With the rise in the demand for mobile applications and an increasing use of multiple operating systems within enterprises, the concept of app development for multiple platforms or cross platform app development is fast catching up.
With the rise in the demand for mobile applications and an increasing use of multiple operating systems within enterprises,
the concept of app development for multiple platforms or cross platform app development is fast catching up. This process can become quite complex since every OS platform has its distinct characteristics, capabilities, and features. However, in an attempt to keep up with the demand for cross platform mobile apps, software developers worldwide require tools that will assist them in designing successful apps that run on all major operating systems used across multiple mobile devices. Listed below is a brief description of some such tools:
1. RhoMobile – This tool for multiple platform app designing offers the use of one codebase for every smartphone. Based on Ruby, RhoMobile provides an open source environment for the developer to create native mobile applications in. using this tool, a developer can write app codes just once and use it for app building process on the major platforms of Android, iOS, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Symbian, etc. The reason why most software designers prefer using the RhoMobile tool for cross platform development is because of the speed, ease of usage, and accuracy levels that the tool ensures. The RhoHub (a hosted development framework) and the RhoSync (a standalone server for keeping app information current on the handhelds that mobile application customers use) are the two environments provided by RhoMobile for successful cross platform app development.
2. Appcelerator – This is the most popular tool used for app building on multiple OS platforms as it helps in the development of native applications for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets and also desktops. It is a Titanium based development tool that allows the use of simple programming languages like HTML, JavaScript, PHP, Python, and Ruby for creating cross platform software. The most prominent advantage of the Appcelerator framework is that it provides easy access to location information and more than 300 APIs. In addition to this, software developers also enjoy access to customizable metrics while using Appcelerator.
3. PhoneGap – The FOSS framework of PhoneGap is easy to use for both amateur and veteran developers since it offers the use of standard scripting languages like JavaScript and HTML. However, this tool can be used for building cross platform applications for only the platforms of iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Symbian, and Palm. It is the fact that PhoneGap comes equipped with the Adobe AIR application that provides online training to software designers who are not aware of the tool’s usage patterns that has made PhoneGap so popular. Using this tool, developers can also access the hardware features of the mobile devices, for instance, GPS, accelerometer, sound, camera, etc.
5. MoSync – Standard web programming techniques are used for accessing the features of this FOSS cross platform app development tool. While software designers could already make use of the languages of PHP, JavaScript, Ruby, and Python for writing codes using this tool, the new Eclipse based IDE of MoSync allows the use of C and C++ languages too. It is a SDK tool that offers software developers the features of libraries, integrated compilers, device profiles, and runtimes during the development of apps running on multiple platforms.
The above are the four most important tools aiding cross platform app development. Software developers must use them to get good looking and well performing mobile apps.
