This blog post will show how to take a web site written only in HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript and quickly develop an iOS and Android mobile application. In order to do this, I will use Adobe PhoneGap, a mobile web frame to build cross-platform mobile applications. As mentioned in my previous blog post, PhoneGap is an HTML5 app platform that allows you to author native applications with web technologies. Even though my blog post will only show how to develop an iOS and Android application, PhoneGap also supports developing BlackBerry, webOS, Windows Phone 7, Palm devices, etc. In a nutshell, you’ll be using a PhoneGap wrapper that contains your web-based HTML, CSS and JavaScript code. Also, you will gain access to many of the device’s native features such as the compass, camera, the contacts list, accelerometer, etc.

PhoneGap introduced last year PhoneGap Build which offers a cloud-based service that takes your app written in HTML5, CSSe and Javascript and sends you back app-store ready apps for iOS, Android, Palm, Symbian and the other mobile platforms. Check out pricing and other details on their web site.

Below is a general process involved in getting setup using PhoneGap and developing an application:

1. PhoneGap has a great Getting Started tutorial for all the mobile platforms. Download the PhoneGap tools and the specific set of tools for the platforms you’re working with. For example, download Xcode and iOS SDK if you plan on porting your web site to an iOS application. Download the Android SDK and Eclipse if you plan on making an Android application.

2. Install all the platform tools and PhoneGap to your existing environment.

3. Start developing your web application and test with a web browser of your choice. I normally use Visual Studio to write my web application and test it using Safari, Chrome or any webkit supported browser. Since these are the types of browsers on smartphones. I would take advantage of Visual Studio’s IDE in debugging my javascript code or Web Inspector in Safari or the dev tools found in FireFox or Chrome.

4. Once you’re ready to port it to a mobile application, you will put all your web files within the www folder. For Xcode, all you need to do is create a new project using the PhoneGap template. Once the project is created, immediately compile the project. Once the project is done building, a www folder will be created in your project folder. Add the www folder into the project navigator. This is where you will house all your web files (HTML5, CSS3 and Javascript files). Run your project and you should see your web page displayed in the iPhone or iPad simulator.

5. For Android, install Android SDK, Eclipse and then the Android plug-in for Eclipse. Create an Android project in Eclipse and follow these steps to modify the project to support PhoneGap. Then run the project and select an Android Virtual Device (AVD) to use as the emulator to display your application.

6. Steps 4 and 5 can be done for you using PhoneGap Build. Just upload your web application files using their Cloud service and they will send you back app-store ready packaged files for the mobile platforms they support.

7. A noteworthy caveat is you will have to tweak some of your web language code depending on which mobile platform you choose. Not all mobile devices are similar in hardware but PhoneGap does an excellent job in pointing out issues through their API Docs section on their web site.

For step 5, here are some links to great tutorials on how to Get Started in developing for Android:
1. Getting Started With Android Development Using Eclipse
2. Getting Started with Android on a Mac
3. Running Android SDK Examples Using Eclipse

So below is a web page example written only in HTML5, CSS3 and Javascript. The HTML consists of an input element and a button. Using JavaScript, it dynamically shows in an unordered list the input values you submit. If you click any of the list items in the unordered list, it will make a call using the Twitter Search API and return the latest tweet with that keyword as an input parameter.

HTML elements:

- (void) prepareForSegue:(UIStoryboardSegue *)segue sender:(id)sender
{
    <body>
	<div id="main">
        <h1>Search Twitter</h1>
        <form id="foodForm">
            <input type="text" id="foodName" placeholder="keyword" />
            <button id="submitFood">Tell Us!</button><br>
        </form>
        <ul id="foodList">
        </ul>
        </div>
   </body>
}

JavaScript code event handler when DOM is loaded:

- (void) prepareForSegue:(UIStoryboardSegue *)segue sender:(id)sender
{
    document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function () {
            //navigator.notification.alert("I think today will be a great day.", function() {}, "Great Day");
            // uncomment below code to clear items in LocalStorage
            //window.localStorage.clear();
            // <ul> instance variable
            var foodList = document.getElementById('foodList');
            // textbox instance variable
            var foodField = document.getElementById('foodName');

