Ember.js ios Android app Useful Nova Scotia Plants

Over the course of the past year we developed, and have recently released, a Useful Nova Scotia Plants mobile application. The application was a collaboration with Marian Munro, the Nova Scotia Museum’s Curator of Botany, and includes photographic contributions from the Museum’s network of contributors.

Built with Ember.js and Cordova

Built with Ember.js, our go-to javascript framework, the application can be written once and run anywhere thanks to Apache’s Cordova project. Cordova applications built in Ember have recently made great performance strides thanks to the excellent Ember Cordova project.

Available now for iOS and Android

The app is currently available as a native application for iOS and Android. at no cost through the Google Play store and the iOS App Store.

Maybe a progressive web application?

A progressive web app available as a website is under consideration. For our initial release, the geographic limitations of Nova Scotian mobile coverage combined with data usage concerns made a native application compelling: you can download the app once, and then use it freely in any of the remote locations around the province where the various plants may be found without worrying about a service interruption just when you think you’ve found something of interest while out and about.

In the meantime, I’ve taken some steps towards a progressive web app, minus some key features such as Service Worker, and it’s available here: http://www.usefulnovascotiaplants.com/