PhoneGap (Cordova), with Sencha Touch 2 or jQuery Mobile?

Question

In the past i've used PhoneGap (1.x) with Sencha Touch 1.x, because that was back then the best combination. Although i'm a much bigger fan of jQuery than any ExtJS library. But jQuery Mobile was really buggy back then. Page transitions caused white flashes on Android devices. Responsiveness wasn't as good as it was with Sencha Touch 1 (ST1). Eventhough ST1 also had its quirks, it was definitely the best choice.

But currently PhoneGap is at version 2 and Sencha Touch aswell. But like i said, i like jQuery more. So i'm actually wondering if jQuery Mobile is any good these days. Does it still show alot of flickering when sliding from one page to another? Or any other buggy things?

Or should i still go for Sencha Touch (version 2 in this case)?

I hope i can cut some time in testing out both of these products by the answers in this post. That's the reason i'm asking.

Hairtail

Answer 1

This really depends on what platform you are going to create the application.

If suppose you want to build an iOS app then you should go for Phonegap + sencha because sencha makes it looks like a real native app. It will work very good for iPhone. But if you want to port the same app in Android. Then its a mistake. It is very slow in android due to low hardware specs. Although it is some what better in HTC one x and S3 because of there good specs.

I would recommend for Jquery Mobile because it is improved in these years. Although its look and feel is not that much good as Sencha but it works very well in almost all the platforms i Tested(Android 2.x and later, Iphone, BB 5.x and later).

One advantage that JQM has over Sencha is that Jquery mobile scripts can be customized and then imported in your application. It can be minified as per your needs. For furthur info look here http://jquerymobile.com/download-builder/ So JQM will be more lightweight than sencha.

This is all my personal experiences which i have. Hope it helps you

Complication

Answer 2

That flickering issue has been resolved in the latest version of Jquery Mobile.

http://jquerymobile.com/blog/

https://github.com/jquery/jquery-mobile/issues/4024 resolved.

Savour

Well, i just dumped jQueryMobile. It still flickered for me in between page transitions. I applied some "fixes" like the -webkit-backface-visibility:hidden trick. That did remove the white flicker during page transitions. But when it ended up on the new page, it still showed a quick flicker in the page elements. As if it was very quickly refreshing the page. Not to mention that it took about 3 seconds before the transition actually started, along with some other undesired stuff. jQueryMobile is really a NO GO. I'll try Sencha Touch 2 in the next few days. – Hairtail

@Hairtail So what are you using now? ST or jQM? I am also undecided! – Abstain

@shiplu.mokadd.im I'm using Appcelerator now (Titanium Studio). It's still some 3rd party library/framework. So sometimes you'll need to work around some issues, but it compiles it to a real native app, unlike PhoneGap (Cordova) does. So the page transitions are far better. You'll also notice that the overall performance is better too. Sencha Touch 2 is ok though, untill you add to many (heavy) elements on your page. Like listviews and tables etc. Another downside of ST2 is the over complicated framework (IMO). So i ditched both jQM and ST2 and using Appcelerator now. – Hairtail

Answer 3

@Coder_sLaY: Sencha has SDKTools and a Visual IDE that can not only create an app build, and after that they can create native android/ios builds. Sencha can be as lean as jQuery mobile.

So Sencha mobile scripts can be customised, external scripts included, and then the code is minified ready for production, removing all unused classes from Sencha touch.

If you're going to look at the Sencha route, then go to the API docs and check out the guides and videos, as there is a lot that's changed to make coding easier including the new data package which is simply amazing!

Mercie

One thing I do not like about Sencha IDE ( called Sencha Architect ) - it costs $399 ... – Diplegia

Answer 4

There are some discussions about this subject on Quora too.

You might want to check out this thread We're deciding between jQuery Mobile, Sencha Touch & Dojo Mobile. What are the pros and cons for each?.

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