What's the right approach for creating an Android app?

Question

I have a great idea for an Android app, but as I'm only familiar with php/js, I'm uncertain of which approach I should choose for creating it. The app will be based on a google map with a lot of position markers. There won't be any fancy animations or other heavy resource-demanding activities.

As I see it there are three different options:

1. Read up on Java and program the whole thing in Java
2. Create the map activity in Java as a mapview and then use webviews for the other activities (which can easily be scripted as html5 webpages.)
3. Script everything as a webapp (not really an option, as this is not a real mobile app imho.

I'm most keen on using no. 2 as I'm quite familiar with html/php/js/mysql. Have to read up on the html5 specifics, though. Questions:

1. I need access to GPS and camera hardware. Is that acheivable in webviews?
2. How complicated is it to pass variables between js in webview activities and java in other activities?
3. How big a difference in performance can I expect if I use option 1 vs option 2?
4. Other thoughts?

Kind regards, Anders

Answer 1

You can choose number 2, but as we are talking about an android phone, you might want to get really accurate coordinates for your map, and you can only achieve this by accessing your phone GPS, through webviews the best you can get is the location trought the device internet IP adress, wich doesnt lead to a very accurate geo position. The best choice is a 100% java application in my opinion.

Answer 2

1) Yes it's possible, but as commented it will be less accurate and probably slow.

2) Not complicated. Painful if you need loads of interaction between a webview and native app. Using a Javascript Interface that can be set up from the native app. You can basically inject javascript in a webview's html.

3) Heterogeneity of performance depending on device. Because your implementation will be based on the device's browser you can expect to get really sluggish behavior for older devices. Anything to do with HTML events (Dragging, Tabbing...) will have a knock on most devices, from my experience.

4) As @vodich comments there are other party frameworks. My benchmarking on PhoneGap and other js-based options is that they're a waste of time if you are looking at developing a professional app. I haven't developed on Adobe AIR but find a pain the need to be installing plugins to get native functionality (access to sensors, camera, etc) Mobile is all about fast, responsive behaviour. HDI is your finger, user is fast, so app needs to be fast.

EDIT: So hell yeah! Java FTW!

Albert.

Answer 3

4.Other toughts?

Yes, if you really want to make a great Android app, you should be using only Android and specific Android UI components, and give it a native look and feel. And regarding 1,2 yes it is possible, I would say not so complicated to just integrate them, but I think you'll eventually get in big problems.

Answer 4

Learn Java and write your application natively.

Webviews might allow you to use your php skills to present something to the user, but it's entirely one-way - you'll not be able to interact with what's inside.

The Android developer site offers fantastic documentation and jumping from PHP to Java isn't greatly difficult, though you'll need to get used to strict typing and "real" OOP.

Other thoughts? Don't go down the PhoneGap/Cross platform toolkit road - it might allow you to write applications for multiple platforms and using your current skills, but in the end you get a subpar app that doesn't feel right on either platform and doesn't fair well as future versions of iOS and Android are released.