Hello XDA Developers,
Hope this post is OK here -- please let me know if not.
Just wanted to make a quick post to let you know that I've just finished writing a new book, entitled Windows Mobile Game Development, to be published by Apress within the next month or two.
I've spent a lot of time putting it together to ensure that it provides as much information as possible to allow C# and VB.NET developers to write games for the Windows Mobile platform, allowing them to target the widest possible range of hardware (from WM2003SE right up to WM6.5, smartphones, different screen resolutions, etc.).
The book takes the developer from setting up the Visual Studio IDE for WM development, through graphics programming, consistent game timing, flexible object manipulation, control mechanisms and ends with a guide to programming OpenGL ES on capable devices.
If you'd like to read more, you can find lots of details on my web site at www.adamdawes.com. I'd be very interested in any feedback anyone has.
Hope you like it!
Adam.
good job.
I've not seriously programmed since I was 10-12 years old and Peek'd/Poke'd my way through in BASIC on my C=64. I'm wanting to create an app to use on my phone and even release into Marketplace for others. It's a general Ballistics program. I've noticed there is nothing out there that I can find for the hobby or competitive shooter. If someone else wants to take up the challenge, please feel free. But, if not, I'd be willing to do one if I can find the programs to help with this. Also, does anyone have any books or other sites that will explain the programing languages needed to make a current (Mango) compatible app.
Thanks
JTMcD.
If you know a website with rss feed, you can try FollowMyFeed
http://www.followmyfeed.net/en-us
"FollowMyFeed allows you to quickly create your Windows Phone 7 application for free without any technical knowledge.
Let us guide you through a simple interface for creating an application to your image..."
Do a seach for "Windows Phone touch studio", maybe this is something fou you.
regards,
hannes
similar feed based builder
http://www.appmakr.com/wp7/dev/
Are there any non feed based application builder websites?
App Developement Material
dr_strangetrick said:
Are there any non feed based application builder websites?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm with you!
I don't want to create a feed based app either, mine is strictly texted based with a search feature. Not quite as easy as it looks
I've spent all day looking at the attached document. It's a small tutorial on WP development.
https://skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?cid=5e027ee2f1553790&resid=5E027EE2F1553790!419&parid=root
Thangs Zigg, good bedtime reading
Hello XDA,
I have developed an app called Ring My Droid (Scan the QR-Code attached with this post).
Currently this app is only available for the Android platform through the Google Play Store.
I am learning to develop apps for the Windows Phone platform too. But, then I came across this section of the XDA Forum and I am interested to know if anyone out here is aware of a tool or a website or blog providing tutorials or a methodology for porting my existing application to the Windows Phone platform?
This may be a noob question, but I am very new to programming for Windows Phone so bear with me..
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks.
prognosis: serious
I don't know of any frameworks off the top of my head, but I can infer some of the answers based on experience in other platforms. And those answers are not very promising, unfortunately.
1) If you want your app to be cross-platform, you need to design it as such from inception. Otherwise you're in for a lot of work no matter how you slice it.
2) Because WP and Android use different languages for native apps, you have a big problem in just getting your source code targeted to both platforms. If your codebase is already in Java, you'll need a Java -> C#/VB/C++ translator to make it work. I'm not sure that a product like that exists. If you had started with, say, C#, you could utilize something like Xamarin to target Android and WP at the same time, but like I said I'm not aware of anything similar for Java->C#.
3) If your app is written in HTML 5, then you could adapt it to work on WP8 with very little extra effort. But in that case I bet you would have already known that you're cross-platform-compatible and wouldn't ask this question to begin with.
4) If you're resigned to rewriting your app while maintaining its core design the same, then the basic methodology is as follows:
a) refactor your app into well-defined, loosely coupled components.
b) factor away all Android specific APIs into adapter classes and have all "core" functionality written in terms of those adapters
c) port your core classes to a different platform (WP) in a WP-supported language, such as C#. This would be a straight, mechanical but nevertheless manual rewrite.
d) reimplement your missing adapters on WP to take advantage of WP APIs, while leaving internal-facing interfaces the same, so your core classes just work.
e) all of this makes sense only if there is enough complex core functionality to warrant the rearchitecture + translation. If your app is little more than glue shuffling data between external data sources, then all of this is not worth it, and a compete rewrite is the only way to go (sorry I don't have a QR reader readily available right now so I can't check your app directly).
