In a society like the one we live in today, the speed at which technology advances is really overwhelming, today it is almost impossible to imagine a scenario in which technology does not help us in some way, but since it is very uncomfortable to carry a computer everywhere, it is there where mobile phones come into play since their invention in 1973.They brought with them a great change in society, today we have much more versatile and aesthetic cellphones than in those years, and we can also download countless apps that help us in different areas, from work to leisure, to know the weather and watch the news; the possibilities are virtually endless.
But what if instead of downloading applications we want to create them ourselves? We can find applications created by small companies for recreational purposes, to internationally renowned ones such as Adidas which use a variety of resources to create their apps and offer them on different platforms. It is safe to say that Android and iOs apps make up a large part of the online market, and all these apps are made thanks to software, different technologies and programs for open source programming.
Titanium SDK
Titanium developed by Appcelerator. It is an open source program for developing native mobile applications on various platforms such as Android, iOs and Windows UWP from a JavaScript code base. It has cloud services and thanks to this, the development of interconnected applications through software and hardware elements, is possible. This will naturally allow the use of a microphone, camera and GPS, which is cutting-edge technology since it allows us to design apps with geo-location and augmented reality. It is a very intuitive program and it is easy to learn, so it is not necessary to have advanced knowledge in programming to know how to use it.
Many people completely trust in Appcelerator and run the apps developed by the program. As a matter of fact, we are talking about around 200 million users who use it for their mobile apps. These involve big companies like Avis, Zipcar and even Adidadas.
PhoneGap
This is a system dedicated to develop apps only by using HTML5, JavaScript and CS33. Although Nitobi is the creator, the system was brought to us through Adobe System. Thanks
to its API, even the access to hardware items is possible with the system, for example an external storage example.
Apache Cordoba is the open source version of PhoneGap, the main difference of these frameworks is that PhoneGap has access to the compilation service in the Adobe Creative Cloud, allowing you to compile the app to adapt it to the desired operating system, regardless of the one in which it will be used. Another of its advantages is that it allows the browser to use either Google or Firefox as default, to name an example.
jQuery Mobile
The jQuery mobile framework allows you to create cross-platform hybrid applications on Android or iOS. Although it is specially optimized for smartphones, it also allows being adapted to different devices and their screen sizes. Iits interface allows the user to create their own applications using only HTML5.
If you are someone who is used and prefers to work with HTML, this is perfect for you. But it is important to know that users can process lines of code which have been written in JavaScript and CSS. As an advantage, jQuery also provides guide files to make its usage easier for new users. But as a disadvantage, the apps it creates don’t work very efficiently as native apps, but closer to a website for Smartphones.
It is a good option to make the main body of an app, but since it lacks a design thought for current standards on mobile platforms, other additional plugins will surely be needed to improve and refine the design, compatibility and functionality of the final product.
Symfony
Symfony is one of the open source PHP frameworks with more demand today, this is because it has a large community behind it that is given the task of constantly feeding improvements and updates regularly. It adapts to most projects, although it is designed for large web applications. Its main advantage is that it generates a code that is easy to read, interpret, extend and maintain.
Among the different advantages that Symfony offers us, the following stand out.
- It is flexible and very stable
- It allows the generation of REST APIs
- Presents an Abstraction in the database.
Due to the fact that it is constantly updated, sometimes changes in the codes occur but thanks to its elaborate documentation, which collects information from all its updates, it makes it faster and easier to get used to these new changes that it may present.
Angular
Angular developed by Google is a JavaScript framework open source. Currently it is one of the JS frameworks (JavaScript) with the most demand, due to the support and experience of Google, they make it a powerful, safe and reliable tool. Angular facilitates the creation of modern web applications of the SPA (Single Page Application) type, which means that any web page is loaded in the user’s browser, ensuring fast and efficient interaction. We can access these pages from our Smartphone or PC in some cases.
Since Angular is a technology used only in the Front (visible part of the application) it allows us that the Back, the site where the application is administered and the interaction with the database, is developed in the programming language that we want, letting us to use another framework like Symfony. Its general characteristics are similar to those of Symfony, offering us flexibility, standardization and speed in developments, allwing you to create reusable and easy-to-use modules.
At first, using Angular is a bit difficult because you need advanced knowledge of JavaScript programming mainly, but after you get used to its interface it is easy to learn and use. After the appearance of Angular, a before and after was fixed in the form of the development of web applications since its stability and performance generated trust among its users, because the applications developed by this framework tend to be faster than those designed by other PHP framework tools.