Top 5 tools for cross-platform mobile app development

[51CTO Translation] This article introduces five practical tools for cross-platform mobile application development.

We all know how cumbersome it can be to develop mobile apps across platforms. Each platform is unique and has different functionalities, features, and behaviors. But on the other hand, cross-platform apps are really "in" these days, so you as a developer need to find solutions to develop the best cross-platform apps without exhausting all your resources by developing for several platforms at a time.

Fortunately for you and me, there are some really great cross-platform development tools available on the market that can easily achieve your development goals. Here is a list of the top five development tools for cross-platform mobile app development.

1. RhoMobile

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RhoMobile offers Rhodes, an open source Ruby-based framework that allows developers to create native applications that run across a wide range of operating systems and smartphones, including Android, Windows Mobile, Symbian, iPhone, and RIM, covering almost all major operating systems.

Using the framework provided by RhoMobile, you only need to write code once. This code can be used to develop applications for most mainstream smartphones. Native applications are well suited to run in conjunction with existing hardware, so you can complete development tasks easily, quickly and accurately.

RhoMobile also provides developers with RhoHub, a hosted development environment, and RhoSync, which can be deployed as stand-alone server software to ensure that all application data on users' handheld devices is up to date.

Related link : http://rhomobile.com

2. PhoneGap

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PhoneGap, which was highly praised at the 2009 LaunchPad conference at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco, is a free and open source software (FOSS) environment that allows developers to create applications for devices such as Android, Palm, Symbian, Blackberry, iPhone, iTouch and iPad. The platform uses standard web development languages ​​such as HTML and JavaScript.

PhoneGap lets developers use device hardware features such as accelerometers, GPS/location, cameras, audio, and more.

PhoneGap also offers an Adobe AIR app and online training courses to help developers access native APIs and develop mobile apps on its own platform.

Related link : http://phonegap.com

3. Appcelerator

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Titanium development platform from Appcelerator helps to develop native mobile, tablet and desktop applications through web programming languages ​​such as HTML, PHP, JavaScript, Ruby and Python; by the way, the platform has a large number of fans and supporters in the Twitter community. Now more than 1,000 native applications are developed every month. The most outstanding advantage of Titanium is that it allows users to easily access and obtain more than 300 sets of APIs and location information.

In addition, Appcelerator also provides customizable metrics for actions and events. The application is completely hardware-based, and all application data can be stored in the cloud or on the device.

Related link : http://www.appcelerator.com

4. MoSync

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MoSync is another FOSS cross-platform mobile application development SDK tool based on standard web programming techniques. This SDK provides developers with integrated compilers, code libraries, runtime environments, device profiles, and other utilities. MoSync now includes an Eclipse-based integrated development environment (IDE) for C/C++ programming, and plans to support JavaScript, PHP, Ruby, Python, and other languages ​​​​such as this.

MoSync offers support for several operating systems, including Windows Mobile, Android, Symbian, Moblin and even a mobile Linux distribution, and support for iPhone OS and BlackBerry will follow soon after the release of MoSync 2.4.

Related link : http://www.mosync.com

5. WidgetPad

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WidgetPad is a collaborative, open source environment for developing smartphone applications using standard web technologies such as JavaScript, HTML5, and CSS3.

The platform includes the following features: source code editing, collaboration, debugging, project management, version control and distribution. WidgetPad is currently in private beta and can be used to develop applications for iOS, Android OS and WebOS.

Related link : http://newcritics.com/blog1/categories/widgetpad/

6. Whoop

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This tool is not actually a well-known tool, but it is worth noting. Whoop confidently claims that it is a "one-stop mobile application publishing platform for non-developers." Even if you are not a developer, you can still use Whoop to complete some cross-platform development work.

Of course, there's no guarantee that your product will have the same polished, professional look as those developed by professional programmers, but Whoop is definitely worth a closer look.

Whoop Creative Studio is basically a WYSIWYG editing tool that allows you to easily drag and drop elements of your mobile app onto it to get the desired effect. In addition, you can even export your app in a variety of formats, depending on the specific operating system, including Windows Mobile, Blackberry, Android, iPhone, and more.

Related link : http://whoop.com

Top 5 Tools for Multi-Platform Mobile App Development

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