Namaste my fellow developers.
I am a rather young developer, who started off with Android and have developed about 10-15 apps till today out of which 2 are up on Google Play.
Just to increase my knowledge and sector I was planning to make a shift into web apps. I did learn Java specifically for Android but want to get my hands on the other platforms as well. So my questions, Sirs and Madams, are:
1.Technically, How is Android and Web Apps different?
2.Should I make the transition?
3.How do i start? (some resources would be helpful)
All and Every feedback would be appreciated. Thank YOU!
hi karantrehan, my two cents on the matter
1. you can think of a web app as a web site running inside an Android Webview, with all its files (html, images, javascripts, css, ...) bundled inside the app. The enclosing app just launches an Activity with a webview, everything else is done by html and javascript (although you can bind java code to javascript function to exploit Android's APIs).
2. It depends: I think web apps are a viable choice in two situations:
you're a web developer that want to build an app without having to learn Android
you want to build a cross-platform app, reaching Android, iOS, WP without learning every single language
Otherwise, I would not advise it, I don't see particular advantages... unless you want to learn something new!
3. for the Android integration part, take a look here: developer.android.com/guide/webapps/webview.html
For the html/css/js part.... well, web development is as old as the web itself, there are tons of guides out there Don't miss some helpful projects like jQuery Mobile.
karantrehan said:
Namaste my fellow developers.
I am a rather young developer, who started off with Android and have developed about 10-15 apps till today out of which 2 are up on Google Play.
Just to increase my knowledge and sector I was planning to make a shift into web apps. I did learn Java specifically for Android but want to get my hands on the other platforms as well. So my questions, Sirs and Madams, are:
1.Technically, How is Android and Web Apps different?
2.Should I make the transition?
3.How do i start? (some resources would be helpful)
All and Every feedback would be appreciated. Thank YOU!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Web Apps are made using multiple languages. Front-side/Client-side, they are developed in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Out of the three, JavaScript is the only programming language. HTML is a markup language, and CSS is used for UI and UX. You could also use the Dart language. Dart is a new client-side language developed by Google. Currently, however, no major browser supports it (not even Google Chrome), and so in the end, it gets compiled into JavaScript.
Server-side (backend), there are a multitude of programming languages you could use. Java (through JSP), PHP, Ruby on Rails, Python. Typically you're using PHP and SQL for anything in regards to a database.
Web Apps can be hosted in a browser, or you can submit them into App Stores using things like Apache Cordava.
2. As a developer of any sort, you should always improve and learn new languages. Its better for marketability, improves your skillset, and overall can make you a better developer. So, in the end, the choice is up to you. I would highly recommend you to do so.
3. There are tons of resources available. You can search for tutorials on google or youtube. When I got started, I used w3schools to learn HTML, CSS, and PHP. I would really recommend using YouTube as well if you are a visual learner like me.
1. Like reProgrammed said, web apps are a bit different in that there's a couple of layers to them as opposed to Android apps. The back-end logic that does your database fetches and such is programmed in PHP, Python, ASP.NET (C#/VB.NET), etc. The front-end website, the pages and stuff you interact with, are done with primarily (X)HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. And for databases you've got SQL Server or MySQL, mainly.
2. Absolutely. I'm a developer myself, professionally and as a hobby, and it's never a bad idea to learn a new language or framework or environment. It'll make you a better developer and can get you jobs, or foot in the door, if that's your profession.
3. I don't really have many resources. However, in the past I've used:
W3Schools
MSDN (for C#)
Stack Overflow
Google
And then there's always books. They can get outdated but they can be great resources. I still sometimes refer to my "Android for Dummies" book when I'm working on my Android app, even though I Google search more often. Hope that helps.
Hello, I have a question on Android development. Personally, I know web development but I do not know JAVA programming because I am not into software development.
I want to develop an android app by using HTML5, CSS3 and JQuery Mobile. The app will be simple, it will be just an app on poetry where users will click some categories and read poems, and also search. That's all. It will be free, no registration, no ads and no server side. I want to use JQuery Mobile for this or even pure HTML5 and CSS3. In fact, HTML and CSS will be used of course.
Bear in ind that I am NOT converting an existing website into an app, but rather creating an app through HTML, CSS and JavaScript. So, the Web View tool is not appropriate here.
