Beginning PhoneGap: Mobile Web Framework for JavaScript and HTML5

PhoneGap is a growing and leading open-source mobile web apps development framework that lets developers build JavaScript and HTML5-based web applications with native wrappers for more than six mobile platforms, including iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. This framework lets you build HTML- and JavaScript-based apps and still take advantage of native mobile device capabilities like camera, localStorage, geolocation, storage and much more, irrespective of the mobile platform you target. It also lets you use more specialized JavaScript frameworks like jQuery Mobile and more.

Beginning PhoneGap is a definitive, one-of-a-kind book that teaches the fundamentals and strategies behind cross-platform mobile application development. Instead of learning languages like Objective-C, focus on building apps from day one for Android, iOS, Blackberry, WebOS and Symbian—without the complexities of these platforms.

This book shows how to build apps which makes use of Google Local Search to create a Restaurant finder apps (which uses Maps to layout locations and uses internal database to store your favorite restaurants. Furthermore, you'll learn how to extend PhoneGap's functionality by using PhoneGap plugins to write apps like Dropbox (syncing files in the background outside HTML/JavaScript code and in native code).

By the time you finish Beginning PhoneGap, you'll know PhoneGap inside and out, and, consequently, be able to develop mobile web apps faster and more efficiently than ever before. Make more money in less time!

What you’ll learn

This book offers an examples-based approach on how to build PhoneGap-based HTML and JavaScript that integrates device features like geolocation, camera, storage, and more.

• To understand mobile web applications development using the PhoneGap framework
• How to build simple apps for iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, WebOS and Symbian
• The differences in capabilities across various mobile devices
• How to integrate other popular mobile JavaScript frameworks to build user interfaces in PhoneGap
• All the major features in PhoneGap, like geolocation, camera, media, storage, and more.
• How to build app which make use of OAuth for authentication with services like Facebook
• How to extend PhoneGap using the PhoneGap plugin development framework

Who this book is for

This book is for project managers and developers of mobile applications who plan to develop for more than one platform, and are interested in saving money and time in the development process.

About the Authors

Rohit Ghatol is a technology evangelist, always analyzing upcoming technology and finding the right places to apply it. Rohit is an associate architect with Quickoffice, building its mobile suite. He is a technical speaker on various topics including Android, Google Web Toolkit, and various Google and Spring technologies. He is a Google Technology User Group manager and formerly worked as part of the OpenSocial team at Google.

Yogesh Patel is a seasoned developer, building Web 2.0-based applications over the last 8 years. His expertise lies in Usability and Web 2.0 on JavaScript and GWT, and he is a corporate trainer on JavaScript and GWT-based technology. Yogesh is currently working as a Project Lead and Usability Guru with FuelQuest Inc. and Synerzip India, and he is actively involved in developing PhoneGap-based mobile applications with provision for Push from the cloud.