The Hybrid approach

The term hybrid approach refers to apps which run in the sandbox, but could call out to full-trust code via different mechanisms. Simply put, a hybrid approach combines components, which execute in the sandbox environment with components running with full trust and deployed with several solutions.

WHY CHOOSE A HBYRID APPROACH

There are some reasons to choose a hybrid approach.

• Hybrid apps are platform independent and minimize the time of development since one code base works on various platforms, such as Android, iOS and Windows.
• Hybrid applications could use the native features, like notifications and reminders via tools such as Phone Gap and Cordova.
• No need to have various skill sets for different platforms. A web developer that has the skill set of CSS, HTML5 and JS could develop a hybrid application for all platforms.
• Hybrid applications support offline abilities with local storage and offer support for SQLlite database for local storage as well.

TWO WAYS OF BUILDING A HYBRID APPLICATION

WebView App: The JavaScript, CSS and HTML code base runs in an internal browser that’s called the WebView, which is enveloped in a native application. Some native APIs are disclosed to JS via this wrapper. Examples are Adobe PhoneGap and Trigger.io.

Compiled Hybrid App: Code is written in one language and gets assembled to a native doe for every platform supported. The result is a native application for each platform, with less freedom in development time. Examples include Titanium, Appcelerator, Embarcadero FireMonkey and Xamarin.

UNDERSTANDING HYBRID TECHNOLOGY OF MOBILE APP DEVELOPMENT

An app that is based on hybrid technology is blend of two technologies, known as web development and native mobile app development. Key technologies used are JavaScript, HTML5 and CSS3 for the web part and platform specific language for the native part. An Android-based hybrid application is made u sing Java, for the native part, and JavaScript, HTML5 and CSs3 for the web part. Objective C is used hybrid application that is iPhone based and the rest web technologies are the same as mentioned previously. The front-end part of such an application, or what is downloaded from the application store is a native app. It’s a tiny app or a container that developers create using platform centric app development language. They have to create various versions of the container for different platforms.

For developers of Android, they would need an application with the extension called apk. iOS supports apps with extension that is called ipa. Phones that are Windows Phone powered support applications with xap file extension. Thus, developers must make different front-ends of the same application for numerous platform support. There is also the back-end part. This is entirely a web app developed with different web technologies. To support numerous platforms, the web part is supposed to be compatible with all the mobile browser engines in use. Hybrid apps are made to use web view control to render HMTL5 and JavaScript files in full screen. They use web engine of devices. Most popular operating systems like iOS, Android and Blackberry use the same web engine that is called Webkit.

The reason for choosing hybrid applications over mobile web apps is that they could use most of the device features. The applications could use camera, offline storage, geo-location, calendar, notification and more. A hybrid app could also be made to support the display features such as spread, pinch and swipe that generally are supported by native applications. When designed by expert developers, hybrid applications could also replicate majority of the native apps features. The hybrid approach has just solves a common issue of mobile web application. It is distribution, there’s no easy way of distributing a pure mobile web application. However, a hybrid app could be distributed on stores such as the App Store and Google Play.

WHEN HYBRID COMES TO FILL THE HOLE IN DEVELOPMENT

More and more enterprises and startups are turning to Hybrid to elevate the launch pace and lower cost and complexity. Developers are turning to HTML 5 application for mobile application development. The question ultimately is if the business needs a perfect solution while all it wants is to get a startup bootstrap right away. Of course, it should still be fairly good within limited resources at the early start of the startup. After all, the most important is executing not perfecting and thinking the ideas, and worrying a lot on money matters. Nonetheless, there are many important criteria to take into account before getting serious and getting started with any platform.

Definitely, with a hybrid approach, developers could take advantage of their web programming skills to create web apps themselves with CSS, JS and HTML.

Dhrumit Shukla is Business Development Manager with TatvaSoft - a custom software development company. He writes about Technology Trends, experience working with B2B and B2C clients.