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Cordova ,formerly called as Phone Gap is a platform to build Native Mobile Applicatons using HTML5, CSS and Java Script.
What is Cordova ?
In other words it acts a container for running a web application written in HTML, CSS,JS Typically Web applications cannot use the native device functionality like Camera, GPS, Accelerometer , Contacts etc. . With Cordova we can very much achieve this and package the web application in the devices installer format.
Cordova ,formerly called as Phone Gap is a platform to build Native Mobile Applicatons using HTML5, CSS and Java Script.
In other words it acts a container for running a web application written in HTML, CSS,JS Typically Web applications cannot use the native device functionality like Camera, GPS, Accelerometer , Contacts etc. . With Cordova we can very much achieve this and package the web application in the devices installer format.
Device installer formats :
Android – .apk (Android Application Package)
IOS – .ipa (iPhone Application Archive)
Windows Phone .xap (Silverlight Application Package)
How Does it actually work ?
Technically the User Interface of a Cordova Application is effectively a WebView that occupies the complete screen and runs in the native Container. So , it is the same web view that is used by the Native Operating systems. This purely means that only the Native Containers changes according to the OS and internally the web pages remain the same. (Since the browser rendering of webpages are different for each operating systems)
For IOS it is UIWebViewClass
Android it is in android.webkit.webview
Windows it is WebviewClass and the similar goes to other OS .
and the Cordova libraries communicate with the Native Framework of the respective OS .
Some Question
Cool then what device API’s are available ?
This list has that answer
OK , Then – What OS are supported ?
Almost all major platforms are supported . Here’s the list
WOW ! i ‘m loving this . How much does this cost ?
Its absolutely free . Cordova was announced as an Open Source project and will always remain free licensed under Apache License Version 2.0
Interesting !!! But my Application Requirement is not completely satisfied with the list of plugins API ‘s available. How should i proceed ?
No problem . It is completely extensible . If cordova does not provide an API to complete your Application requirement , then a custom Native Plugin can be created and used.
What is Kapsel ?
Kapsel is a set of custom plugins developed by SAP underlying the Cordova technology to meet the enterprise requirements like encryption storage,Cache Management, Logon, AuthProxy,fiori client etc and delivered from SMP3.0 (SAP Mobile Platform 3.X ) and integrated with it.
Cordova Features
Let us now understand the features of Cordova in brief.
Command Line Interface (Cordova CLI)
This tool can be used for starting projects, building processes for different platforms, installing plugins and lot of other useful things that make the development process easier. You will learn how to use the Command Line Interface in the subsequent chapters.
Cordova Core Components
Cordova offers a set of core components that every mobile application needs. These components will be used for creating base of the app so we can spend more time to implement our own logic.
Cordova Plugins
Cordova offers API that will be used for implementing native mobile functions to our JavaScript app.
License
Cordova is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0. Apache and the Apache feather logos are trademarks of The Apache Software Foundation.
Cordova Advantages
We will now discuss the advantages of Cordova.
- Cordova offers one platform for building hybrid mobile apps so we can develop one app that will be used on different mobile platforms – IOS, Android, Windows Phone, Amazon-fireos, blackberry, Firefox OS, Ubuntu and tizien.
- It is faster to develop hybrid app then native app so Cordova can save on the development time.
- Since we are using JavaScript when working with Cordova, we don’t need to learn platform specific programming languages.
- There are many community add-ons that can be used with Cordova, these have several libraries and frameworks, which are optimized for working with it.
Cordova Limitations
Following are the limitations of Cordova.
- Hybrid apps are slower than native ones so it is not optimal to use Cordova for large apps that require lots of data and functionality.
- Cross browser compatibility can create lots of issues. Most of the time we are building apps for different platforms so the testing and optimizing can be time consuming since we need to cover large number of devices and operating systems.
- Some plugins have compatibility issues with different devices and platforms. There are also some native APIs that are not yet supported by Cordova.
