I was introduced to programming by the web (HTML, CSS, JS, and some PHP) and never tapped on the desktop development for Windows so when I tried to read through the Windows Phone 8 developer documentations, I was totally lost at sea.
I once read a line or two on Microsoft website that says you can build WP8 apps using just HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript but could never find it any more. So my question is if it's possible?
I tried to find something to get started but it seems to me it all requires C#, C/C++, etc.? I thought they said the web is native in WP8? So in this sense, I should be able to develop apps using just HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript? Am I right?
Yes, of course. You can use PhoneGap to get your job done!
Yes, Visual Studio 2012 provides a template to build HTML5 apps. This template is available with WP8 SDK.
Alternatively you can use Phonegap, Titanium, Sencha.
https://github.com/matthiasxc/WP8-HTML-Tutorials
You can use Phonegap to do that. Phonegap is a wrapper built around html5 technologies.
I've been looking into the same issue, and found this wonderful post:
http://ax2012aifintegration.blogspot.com/2013/11/mvvm-windows-phone-8-app-using.html
Here, they make a normal WP8 app in Visual Studio, and adapt it to be written in HTML, CSS and JavaScript, using Model-View-ViewModel pattern.
I believe the upcoming Visual Studio 2013 (which is available as a RC version right now) will have the templates installed, but for now, as others have pointed out, PhoneGap is the best option. I remember having created a JS project in VS 2012, but now that I have a new computer I can't find the templates anywhere.
Here is a nice tutorial from MSDN on how to create an HTML5/JS project in Visual Studio using PhoneGap:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/davrous/archive/2011/12/23/tutorial-how-to-create-html5-applications-on-windows-phone-thanks-to-phonegap.aspx
Yes it is possible to create windows apps using html 5 and javascript
U can also develop windows phone apps without having the knowledge of coding...
To know more about it, check out:
http://www.techstorms.in/2013/10/how-to-develop-windows-phone-apps-for-free.html
Related
I am a C# windows developer. I recently started to work with WinJS. Working with WinJS, I have noticed some challenges and limitations. Can face some new challenges as the community support for WinJS is very less. Below are the few points mentioned regarding this concern
a. WinJS does not support Visual Studio features like Finding References of Classes and Variables which is very useful to code productively.
b. WinJS is not strongly typed as C#. So we will get to know about the errors at runtime only instead of compile time which is difficult to Debug and time taking process.
c. WinJS does not support feature “What you see is what you get”. Visual Studio designer is not available for WinJS. We can see the application design only after we run the application which is again time taking thing.
There are very less chances of availability of “Ready to Work on WinJS” resources. Because most of the developers in Windows community work on C#, XAML languages.
d. Direct compatibility of third party libraries for WinJS might not be available.
Have anybody experience in WinJS and faced similar issues? Or Are there any solutions exists for this? What is the scope of improvement in Windows 10 version for WinJS??
For an HTML/CSS/JS designer, that's what Blend for Visual Studio is for. Load the project into Blend and you'll get a designer that also works when you're running the app. Documentation for this is on https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj129478.aspx, and there's a great video from //build 2013 that shows the flow, http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Build/2013/2-311. I also cover using Blend to some extent in my free ebook, Programming Windows Store Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, 2nd Edition.
https://dev.windows.com/en-us/develop/winjs
see this link it give the solution your problem which is given below
a. WinJS does not support Visual Studio features like Finding References of Classes and Variables which is very useful to code productively.
b. WinJS is not strongly typed as C#. So we will get to know about the errors at runtime only instead of compile time which is difficult to Debug and time taking process.
c. WinJS does not support feature “What you see is what you get”. Visual Studio designer is not available for WinJS. We can see the application design only after we run the application which is again time taking thing.
I am embarking on my first windows phone app. I noticed there are two templates one is in Javascript (Blank App (Universal Apps)) and the other in C# (XAML) again Blank App (Universal Apps). Which one should I use, I know it depends a lot on the project context, but basically its just a simple phone app, that reads and displays data, mostly crud operations. Any help is appreciated.
I think there are a lot of resources in the internet regarding this question.
For example:
http://www.itwriting.com/blog/8350-xaml-and-c-or-html-and-winjs-for-windows-store-universal-and-cross-platform-apps.html
http://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-likes-winjs-for-making-windows-8-apps-but-most-developers-prefer-xaml
https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/156361/advantages-and-disadvantages-to-using-xaml-c-or-html5-javascipt-for-metro-apps
If you have a C#/.NET background, choose XAML - if you have a web background, choose WinJS...
I think that XAML is more popular than WinJS (especially for Windows Phone).
Here's my take to add to the list--http://www.kraigbrockschmidt.com/2013/01/17/html-javascript-xaml-directx-language-windows-store-app/ . In my partner-facing role at Microsoft I got this question quite a bit, and it really boils down to personal preference and experience unless you run into a place where the languages don't quite have parity at present. Parity was more of an issue in Windows 8, many areas were resolved for Windows 8.1. (Parity is more a matter between Windows/Windows Phone now rather than between the languages.)
Personally, being the author of Programming Windows Store Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, Second Edition (free ebook, Microsoft Press, 2014), I like the JS approach very much because you can leverage standards. On the downside, JS code is the least secure of all the options (see this blog post of mine), which might be a make-or-break consideration.
I'm completely new to Windows Phone and the Windows galaxy in general as far as programming goes. For a project of a phone app that has to run on a windows phone, I started exploring the resources and I have some questions.
One of the problems I encountered is that things change very quickly. For example, answers to this question say that browsers in Windows Phone will most likely not support HTML5. However, there are many online tutorials (for instance here) introducing ASP.NET MVC 4 and how it is appropriate for mobile apps.
