Entertainment, shopping, business - today we need instant access to it in any area of life. Quality application - is one that is able to answer the questions of the owner in seconds. And if the application is paid - and the requirements for it instantly grows significantly. Many companies involved in creating applications for Android and IOS, given their preference for HTML5, which has many advantages for developing it in cross-platform.
Benefits of HTML5
Considering main advantages of HTML5, which of HTML5 programmers so fond:
- Low-cost development
- Low entry level
- cross-platform development
Use of HTML to create a mobile application requires no special tools, the development of which is not staying in place. The market is ready to offer to developers new products almost every day.
The most popular framework, which is used by programmers to create mobile applications for the past 10 years is still PhoneGap.Why is that? First of all, it’s free. This tool can use even programmer without knowing the language of mobile operating systems. PhoneGap also gives the opportunity to receive support, training, use of cloud services, but these services are already paid. Using PhoneGap with additional developers can build the application without having to install it on your PC. Another popular platform - jQuery Mobile. It should be noted that it is often used to develop applications for Android. Both frameworks make it possible to create hybrid and web applications. A good example of the first - this is a well-known application last.fm. A good example of the second - Heart Camera for iOS. What is special about this type? Their main feature is the integration of all advantages, allowing, by means of plug-ins to implementation, that goes beyond the browser.Hybrid applications have like 2-3 years to become known and accessible to many users since spread fast enough through stores such as Google Play, Appstore and others.
Since its inception, HTML immediately attracted the attention of developers.
If the developer have the task of creating native applications, the process will be more time consuming and requires knowledge of the "native" language. The most popular examples of such native applications is Shazam and Instagram.
Problems with creating applications for mobile gadgets using an HTML5 programming language.
Unfortunately, not looking at the fact that HTML is an ideal environment for developing, there is several problems:
- The application is just a HTML page.
- Applications such as Sencha Touch and jQuery Mobile does not looking like an native app.
- Imitation UI peculiar effect of the "uncanny valley". In some cases, this effect can occur over time, depending on the frequency of use of the application.
- No debugging tools and development "out of the box." HTML5 - a tool that can be used in your development environment. However, in reality, the HTML5 application debugging is not the easiest task on the device. At the same time, these native tools such as AIR and Xamarin, able to offer a full IDE for debugging and development.
- The limited hardware capabilities. A very poor set of PhoneGap plugins “out of the box”. Working as its development is equivalent using the Native SDK. If you need to create native applications - the knowledge of HTML will not be enough. For the same reason is absent ability to create complex and multifunctional products. So it happens that HTML-developed products do not bear the practical meanings and benefits.
Given all this, it turns out that mobile applications built with HTML, characterized by a variety of risks in development. However, there is a very great possibility of covered devices. Due to the PhoneGap to have access to their hardware capabilities, thus forming a kind of link between the actual device and the browser. The history of JavaScript frameworks shows how tools like PhoneGap leverage JavaScript to create powerful cross-platform applications.
When should we use HTML?
For all its shortcomings and difficulties in the HTML - it still remains one of the most popular, powerful and stable development environments, which does not have the competition in the market - even as for today. Consider when to use mobile application development with the HTML5 environment:
- If you are a professional web developer and a well-versed in web technologies. It is necessary to know in advance about all the nuances that may arise during operation.
- If you want to support a single code.
- Then, when you need an application that can cover the entire range of platforms.
- In the absence of stringent requirements to UI and the project is relatively simple and devoid of overly-complex effects.
Hybrid applications based on HTML5, are now a good way to create multi platform applications. And it shows once again that this trend will be in the development, particularly in the creation of business applications.
