I been having some fun developing some mobile applications for kids who are learning the common sight words. I decided that I’d give JQuery Mobile and Cordova (previously PhoneGap) a go and see how it stacks up.
I already had my system setup for iOS and Android development, so getting started with Cordova was simple, you just run the create command from a terminal window, this will create the full XCode project for iOS and layout the project structure for easy import into ADT.
I developed the applications for iOS first up, there was nothing really fancy, my memory game has a bit of game logic and makes use of the media plugin to play the sound mp3 files. There was a subtle difference in the paths that are passed into the Media object between iOS and Android which I had to be aware of when bringing the code into the Android project.
Once the application was developed, it was time to submit to the various app stores. I choose Google Play first up, it only requires a once off registration fee. The best bit about the Google Play store was the lack of a review process, your app goes live instantly.
Submitting to the Apple store was pretty straight forward as well, I mean once you get your certificates sorted out. You run your package through Organizer which looks to make sure you have all the right components after which it declares it as validated and allows you to upload to the store.
The Apple app took about a week for review, they had no issues and allowed it for sale shortly after approval.
Overall I’m a fairly happy with the result, the games aren’t blockbuster quality, but they do function as intended. I still think native applications provide the best experience in terms of speed and the generic look and feel of the native apps is a little nicer in my opinion.
Feel free to have a look at the collection of sight word apps, if you have kids I’m sure they’ll be a hit.
Httpcode 