Which Mobile Hybrid App is Better For You?

                                             wiki.developerforce.com

Not every app will fit cleanly into a single pattern, they serve as models for understanding the wide range of what’s possible.

Pure Pattern: So-called “pure” hybrid apps consist of a single webview that occupies the entire screen. All the content and navigation controls are implemented in HTML5, and a thin native wrapper exposes native APIs (like Address Book access) to the HTML5 code. PhoneGap (Cordova) apps use this model. Because of the heavy reliance on HTML5, these apps typically have the most code reuse between mobile platforms and require the least level of native programming experience.

Blended Pattern: Blended apps use native components for the main navigation UI (such as the tab bar) but web views for the formatted content. These apps often use multiple web views with native-powered animations between screens. Apple’s App Store app and Google’s Gmail for iOS use this pattern on some screens.

Mullet Pattern: These apps are fully native for early parts of a user flow, such as product browsing, and web-based for later areas like checkout. This is a very common pattern for mobile commerce apps where APIs supporting native screens typically exist for product data but not for the hard to integrate features like checkout and payments. Walmart and Yelp apps for iOS both use this pattern.

Fallback Pattern: In this pattern, the app is mostly native but uses hybrid web views as a fallback for little used or frequently changing content. Facebook’s current app falls under this pattern
.
API Pattern: Not all hybrid apps simply render HTML from a server. API-driven hybrid apps get their data from the server in JSON or XML and instantiate that data into HTML within the app.

A good resource is a free e-book on native, HTML5, and hybrid apps that may help with the different approaches to mobile in the enterprise. The staff at Kinvey wrote the book.

http://venturebeat.com/2013/11/13/the-5-hybrid-apps-you-meet-in-heaven-hhhhhh-mobile/

Need Some Advice for Cost-Effective App Production?

We love to share tips from other developers that we deem helpful . Share this article with others so they can benefit from the information in this article.



When selecting content delivery channels, a digital-first publisher can’t ignore the mobile app. Today’s digital-savvy readers expect a market leading publication to have a mobile app. Moreover, advertisers expect to be able reach the most loyal subscribers via the publisher’s app.

This said, as mentioned in an earlier post, the ROI on a mobile app should be carefully evaluated. The key challenges with apps are discoverability and the higher expenses related to building and maintaining the app. While apps are generally superior reading experiences for subscribers, app discoverability is difficult due to the sheer size, fragmentation, and limited search functionality of app stores. As a result, launching a new publication app today requires significant marketing expense to grow an audience. Similarly, building and maintaining an app can be quite expensive, and native apps by definition are not cross-platform solutions, so you’ll need to build separate apps for each operating system that you want to support (iOS, Android, Windows 8, etc.).



Third-Party Provider

First, consider working with a third-party mobile platform provider that is willing to build and host a mobile app for you on a revenue share basis. These platform vendors typically have template solutions that you can leverage to get to market quickly for little cost. Their offerings normally include the key features that you’ll want already built in (e.g., push notifications, sharing functionality, and rich-media advertising). Additionally, these providers will ensure that your apps continually work even on the latest operating system releases, leveraging their scale to quickly update their platform and app environment. The main downside of these solution providers is that their templates may limit your creativity. Additionally, supporting a different CMS can create editorial challenges.

The 'Native Wrapper'

Another approach to building an app in a cost-effective way would be to consider rebuilding your website in HTML5 and then placing it in a “native wrapper” rather than building a pure native app. Some consider this approach the equivalent of “having your cake and eating it too.” Three key benefits of HTML5 are that it is operating system agnostic (e.g., code works for Android and iOS), it offers offline reading capabilities, and, depending upon how it is architected, you can make updates without app releases. HTML5 code in a native wrapper allows you to access native features such as push notifications, in-app purchasing, and native sharing capabilities. You could also consider building this “app” using a responsive/native HTML5 design which could reduce future development costs. That said, I would caution that this approach is not necessarily the panacea some purport it to be in that it’s challenging to build an HTML5 mobile site and there are a lot of nuances that will require an experienced programmer (which are hard to come by). If it’s done wrong, users will see a degradation of app experience in terms of speed and functionality.


