Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Titanium Mobile
For years I have been a huge supporter of the work that Appcelerator is doing with
Titanium Mobile. They started off taking the same approach as PhoneGap, allowing
users to create content in pure HTML and JavaScript, but quickly realized that
sometimes it is best to go fully native for increased performance and speed. Somewhere
around the time the Titanium Mobile software matured into the production-ready 1.0
release, Appcelerator released a new set of APIs that would still allow developers to use
HTML5 to create applications in a web view, but with the addition that now they could
skip HTML5 altogether and create their applications in pure JavaScript.
Doing this they are able to take those JavaScript files at build time and completely
transform them into a
real
native application using the operating system's own code to
generate layouts of the pages. That means that instead of creating your own set of
buttons or styles to use in your app, you can make your application look more like a real
native app by using native user interface elements for whatever platform you are using.
Not to be outdone by PhoneGapwith its integration into Adobe Dreamweaver, the good
folks over at Appcelerator purchased the integrated development environment (IDE)
company Aptana and created their own full-fledged IDE for use with their framework.
Since Titanium Studio was released early in 2011, working with the Titanium Mobile
environment has been a breeze.
While Titanium Mobile is an open source project and free to use, there are special
modules that that are only offered to paying customers. Being a paying customer of
Titanium Mobile has its perks, like getting early access to the newer versions of Titanium
Mobile and using modules that would give you access to APIs from companies like
AdMob for in-app advertisements and Paypal for in-app purchasing. Becoming a
subscription member to Titanium Mobile is pretty easy on the pocket book as well, with
free basic membership and paid memberships starting at $49.99/month.
If you can afford it and want access to certain modules like the GameKit and OpenGL
gaming modules, then hopping on the basic indie plan is a no brainer. If you want to just
fiddle around with the software and create applications without fancy modules, then you
can do that as well, free of charge! With Titanium Mobile you will be able to use either
pure JavaScript or a combination of HTML5 and JavaScript to create truly incredible
mobile applications in no time at all.
