Phonegap by Example

Use PhoneGap to apply web development skills and learn variety of cross-platform mobile applications

About This Book

• Utilize the robust features of the mobile hybrid approach to develop, test, and publish mobile applications using the PhoneGap framework
• Use your web skills for hybrid mobile application development and deliver to many mobile platforms without rewriting the code
• Develop a set of ready-to-use mobile applications with this practical, comprehensive, step-by-step guide

Who This Book Is For

If you are a web developer with some experience in development of single page applications and want to enter the world of mobile applications, then this technology and book is ideal for you. Since PhoneGap maintains an incredibly easy-to-use plugin interface, no previous experience in native languages development (such as Objective-C or Java) is required.

What You Will Learn

• Set up plugins to access the camera and filesystem to capture media
• Build a custom RESTful service and integrate it with a PhoneGap application
• Integrate a HTML5 Canvas element to create mobile games
• Build scalable applications using a modern mobile web framework
• Interact with RESTful services from a mobile application
• Build an audio/video chat facility using PhoneGap and WebRTC technologies
• Develop a PhoneGap plugin with native interfaces for iOS and Android

In Detail

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. It is one of the first and fastest spreading tools to develop hybrid applications using CSS, JavaScript, and HTML, without losing the advantages of native applications.

If you are already a web developer, this book will provide you with the skills you need to create, customize, test, and deploy hybrid mobile applications. Starting from the beginning, this book will cover how to set up your PhoneGap development environment, add mobile web frameworks and plugins, design and customize the application layout, and utilize the embedded features of the PhoneGap framework.

By working through the steps in each chapter, you will quickly master a variety of mobile applications with totally different approaches. You will then learn how to develop a PhoneGap plugin with native interfaces for iOS and Android, as well as common approaches to test PhoneGap applications.

With ample screenshots that show you how to build a phenomenal application, PhoneGap by Example will ensure your success with this cutting-edge mobile development framework for hybrid applications.

Style and approach

An easy-to-follow guide packed with hands-on examples of real-world mobile applications. Each topic is explained sequentially in the process of creating a hybrid mobile application, and detailed explanations of the basic and advanced features of PhoneGap are included.

Andrey Kovalenko

Andrey Kovalenko is a software developer, team leader, and blogger. He is a member of Jaybird Group, a web and mobile development firm in the U.S. and Ukraine. Andrey has been part of this organization since its inception and holds the position of a team leader. His job role involves overseeing and implementing projects in a wide variety of technologies with an emphasis on JavaScript, Node.js, HTML5, and Cordova (PhoneGap). Andrey leads several development groups that are responsible for creating products for call centers, marketing companies, real estate agencies, telecommunication companies, health care, and so on. Nowadays, he is focused on exploring the mobile development domain. As a result, Andrey started the BodyMotivator project, a mobile application for fitness. He believes that JavaScript has a great future as a generic development language. When Andrey isn't coding, he likes to spend time with his family and exercise at the local CrossFit gym. He is a health care enthusiast and is trying to use all his software development efforts to make his life healthier. Andrey has authored Instant KineticJS Starter, Packt Publishing.