We have developed a Web Application using grails, groovy and oracle as database with css and javascript (jquery) and ajax for web related features. The application work fine on all desktop based web browsers like firefox, IE, chrome etc.
And for hosting it we use tomcat server.
Now we want to develop a mobile based version of this web application such that when the request comes from a mobile device the server should detect the type of device and route it or serve it using the appropriate instance (mobile one for mobile device and normal one for computers)
How do I implement this check in request resolution? is this by creating my custom filter in tomcat server?
Also for the mobile instance I want to have the changes only in the views , its should use the same controllers and services and all other code used for the main browsers, just views and styles and js if required will change. how do I go about having different views for mobile version which get called automatically if the request is coming from a mobile device
Thanks
Priyank
Have you tried the spring mobile plugin? The documentation seems to cover all your questions...
This blog post contains specific tips for porting a Grails web app to mobile
Related
The Windows run-time API class WebView in Windows Phone 8 was for displaying local HTML content, not web browsing.
Microsoft's Matt Small wrote in Ten things you need to know about WebView that a WebView object is not a general-purpose browser, and apps which display online content in a WebView as their primary purpose will be rejected. Small was writing about Windows 8 Phone in 2012.
Has that position changed for WebView objects in UWP apps in 2016? The Windows 10 XAML documentation itself suggests using the http or https schemes for remote content, and the ms-appx-web scheme for local content.
The WP8 WebBrowser class looked promising, but doesn't seem to be in W10M.
If WebViews are not permitted to browse the web, are there any other objects, frameworks, or projects that would suitable for displaying web content as their primary purpose in UWP apps? Ideally, something that runs JavaScript and functions like a real browser.
Can we use a WebView to display remote web content in UWP apps?
Yes you can, it works well, it uses Edge engine and runs javascript and everything like a real browser.
It was on news few months ago that Microsoft’s Edge team is encouraging developers to build browsers. You can also take a look at the JSBrowser app, it is a simple web browser written in javascript and uses the WebView control.
However, even though it works well, it is still not perfect, it has problems like memory management issues and limited access to the web content through app but it is good enough to be used as an in-app browser (I'm doing so in a live app).
If WebViews are not permitted to browse the web, are there any other
objects, frameworks, or projects that would suitable for displaying
web content as their primary purpose in UWP apps? Ideally, something
that runs JavaScript and functions like a real browser.
It is definitely permitted to browser web using WebViews but I have no idea if there is any alternative for WebView in UWP.
This might be a silly question, but wondering if I was able to build an iOS app completely in a UIWebview. Essentially not have one thing be native to iOS.
You can actually. There are several ways to use HTML5, CSS3, and Javascript to make mobile apps like iOS. You can use frameworks/programs like Cordova/PhoneGap. These frameworks/programs can let you use web languages and then compile it into an executable for the device. Something that can be submitted to the AppStore. Whether or not Apple accepts it thats another story. ;)
The other thing you can do is you want it to completely run off the web is you can essentially build a web app on a server like any other web app. However, you can put in CSS3 media queries and Javascript that can detect the size of the screen. Users can use their built in web browsers to access your site. If the screen isn't the right size, then you can redirect the user like if they try to access it with a laptop. With this method you can use server side scripting languages like PHP to do your computation processing. However, connection is required to the server and if a whole lot of people log in to your server, then the server can get bog down.
If you are interested in using web base languages for mobile applications, I highly suggest looking into PhoneGap/Cordova.
My existing code in MVC4.0 , controller classes action are http based. So it is MVC 4.0 and webapi. However we don't have sperare sercices and controller classes are connecting database context to deal with database operation.
Now, we are looking to make this web application as mobile application. The current website support RWD. Can we use MVC4.0 view to build app? or I have to develop service layer and use some JS framework to call it? I am developing hybrid app using phonegap. We have to leverage existing code.
If we wrap this MVC based code using phonegap will it work in apple appstore and android store
when you develop a hybrid app, you only use HTML, CSS and JavaScript, for your case, you can use the web api controllers like and endpoint and consume it from your hybrid app through ajax.
With hybrid apps, you have great tools and frameworks, one of them is Ionic thats is based on Angularjs (and of course, use apache cordova).
You might want to consider using Xamarin rather than Phonegap. Xamarin has a Razor templating engine that allows you to use .cshtml templates on the client side along with web services. That can result in greater code re-use between your MVC app and your hybrid mobile app. More information here:
Sharper HTML Hybrid Apps with Razor
I'm working on a web application that uses django.
I would like to create a native application of the site for ios / android using phone gap.
Is this possible? As I understand native devices cannot interpret python code.
It is early in the project and if it proves too difficult I may go with a different framework I.e backbone.js.
Any thoughts / experiences?
That's right, you cannot run python code on iOS or Android using PhoneGap, but there is no need to do that. Yes, you can build a native mobile application of your site using PhoneGap.