            // length of food items in localStorage
            var l = window.localStorage.length;
            var i = 0;
            var storedFoodName;


            // add food item to <li> child
            function addNewFoodItem(foodName) {
                var newFoodItem = document.createElement('li');
                newFoodItem.innerHTML = foodName;
                foodList.appendChild(newFoodItem);
            }

            // loops through localStorage for food items and calls addNewFoodItem function
            for (i; i < l; i++) {
                storedFoodName = window.localStorage.key(i);
                if (storedFoodName.match(/^food[.]/))
                    addNewFoodItem(window.localStorage.getItem(storedFoodName));
            }
}

Javascript code that gets handled when the button is clicked:

document.getElementById('foodForm').addEventListener('submit', function (evt) {
                evt.preventDefault();
                var newFood = foodField.value;

                // creates a foodKey value with food.[length]
                var foodKey = "food." + (window.localStorage.length + 1);
                // calls addNewFoodItem function
                addNewFoodItem(newFood);
                // saves foodKey and input food to localStorage
                window.localStorage.setItem(foodKey, newFood);

                // clears foodFied variable
                foodField.value = "";
                return false;

            }, false);
        });

Javascript code that calls the Twitter Search API remote service using the XMLHttpRequest object and parses the JSON data returned. It displays the latest tweet in a notification alert after you click on the ListItem in the unordered list.

// callback function to get the latest tweet
        function getLatestResult(JSONstring) {
            var twitterPayload = JSON.parse(JSONstring);
            var latestResult = twitterPayload.results[0];

            return latestResult;
        }

        // performs a get request for url
        // passes the response text to callback
        function getXHR(url, callback) {
            var req = new XMLHttpRequest();
            req.onreadystatechange = function () {
                if (this.readyState == 4) {
                    if (this.status == 200 || this.status == 0) {
                        callback(this.responseText);
                    } else {
                        console.log('something went wrong');
                    }
                }
            }
            req.open('GET', url, true);
            req.send();
        }

        // event handler for the clicks on <li> elements using event delegation to catch all of these events.
        // We listen on the document element, and then, if the target of the event matches one of our list items, 
        // fires the event handler
        document.addEventListener("click", function (evt) {
            if (evt.target.tagName == 'LI') {
                // gets the selected <li> element
                var foodSubject = evt.target.innerHTML;
                var foodSearch = encodeURIComponent(foodSubject);
                // generates twitterURL for Twitter Search API
                var twitterUrl = 'http://search.twitter.com/search.json?q=' + foodSearch;

                // calls getXHR function to get latest tweet of selected <li> element 
                // then calls callback function to pop-up an alert msg with latest tweet
                getXHR(twitterUrl, function (response) {
                    var latestTweet = getLatestResult(response);
                    var msg = 'Latest Tweet about ' + foodSubject + ' from ' + latestTweet.from_user + ': ' + latestTweet.text;
                    //navigator.notification.alert("PhoneGap is working")
                    alert(msg);
                })
            }

        }, false);

Project Navigator in Xcode for PhoneGap project

iPhone emulator of PhoneGap application

Project Explorer of Android project in Eclipse. Notice the /assets/www folder and /libs folder with PhoneGap related web files

Android Virtual Device running the web page

PhoneGap is good at helping developers leverage their experience at building web applications using web standards, HTML, CSS and JavaScript. If you know web standards, you’ll experience few problems while working with PhoneGap. All you need to learn is how to use the PhoneGap API. Once you become familiar with the PhoneGap API, you can quickly take advantage of accessing the device’s camera, pull up the contacts or work with the accelerometer or compass.

As the web site example above shows, if you need to connect your application with a remote web service, you can easily bring in tools like jQuery to create powerful Ajax handlers. Or as I demonstrate in how to use XmlHttpRequest objects.

As I pointed out in step 7 above, just because you code a web application using PhoneGap and it works on an iPhone device, it doesn’t automatically mean that it will work on other devices. You will have to test and tweak for the other devices that are supported.

If you want to port to multiple devices, you will need separate environments for each wrapper. For example, you won’t be able to maintain your Android PhoneGap wrapper with Xcode. I used my Mac and have installed Xcode and Eclipse but I make sure I keep them in separate environments.