Cross-Platform App Development & Choosing A Cross Platform IDE
By the end of 2017, the mobile app market seems to be raised by $77 billion and the mobile app world has sustained constant changes in this journey. In the current scenario, more than 99.6% of the smartphones have their operating systems with Android and iOS. Mobile apps are a common channel in order to increase the brand’s awareness among the public. An increase in the adoption of Artificial Intelligence and messengers has been noticed due to which the experts have been questioning the future of mobile applications. Amidst all this hassle, there is a fight going on between “Cross-platform and native platform” mobile app development. The question arises as to which platform one should invest?
Cross-platform vs Native platform
Cross-platform– It is an application created for mobile devices and is compatible with multiple operating systems simultaneously. This is the reason that it can run on any device.
Native mobile– It is the solution for mobile app development which fits in the requirements of an entitled operating system and makes use of its SDK. its hardware memory, gears, and other apps can be installed on any given device without fail.
There are two types of cross-platform mobile applications
Native cross-platform apps
Each operating system carries its own software development kit, for example, JAVA is for Android and Objective-C/Swift for the iOS. Experienced mobile vendors know the techniques of creating a unified API which runs on the top of a native SDK. one can utilize the same code-base for android as well as iOS apps. The native cross-platform apps are typically made of Appcelerator Titanium and Xamarin.
Hybrid HTML5 applications
Since all the mobile apps are designed to be utilized by smartphones and tablets, yet the app logic is handled by the backend servers (Cloud-based or on-prem). The skilful software people certainly use the WebView to create the parts of an app’s graphic user interface in CSS, Javascript and HTML5. The hybrid app development framework that is used most of the times is the Apache Cordova or the PhoneGap.
How To Choose a Cross-Platform IDE?
There is a sufficient number of IDEs which are specifically built to aim the problems of cross-platform mobile app development. An IDE (Integrated Development Environment) aids the developers to systematize their projects, run the codes and do a lot more. Such kind of IDEs that play a major role is Android Studio and Xcode IDE. There are few different IDEs which target various other devices, carry specific features and make use of different programming languages. Most of the IDEs are created to solve the issues of cross-platform app development.
Below are the major and the most popular options available:
Xamarin
Xamarin is the most common cross-platform used to develop an app apart of games. It has a huge support, a large community and many features that make it different from others. There are many things that are followed by Xamarin i.e. Visual Studio (Microsoft’s IDE) and coding with C#, which most of the developers prefer over JAVA.
Although Xamarin lags behind in advanced integration and Google’s support. There are few steps to take you to access the libraries written in JAVAScript. Many activities can be done in an Android Studio which can’t be done in Xamarin and is followed by very easy set ups. Xamarin’s main feature is its cross-platform app development. These applications can be tested through different platforms through the Xamarin ‘Test Cloud’.
PhoneGap or the Apache Cordova
Xamarin and B4A are the platforms that allow the app developers to create native apps. This means that these kinds of apps will be run in the same way as they have been made using any official IDEs. This will ensure you to get access to all the hardware and software features of those gadgets.
Rather PhoneGap is a completely different approach. The languages like Javascript, CSS, and HTML that are used to develop websites, are majorly built by this tool. This means that the apps will run on a device like a smartphone or a tablet, just like a web page. Although this will not be termed as “Native” app development and thus many of the functions will not be the same. For example, if you wish to make an application for your business with less financial investment then you may get a static app made that will be less informative and carries the map.
Unity
Unity is a widely known and used mobile app development engine that lets the software engineer or app developer builds the finest quality 2D/3D apps for platforms like Windows, iOS, Android and Xbox. Besides Unreal Engine, Unity is also thought to be among those best 3D content presenting tools. This solution the development of custom shaders as well as has a lot of free plugins to use. Although Unity has an abrupt learning curve and all its compilers are not optimized for ARM processors.
Many more options are also available to develop cross-platform mobile apps like Ionic, Appcelerator, Corona, and Sencha Touch. Every tool will have its own merits and demerits. There should e a balance among the availability, requirement, and deliverable of the end user.