I'll try to explain a bit how these technologies compare to each other:
Django is a python web framework running on a web server
PhoneGap is a framework for building native mobile applications using web technologies (HTML5+CSS+Javascript), the application will run on a mobile device
One common approach is to build the mobile UI with i.e. jQuery Mobile and use the Django web application to provide a RESTful API to get data to the application.
Take a look at this another question for more details.
Edit: Answer the question in the first comment
Yes, it's possible to build a fast and well working application with these frameworks. The performance with today's smartphones is more dependent on the quality of the implementation than i.e. jQuery mobile and Django in themselves.
Basically with PhoneGap there are three different ways for showing the content to the user:
server side generated pages
pages generated on the client side with Javascript usin data from the server, transferred in a predefined format using for example JSON
a combination of the previous two
This answer clarifies server-client communication and page rendering quite well.
You could use PhoneGap a bit like a constrained web browser, and basically show content directly from your server as you would when the user accesses the site with a normal web browser. But I don't recommend this, though. This approach has many downsides to it (i.e. what happens when the user opens a link from your website leading to another website?)
To be accurate, at least in my opinion, UI written with Javascript and running inside an app built with PhoneGap is not native. Comparing native applications and PhoneGap applications is another thing, here is one take on explaining the differences.
I don't know what kind of service you are building, but in general I'd suggest evaluating the different approaches before starting to build an application. Would a responsive mobile optimized web site do or is there real need for what an app can provide?
If you decide to build an app with PhoneGap, I'd suggest that you do it with client side Javascript and fetch the data from the Django backend with XHR requests in JSON format. There are lots of examples available in the internet.
Since Rails uses MVC architecture. I was wondering that if we can use Rails to develop a mobile app or any web app.
Out of MVC the 'M' and 'C' won't change to develop the mobile app right?
I mean the models and controllers will remain the same.
Only the view portion should be changed such that, instead of using html.erb files I want Java or Android SDK or whatever, to provide the UI for the mobile user.
Can someone enlighten me on this perspective?
Also I have been hearing about jRuby does it come into play for our mobile app development requirement?
The answer to this question is going to depend on how you want to deploy this app. Do you want it running completely on the phone or can it be a web app disguised as an iphone/android app?
For the native app solution I'd checkout the Rhodes Framework. It's not RoR but you'll see that it's an MVC framework that feels similar. This will allow you to build native iphone/android apps using Ruby.
For the 2nd option, web app disguised as a mobile app, I'd recommend Sencha Touch. Sencha has done an amazing job mimicking the look and feel of native iphone/android apps with their Javascript library. With this solution it would be just like any other web app though it's targeted for android and iphone via it's UI.
I've created an example rails / ember.js App that is exported with Phonegap. It uses just the usual MVC architecture of a Rails and an Ember.js App. Maybe you will find it useful. It also implements token authentication based on ember-auth and several OAuth strategies.
Currently in de the devel branch: https://github.com/joscas/base_app/tree/devel
Heroku deploy: https://starter-app-staging.herokuapp.com (the desktop version)
Exported with phonegap-rails gem (of which I'm also the author) for assets, fix paths etc.
Absolutly YES!
Ruby on Rails just a backend tech, is the same as what you plan to do for normal browser. There are only two things that you need to consider about mobile app. First is mobile browser's content size because you need to adjust your layout to fit the size. There is a HTML meta tag called viewport can help you.
Ex.
This script will tell user's browser that the content should be fit the devise size,initial-scale defines the viewport rate and maximum-scale defines how many times this page can scale, and user-scalble=0 means user cannot scale the page. More about viewport you can check the Mozilla's doc.
The other thing you need to consider is the HTML5 techs, but actually these aren't problems when you are using jQuery mobile. I recommend you to check their docs. This is very useful and clear for anyone.
RubyonRails is web application framework - it is running on server and user observer the result of application built on RubyOnRails inside browser(or Browser component), despite the fact that you can process on server just "M" from "MVC", and implement "V" and "C" fully on client side( in mobile browser).
In theory, you can fully deploy RubyOnRails application on client side( even RubyOnRails server and etc), but it will be rather expensive and hard, but it is could not be require in any rational project.
assuming:
There are two way you can choose:
Organize RubyonRails application on the server(process there Model), and process "V" and "C" on client side with any proper js libraries.
You can develop Ruby(not RubyOnRails application) - at least it is possible to develop for Android with JRuby.
Yes you can . Your view can be an web page/android/ ios application as view.
You may want to try jQuery Mobile (which is still in alpha by now) if it's just a matter of UI. If you need a tighter integration with your mobile, I don't think that running Rails would be efficient enough.
Try using React Native, the backend technology can still be Ruby while the front-end can use React Native to build mobile app both Android and iOS.
React Native