CODEWITHSUNDEEP
iphoneobjective-cioscocoa-touchwidget
testing
testing

Reputation: 20289

Is it possible to create a widget for iOS?

I'm a little bit confused now. There is a weather and stock widget on the iPhone. Is it possible to create such a widget yourself? I don't want to talk about new features in iOS 5 here. I only want to know it in general (iOS < 5).

Here I found the introduction guide with the help of Dashcode.

Wikipedia also states that this is not possible. I always thought it would be.

So are there only web apps and native apps possible?

PS: What is a widget exactly? A combination of native app and HTML, CSS, Javascript? Only HTML, CSS, Javascript? A cocoa application?

Upvotes: 2

Views: 3492

Answers (5)

Anil
Anil

Reputation: 2438

As of iOS8, its possible. 3rd party apps will be able to create widgets for the notification center.

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2014/06/02Apple-Releases-iOS-8-SDK-With-Over-4-000-New-APIs.html

Upvotes: 3

michelle
michelle

Reputation: 11

There is no reason you can't create a widget like component using javascript and display it in a uiwebview. This works equally well in android and iOS

A few years ago when I was involved with java server pages development I put together a tutorial of using dashcode to wrap java or javascript components.

http://www.jsfcentral.com/listings/A21034;jsessionid=A15086803ABF96A63DB1AB5405C9A329?link

Upvotes: 1

Fabio Poloni
Fabio Poloni

Reputation: 8371

This isn't a Guide for iOS Widgets, it's Guide for Mac Dashboard Widgets.

You can't

  • create iOS Widgets
  • change how the iOS Notifications Appear

With Dashcode you can create Web Applications for both iOS and Mac. It's a combination of HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Those Web Applications are only available on the Web (e.g. Safari). If you wan't to create a native App you have two possibilities:

  1. Create a real native Application in ObjC
  2. Create a Web Application (e.g. with Dashcode) and load it into a UIWebView, this requires also ObjC.

Advantages

Web-only Application (Browser-App)

  • You don't need a Apple Developer Account
  • Easy to port to Mac and other Smartphones

Unreal-native Application (Browser-App in a native App)

  • Easy to port to other Smartphones
  • It feels like a real native app
  • Your app is on the App Store

Native Application (Real iOS-App)

  • You have full access to the iPhone Frameworks (e.g. Contacts.app)
  • Your app is on the App Store

Disadvantages

Web-only Application (Browser-App)

  • The user needs to know your URL
  • You're not in the App Store

Unreal-native Application (Browser-App in a native App)

  • You need to pay 99$/year for an Apple Developer Account
  • It could feel like it's not a native app
  • You have not the full access to the iPhone Frameworks except you use something like PhoneGap or ObjC

Native Application (Real iOS-App)

  • You need to pay 99$/year for an Apple Developer Account
  • You can't port your app easy to other Smartphone
  • You need to learn ObjC

Upvotes: 2

Stephen Darlington
Stephen Darlington

Reputation: 52565

No, iOS does not currently allow the creation of widgets. The weather and stock widgets you're talking about were created by Apple. There are no APIs to write your own.

Upvotes: 3

JustSid
JustSid

Reputation: 25318

No, currently thats not possible. But you can, and should, file a feature request at bugreport.apple.com so that this issue gets some attention.

Upvotes: 1

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