Pick One OS

The third cost-effective approach would be to build a native app for only one operating system (e.g., iOS) using your CMS and internal platforms. The value of this approach will depend upon both the concentration of your user base (i.e. is the majority of your readers using one platform over another) and your access to skilled developers, either in-house or contracted).

In the next article, I’ll address some best-in-class approaches to driving app revenue as well as provide some stats on ALM’s app performance.

http://www.foliomag.com/2013/3-tips-cost-effective-app-production#.Unk1Ovlwrmc

A New Tool for Web Designers Has Been Launched by Google for Building HTML5 Sites and Ads

This new visual tool called "Web Designer" has been launched by Google.  It is a new tool for building interactive sites and ads.  Google is billing this as "professional-quality design tool. This new tool is now officially in public beta and available for download in Mac and Windows.



While this ad pedigree shines through across Web Designer (the default layouts are for DoubleClick rich media ads and AdMob mobile ads, for example), there is nothing in the tool that would prevent you from building interactive single-page sites and animations for other purposes, as well. Some of the features, however, are currently only available for ads, though Google says it plans to expand these tools for other purposes in the future.

At its core, Web Designer is a visual tool, but you can also delve right into the JavaScript and CSS to fine-tune different aspect of your site. Indeed, Web Designer allows you to manipulate all of your code directly in a built-in editor and lets you quickly preview your creations in every browser you have installed on your machine.

The tools come with all the usual visual design tools you’re probably familiar with. Some of the more interesting ones Google has developed for Web Designer include a pen tool for free drawing, as well as a timeline for managing your animations. Web Designer also features the ability to create 3D content using the power of CSS3, as well as a set of pre-built components for galleries, maps and embedded YouTube videos.

For animations, one of the core features of the application, Web Developer features a Quick mode for building animations scene by scene and an advanced mode that gives designers more control over each of the elements on the page.

It’s worth noting that projects like Adobe Muse, Reflow and others include most of Web Designer’s features, too. But by making Web Designer available for free, Google is putting quite a bit of pressure on the incumbents in this space.

http://techcrunch.com/2013/09/30/google-launches-web-designer-a-visual-tool-for-building-interactive-html5-sites-and-ads/

Would you Like to Know the Top Open Source Projects on GitHub?

As many of you may know that GitHub is ranked at the most sought after website for posting open source projects.  This website has hosted six million projects in the early part of 2013 with 3.5 million people collaborating.

                                                          dickeastman

Below is a list of the most popular open source projects that are hosted on GitHub as cited on xmodulo.com

1. Bootstrap – This is by Twitter and is a great front-end framework for web development. It has a collection of HTML/CSS templates and JavaScript extensions permitting you to instantly make a copy of the front-end UI of websites and web applications.

2. Node.js – This is a server-side JavaScript environment enabling real-time web applications that can be scaled with the use of asynchronous event-driven model. It makes use of Google’s V8 JavaScript engine for running its JavaScript.

3. jQuery – This is a cross-browser JavaScript library which is meant to uncomplicated the way client-side JavaScript is written. It can handle HTML document traversal, events, animation, AJAX interaction, and a lot of other things.

4. HTML5 Boilerplate – This is a professional front-end template for building fast, robust, and adaptable web sites or web applications in HTML5.

5. Rails – This is an open-source framework for making web applications that are based on Ruby programming language. It has a complete-stack framework for creating database-backed web applications, covering everything from front-end template rendering to backend database query.

6. D3: Data-Driven Documents – This is a cross-browser JavaScript library for showing documents along with dynamic and interactive graphics driven by data. It can visualize all kinds of digital data in W3C-compliant HTML5, CSS3, SVG or JavaScript.


