Cross platform Mobile development?

Acid0

Acid0

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Hi there,

Our company decided to create an app for our Reps based on our Oracle database that will feed data from the database and post back.

We are now still just in the discussion phase and that is where the issue comes in.
I would like to hear from you what your thoughts are.


We would like to keep the development in house as it will help with the quick turn around of bug fixes and enhancements

So here is my issue

1. Is it easier to stick to one platform i.e Apple or Android and what language for the preferred os
2. Do cross platform, what would then be the best language to use to create apps for Android and Apple

Will be great to get some feedback from you on what you either work with every day or suggestions.

TIA
 
Just devil's advocate here, do you really need an app?

Why not have it be a web app with a login (that is technically cross platform)

If you do absolutely want it to be an app, is there any reason not to make it a hybrid app using Ionic and Cordova?
 
If it is not going to be an advanced app using components from the phones themselves then a cross platform app with NativeScript or similar should work fine.

If it is going to be a read only app where data is just pushed to it you can always have a secure mobile page OR use a private Twitter feed. Telegram, Discord Slack etc. allows some pretty advanced integration with buttons to initiate workflows etc. We POC'd the latter at Standard Bank for the ops guys, worked fairly ok as an alerting mechanism since everybody already had one of these clients installed.

The Slack/Telegram route is the one I would take.

EDIT: Wrt to the integration, we basically dropped NATS in the middle and had "bots" listen to messages and push it to the clients.
 
Last edited:
Acid0 said:
Hi there,

Our company decided to create an app for our Reps based on our Oracle database that will feed data from the database and post back.

We are now still just in the discussion phase and that is where the issue comes in.
I would like to hear from you what your thoughts are.


We would like to keep the development in house as it will help with the quick turn around of bug fixes and enhancements

So here is my issue

1. Is it easier to stick to one platform i.e Apple or Android and what language for the preferred os
2. Do cross platform, what would then be the best language to use to create apps for Android and Apple

Will be great to get some feedback from you on what you either work with every day or suggestions.

TIA
Click to expand...

React-Native or Flutter. The backend is up to you, but I highly recommend GraphQL running on Node.

Oracle has supported projects for Node: https://github.com/oracle/node-oracledb

EDIT: I've already developed a React-Native app utilising an Oracle database.
 
Last edited:
Thor said:
Just devil's advocate here, do you really need an app?

Why not have it be a web app with a login (that is technically cross platform)

If you do absolutely want it to be an app, is there any reason not to make it a hybrid app using Ionic and Cordova?
Click to expand...

Erm... 2010 called, they want their cross-platform apps back! ;)
 
Whatever you do, avoid React-Native or Flutter. I personally would relook at the requirements. If you really need an app - go native and choose a platform with the most user base to start with. If you don't need an app, look at the suggestions [MENTION=17702]Hamster[/MENTION] mentions (Slack, etc)

I say go native, because right now it might be a small app for something small - but if it grows into something bigger, you will benefit the most from native development.
 
Tander said:
Whatever you do, avoid React-Native or Flutter. I personally would relook at the requirements. If you really need an app - go native and choose a platform with the most user base to start with. If you don't need an app, look at the suggestions [MENTION=17702]Hamster[/MENTION] mentions (Slack, etc)

I say go native, because right now it might be a small app for something small - but if it grows into something bigger, you will benefit the most from native development.
Click to expand...

Care to give reasons? These are both exceedingly well supported by two of the biggest companies in the world?
 
+1 for PWA for this purpose.

Ionic is very different from what it used to be. Even with Ionic 2 I found it worked better as a PWA than a Cordova app, and that was before they even looked at PWA's. Ionic 4 w/ Stencil is basically built for PWA's first and Cordova second. You can also now use the Ionic components within React, so basically just build a PWA with React and use Ionic for the pretty components, and Stencil for some awesome packaging.
 
phaktza said:
Care to give reasons? These are both exceedingly well supported by two of the biggest companies in the world?
Click to expand...

Yes, but native development on iOS is supported by THE biggest company in the world :p

/runs
 
Tander said:
Sure. Take a look at how Airbnb's experiance was with React-Native.

https://medium.com/airbnb-engineering/react-native-at-airbnb-f95aa460be1c

TL;DR Version - It caused more pain in the long run for them and they ended up reverting back to Native.
Click to expand...

That story is understandable for a large cutting-edge company - but to be honest most people don't have millions to afford a plethora of native developers.

Most people have the issues experienced by AirBnB, such as having to fork React-Native itself.

"React Native is progressing faster than ever. There have been over 2500 commits in the last year and Facebook just announced that they are addressing some of the technical challenges we faced head-on."

Alternatively, Flutter is brought to you by the same guys that brought you Android - and is based on a different tech stack.

Food for thought :)

EDIT: I think one of AirBnB'b biggest mistakes was to not use TypeScript. It was a very odd decision... and then to complain about JavaScript not being a typed language.
 
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phaktza said:
That story is understandable for a large cutting-edge company - but to be honest most people don't have millions to afford a plethora of native developers.

Most people have the issues experienced by AirBnB, such as having to fork React-Native itself.

"React Native is progressing faster than ever. There have been over 2500 commits in the last year and Facebook just announced that they are addressing some of the technical challenges we faced head-on."

Alternatively, Flutter is brought to you by the same guys that brought you Android - and is based on a different tech stack.

Food for thought :)
Click to expand...

I personally think in the end, Reactive native or Cross platform is bad for the end user experience. With AirBnB's story; it just reaffirms my thoughts on the technology.

In my experience, native is always better. Not from a business point of view mind you, but from a dev point of view, definitely.
 
with no other details or real requirements, in this case and in order, I would personally go PWA/SPA >> NativeScript/ReactNative/Flutter >> Native Swift/Kotlin >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Cordova
 
_kabal_ said:
with no other details or real requirements, in this case and in order, I would personally go PWA/SPA >> NativeScript/ReactNative/Flutter >> Native Swift/Kotlin >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Cordova
Click to expand...

PWA is certainly interesting. I'm reading up on React PWA applications for possible alternatives.

Biggest shortcoming: limited to HTML5 interactions with the device.
 
phaktza said:
PWA is certainly interesting. I'm reading up on React PWA applications for possible alternatives.

Biggest shortcoming: limited to HTML5 interactions with the device.
Click to expand...

Thanks for all the feedback it will be taken into account.


[MENTION=60686]phaktza[/MENTION]
We will need to use some of the devices components like the gps and camera
 
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