Developing open apps

Wombaticus

know I'm dumb... really... but what am I missing here - (apart form a screw or two...) I've never developed an app for a mobile device in my life, but every time I look into it, it seems so incredibly... complicated. For a native app I suppose I can understand that, but there is much talk now of cross-platform "open" apps built using HTML, CSS and JavaScript as single page applications (SPA's) and then bundled up into some kind of wrapper for the various devices. This should be a simple nut to crack - but even this seems to involve a whole load of sledgehammers... Suppose I want to build a simple app that asks you to enter your name, click a button, and it will say Hello to you. I could write this as a simple web-page:

<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<title>Hello you</title>
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<script type="text/ecmascript">
function sayHello(){
document.getElementById("ur").innerHTML = 'Hello ' + document.getElementById("txt").value;
document.getElementById("iam").style.display = 'none';
document.getElementById("youare").style.display = 'inline';
}
function goBack(){
document.getElementById("txt").value = '';
document.getElementById("iam").style.display = 'inline';
document.getElementById("youare").style.display = 'none';
}
</script>
</head>
<body>

    <input type="text" id="txt" style="width:200px;" maxlength="25" /> 
    <input type="button" id="btn" value="Say hello" onclick="sayHello()" />




    

    <input type="button" id="goback" value="< Back" onclick="goBack()" />

</body>
</html>

SO... my question then is: what else (avoiding sledgehammers) do I need to do to wrap this up as an open cross-platform app for smartphones? Or am I barking up the wrong tree (in the wrong forest, even)...?

Kunal Chowdhury IN

Did you check Xamarin[^]? Using this, you can create native iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac apps in C#. I hope, this might help you.

Vote up or Mark as Answered, if this information helped you.

Kind Regards - Kunal Chowdhury, Windows Platform Development MVP

Technical blog: http://www.kunal-chowdhury.com

Wombaticus

Thanks - in the end I found Phonegap[^] which will serve my purpose. What I'm playing with now is trying to avoid the myriad JavaScript libraries that seem obligatory - so much of it seems like using sledgehammers to crack nuts. I'd rather write my own. Thanks again though.

Kunal Chowdhury IN

Yes, phonegap is another option to try.

Vote up or Mark as Answered, if this information helped you.

Kind Regards - Kunal Chowdhury, Windows Platform Development MVP

Technical blog: http://www.kunal-chowdhury.com