Hybrid Applications: when to use and what is the need?

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Hybrid Applications: when to use and what is the need?

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#1 by (3 votes)

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With Hybrid Applications cross-platform we get development time, but I have some doubts about the true need to use a framework.

The most famous PhoneGap , Ionic and Titanium are easy and friendly. But because it is in HTML , CSS and JavaScript I believe that applications depend on a browser. From what I understand, they are emulated. It happens that I have not done the test in several platforms, with that some doubts arose:

Is the code reusable or is it unique for systems like Android and IOS?

When should I use this type of framework? With it can I make robust applications that will use the maximum of the device?

Can I modify the layout of a specific system or will all systems use the same features?

On the other hand, I see, in constant growth, Xamarin . In analysis, I noticed that it works differently than other frameworks. I could also see that the code is reused across multiple platforms, generating a native application.

1 answer

Specific use of try-catch Translation of static website content for 4 languages

score 3 · Accepted Answer

Let's go for each question:

1) Is the code reusable or is it unique for systems like Android and IOS? When should I use this type of framework?

Much of the code can be reused for all platforms, but anything that does native access to the system will use an API in JS to access a feature of the device, such as camera, storage or GPS, will have a specific code for each platform. Other than that, your code will run inside a WebView, which is a native OS browser that will guarantee access to OS resources by running your site. The performance of your app will depend on the ability of WebView. They are evolving a lot and today they allow a very good performance even compared to a native app.

2) With it can I make robust applications that will use the maximum of the device?

If iOS and Android allow access to all APIs by WebView, but the performance depends a lot more on Web technologies than that, for example, to make games you can use WebGL, which has evolved quite does not have as many libraries or capabilities such as native options.

3) Can I modify the layout of a specific system or will all systems use the same features?

That depends solely on you. You can use JavaScript to dynamically control what is going to be available or to already generate the code without or with options for the builds of each OS.

Regarding Xamarin, I do not know much about it.

My tip for you is this: make a Web application that could easily be adapted to Mobile, run some tests and test your idea. If you really need an app, consider doing a native if it does not require so much processing and performance.