I am a web developer / programmer that is in my infancy on mobile development on iOS. I would like to start a new project on an mobile app, but usually if i were to develop a web site, I would download some html template on the web with ready made of html and css or CMS like wordpress if my application is complicated or huge, so that i do not need to design the pages from scratch. I would just need to add some php or J2EE programming towards the pages to develop my application.
So now my question is, what about iOS? Is there any ready made iOS templates with good design? I tried searching for templates on the web but doesn't seems to find any. Am I starting at the wrong foot?
Thanks in advance.
I've seen companies that offer such things, but they cost money and I don't think they are worth it. Using storyboards to build an interface and then putting in your logic code is pretty straightforward. If you need some tutorial type help getting started, raywenderlich.com is a great site.
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I have a site that's done using ASP.NET MVC and jQuery. Is it possible to modify my existing project without too much of rework so that it can be used in phonegap to create iphone/android apps?
Here's an approach: move your logic to an MVC WebAPI (or other REST/webservice) project, then convert the MVC site into a simple html/javascript/css/image site (Mobile site). Then refactor your Mobile site to use Ajax/JS to query the WebAPI/Rest services you created. Once you've separated your code this way, you can then package the Mobile site with Phonegap. I'm not sure how much work that will be for you or your project. If you're using a lot of Html Helpers or Razor markup in your views it may be too involved.
The core point of my suggestion here is to separate your mobile UI layer and the backend processing layer so you can only package the Html5/UI/Javascript layer with Phonegap and leave the backend processing on your web server. I don't think I need to explain this, but obviously the app packaged with Phonegap is not going to have the MVC/.Net framework available on the mobile device to render views or execute controllers, etc. By migrating your UI to be simple Html5 and Javascript you can use Ajax/Jquery/Javascript calls against your backend, which you will probably want to host in ASP.Net MVC WebAPI.
Edit: Guess there was some confusion about my suggestion. I'm not saying this is the only way to do go, but this is what I'm familiar with as it's how our team builds our desktop/web + mobile + phonegap + mvc4 + webapi + kendoui application. This pattern works well for us so maybe it'll work for you too, or at least give you some ideas on how to structure your solution. Good luck!
I'm not sure but you need a server to compile the ASP.NET right? so I don't think that will work for you. I think you need to work with AJAX to do your ASP.NET work and separate your ASP.NET code and your HTML-jQuery because Phonegap wants a index.html file. You can store your ASP.NET files at a server tough
The answer to your question really depends on the type of site you are trying to convert. Are you just trying to put a native framework around HTML and get your app into an app store?
If it is is mostly or entirely informational in nature and you have simply used MVC to build brochure-ware type pages then it should be fairly easy to move. This assumes that there is little to no logic other than page to page navigation.
If your site instead pushes a lot of data around that relies on a back-end server you will need to re-architect it to store data locally or pre-fetch it via a manifest. Next you will need to implement a strategy that allows you to push your local data back to the server.
Does you app need to run in a disconnected state?
Phonegap is one of the options if you want to target multiple mobile platforms & may be most widely used. Since you are using jQuery, jQueryMobile will be a least learning-curve path to use. Effort is mostly on the front-end UI and will depend on how many screens you want to design to provide a sub-set or the full set of functionality you already have on the web UI. Most likely you will have to redesign your screens using the jquery-mobile UI widgets documented here. It is also a good way to show it to your customer the initial screen design with navigation.
jquery mobile is great for learning and designing , but it's slow in the web browser control that phone gap runs in .
you'll need a more lightweight framework for this .
you can use an inappbrowser control to show your site in case it's responsive , but you wont have the device camera and contacts and so ...
take a look at : http://docs.phonegap.com/en/3.0.0/cordova_inappbrowser_inappbrowser.md.html#InAppBrowser
I want to build a web based app targeting ipad. Users will be browsing an interactive menu and submitting orders to the kitchen. It would be nice to tie into an existing pos system but that may not always be an option.
The app needs to be highly responsive and perform like native. Cms would be nice because content changes often.
So what sort of frameworks should i be looking at? Im considering drupal with jquery mobile but i havent found too much info on that combo. Im still open and looking for an expert opinion.
The topic has been covered at the latest drupal conference in Chicago.
