Turning Sencha Touch-based app into a true native iPhone app?

Question

As I understand, Sencha Touch is just a javascript library that lets you create websites that respond to multitouch and other features you find in native iPhone apps. So... Your end result is accessed on Safari on the iPhone, and not as a native iPhone app. Is there a way to convert this to a native app?

Solution 1

Yes, you can convert a Sencha Touch app to native. You have to use PhoneGap, or Nimblekit to do so. You can also write your own native wrappers - it's not very hard on iPhone, but more of a challenge on Android. We don't have a tutorial on this yet, but the phonegap guys have done this with at least one sencha app that they built. [I work for sencha]

Update: Here is a crazily detailed tutorial on using PhoneGap with Sencha

Solution 2

In principle yes. You could write some kind of a wrapper application. This application would have an ‘UIWebView‘ as the main view which is then used to browse the web. This would allow you to keep your HTML5-based app and wrap it in a native objective-c app.

If you want to write a "real" native app your would have to switch languages from HTML5, CSS and JS to Objective-C, which is really different.

Solution 3

So here is a question for the Sencha guys here, is there other documentation for Sencha Touch available beyond the API reference and sample apps on your site?

We are currently trying to switch a prototype application from JQTouch to Sencha, but are finding it challenging to get going with Sencha Touch; while there is a lot of documentation it doesn't seem to be the right documentation.

A really simple solution would be to make the API reference online allow comments so as we and others figure out how to use Sencha touch we could provide comments (look at php.net's manual to see how this worked for them.)

Comments

[ina]

Would there be any security disadvantages to just use a UIWebView wrapper pointing to a private Sencha Touch-based page? For example, would users be able to easily view source and hack off images like on a regular browser?

[ina]

App dev looks like a lot of fun, but my current skillset is more jQuery/HTML5. If it's possible to make my simple app using Sencha (without too many disadvantages), I'd start from there, I guess..

[ina]

On the econ and outreach side, having the app on iTunes might generate some extra cash and publicity.

[GorillaPatch]

well in this application one could hide the address of the homepage so that it cannot be looked at. However you have to download the page to your device. So unless you are getting the page over TLS/SSL it is possible to intercept the GET requests, find out the URL of your page and download and look at it on a desktop system.

[ina]

ok - also, it seems like there's a range of apps accepted by iTunes - do you know cases of a sencha touch based app that's "wrapped" by UIWebView for example into a native app being accepted/rejected? (assuming wrappers wouldn't be grounds for rejection)

[GorillaPatch]

no I do not have any experience if sencha touch based apps would be rejected. I think they are fine as it is just JavaScript, CSS and HTML.

[ina]

yes! sencha touch was suspiciously bereft of documentation, so i wonder about its effective usage stats..

[ina]

speaking of tutorial - senchatouch documentation still coming soon?

[Michael Mullany]

Yes, it's coming along but more slowly than we were aiming for

[David Kaneda]

Hi celer, I made jQTouch and helped with Sencha Touch and I understand where you're coming from — it's quite a different approach than jQTouch. That said, in addition to the API and sample apps, there is also a walkthrough app included in the SDK. We are also currently exploring ways to add comments into our docs (great idea!) and we have a few extra blog posts, getting started articles, and demo apps on the way-

[ina]

keep in mind that one of the rare virtues of the Apple dev community is that Apple offers comprehensive well-written documentation for free on their website. you can't find this for Android and other dev environments. ... so, good documentation in any competing product is a must for us spoiled Apple developers

[ina]

there are now several other to-native converters - is there a list for which ones Sencha works on?

[Michael Mullany]

Phonegap works for iOS and Android. We'll be working with RIM's WebWorks converter when we add Blackberry support, and when Meego ships, Nokia is using Phonegap in that one as well.

[Thomas]

Hi Michael. Can one also just use a WebView in Android or uiwebview in iOS to show a Sencha touch app located on a IIS-server somewhere? We have lots of customers who wants an app, but we dont have the ressources to develop. They need to take and upload pictures and use geolocation... Thanks in advance ;-)

[1Mayur]

get ur tutorial from #miamicoder, he writes so well, i love his sencha tuts and recommend it to everyne