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gipsy
Hi all,
i have an existing Visualforce application and i have to make it runnable on a mobile device Android using Mobile SDK. Which approach, among Native, HTML5 and Hybrid, do you suggest to use?
Thanks in advance!
A Visualforce application is a web application. And a web application is a web application is a web application, meaning that it can run pretty much anywhere that has a browser, assuming that the underlying HTML and Javascript can run in the particular browser. In that sense, making your Visualforce app "work" on mobile is no different than testing a new browser for compatibility. Assuming you don't need to make use of any of the device's on-board capabilities and are willing to run your Visualforce app in the mobile browser, compatibility/usability is all you need to test. You don't really need the Mobile SDK at all in this scenario.
Of course, if you want to make a Visualforce app that's really tailored for the mobile experience, there are plenty of more sophisticated app design decisions that you have to consider. Googling "mobile web apps" will give you a laundry list of sites with best practices. But at it's heart, it's still just creating a web app.
Now, if you want to create an application that can be delivered from the App Store, or if you want to make use of device capabilities such as the camera or accessing contacts—if you want a mobile application that behaves like your typical downloaded mobile application—you need to go a step further and consider making a hybrid application. You can still reuse the majority of your original Visualforce app (assuming, as stated above, that it behaves well on a mobile browser), and indeed still host the app as a Visualforce app on force.com. But you'll have to augment it with some of the Mobile SDK components to enable your web app to run "contained" in a native shell. The Mobile SDK streamlines this process, and you can find good examples of creating a hybrid app out of your Visualforce app in the Mobile SDK Workbook (PDF link).
Cheers,
Kevin
All Answers
The "Recommended Mobile SDK Learning Path" section of the Mobile SDK landing page should be able to help you. If you're developing a straight HTML5 web app, you won't need the Mobile SDK. If you want to deliver your app in an app store, or make use of the native capabilities of the device, you'll want to consider a hybrid app.
Cheers,
Kevin
Thank you Kevin.
I've already read the learning path, but i've not yet understand which way follow. I've a standard Visualforce application and my task is to readapt one of the functionalities of this application so that this functionality can run also on a mobile device. So, i have to understand if i must implement from scratch this functionality or i can reuse the available code.
A Visualforce application is a web application. And a web application is a web application is a web application, meaning that it can run pretty much anywhere that has a browser, assuming that the underlying HTML and Javascript can run in the particular browser. In that sense, making your Visualforce app "work" on mobile is no different than testing a new browser for compatibility. Assuming you don't need to make use of any of the device's on-board capabilities and are willing to run your Visualforce app in the mobile browser, compatibility/usability is all you need to test. You don't really need the Mobile SDK at all in this scenario.
Of course, if you want to make a Visualforce app that's really tailored for the mobile experience, there are plenty of more sophisticated app design decisions that you have to consider. Googling "mobile web apps" will give you a laundry list of sites with best practices. But at it's heart, it's still just creating a web app.
Now, if you want to create an application that can be delivered from the App Store, or if you want to make use of device capabilities such as the camera or accessing contacts—if you want a mobile application that behaves like your typical downloaded mobile application—you need to go a step further and consider making a hybrid application. You can still reuse the majority of your original Visualforce app (assuming, as stated above, that it behaves well on a mobile browser), and indeed still host the app as a Visualforce app on force.com. But you'll have to augment it with some of the Mobile SDK components to enable your web app to run "contained" in a native shell. The Mobile SDK streamlines this process, and you can find good examples of creating a hybrid app out of your Visualforce app in the Mobile SDK Workbook (PDF link).
Cheers,
Kevin
thanks for your precious help Kevin