Quick Start On Apache Cordova Using Visual Studio 2015

What is Apache Cordova?

Apache Cordova is a platform that is used for building mobile apps using HTML, CSS, and JS. We can think of Cordova as a container for connecting our web app with native mobile functionalities. Web applications cannot use native mobile functionalities by default. This is where Cordova comes in. It offers a bridge for connection between web apps and mobile devices.

By using Cordova we can make hybrid mobile apps that can use the camera, geolocation, file system, and other native mobile functions. Apache Cordova is an Open Source project, that aims at letting mobile developers build applications for all major mobile platforms using HTML5 technologies.

Apache Cordova is available for the following platforms: iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone, Palm WebOS, Bada, and Symbian.

Who will use Apache Cordova?

• The User interface for Apache Cordova applications is created using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It's a free, open-source framework for building cross-platform native applications using HTML5.
• It's a write-once, run-anywhere solution specifically designed for mobile.
• Those who know HTML, know they can easily develop Cross-platform Mobile Apps.
• Apache Cordova is very simple to create and use. It doesn't require deep technical knowledge or programming skills. So Students or Mobile App development beginners can very easily develop their apps through Apache Cordova.

When do we use Apache Cordova?

Use Apache Cordova if you are,

• a mobile developer who wants to extend an application across more than one platform, without having to re-implement it with each platform's language and tool set.
• a web developer who wants to deploy a web app that's packaged for distribution in various app store portals.
• a mobile developer interested in mixing native application components with a WebView (special browser window) that can access device-level APIs, or if you want to develop a plugin interface between native and WebView components.
• learning about HTML, CSS, and JavaScript we can use Apache Cordova. We can develop the cross-platform App using Apache Cordova
• a beginner or have fewer programming skills for App development, we can use Apache Cordova. We can easily build the App.

Why do we use Apache Cordova?

Apache Cordova’s architecture is extendable, and built around a plugin model. Anyone can create their own additional functionality for Cordova and publish it as a plugin. There are several components to a Cordova application.

The following diagram shows a high-level view of the Cordova Application Architecture.

Cordova Features

• Command Line Interface (Cordova CLI): This is a tool that can be used for starting projects, building processes for different platforms, installing plugins, and lots of other useful things that make the development process easier.
• Cordova Core Components: Cordova offers a set of core components that every mobile application needs. These components will be used for creating the base of the app so we can spend more time implementing our own logic.
• Cordova Plugins: Cordova offers API that will be used for implementing native mobile functions to our JavaScript app.

Cordova Advantages

• Cordova offers one platform for building hybrid mobile apps so we can develop one app that will be used on different mobile platforms including IOS, Android, Windows Phone, Amazon, Blackberry, Firefox OS, Ubuntu, and Tizen.
• It is faster to develop hybrid apps than native apps so Cordova can save a lot of development time
• Since we are using JavaScript when working with Cordova, we don't need to learn platform-specific programming languages.
• There are huge amounts of community add-ons that can be used with Cordova. Lots of libraries and frameworks are optimized for working with it.

Limitations

• Hybrid apps are slower than native ones so it is not optimal to use Cordova for large apps that require lots of data and functionality.
• Cross-browser compatibility can create lots of issues. Most of the time we are building apps for different platforms so the testing and optimizing can take a lot of time since we need to cover a large number of devices and operating systems.
• Some plugins have compatibility issues with different devices and platforms. There are also some native APIs that aren't yet supported by Cordova.

Developer Requirements