Integrating phoneGap with native iOS app - ios

i'm trying to create an app which uses the combination of native functionality and the phoneGap framework. The native app has a button, upon the click of which the phoneGap ui has to be added to the view. Is there any way to achieve this? Are there any tutorials for the same?

Yes, this is possible. Although you might be getting yourself into some headaches. My app kind of goes the other way around, it's mostly phonegap, but occasionally i'll pop open a view that is native. Here is the link to code that shows an excellent example of how to switch between the iOS and phonegap worlds.
new updated recommended article (see update below)
These files represent a standard plugin used in phonegap. In this particular plugin, a native view is opened on top of a phonegap view. Notice you have a custom xib and everything. This plugin can be modified to display any xib with any functionality you could think of.
If you implement this plugin you will easily see how to jump back and forth. I've successfully heavily modified these classes to add LOTS of native capabilities to my phonegap project. Also you should probably check out the official phonegap guide to phonegap plugins. Here
Important Edit
Was informed original linkwas broken (not terribly surprised as this answer is very old and i've long since moved away from Phonegap) so I replaced the original link with an article that shows how to do these plugins well. In the article it explains the link is broken and gives several links where these older files are maintained, but in fact those are broken as well. Here is a branch of one of them I found that still hosts the original files on an "archive" branch. But I haven't investigated whether these files are wildly different from my original work. Good luck!

That's not how Phonegap is meant to be used.
To achieve what you are asking for you just need to create a Phonegap app and add the extra native functionality by writing a Phonegap plugin in Objective-C. You may add as much native code as you want.

I'm actually wanting to do the same thing as the original poster. Theoretically it would be comparatively easy, but non-trival to do. I'd love it if there was a PhoneGapView that one could integrate into an existing project. Bonus points if said PhoneGapView could be integrated in Interface Builder as a re-sizeable and re-positional object, basically think of it as an Object that extends UIWebView.
This is wishful thinking on my part seeing as this is how the higher-ups want my project.

Related

How to correctly build a swift framework for iOS

My goal is to build a swift iOS framework which uses two other frameworks (included as separate projects) and which shouldn't reveal the source code after built.
Is there some text/guide/documentation which would explain and navigate me through the process of building such a framework properly and correctly?
I built framework with aggregate target adding and linking frameworks on which my custom framework is dependent using run script as indicated here. I was able to add built of my custom framework to my custom app, together with other two dependencies (again as a separate projects), and run it on the device. However, I am not convinced by the correctness of my custom framework built.
Moreover, I was not able to upload the archive to the Appstore due to the various errors of "Unsupported architectures...", "CFBundleIdentifier Collision...", "Invalid Bundle...", "Invalid Binary" and so on. After sorting these errors out according to the various stackoverflow answers and installing the app from the TestFlight, the app crashed after launch and wasn't working at all.
I was checking various blog posts, stackoverflow questions/answers and Apple Framework Programming Guide but nothing gave me comprehensive understanding on building custom framework under conditions described above.
Everything I did was just following step-by-step tutorials without explanation of the purpose of the steps. I am sure I am missing the basics. Could you please help me and give me some guides?
I can understand you frustration. I, a while ago too searched probably for many documents on how to write a framework correctly but like you I also didn't find anything really that satisfying. From my own experiences I can give a couple of advices.
NO External Libraries
In my opinion DO NOT use external libraries in your own framework. I don't really know what your frameworks purpose is but most of the stuff you want to do can be done without using external libraries. Depending on other libraries is not a good idea especially if its a framework you are working on. Anytime these libraries get updated or even worse if they don't you will have to wait for them to be updated or find another library.So rather than this happening later on I think its better if you do it from the start. So loose the external libraries.
Universal Framework Binary
Second one is pretty easy. Generating a universal framework. I suggest you don't use a script. Most of the scripts I found were either outdated or they didn't work at all. Later on I found out that actually it was pretty easy to generate one on your own. You can do this by building your project once for a real device and one for the simulator.Then you can generate a universal binary by using the command lipo -create "Your simulator executable path" "your iOS device executable path" -output "your framework name". What this does is that it combines your two executable files and generates a universal one. Then you can just go and copy your simulator documents from the modules file and paste them in you iphoneos modules file. I am going to share a link were you can go through the walkthrough yourself. https://medium.com/wireless-registry-engineering/create-a-universal-fat-swift-framework-b7409bbfa18f
Use Objective-C(If you can)
This one is bit of a tricky one unless you know objective-c. What I would recommend is that you implement your framework using Objective-C and writing a swift wrapper around it. I would not have said this if you were creating an iOS app but in case of a framework I still think you should go for objective-c. This is because Objective-c has been around for over 30 years and most of the very old apps are in objective-c. If you want your framework to easily be used by older apps coded in objective-c I recommend you go with it. I have read tons of posts on how people have problems trying to use frameworks written in swift in their objective-c apps. Swift will be the first and probably only choice in the near future but not just yet. On the plus side if you still haven't you will have learnt Objective-C which will give definitely give you a better understanding on how things work. It will be challenging but I promise you it will be worth your while .I have a good read on this which you can checkout yourself. https://academy.realm.io/posts/altconf-conrad-kramer-writing-iOS-sdk/
Naming Conventions
This is a pretty straight forward one. I suggest you stick to apples naming conventions. This is because you will be sharing your code this time and people will look for familiarity when trying to integrate your framework. This will make your code easier to understand. You can check out these two links for more info.https://github.com/raywenderlich/objective-c-style-guide (obj-c) https://github.com/raywenderlich/swift-style-guide (swift)
Access Control
This in my opinion is an important one. When working on you framework think before you implement a class or a function. Consider if you would like someone else to be able to use that part of your code. You may want to limit the user while they use your framework and correct access control is the way to do it. You can easily guide the users so the users do exactly what you want them to do with your framework.
Document Your Code
This is a must if you want your framework be a professional one. You should be documenting every function and variable the user will use. Documenting and explaining what your code does makes a lot of peoples lives easy. You don't one anyone trying to understand what your code does for half an hour while you could have easily written a small explanation for what the parameters do and one that function or variable should be used for.
Test Your Code
Last but not least do write tests for your code. This does take some time but it assures you that your code works the way it should.
Look at other good frameworks
You should definitely checkout other open source libraries and look at what they have done. Usually there is no point in reinventing the wheel unless you are doing something absolutely different but even then there are very familiar ways to do things. I can suggest you check out the mantle sdk(https://github.com/Mantle/Mantle). Another one is the very popular Alamofire sdk(https://github.com/Alamofire/Alamofire) and also the Realm sdk(https://github.com/realm/realm-cocoa). These are good examples of frameworks. Take a look at them. Look how they have done things. It will give you an insight on how your framework should look like.
I know all of these points may also be valid if you were writing an app but what makes these a must is the fact that you will be sharing your code with others. You may manage by not doing some of these while implementing an app but for a framework things do change a little bit. It is always a pleasure to work with easy to use frameworks which make coding a pleasure. These types of small things will make your framework preferable. Happy coding.

