Building Android Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript: Making Native Apps with Standards-Based Web Tools

by Jonathan Stark, Brian Jepson, Brian MacDonald

Overview

If you know HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, you already have the tools you need to develop Android applications. Now updated for HTML5, the second edition of this hands-on guide shows you how to use open source web standards to design and build apps that can be adapted for any Android device.

You’ll learn how to create an Android-friendly web app on the platform of your choice, and then use Adobe’s free PhoneGap framework to convert it to a native Android app. Discover why device-agnostic mobile apps are the wave of the future, and start building apps that offer greater flexibility and a much broader reach.

• Convert a website into a web application, complete with progress indicators and other features
• Add animation with JQTouch to make your web app look and feel like a native Android app
• Make use of client-side data storage with apps that run when the Android device is offline
• Use PhoneGap to hook into advanced Android features, including the accelerometer, geolocation, and alerts
• Test and debug your app on the Web with real users, and submit the finished product to the Android Market

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781449316419
Publisher:	O'Reilly Media, Incorporated
Publication date:	02/01/2012
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	174
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Jonathan Stark is a mobile and web application consultant who has been called "an expert on publishing desktop data to the web" by the Wall Street Journal. He has written two books on web application programming, is a tech editor for both php|architect and Advisor magazines, and has been quoted in the media on internet and mobile lifestyle trends. Jonathan began his programming career more than 20 years ago on a Tandy TRS-80 and still thinks Zork was a sweet game.

Brian Jepson is an O'Reilly editor, hacker, and co-organizer of Providence Geeks and the Rhode Island Mini Maker Faire. He's also a geek-at-large for AS220, a non-profit arts center in Providence, Rhode Island. AS220 gives Rhode Island artists uncensored and unjuried forums for their work and also provides galleries, performance space, fabrication facilities, and live/work space.

Brian MacDonald has edited programming and networking books for major publishers on topics ranging from securing Windows servers to PHP web programming to running an eBay business. He also coauthored O'Reilly's Learning C# 2005.

Table of Contents

Preface; Who Should Read This Book; What You Need to Use This Book; Conventions Used in This Book; Using Code Examples; Safari® Books Online; How to Contact Us; Acknowledgments; Chapter 1: Getting Started; 1.1 Web Apps Versus Native Apps; 1.2 Web Programming Crash Course; Chapter 2: Basic Styling; 2.1 Don’t Have a Website?; 2.2 First Steps; 2.3 Adding the Android CSS; 2.4 Adding the Android Look and Feel; 2.5 Adding Basic Behavior with jQuery; 2.6 What You’ve Learned; Chapter 3: Advanced Styling; 3.1 Adding a Touch of Ajax; 3.2 Traffic Cop; 3.3 Simple Bells and Whistles; 3.4 Adding an Icon to the Home Screen; 3.5 What You’ve Learned; Chapter 4: Animation; 4.1 With a Little Help from Our Friend; 4.2 Sliding Home; 4.3 Adding the Dates Panel; 4.4 Adding the Date Panel; 4.5 Adding the New Entry Panel; 4.6 Adding the Settings Panel; 4.7 Putting It All Together; 4.8 Customizing jQTouch; 4.9 What You’ve Learned; Chapter 5: Client-Side Data Storage; 5.1 Web Storage; 5.2 Web SQL Database; 5.3 Web Database Error Code Reference; 5.4 What You’ve Learned; Chapter 6: Going Offline; 6.1 The Basics of the Offline Application Cache; 6.2 Online Whitelist and Fallback Options; 6.3 Creating a Dynamic Manifest File; 6.4 Debugging; 6.5 What You’ve Learned; Chapter 7: Going Native; 7.1 Introduction to PhoneGap; 7.2 Building Your App Locally with Eclipse and the Android SDK; 7.3 Controlling the Phone with JavaScript; 7.4 What You’ve Learned; Chapter 8: Submitting Your App to the Android Market; 8.1 Preparing a Release Version of Your App; 8.2 Uploading Your App to the Android Market; 8.3 Distributing Your App Directly; 8.4 Further Reading; Detecting Browsers with WURFL; Installation; Configuration; Testing wurfl-php; Colophon;