Perhaps you have heard of the topic “cross platform development”, but aren’t really sure what it is, or you aren’t sure why you would want to use cross-platform technologies. If this is the case, then this post is especially for you. I’ll try to shed some light onto what it is, and why you would want to use cross-platform development strategies.
What is cross-platform development?
Cross platform development is a concept in computer software development where you write application code once, and it runs on multiple platforms. This is very much inline with the “write once, run everywhere” concept pioneered in the 90s, and brought to a mainstream reality with Flash in the browser, and AIR on the desktop. The standard evolution of technology has been to make everything faster, smaller, and more portable, and it is only natural that that this concept has now come into the mobile development world. In mobile scenarios, it is applied by writing an application using a codebase & technology that allows the application to be deployed and distributed across multiple disparate platforms/operating systems/devices.
Using Adobe AIR, this includes Apple’s iOS devices (iPhone and iPad), Android (a plethora of devices), BlackBerry Playbook & upcoming BBX platform, and soon Windows Metro (the tablet offering of Windows 8). Using PhoneGap, this includes Apple iOS, Android, BlackBerry 4.6 and higher, HP WebOS, Symbian, Samsung Bada, and Windows Phone 7 – Mango platforms.
In case you’re wondering why I offered 2 cross platform technologies, that is because Adobe will soon have 2 cross-platform product offerings. Adobe has entered an agreement to purchase Nitobi, the creators of PhoneGap.
Adobe AIR
Adobe AIR is a cross-platform technology with roots in the Flash Player and the AIR desktop runtime. AIR allows you to build cross-platform mobile applications using ActionScript and the open source Flex framework. AIR apps can be built from the Flash Professional timeline-based design/animation tool, Flash Builder (an Eclipse-based development environment), or other open source solutions using the freely available AIR SDK. Applications developed with Adobe AIR can target desktop platforms (Mac, & Windows), smart phone and tablet platforms (iOS, Android, BlackBerry, soon Windows), and even smart televisions.
PhoneGap (Apache Callback)
PhoneGap is an open source cross platform technology with roots in the HTML world. Essentially, a PhoneGap application consists of a web view that consumes 100% of the available width & 100% of the available height, taking advantage of web browsers on each platform. PhoneGap offers a JavaScript to native bridge that enables you to build natively-installed applications using HTML and JavaScript, using the native bridge to interact with the device hardware/APIs. Note: PhoneGap is also being submitted to the Apache Foundation as the Apache Callback project.
More Devices, Less Code
The driving factor behind cross-platform technologies is that you will be able to use those technologies to target more devices & platforms, with writing a minimal amount of source code. There are many advantages with this approach. Here are a few of the major reasons…
Lower Barrier of Entry
Generally speaking, development with HTML & JavaScript or Flex & ActionScript is easier than developing with Objective-C or Java. Due to the ease of use of the development tooling and familiarity of the languages, cross platform technologies lower the technical barriers which may have prevented adoption of native development. This allows your development team to build applications that they may not previously have been able to, and also enables your team to focus on what matters – the application; not the skills required to develop on multiple disparate platforms.
Reduce the Number of Required Skills for the Development Team
Native development on multiple platforms requires your development team to learn Objective C for iOS applications, Java for Android applications, Silverlight for Windows Phone applications, etc… Finding all of these skills in a single developer is nearly impossible. Using cross-platform development technologies, your team only needs to be proficient with one language/skillset. Knowledge of the native development paradigms and languages are always a plus, but are no longer a requirement. Many developers transitioning from web development already know either Flex/ActionScript and/or HTML/JavaScript, and making the transition from web to mobile development will not be a major undertaking.
Reduced Development & Long Term Maintenance Costs
Cross-platform mobile applications can originate from a single codebase, which requires a single development skillset. You don’t need to have staff for each individual platform. Instead, resources working on the shared codebase can cover all target platforms. Having a single codebase also reduces long term maintenance costs. You no longer need to have bug tracking for X number of codebases, and do not need to maintain a larger staff to support each platform. Did I also mention that you have one codebase to maintain?
Having a single codebase doesn’t reduce the need for QA/testing on each target platform – nothing can get rid of this. It is absolutely imperative that you test your codebase on physical devices for all platforms that you intend to support. Emulators and Simulators can go a long way during development, but they will undoubtedly not cover all scenarios possible on a physical device, and they will not have the same runtime performance as a physical device.
Play the Strengths of a Technology
Some technologies make tasks easier than others. For example, programmatic drawing and data visualization are very easy using Flex & ActionScript. Developing equivalent experiences in native code can be significantly more complex and time consuming. Use the the features of the language to their fullest potential, to your advantage- that’s why they exist.