An Overview Of Hybrid Mobile Application Development
Hybrid mobile applications are developed with a combination of web technologies such as CSS, HTML and JavaScript. They work similarly like the websites on the Internet but organized inside the native applications that use WebView of the mobile platform. The WebViews enable hybrid applications to access core functions of the device. For example, contacts, camera, accelerometer and more. Generally, these core functions are restricted inside the mobile browsers.
In hybrid mobile application development, seamless User Experience (UX) and flexible transformation with a quick response are very important. It is difficult to distinguish between hybrid and native app as a well-designed hybrid app includes native User Interface (UI) elements in it.
Why Choose Hybrid Apps?
The major benefit of hybrid mobile application is reusability. Developers can reuse their existing skills in the development of hybrid mobile applications. Developers never want to stick with the one specific platform. Android and iOS platforms are ruling the world of application development. So developers want to leverage both platforms to make a good fortune. Hybrid mobile applications allow developers to target more than one platform.
However, every platform has set of conditions when the things come to WebView. Because the OS versions of every platform do not provide the same kind of throughput every time. Still, developers can target the unique capabilities of the platform. For this, developers have to merge the platform-specific code and plugins. Also, developers can take help of third-party web runtimes like Crosswalk to deal with WebView problems.
Development Of Hybrid App
It is considered that the single-page applications help to deliver smooth interactions. Hence, AngularJS based frameworks are a good choice for hybrid mobile application development. There are many frameworks that are designed on top of AngularJS. These frameworks deliver good methods for developers to design effective UI/UX designs for hybrid mobile applications. Following are few notable frameworks that are widely used for the hybrid mobile application development:
1. Apache Cordova
Today, hybrid mobile applications support Apache Cordova. This platform offers a set of JavaScript APIs to retrieve device capabilities through plugins based on native code.
These plugins include APIs to access the native functionality of the device. Developers can also use plugins that are customized by the developer community. These customized plugins can be found in Apache Cordova Plugins Registry. All theses plugins have been carefully documented, tested and extended.
Application assets like JavaScript, HTML, CSS are also put into Apache Cordova tools to target the SDKs of the platform. Developers can use the IDEs like Visual Studio to enhance further productivity.
2. Ionic
The Ionic framework allows developers to design hybrid mobile applications with simple drag-and-drop components. The Ionic Push service, which enables hybrid apps to send native push notifications to devices on any platform.
Ionic offers robust Command-Line Interface(CLI) that takes hybrid app development to a new level. Using CLI, developers can design, test, and install the application on any platform.
Ionic Lab feature allows development and testing of the app simultaneously. Whenever the modifications are done in the source code, a LiveReload feature of Ionic quickly updates application. Hence, developers do not need to reprogram the source code for a specific platform every time.
3. Famo.us
The Famo.us framework uses a different method for developing hybrid mobile applications. It completely focuses on the function of the rendering engine of the browser.
Famo.us framework completely coded in JavaScript. It includes an open source 3D layout engine. 3D physics animation engine of this framework allows smooth UI and 3D games to be built. With Famo.us developers are able to build UIs that are simultaneously richer and faster. The application developed with this framework do not require to install any plugins.
Advantages Of Hybrid Application
Hybrid mobile applications use web app and native app technologies. Hybrid apps are a cross-platform mobile application and they deliver various benefits to the businesses to serve numerous customers. Following are important advantages of hybrid applications:
Offline Working
Because of native infrastructure, hybrid apps can work offline. Data can not update offline, still, unlike web app, users can load the app and access the previously loaded data. Data created during offline working can be stored on the device and sent to the server as soon as the user gets connected to the Internet.
Scalable
Hybrid applications can be easily scaled to a variety of operating systems and platforms. Developers can reuse the code to rebuild the application for a completely new platform.
Cost-Effective
It is very affordable to develop hybrid mobile applications. The hybrid mobile app development frameworks like Ionic, Apache Cordova etc. are open source in nature. Once developers complete the application, they can deploy it on any platform at free of cost.
Conclusion
Web applications and native application both are incorporated with different infrastructures and features. On the other hand, hybrid applications allow developers to take advantages of both kinds of applications. Hybrid app development provides cost effective methods to build optimal mobile applications.