PhoneGap Essentials Building Cross-Platform Mobile Apps

by Wargo, John M.

• ISBN13: 9780321814296
• ISBN10: 0321814290
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-06-11
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional

Summary

Using PhoneGap, mobile developers can write cross-platform mobile apps using standard HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS - and then deploy those apps to every leading mobile platform with little or no recoding. The open source PhoneGap platform has attracted immense interest amongst mobile developers, but its official documentation is sparse and incomplete. Now, for the first time, there's a concise, practical developer's guide to succeeding with PhoneGap in real-world mobile development. Long-time mobile developer John Wargo (author of BlackBerry Development Fundamentals) thoroughly introduces the PhoneGap platform: what it is, what it does, and how it works. Next, Wargo guides developers through configuring their PhoneGap development environments, creating a complete mobile app, and then configuring and building it for five leading mobile platforms: Android, iOS, BlackBerry, Symbian, WebOS, and Windows Phone. Example applications highlight many of PhoneGap's key APIs, demonstrating how to use mobile platform capabilities ranging from GPS and accelerometers to file systems and built-in applications. Readers also learn how to make the most of PhoneGap Build, PhoneGap's cloud-based packaging utility.

Author Biography

John M. Wargo has more than twenty years of experience designing and developing enterprise applications with a focus on collaboration and process automation. John has spent the last five years focusing on mobile development having worked for Research In Motion and authored BlackBerry Development Fundamentals (Addison-Wesley, 2010; www.bbdevfundamentals.com) and a series of articles on mobile development for The View (www.eview.com). He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences, delivering sessions on mobile development and analysis of mobile industry trends. In his current role, he is a practice manager in AT&T’s Advanced Mobile Applications Practice, specializing in mobile application platforms and frameworks, and helping customers realize their mobile initiatives.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Bryce A. Curtis xiii

Foreword by Jim Huempfner xv

Preface xvii

Acknowledgments xxiii

About the Author xxiv

 

Part I: PhoneGap 1

 

Chapter 1: Introduction to PhoneGap 3

A Little PhoneGap History 4

Why Use PhoneGap? 5

How PhoneGap Works 6

Designing for the Container 11

Writing PhoneGap Applications 13

Building PhoneGap Applications 13

PhoneGap Limitations 17

PhoneGap Plug-Ins 18

Getting Support for PhoneGap 19

PhoneGap Resources 19

Hybrid Application Frameworks 19

 

Chapter 2: PhoneGap Development, Testing, and Debugging 23

Hello, World! 23

PhoneGap Initialization 25

Leveraging PhoneGap APIs 28

Enhancing the User Interface of a PhoneGap Application 30

Testing and Debugging PhoneGap Applications 35

Dealing with Cross-Platform Development Issues 49

 

Part II: PhoneGap Developer Tools 55

 

Chapter 3: Configuring an Android Development Environment for PhoneGap 57

Installing the Android SDK 58

Eclipse Development Environment Configuration 64

Creating an Android PhoneGap Project 66

Testing Android PhoneGap Applications 77

 

Chapter 4: Configuring a bada Development Environment for PhoneGap 79

Downloading and Installing the Correct PhoneGap bada Files 80

Creating a bada PhoneGap Project 82

Creating a bada Application Profile 86

Testing bada PhoneGap Applications 95

 

Chapter 5: Configuring a BlackBerry Development Environment for PhoneGap 97

Installing the BlackBerry WebWorks SDK 98

Creating a BlackBerry PhoneGap Project 99

Building BlackBerry PhoneGap Applications 103

Testing BlackBerry PhoneGap Applications 109

 

Chapter 6: Configuring an iOS Development Environment for PhoneGap 113

Registering as an Apple Developer 113

Installing Xcode 114

Creating an iOS PhoneGap Project 116

Testing iOS PhoneGap Applications 122

 

Chapter 7: Configuring a Symbian Development Environment for PhoneGap 125

Installing the Nokia Web Tools 125

Installing the Make Utility 126

Creating a Symbian PhoneGap Project 128

Configuring Application Settings 129

Modifying HelloWorld3 for Symbian 130

Packaging Symbian PhoneGap Projects 131

Testing Symbian PhoneGap Applications 132

 

Chapter 8: Configuring a Windows Phone Development Environment for PhoneGap 135

Installing the Windows Phone Development Tools 135

Creating a Windows Phone PhoneGap Project 136

Testing Windows Phone PhoneGap Applications 139

 

Chapter 9: Using PhoneGap Build 141

The Fit 142

Getting Started 142

Configuration 143

Creating an Application for PhoneGap Build 145

Creating a PhoneGap Build Project 146

Dealing with Build Issues 150

Testing Applications 152

Debug Mode 153

 

Part III: PhoneGap APIs 155

 

Chapter 10: Accelerometer 157

Querying Device Orientation 158

Watching a Device’s Orientation 162

 

Chapter 11: Camera 165

Accessing a Picture 165

Configuring Camera Options 176

Dealing with Camera Problems 182

 

Chapter 12: Capture 185

Using the Capture API 186

Configuring Capture Options 189

Capture at Work 191

 

Chapter 13: Compass 205

Getting Device Heading 205

Watching Device Heading 209

 

Chapter 14: Connection 217

 

Chapter 15: Contacts 223

Creating a Contact 224

Searching for Contacts 236

Cloning Contacts 242

Removing Contacts 242

 

Chapter 16: Device 243

 

Chapter 17: Events 249

Creating an Event Listener 249

deviceready Event 250

Application Status Events 251

Network Status Events 254

Button Events 256

 

Chapter 18: File 263

Available Storage Types 263

Accessing the Device’s File System 264

Reading Directory Entries 267

Accessing FileEntry and DirectoryEntry Properties 269

Writing Files 272

Reading Files 274

Deleting Files or Directories 275

Copying Files or Directories 276

Moving Files or Directories 276

Uploading Files to a Server 277

 

Chapter 19: Geolocation 279

Getting a Device’s Current Location 280

Watching a Device’s Location 284

 

Chapter 20: Media 293

The Media Object 293

Playing Audio Files 298

Recording Audio Files 299

Seeing Media in Action 300

 

Chapter 21: Notification 307

Visual Alerts (Alert and Confirm) 307

Beep 310

Vibrate 310

Notification in Action 310

 

Chapter 22: Storage 315

Local Storage 316

SQL Database 317

 

Appendix A: Installing the PhoneGap Files 327

Preparing for Samsung bada Development 329

Preparing for iOS Development 329

Preparing for Windows Phone Development 330

 

Appendix B: Installing the Oracle Java Developer Kit 333

Downloading the JDK 333

Installing the JDK 335

Configuring the Windows Path 335

Confirming Installation Success 336

 

Appendix C: Installing Apache Ant 337

Macintosh Installation 337

Windows Installation 338

 

Index 341