

Performance and UX Considerations For Successful PhoneGap Apps - triceam
http://www.tricedesigns.com/2013/03/11/performance-ux-considerations-for-successful-phonegap-apps/
Performance &#38; UX Considerations For Successful PhoneGap Apps (many tips also apply to mobile web pages/apps)
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dmotz
Developers should take heed of the "uncanny valley" point Andrew makes. While
I come across the rare example of an app that pulls off stock UI via CSS well
[1], most fail somewhere along their approach and end up subtly repelling the
user.

I wrote a PhoneGap app [2] and this fact was among my considerations when
designing it.

The performance points are spot on with my experiences, especially avoiding
any height and width manipulations. Most of the height transitions in my app
are actually translations on the Y axis, preventing reflows. Rather than
completely rely on the browser's native layout capabilities, it can pay off
tremendously to do some of those calculations and translations manually.

[1] - <http://cheeaun.github.com/hackerweb>

[2] - <http://chaincalapp.com>

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jchrisa
Important topic. Here is an in depth look at touch vs click, how to sprite
images, etc <http://maxogden.com/fast-webview-applications.html>

Also I think local data and avoiding network round trips is key to reliable
consistent high performance. This is why we built Couchbase Lite for mobile.
<https://github.com/couchbase/couchbase-lite-ios>

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seivan
Ugh, instead of dealing with all the edge cases and learning THEIR api, just
learn OBJ-C and Cocoa instead.

"So wait, you are telling me, I can build native mobile apps with just css and
js"

-"Yes, all you need to do is learn these 1000 quirks and edge cases for performance, and learn/memorise our API"

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triceam
If you are targeting multiple platforms, that's not always an option. PhoneGap
gives you the option to target 10 platforms w/ an HTML/JS codebase. Native
will always yield better performance and have best access to device APIs, but
will also be more expensive to develop & maintain. PhoneGap gives broader
reach at lower cost.

~~~
general_failure
10 target platforms is not a good argument. Only Android and iOS are relevant.
Really.

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JustinJ70s
Speaking from experience, developing apps with webview on mobile is a
minefield. Combining that with jQuery-mobile is akin to throwing a sheep into
that minefield.