Here are the videos:
http://www.archive.org/details/drupalconchi_day2_drupal_on_the_go_with_jquery_mobile
I suggest jQuery mobile on the frontend, plus a backend web framework with a templating system. Any of these should suit your needs:
Django/Python (heavy)
Flask/Python (light)
Rails/Ruby (heavy)
Sinatra/Ruby (light)
Symfony/PHP (heavy)
PHP (light)
I need to develop a Portal for B2C from scratch, right now I faced two problem:
1.How can I integrate SEO into the architecture design ?
2.How to design the architecture to ensure the performance ?
I need to revamp a website like this :http://www.airasia.com/bd/en/home.html
And why all the enterprise level website are using *.html ? but not a jsp or asp ? what technology do they use ?
I need to get more knowledge on this field to better finish my job, can someone point me a direction ?
Thanks !
1) I have a post for developers considering SEO in their web application that can help you on your SEO.
2) For you I would suggest ASP.NET web forms since it is well equipped for beginners (as well as advanced enterprise level sites). Here is a get started guide to ASP.NET to help you out. It allows you to use routing in ASP.NET 4 to make nice URLs and URL rewriting if on an IIS server. For now though if you are not too confident, I really wouldn't worry about that.
Anyone more advanced passing by I would recommend ASP.NET MVC by the way. It is a tough concept to crack but well worth it. Unit testing is easier, speed of development is great, stateless. Lovely.
Caveat - Other than touching old school JSP for a bit, my experience is mainly Microsoft so cannot say that the ASP way is THE way. Just a good way.
That might actually be a static page, at least the version I saw had nearly nothing 'dynamic' on it that javascript could do easily. Static serves very quickly and scales beautifully.
As for jsp vs asp vs rails vs django, they can all be configured to not require cluttering URLs with file extensions.
If you focus on high-quality data in your application that is easily parsed by simple tools, search engines will find you. Use text for text (text in images is useless), no flash or silverlight or java applets. If your site is useful on your phone, it'll be great for search engines.
I found some useful resources on this topic :
http://developer.yahoo.com/performance/
And a useful plugin yslow for performance improvement.
Book: High Performance Web Sites
Whenever I come across a cute website, I am always curious to know which web framework was used by its developers?
Being a novice in web development, a look at the page source doesn't give any clue.
Any way(s) to get this information? If possible, may be with a bit of Ruby magic, I can figure out things like: which is the most/least used framework for my favorite sites, audio/video heavy sites, etc.
Sometimes you can based on the URL patterns, or which scripts are included in the site ... but it's not a 100% predictor. You can write a site that completely masks the framework and simply delivers HTML/JS to the browser
Any thoughts on using Flex to build an RIA for administering a complex rails app?
We are starting to find it difficult using ajax to keep our admin section intuitive and easy for users to work with.
You've got RoR guys working on this program and you've managed to develop a complex rails app that has enough subtleties that the admin section is difficult to use.
The answer to this problem is not to use a different programming language to create a whole nother kinda app to do the admin.
It will help more to get assistance in simplifying and organizing your admin section. Work through some paper sketches to get a better idea of how to present this complexity and maybe reveal complexity as you go along.
Complexity is handled often by using wizards or revealing suboptions as you go along. Spend some time with your users and watch them do their tasks.
With more details I could edit this answer with more specifics.
Try investigating this book:
Flex is certainly worth considering in your scenario. Generally, Flex is more mature development platform than AJAX is so if your server-side data are exposed via some reasonable interface (web services, REST-full services etc.), building a Flex front-end would make sense.
It really depends on your needs - Flex vs. AJAX is an interesting topic on its own.
If you want to use XML for communication then there isn't much you need to do on the rails side. But if you want to use an AMF gateway you will want to checkout RubyAMF.
But I agree with MattK if you just want to redesign your admin section it's not worth adding in Flex. I think you just need to do some usability testing, take that feedback and refractor your interface.
I would only consider using Flex in your situation if you already have Flex developers or if you could outsource that part of your project. The Flex modules simply call web services (written in Ruby or whatever) so there is a very nice separation between the two parts of your project. Since the interface between the two parts is an easily-mockable web service, outsourcing works well. There should be plenty of web shops local to you who could handle the work. An admin site should take only two to three weeks to develop in Flex if the developers are knowledgeable.