7. Impress.js – This is a CSS3-based presentation framework permitting you to convert HTML content into a slideshow presentation that has great visualization and animation. It allows you to readily make great looking online presentations supported through all sorts of modern browsers.

8. Font Awesome – This is a series of scalable vector icons that can be customized in size, color or drop shadow through the use of CSS. It is made to be completely compatible with Bootstrap. It is free for commercial use.

9. AngularJS - This is a JavaScript framework made by Google for helping with writing client-side web applications with model–view–controller capability. It permits you to create structured web applications with the use of powerful features like directives, data binding, filters, modules and scope.

10. Homebrew – This is a package management software for MacOS X simplifying installation of other free/open source software that Apples do not send with MacOS X. It has the second largest number of contributors at GitHub.

11. Chosen – It is a jQuery plugin specializing in making user-friendly and feature-rich select boxes in HTML. It supports creating single select, multiple select, select with groups, disabled select, etc.

12. Foundation – This is a responsive front-end framework permitting you to construct websites or applications running on any kind of mobile devices. It also has layout templates, elements and best practices.

13. jQuery File Upload – This is a jQuery plugin for making powerful file upload widget. It can support many file selections, drag & drop, progress bar, validation, preview images, chunked/resumable uploads, client-side image resizing, etc.

14. Three.js – This is a cross-browser JavaScript library that permits its user to make and display lightweight 3D animation and graphics in a web browser without using any proprietary browser plugin. You can use this with HTML5 Canvas, SVG or WebGL.

15. Jekyll – This is a website generator transforming plain texts into static websites or blogs. It can simplify blog management to a great extent in the absence of database, comment moderation, update or installation. It can support permalinks, categories, pages, posts, and custom layouts.

http://www.efytimes.com/e1/fullnews.asp?edid=116340

Awesome Tips for HTML5 Games Development

Tips For HTML5 Developers

 

Consider your audience. Look at the demographic and what devices they’re using. If you have web metrics, use them to determine the core range of devices your visitors are using and target your solution at those devices.
Design your game with your technology in mind. Yes, this should always be the case, but the limitations and fragmentation in HTML5 make it even more pertinent. WebGL will let you make a great 3D first person shooter, but its unlikely to (read: not going to) work on tablet if that’s going to be one of your target platforms.
Become familiar with caniuse.com. It’s a great way to quickly check the support for any HTML5 feature that you would like to use across practically every browser or device.
Get your hands on as many devices as possible, running as many different OS versions as you can. Simulators will help during development, but to get an accurate picture of how your code is performing you have to be running on device. There are some great community-led device testing labs like Open Device Lab that will give you access to a huge range of devices. Otherwise scour places like eBay to find old handsets and add them to your test lab.
Keep abreast of the ever-changing landscape. The HTML5 specification is constantly shifting, as is device support, so you need to keep on top of these developments as they happen. This is especially relevant to areas like sound, where features like the WebAudio API can radically change the capabilities.
Stay agile throughout development. What works today, may not work tomorrow. What isn’t available to you today, may be tomorrow. Allow yourself the flexibility to adapt to these changes as they happen throughout your build.
Think about ways to scale your functionality. A mobile first approach isn’t just for traditional web design. Look at ways that you can create a good experience on mobile and then layer on functionality and effects for other platforms as they permit. Target those devices using user agents or media queries and deliver a tailored experience relative to each.
KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid). By all means test the limits and try to push the capabilities, but remember that you’re working with a technology that’s in its infancy, and an overcomplicated or overambitious project is only going to cause you pain down the line.
Consider the lifespan of your content. Capabilities are changing all the time, and your content can become dated very quickly as new features are enabled on devices. If your game is going to be live for a reasonable length of time, allow yourself time to go back and both bug fix and update it.
One last one? Oh yeah. Test on every device you can, as often as you can.

http://www.netmagazine.com/features/10-tips-html5-games-development