How to add iOS frameworks to a Unity project?

How can I add stuff like AdSupport.framework to a Unity project?
I don't want to add them (on the Xcode side) every single time I do a build for iOS...
Using Unity 4.6.
Update, related:
http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/ios-plugin-how-to-link-ios-framework.156231/
http://feedback.unity3d.com/suggestions/frameworks-and-plist-on-ios-outp
https://github.com/AdColony/AdColony-Unity-SDK/wiki/Unity-and-Xcode-Project-Setup
http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/222478/how-do-i-automatically-include-a-framework-with-my.html
http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/get-tired-in-dragging-frameworks-and-dependence-in-xcode-try-xuporter.190752/ - https://github.com/onevcat/XUPorter - https://github.com/josh-ruis/XUPorter
Until there is an official way of doing this within the Unity editor, I'll just answer like this:
There is no official way to do this. You have to do this every single time you build an iOS project. Does UT hate iOS?
Or you could check out some 3rd party plugins that try to address the issue. I haven't tried it myself yet but https://github.com/onevcat/XUPorter or one of its forks could do it. It appears 3rd party tools have a hard time keeping up with new Unity and Xcode versions.
Or this: https://github.com/openkit/openkit-unity
Also: Something that would work from day-to-day is to select "Append" at build time instead of replace. That way framework setup is maintained (however splash screens settings seem to be ignored, and possibly other stuff too). It won't work however of you checkout the project on another computer or similar.

Use of three20 framework in ios programming

I am working on old project there use of three20 framework but i don,t know about three20, So please tell me about it deeply?
what will we can use instead of three20 in current time?
I've also fondly used Three20 on numerous projects and tried hanging on to it for a while. However, iOS8 causes numerous runtime errors / crashes on my Three20 projects. It's actually surprising to see how much functionality still works but you're strongly advised to not use it. There's no real community behind it anymore and no one is maintaining / supporting it.
I'm migrating to NimbusKit - it's developed by some of the original developers of Three20. They also have a good migration guide.
The old Three20 GitHub project is still available, with all of the code and samples still intact on a different branch.
See the "Articles" folder for documentation, and "samples" for sample projects.

Creating an iOS library or framework using libgdx (roboVM)

Is it possible to create an iOS library or framework using libgdx (RoboVM) that can be imported into Xcode?
Background:
One of my colleagues has created a 3D visualisation app as a libgdx project for android and windows desktop. It can be compiled to run on iOS using RoboVM. However, I would like to wrap extra native user interface elements around it using Xcode. I know its possible to build the user interface programmatically via RoboVM but I would be keen to investigate if its possible to bring the existing work into Xcode. I don't need to edit the 3D visualisation component but add extra GUI elements around the 3D Vis window. I thought compiling the libgdx (RoboVM) code to a framework or library might be a solution that could be imported?!
Yes you can do it.
All you need to create a method, say initRoboVM(), This will be called by your code when you want to initialize libgdx. You'll need to pass the app path in, which you can hardcode when you're testing.
initRoboVM() will need some modifications, namely it should not call your Java app's main method, well, at least, that's what well behaving libraries should not do IMO. It should also not call rvmShutdown.
You can get further information from here
Thanks :)
I asked the RoboVM team directly. Their answer: It's not a native function, but it certainly can be done.
The complete message...
Hi,
Sorry for the late reply. This use case is not something we're going
to do now. It is possible though if you're prepared to do some
patching of RoboVM. Search the RoboVM Google Group and you should find
others who have managed to get this working.
We get this request every know and then so we will add support for
this eventually.
Regards, Niklas

Custom Cordova IOS keyboard

I am working on a Cordova app for which the client insists we have a custom keyboard for numeric input that looks native; the goal is similar to a keyboard that comes up with PayPal.
Here is the problem: we need to do this without touching the way things work for Android in our app. This probably means we need to create a cordova plugin, but I have read that creating custom keyboard is looked down on by the folks over at Apple (see this old post about it).
I've had a very difficult time finding any documentation on how to do this with Cordova on IOS, which makes me lean towards rolling a solution inside of Cordova using a jquery library. My question has two parts:
1: If possible, how does one create a custom keyboard for html5 inputs in Cordova as an IOS plugin?
2: If this is a lost cause, what existing jquery plugins would you recommend instead?

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