Developing Cross Platform Mobile application in latest frameworks (Rhodes, PhoneGap, jQTouch)

Question

We have recently developed an iPhone, iPad, Android application with the Rhodes framework and have found it to be painful to say the least. As we are approaching the finishing stages and now testing the app in mobile devices we find more bugs than were apparent in iPhone simulator and would like to change the development direction as it seems most of the Apps even showcased on the Rhodes site are super buggy and not as smooth as they should be.

Can anyone lend any insight on how we may take already developed front-end files with prepped JSON data to apply it to another framework to produce the application. We have learned how the jQTouch framework operates and feel comfortable developing but need to package this into an application.

Rapid development is a key concern as we are approaching a deadline on this project. Note our proficiencies are Ruby, ROR3, JQuery, Modern front-end (HTML5/CSS3)

Mm

Interesting that you found rhodes painful when your proficiencies are ruby+ror3+jquery+html5. Can I ask what you found painful? I'm on the stage of choosing either phonegap or rhodes/rhomobile. – Frontispiece

Everything honestly. We spent a good portion of our time discovering and reporting bugs to Rhomobile. I remember that experience and would not recommend anyone to use this platform. PhoneGap all the way, we have been using this method recently and the process is night and day. – Mm

Answer 1

I'm not familiar with Rhodes, but it seems like Phonegap might be a good solution for you. I'm not sure what your app needs to do, but your skills (HTML/CSS and jQuery in particular) would translate well.

Phonegap lets you create an app for both iPhone/Android, while using the same code. There's some tweaking when setting up your files... but the overall intent is that you're working with the same code (as opposed to having to create two separate apps).

For both iPhone/Android apps developed with Phonegap, you're basically working with files within a folder (much like you would work with files inside a folder on a server). It's a basic group of file types - image, javascript, css, etc. You build like you would for a browser.

jQTouch provides more of a look and feel, in terms of the buttons, UI and animation/transition between sections. Phonegap more or less wraps up all the code, and lets you bundle it as an app for iPhone/Android.

Additionally, if you need to access device-specific functionality like GPS, camera, etc... Phonegap has a nice library you can tap into. Again - same code for both iPhone/Android.

A quick reference to review (to see if Phonegap + jQTouch is a good fit for you) is Jonathan Stark's book: Building iPhone Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. You may also want to refer to the example files referenced in his chapters, here.

Final note: jQtouch is meant for smaller handhelds. Not sure how well it translates over to iPad, but just an FYI. I know less about Sencha Touch, but it's made by the same folks and might be another approach for larger screens.

Huzzah

Thank you Avoision. This pretty much sums up the question. I think we are going to try to work around our current issues in Rhodes. The main thing I like about Rhodes is it gives you access to a bunch of native features like the toolbar, navbar, etc. If this does not work out we will be looking towards phoneGap as an alternative. +1 I would like to see more answer to this question before accepting an answer. – Mm