Earlier various businesses revolved around native and web application. Indeed, these kinds of applications were considered as the most imperative channel for the businesses to connect with their respective audience. And, then came PhoneGap, Appcelerator and other frameworks that gave birth to the concept of hybrid application.
Hybrid application is a kind of app that features the capabilities of web and native application. The hybrid application offers native like experience on multiple platforms. It is generally built on HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript and is integrated with wrapper technology, so that it can work on varied mobile platforms like Android, iOS, and others. PhoneGap and other frameworks come with APIs that enable the users of the application to access the varied features such as Camera, GPS, memory, etc.
18 Lessons Learned : HTML5 Hybrid App Development
Below are some key lessons I learned developing HTML5 Hybrid apps. Hope you find them useful.
Benefits Of Hybrid Application
In a nutshell, this is a kind of web app that is basically wrapped in a native shell. There are lots of advantages in the pipeline for investing in hybrid application development. Let’s have a glimpse below:
Enabled To Access Mobile Data
Like a native app, Hybrid apps come with features to access device data seamlessly. The hybrid app not only accesses information from GPS & camera, but also contacts book as well as push notification.
Works In Offline Mode
Bestowed with native features, Hybrid app is able to run offline. The users can use the previously loaded data and interact with the application without any hassle.
Easy To Scale
It is easy to make the hybrid apps compatible to an array of varied mobile platforms as well as operating systems. There is no need to write the code from scratch for varied platforms. The main reason behind this is, it supports amazing architecture that minimizes the usage of same code again.
Content Implementation Is Easy
As Hybrid application features the quality of web app, it is easy for the developers to implement application content in the mobile apps. Moreover, it saves cost and time as well as optimizes productivity.
Hybrid Apps Development Challenges
Although the hybrid app offers the capability to the users to access the native feature, it does not mean that it can take the place of native app completely. In fact, there is no substitute of native application because its key aspects like performance, graphics effect, and user-experience cannot be achieved in the hybrid application. There are still various challenges that you will face while developing hybrid application such as:
The hybrid supports the content that is based on web architecture; thus, it loads slower than native app.
In some circumstances, the varied components of hybrid application face technical glitches while loading on the mobile devices because every component is not compatible with every platform.
Hybrid Interactive game apps like 2D or 3D still have a long way to go as these types cannot work same like native app.
Tips To Make Hybrid Application Effectively
Being equipped with some challenges, there are the various brilliant ways for developing hybrid mobile applications effectively. Here, the blog presents the key do’s and don’ts tips that every hybrid developer should adopt. Let’s have a glimpse below to find more about tips; first start with a don’ts tips.
Don’ts Tip For Hybrid App Development
Avoid Using Big Sized Libraries, Frameworks and Plug-ins
Try to not use the heavy libraries such as jQuery. If it seems imperative for you to implement jQuery, then it will better to choose the lighter version that is Zepto.js. jQuery libraries harm the performance of mobile apps. Indeed, it slows down the usage of loading speed.
App’s View Should Not Get Loaded At Once
It is good, if you make text in the app’s view get loaded sooner than the graphic as this will ease the way for the users to interact with the app. And at the same time, it boosts the performance.
Better Not To Use Animation Or Heavy Graphics
If it is possible, then do not use rich media content or heavy graphics because it slows down the application.
Do Not Expect That App Run Fine On All Platforms
It is not necessary that a hybrid application, which runs seamlessly on iOS will surely provide the same experience on Android or vice versa. It is required for the developer to make some adjustment in coding and format, so that it can run on every operating system perfectly.
Do’s Tips For Hybrid App Development
Deploy JavaScript Frameworks AngularJS
For User Interface Use Ionic
In order to deliver the native-like experience, it is better to use Ionic. It can be coupled well with AngularJS and ensures a better experience to the developers.
AngularJS is a features-rich MVC framework that dose not leverage the libraries like jQuery. It is superbly designed framework that is suitable for hybrid apps development. It basically renders Backbone.js, which features a spectrum of lightweight libraries; for example, Thorax & Marionette.
Keep Coding File Of HMTL/CSS/JS Compact
Maintain the coding file of HTML, CSS & JavaScript compact because this eases loading and boosts the performance. There are various tools that can minify the size of different coding files. For example jscompress.com can compact JavaScript files and cssminifier.com can be used to minify CSS files. One more thing that you should do is testing the application’s features thoroughly.
Reduce Graphics Size
Optimize the graphics effects by reducing size of PNGs with the help of Tinypng.com. This will do not affect the quality and enhance the performance.
Test The Application Performance
Before delivering the hybrid application, test every aspect of application’s performance, load time and inconsistent view. There is a tool called Browser-perf that can help you check out the performance of the hybrid app on browser. Moreover, Relic, a third party service, can help you monitor issues related to response time, carrier performance, and many more.
Leverage Device Local Storage
With the help of local storage, the hybrid application can easily deliver views excellently. Moreover, it reduces serer calls. As the speed is a big issue in hybrid apps, the local storage should be used to optimize performance and that improve the speed.
Use Chrome Canary For Emulating Application On Different Devices
Take the help of Chrome Canary tool to emulate the app for different devices. This will help you check the app’s view and performance on varied devices with different network setting.
Do In-depth Learning For Hybrid Development Framework
It is very necessary for you to be well-versed with the architecture and other aspects of framework. There are certain things that we mostly overlook. That leads to improper development of the application. Hence, you should be aware of the potential and all the basic features of the framework that you will use for your hybrid app development.
Conclusion
Undeniably, hybrid application development is viable solution for various businesses. But, in order to bring out native experience from hybrid app, there is long way to go. Many frameworks are in improving phase and in the future, it is believed that those days are not far that you have the capability to hybrid app that gives complete native like experience. Hope that these tips will help you sort out issues and enable you to build better hybrid applications.