Ember.js and Cordova hybrid mobile app development
A client inquiry recently led me to research on developing a hybrid app. It’s something I have researched at a few points over the years so I wasn’t sure current options and best practices.
I’ve been working with Ember.js over the summer and it occurred to me that this might be a good opportunity to use Ember.
PhoneGap, the software I explore previously, has subsequently gone through some transformations and sort of resurfaced under the name Cordova. There is still a PhoneGap project, but it is now an Adobe product built on top of Cordova, which remains a free open-source platform for converting web apps to native.
In the Ember.js world there is a project called ember-cli-cordova that adds functionality to support the marriage between Ember and Cordova. This worked beautifully for me.
My setup now consists of:
- an Ember.js app built with ember-cli
- ember-cli-cordova
- Bootstrap for UI
I am still looking at various other mobile-specific UI solutions, but haven’t yet found anything that looks and works apart from solutions that seem in some way inappropriate – eg ionic looked wonderful but was specifically tied to Angular. Sencha looked good, but also seemed like it was designed more as a complete solution.
I am available for Ember consulting work – get in touch to learn more.