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Louis van Tonder
Louis van Tonder

Reputation: 3710

PhoneGap - basic architecture

Before I dive into some serious fiddling, have I got it right?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 1901

Answers (1)

dawez
dawez

Reputation: 2724

  • PhoneGap is a build tool, not a dev tool

From Wikipedia:

PhoneGap is a mobile development framework produced by Nitobi, purchased by Adobe Systems in 2011. It enables software programmers to build applications for mobile devices using JavaScript, HTML5, and CSS3, instead of relying on platform-specific APIs like those in iOS or Android.

Phonegap has also a build tool [local] that allows to build the final application. It has also a build service [remote] that will allow to upload assets and then download the packaged application.

  • I can design my html/JavaScript routines in notepad if I wish, and use phonegap to "build" the native app housing the html/JavaScript container.

Notepad will do, probably you want to use a better text editor. You can launch the build from the command line and the final application will be a web view full screen that will behave as native application. Basically a web page without the browser toolbars

Phonegap architecture diagram

  • I can use phonegap build service to build for all platforms, eliminating the need to have every platform available to me.

Yes there is a local build command [which require the platform SDK installed on you local machine] and the remote build service. That one does not require platform and will give the final packaged application. For example you can only install Apple SDK on Apple computer, but you can build remotely an IOS app using a Windows computer. The build service has a subscription fee if you have certain requirements.

  • phonegap seems to walk in the direction of using Eclipse. Eclipse will make my life easier allowing me to spool up my app directly on a virtual mobile device (it access the appropriate (installed) SDK/virtualizer) to show me my app and allow me to test it.

Eclipse can be integrated following the guide from Adobe and other guides. The upcoming version of IntelliJ Idea 14 will support natively the Phonegap/Cordova project.

  • Without Eclipse, I will have to build and physically test on the device?

No, you can still upload the assets to the PhoneGap build service:

From the page: https://build.phonegap.com/faq

How do I get started with PhoneGap Build?

Simply upload your web assets - a ZIP file of HTML, CSS and JavaScript, or a single index.html file - to PhoneGap Build, point us to your Git or SVN repository. Then we’ll undertake the compilation and packaging for you. In minutes, you’ll receive the download URLs for all mobile platforms.

  • I have never used eclipse, but quite like Visual Studio, even for basic html/JavaScript coding. (Although Visual Studio 2012 does not debug JavaScript).
  • Can Eclipse Debug JavaScript
  • Should I use (get used to) eclipse to use that as my main mobile dev tool?

Any editor can be use, use the one that you are most comfortably with. On debugging PhoneGap / Cordova applications there is a good answer here in SO : Is there a real solution to debug cordova apps.

  • As it stands now, is there a difference between phonegap and cordova? Was/is there a code split, or it it just some naming that got stuck.

From the page PhoneGap, Cordova, and what’s in a name?

PhoneGap is a distribution of Apache Cordova. You can think of Apache Cordova as the engine that powers PhoneGap, similar to how WebKit is the engine that powers Chrome or Safari. (Browser geeks, please allow me the affordance of this analogy and I’ll buy you a beer later.)

Over time, the PhoneGap distribution may contain additional tools that tie into other Adobe services, which would not be appropriate for an Apache project. For example, PhoneGap Build and Adobe Shadow together make a whole lot of strategic sense. PhoneGap will always remain free, open source software and will always be a free distribution of Apache Cordova.

Upvotes: 2

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