Mobile Tech

A New Way to Develop PhoneGap Apps

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

The folks over at AppGyver have released a new product that lets you build apps based on the popular PhoneGap library without needing to do alot of heavy lifting in the code. It's called "Steriods". It's a fresh approach to an age-old problem, how to create an app that has a unique feature set without having to learn to program every line of code, Steriods lets you do that.

“We’ve taken the feedback developers have had regarding PhoneGap, and we are fixing what is broken, nearly point by point. Steroids Toolbelt is the first stage of that, resolving many of the primary developer issues with PhoneGap" says AppGyver CEO and founder Marko Lehtimaki.

Here is a list of issues that are wrong with PhoneGap development currently, that AppGyver is committed to fixing.

The complexity of Ad-Hoc distirbution process with provisioning profiles
Native SDK (PhoneGap Plugin) dependencies
Xcode and Eclipse required for development
Xcode proj management
Build and distribution
Building apps for distribution should be easier and smoother. Adobe (PhoneGap Build) partially solves this, but it doesn't include custom PhoneGap Plugins, which are important.
Limited amount of Ad-Hoc distribution devices on iOS
The limitation of max 100 devices is painful when developing for multiple clients
Re-compilation time and process of development
One shouldn't have to re-compile app every time the HTML5 project is changed
Simultaneous multi-device development
It should be easier to manage development for multiple devices simultaneously
Manual Weinre implementation
IP address, manual input of tags, halted app if tag left in code, etc.
WebKit Cache (images, CSS, JavaScript)
I should never be bothered with annoyances webkit caching my assets while developing
Cannot develop iOS apps on Linux
Testing with devices you don't have
It should be easier to test your app with devices you don't own
Better debugging
Steroids has Weinre built-in. But debugging tools should be as powerful as in regular web development.
Enabling popular 3rd party services should be easier
It should be easier to enable services such as push notifications, social networking, crash reporting, performance and analytics
Dependency management of JavaScript libraries
Installation of tooling and getting started
It should be way easier to get started with development
Dependency of NPM, Git, GCC, etc. when using tooling
It should be possible to develop hybrid apps with minimum requirements
Require to pay Apple just to test out the development tools
You shouldn't need a developer certificate to get your app running in your phone
Cannot develop iOS apps on Windows
Manual updating and maintenance of latest Cordova and libraries required
App Store distribution required for even small HTML file changes
It should be possible to make small updates to project without new App Store submission
Platform specific Cordova.js required
Platform specific JS libraries for plugins required
File includes by platform
No support for precompliation (CoffeeScript, SaSS..)
Layouting
Restarting of app that has been built requires killing of app
When restarting app, WebView cache can't be removed without re-building
Console.log applications can only be reviewed from computer and not from app itself
Memory leaking and memory management
Audio API
The audio API in Cordova should be able to play multiple sounds faster
Camera API
The camera API in Cordova should be much more stable
Can't use existing website codebase because of HTTP and localhost requirements vs. File protocol
Application is in bundle (read-only) and editable files in Documents
Before DOM is loaded, white background of webview is displayed, making applications look broken