Mobile Website Wrapped in an App

[somedesigner]

I have a client that needs a mobile website, but he wants his users to be able to download & install it like an app. (For Android and iOS). I can’t really convince him otherwise, this is really what he wants, so I am trying to figure out a good way to do it.

I had a couple questions I was hoping someone with a little experience in this arena could answer.

1. Will an app like that even pass muster in their respective app stores?

2. For someone with a reasonable amt of web experience, would it be difficult to set up and build the very basic app portion of this for Android and iOS? (The app would essentially just launch the browser API and then direct it to an address).

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[logic_earth]

PhoneGap…

Apache Cordova

[wwb_99]

Android store has zero controls outside of some anti-virus stuff. iOS definitely discourages copies of websites but what happens really depends on how bad a day the poor sap reviewing your app is having. Anyhow, you might want to check out PhoneGap as it is meant for scenarios just like this. But I wouldn’t expect a great feeling awesome native app to come out of it’s code generation.

[jobgurus]

@somedesigner

I have a client that needs a mobile website, but he wants his users to be able to download & install it like an app. (For Android and iOS). I can’t really convince him otherwise, this is really what he wants, so I am trying to figure out a good way to do it.

I had a couple questions I was hoping someone with a little experience in this arena could answer.

1. Will an app like that even pass muster in their respective app stores?

2. For someone with a reasonable amt of web experience, would it be difficult to set up and build the very basic app portion of this for Android and iOS? (The app would essentially just launch the browser API and then direct it to an address).

Any help is greatly appreciated.

I have the same experience, I don’t really know how to go about it. I have been googling and doing some research, hopeful i ll come up with a solution soon.

[jobgurus]

thanks for this info, let me see how i can use it. I what to see if I can turn these websites to apps http://www.jobgurusng.com and http://www.pointafrica.com . All I want to do is to convert their feeds to mobile app, so that my blackberry users can install it and get alert when there is a new feed…
I will update you the out come

[NightStalker]

Well, it is not easy, but not very difficult either. The best is to start with a hello world on each platform, so that you know how it works and fits together. Then google each part as you go a long or ask here. The main thing to learning is having a proper project. Which you have. So it should not take to long.

Notifications on the other hand is a bit trickier. Well, showing a notification is the easy part. But if you want it to be push notifications, then it will get a bit tricky for a beginner. But there are lots of tutorial resources out there on the net.

Good luck

[jobgurus]

@NightStalker_DNS

Well, it is not easy, but not very difficult either. The best is to start with a hello world on each platform, so that you know how it works and fits together. Then google each part as you go a long or ask here. The main thing to learning is having a proper project. Which you have. So it should not take to long.

Notifications on the other hand is a bit trickier. Well, showing a notification is the easy part. But if you want it to be push notifications, then it will get a bit tricky for a beginner. But there are lots of tutorial resources out there on the net.

Good luck

Thanks man for the encouragement.

[behati]

The first mobile apps I created were using PhoneGap and jQuery Mobile which worked quite well. I have honestly only developed for Android though, since I’m having a hard time convincing myself to actually pay for the iOS developer license

[StevenHu]

“2. For someone with a reasonable amt of web experience, would it be difficult to set up and build the very basic app portion of this for Android and iOS? (The app would essentially just launch the browser API and then direct it to an address).”

This goes against Apple guidelines. Tell your client that the app will be rejected for iTunes. iTunes would consider this to be a “web app” and it should be designed accordingly.

[StevenHu]

@behati

The first mobile apps I created were using PhoneGap and jQuery Mobile which worked quite well. I have honestly only developed for Android though, since I’m having a hard time convincing myself to actually pay for the iOS developer license

I developed the same apps for iTunes and Android. I get literally ten times the downloads via iTunes than Android. Go figure. Well worth the $99/year, since I’ve made over a thousand dollars with my apps there. Some of the apps were with PhoneGap.