PhoneGap
PhoneGap is an open source framework that allows developers to build mobile applications using web technologies like HTML, CSS and JavaScript. It wraps the web code into native containers to access device features on iOS, Android and Windows Phone.
crossplatform
hybrid-app
html
css
javascript
PhoneGap: Build Mobile Apps with Web Technologies
PhoneGap is an open source framework that allows developers to build mobile applications using web technologies like HTML, CSS and JavaScript. It wraps the web code into native containers to access device features on iOS, Android and Windows Phone.
What is PhoneGap?
PhoneGap is an open-source mobile development framework originally created by Nitobi. It allows developers to build applications for mobile devices using web technologies like HTML, CSS and JavaScript. The key benefit of PhoneGap is that it wraps the web code into native containers, allowing access to device features on platforms like iOS, Android and Windows Phone.
Some key things to know about PhoneGap:
- Open source and free to use
- Owned by Adobe
- Works by packaging web code into native apps
- Allows web code to access native device features via JavaScript APIs
- Supports building for iOS, Android, Windows Phone and more
- Has a large plugin ecosystem to extend functionality
- Apps may not have quite as high performance as pure native
- Simplifies multi-platform app development
PhoneGap helps web developers reuse their existing web development skills to build mobile apps. Instead of learning platform-specific languages like Swift, Java or C#, they can use web standards for faster, easier development. If native functionality is needed, PhoneGap plug-ins bridge the gap.
PhoneGap Features
Features
- Write code in HTML, CSS and JavaScript
- Access native device features like camera, contacts, geolocation etc
- Build for multiple platforms like iOS, Android and Windows Phone from a single code base
- Use PhoneGap plugins to access additional native functionality
- Package apps for app stores
- Open source and free
Pricing
- Open Source
- Free
Pros
Write once, deploy to multiple platforms
Leverage web developer skills
Active and supportive community
Large collection of plugins
Free and open source
Cons
Performance limitations compared to native apps
Limited access to latest native features
App size can be larger
Not suitable for complex, graphics-intensive games
Requires knowledge of multiple platforms for debugging
Official Links
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