably need to give it a try on an actual device. I have already seen some reports of problems that show up only when working with the real device.
A team that I do some JQM stuff for has bought a cheap old ipod touch for testing. It's the most demanding apple product you can get. It has the oldest browser, causes most problems and is the slowest. Best choice! :)
Emulator for Android
Simulators for Blackberry
I'm sure Apple has one too - but I think you need to register as a iOS developer before you can get your hands on it. I believe using third-party iOS emulators is against Apple's policy.