I developed my first mobile app prototype using Jquery Mobile (http://jquerymobile.com/) after spending lots of time reading threads about building webforms vs native mobile apps. Since the app is basically a mobile interface to my company’s server side business management system, webforms seemed to be the way to go.
Grab an iPhone or Droid and to go this URL from your browser to see my first attempt at it here: (http://mobile.dockmaster.com). The great thing about JQuery Mobile is that it was built in HTML5 and CSS3 from the ground up to be touch/swipe enabled as opposed to point/click. It also renders to different form factors from iPad (largest) to Blackberry (smallest). The problem (for me) was load times. I found that it worked great on my new iPhone 4S but load times are a dog on older devices (e.g. iPhone 3G).
So after attending the Launch Pad conference in CA that Jason Calacanis organized and after speaking with a number of top app developers, I decided to install Titanium (Appcelerator). Appcelerator is basically a customized version of Eclipse. I installed it on a Windows machine (because that’s all I have at the moment) and started messing with the Andriod SDK. I will be loading on MacOS over the Holidays.
Installing on Windows has some known configuration issues that took me days to figure out. NOTE: I am using it on Windows XP, haven’t tried on Windows 7 yet.Read these threads and save yourself a shit-pile of time if you use Windows:
FIRST check out: http://developer.appcelerator.com/doc/mobile/mobile-build-windows (You don’t have to install Python and Git but it’s highly recommended. I personally love Git. I keep all my Dev stuff in GitHub.com. Also, having “Git Bash” allows you to use Unix commands in Windows!)
Problem #1: Appcelerator and more specifically the Android SDK has trouble with the Windows file system. It doesn’t take kindly to spaces. The SDK typically gets installed in “Program Files”. This path name must be converted to “PROGRA~1”.http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6638713/android-emulator-is-not-…
Problem #2: Emulator couldn’t find path to SDCard. This may or may not happen to you. But if it does here’s how to fix it. http://developer.appcelerator.com/question/124530/how-do-i-manually…
Lastly – Tim Poulsen at Titanium is a good resource.http://developer.appcelerator.com/question/112621/adb-devices-retur…