My questions are:
1/ Can we really create an APK with obly HTML, CSS or JavaScript?
2/ If we can create, what software (which is free) can I use to create the APK by compiling/converting my web pages?
Thank!
ali20142014 said:
Hello, I have a question on Android development. Personally, I know web development but I do not know JAVA programming because I am not into software development.
I want to develop an android app by using HTML5, CSS3 and JQuery Mobile. The app will be simple, it will be just an app on poetry where users will click some categories and read poems, and also search. That's all. It will be free, no registration, no ads and no server side. I want to use JQuery Mobile for this or even pure HTML5 and CSS3. In fact, HTML and CSS will be used of course.
Bear in ind that I am NOT converting an existing website into an app, but rather creating an app through HTML, CSS and JavaScript. So, the Web View tool is not appropriate here.
My questions are:
1/ Can we really create an APK with obly HTML, CSS or JavaScript?
2/ If we can create, what software (which is free) can I use to create the APK by compiling/converting my web pages?
Thank!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You'll need to go through the (sometimes painful) installation of Eclipse/Android Developer Tools and the Android SDK...
https://developer.android.com/sdk/installing/bundle.html
After that you can then do exactly what you are asking for with this...
http://cordova.apache.org/
I'm using that technology to create professional apps (as in, commercial apps for customers) using HTML5 & CSS, Javascript, jQuery and I opt for Bootstrap over jQuery Mobile as it's a lot lighter, but jQuery Mobile works fine with it too.
There's also PhoneGap, but that's just a rebranding of Cordova at the moment. They may branch out in different directions at some point, but at the moment there's no difference. The only advantage to PhoneGap is that you can point it at your source on GitHub and it will build online for you. Very handy if you want to do pure online development, but a bit messy.
Thank you for replying. I think I will try with the PhoneGap and Eclipse as you suggested. I have other questions:
1/ Even the APK will be developed using just HTML, CSS and JavaScript, how to notify the user an update is available through a notification method? I am not asking for tutorials, but just the steps.
2/ As you know, to view the source code of a website, a user will right click and view. As the APK will be developed using client side languages, will they be able to view the source codes in any other way apart decompiling?
ali20142014 said:
Thank you for replying. I think I will try with the PhoneGap and Eclipse as you suggested. I have other questions:
1/ Even the APK will be developed using just HTML, CSS and JavaScript, how to notify the user an update is available through a notification method? I am not asking for tutorials, but just the steps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your best bet is to let Google Play Store do all that for you. It means paying for a developer account, but it's not expensive and it means that people can get your app from the Play Store, which looks a lot more credible than a link and instructions how to allow 3rd party apps. Also, you push an update to the Play Store, and that pushes the update to all your users. You can't really ask for better than that.
ali20142014 said:
2/ As you know, to view the source code of a website, a user will right click and view. As the APK will be developed using client side languages, will they be able to view the source codes in any other way apart decompiling?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They can't do anything as simple as "View source" as all the files are embedded in the application, but they can decompile it and get at your source that way, but there's nothing to stop someone doing that with an APK anyway. They best thing would be to develop your app till your happy with it, and then obfuscate the crap out of the html, css & js files. Sure someone could decompile the app and get your source, but they'd really struggle to do anything with it.
Have a play with it and see if it's any good for you. It really does make it simple for a developer with web experience to make apps.
Also, if this is of any use, I made a guide for developing and building Phonegap Android apps purely online, without any SDK or IDE installation. It's not ideal as debugging would be a nightmare. I mostly made it as reference for myself, but check it out anyway...
http://johncmolyneux.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/how-to-build-android-apps-online.html
Sorry for the late reply. Can I know where is the APK file is stored?
ali20142014 said:
Sorry for the late reply. Can I know where is the APK file is stored?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
/data/app/packagename-1.apk
You tube is your friend
Just do a youtube search with these key words "html5 webview android" and you should be able to find everything you need to know on how to build your html5 powered app
Google offers a "ProGuard" solution on how to mask your code by obfuscation. Good luck!
You can also use phonegap build to build your web apps without using eclipse.
You can't make an app using HTML and all these web developing languages but you can simply make a responsive website (I hope you know that) and then integrate that website into the android app. You may also add something like that once a user opens app once his app will connect to your website and then download the files offline for future offline use.