I would personally like to go the "HTML5+javascript" way instead of learning how to develop with Silverlight, which apparently has been discontinued by Microsoft. However, my first concern is evidently to be able to create an application that works!
So with that in mind, my questions are the following:
My impression is that HTML5+JS is being introduced in replacement of Silverlight and will be more used in the future. Is that correct?
Knowing that I have to build an app which should be able to play videos and audio, record audio, and connect to a library to do some speech processing in the background, should I use Silverlight or can I try using ASP.NET MVC 4? (From what I gather, Silverlight would be better than XNA)
Are there limitations to using HTML5+JS as compared to Silverlight or the other way around?
Can you package a web app (i.e. using HTML5+JS) to be used locally on the phone if there is no access to a distant server?
Any specific pointers or answers on these specific issues will be more than welcome! :)
Currently, Windows Phone 7.1 does not support full HTML5+JS as a replacement for Silverlight. In Windows 8 (NOT the next version of windows phone, but the next version of Microsoft's desktop OS), HTML5+JS is presented as an alternative to using XAML and C# (it's a little confusing because on Windows 8, "metro" apps do not run Silverlight, but they still operate using XAML and C#). But that's neither here nor there... To summarily answer your question(s): In the phone's browser, there is very limited HTML5 capability.
From what you've described, you definitely want to use Silverlight for your Windows Phone app. The answer to that part of your question has never changed, Silverlight from the beginning of WP7 would be your best option. XNA is exclusively designed for gaming development.
To answer all of your questions, point by point:
My impression is that HTML5+JS is being introduced in replacement of
Silverlight and will be more used in the future. Is that correct?
This has not been confirmed (as of this post), but speculation is that this will be the case in some future release of the OS (no word on when that may be). But no, this is not currently an option, and there is no promise from Microsoft that it ever will be.
Knowing that I have to build an app which should be able to play
videos and audio, record audio, and connect to a library to do some
speech processing in the background, should I use Silverlight or can I
try using ASP.NET MVC 4? (From what I gather, Silverlight would be
better than XNA)
Silverlight. Silverlight. Silverlight. :) ASP.NET + MVC will not work. XNA is intended to be used for building games. Attempting to build more standard user interfaces using it would give you a migraine to say the least, and would not look anywhere near good.
Are there limitations to using HTML5+JS as compared to Silverlight or the other way around?
and
Can you package a web app (i.e. using HTML5+JS) to be used locally on the phone if there is > no access to a distant server?
As answered above, there is no way to do this on the phone.
As for pointers on all of this. I strongly encourage you to simply google (or bing if you're into that kind of thing) "getting started with windows phone" or "windows phone tutorials". Best source I could point you to is the Windows Phone Developer website. It's got some great tutorials that don't assume you know lots about windows phone. Best to get this material from Microsoft. It'll be more reliable, more well written, and ultimatly more useful. I've been writing Windows Phone apps since before the phone was released, and I still use it for learning the basics of something new. Great place.
Redmond has a good idea occasionally:
The next-gen Windows will come with a new programming foundation, letting developers build native apps with the same techniques they use for Web applications. Microsoft calls this new variety "tailored apps."
There is always a steep learning curve for developing GUIs; each new toolkit you learn is different enough that it takes a lot of time and effort and frustration. Thus developing in HTML with CSS begins to look very appealing: it's much easier and much more portable; and with HTML 5 and CSS 3, it is very powerful.
Is there any support yet on Ubuntu (or even better, a cross-platform toolkit) for developing native applications that use HTML/CSS for the GUI? To minimize overhead, I do not want to start a full browser session. (That's not very good desktop integration.) I am particularly interested in answers for native JavaScript or Python 3, but any language would be alright (easier to learn a new language than a new GUI toolkit, in my book).
Edit: I have found this page, but have not had time to read it all or test it. It linked to Python XULRunner, but again I have no previous knowledge of it.
This was asked on Ask Ubuntu back in August of 2011.
In summary, the options are:
SeedKit
The JavaScript bindings for GNOME.
There are more options, but those are the two "big ones".
You can write native apps in HTML/CSS and Javascript using node-webkit, is an app runtime based on Chromium and node.js, you can use node.js modules into your apps. it's available on Linux, Mac OSX and Windows
I would like to add QtWebKit to the list. It's like SeedKit with better support.
I'm using it personally on a project where we have native (C++) code for the data layer, business logic and the presentation layer is done via HTML5 and heavy use of JavaScript. As far as I know Qt can be used with python as well so perhaps you could use it for all the business logic.
I have been trying to figure out whether it is possible to use only flex sdk for mobile development.
Do I really have to purchase and use Flex Builder? are there free tools that would allow me to package my application for, say, iOS or Android?
In the past I have developed several SWF applications using flex sdk and emacs only. Can I do the same for mobile platforms?
Appreciate any help.
FlashDevelop is the most popular, efficient and simplest free alternative to FlashBuilder. I develop using both of them (depending on which team I work with) and I prefer FD by far.
You can use the AIR SDK and its associated command line tools without using Flash Builder (although there are several steps involved in producing the mobile applications). You can get the AIR 3 SDK here:
http://www.adobe.com/special/products/air/sdk/
Yes, you should be able to do that. FlashBuilder is only a convenience IDE for development. As long as you have the (freely available) SDK, you can use any editor to write your code and then compile against the SDK.
All you need to ensure is that unlike a standard flex app, you would need the additional necessary mobile device files. You can check this out for reference (ignoring the FlashBuilder part) - http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash-builder/articles/hello-world.html