Technologies like PhoneGap, Xamarin and other cross-platform frameworks may be a great choice for your project. But you should be aware of the risks you take: framework lock-in, compatibility issues, easy reverse engineering etc.

1. The risks you take
when develop cross-
platform apps using
HTML5

2. Anton Sakharov
CEO/CTO, MLSDev
sakharov@mlsdev.com

3. Vinnytsia, Ukraine
Kraków, Poland

5. Cross-platform app frameworks
● Apache Cordova / Adobe PhoneGap
● Appcelerator Titanium
● Sencha Touch
● Intel XDK - runs on Cordova
● IONIC - Angular-based UI framework
● Xamarin - C#, not HTM5
● RubyMotion - not HTML5
● ...

6. HTML5 apps

7. Image taken from cordova.apache.org

8. Images taken from cordova.apache.org

9. App (HTML, CSS, JS)
Hardware
Web View
OS
HTML5 cross-platform framework
Native part of cross-platform framework

10. Apache Cordova/Adobe PhoneGap
Images taken from cordova.apache.org

11. Appcelerator Titanium
Images taken from cordova.apache.org

12. Images taken from appcelerator.com

14. Write Once, Run Anywhere
Sun Microsystems about Java

16. Risks
● Framework lock-in
● Compatibility
● Cross-browser markup
● Bugs in frameworks
● Performance
● Reverse Engineering

17. Framework lock-in

18. Your app
Hardware
Web Browser Engine (e.g. WebKit)
Core OS
3rd-party frameworks
(Cordova, Titanium etc)

19. What can you do here?
● Develop native plugins for you cross-
platform framework
● Sacrifice some features of your project

20. Compatibility

22. Few more
● Back button on Android, no Back button on iOS
● Touch events different behaviour from platform
to platform
● IndexedDB
● ...

23. Image taken from caniuse.com

24. Cross-browser
markup

25. Web Browser Engines
● WebKit (Apple Safari, Android Browser)
● Blink (Chrome)
● Trident (Internet Explorer)
● Gecko (Firefox)
● Presto (Opera)
● ...

28. Few options
● Test on all kind of devices you want your app to
support (iPhones, iPads, Androids etc) - must
have, in fact
● Use UI frameworks (e.g. IONIC)
● Use Crosswalk (increases app size and affects
performance)

29. crosswalk-project.org

30. Bugs in frameworks

31. App (HTML, CSS, JS)
Hardware
Web View
OS
HTML5 cross-platform framework
Native part of cross-platform framework

32. App (we can fix bug here)
Hardware (impossible)
API (can’t fix)
Core OS (no chance)

33. App (we can do a workaround...)
Hardware (impossible)
API (...if bug is here)
Core OS (no chance)

34. Special case
● new iOS version is about to be
released
● your framework is not ready for it
● your framework has bugs related to
new iOS version

35. This may block your app
update

38. What to do?

39. Few options, all are not quite
good
● refine your project requirements
according to framework stable
compatibilities
● postpone the release date
● keep native technology developers at
hand

40. One more...

41. Hire experienced developers

42. Performance

43. ● Longer user interaction response time
(touches etc)
● UI rendering
● PDF rendering
● ...
HTML5 vs. Native

44. … but nobody cares
these days
you need to reduce your time-to-
market if you are startup

45. Reverse Engineering

46. =

47. =

48. Cordova/PhoneGap

59. What to do?

60. Uglify your JavaScript files

61. One more ;)

62. Hire experienced developers

65. Anton Sakharov
CEO/CTO, MLSDev
sakharov@mlsdev.com