You can make fully functional games and apps with HTML + Javascript. Once you learn a the basic's you can use the framework I posted here to make a quiz game. As you learn more you can make small puzzle games and action games but that takes time to learn. Start by using this framework to build a game.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2785378
And if you dont know how to use eclipse then use phonegap build it will build the game for you and the 1st game is free with their service.
Sorry, just saw this now... i could have saved you a bit of hassle
If you really dont want to make a deep dive and stay with your current skills theres a really great way to do so (no, im not involed in the project and wanna advertise it i just use it and love it).
Theres really great tool from Intel, named Intel XDK. This thingy lets you easyly use either the Intel based framework (thats really fast and depending on how you "build" the app at the end you get native code, not just an simple AKP that displays content in a webview.).
The above mentioned Cordova is also a build option, so if you already learned about that, you can still use it in here. You can also make the userinterface of your app in a drag&drop IDE that saves you TONS of time.
Check here for some easy examples:
http://app-framework-software.intel.com/components.php
The very best comes at the end, you dont have to care ONE BIT about installing anything on your machine, all build stuff is done on Intel servers. You code the app, decide on a way to build it (Cordova, Android, iOS or whatever) and you get an APK out of it. Whats more, you can test/debug directly on device, in browser or any other possible way.
If you dont want to learn the appfraework (whats is basically just like jquery, you dont really have to "learn" it if your familiar with javascript) or use other known frameworks like jQuery mobile. Best is, you can still use the IDE-Designer even with jQuery. So you can for example choose jquerymobile framework and but in a nvigation layout just with drag&drop. Of course you als have a standard Code-View with autocompletion and all if you want.
Take alook, its awesome...
The reason why i post this here that tere is one flaw (in my opinion), the documentation is not the best (its there of course, full API guides and all) and the Intel foum is not really active, since noone really knows about it it seems. If more ppl use it the community could be great and starters have a really easy tool at hand to get into the world of mobile-development.
Hi,
You can create an Android app using the HTML, CSS, JavaScript by PhoneGap. PhoneGap is a free and open source framework that allows you to create mobile apps using standardized web APIs for the platforms you care about. You can learn it at: phonegap.com
Good luck!
Website 2 APK Builder
The all new Website 2 APK Builder for Windows is now available at sourceforge.
as i'm new and can't post external links,
so i'm unable to provide a link of it,
try searching "Website 2 APK Builder" on Google.
Just Launched Yesterday,
that's all.
Easy to use,
Generates ad-free apps.
and available for offline use.
Give it a try.
Oboy
oboy
If you're planning on making a update thingy like that basically use github for that where you have a text file and test for the version every time the app launches with window.onload in JS
ali20142014 said:
Hello, I have a question on Android development. Personally, I know web development but I do not know JAVA programming because I am not into software development.
I want to develop an android app by using HTML5, CSS3 and JQuery Mobile. The app will be simple, it will be just an app on poetry where users will click some categories and read poems, and also search. That's all. It will be free, no registration, no ads and no server side. I want to use JQuery Mobile for this or even pure HTML5 and CSS3. In fact, HTML and CSS will be used of course.
Bear in ind that I am NOT converting an existing website into an app, but rather creating an app through HTML, CSS and JavaScript. So, the Web View tool is not appropriate here.
My questions are:
1/ Can we really create an APK with obly HTML, CSS or JavaScript?
2/ If we can create, what software (which is free) can I use to create the APK by compiling/converting my web pages?
Thank!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure if it's still a question for you but maybe try to search some helpful articles on this subject? They are usually easy to read and you'll an understanding of what you need to do.
we can create an APK with only HTML, CSS or JavaScript through new frameworks
CODENAME ONE
This cross platform framework enables in growing industry-based totally applications. The level underpins fast application development. The designer can compose code in Java and the software may be attempted and showed with Codename One’s test system devices and check mechanization devices. The system bolsters well known IDEs like NetBeans, Eclipse, and IntelliJ idea. The maximum captivating detail about its collect server is that the designer can fabricate local iOS applications simply as nearby windows packages with out a Mac gadget or windows pc. The degree is usually recommended for creating iOS applications.
You may ask your suggestion from App Development Company in Bangalore which helps in developing innovative apps according to your ideas