Building Android Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript [Paperback]

Jonathan Stark (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 4, 2010

If you know HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, you already have the tools you need to develop Android applications. This hands-on book shows you how to use these open source web standards to design and build apps that can be adapted for any Android device -- without having to use Java.

You'll learn how to create an Android-friendly web app on the platform of your choice, and then convert it to a native Android app with the free PhoneGap framework. Discover why device-agnostic mobile apps are the wave of the future, and start building apps that offer greater flexibility and a broader reach.

• Learn the basics for making a web page look great on the Android web browser
• Convert a website into a web application, complete with progress indicators and more
• Add animation with jQTouch to make your web app look and feel like a native Android app
• Take advantage of client-side data storage with apps that run even when the Android device is offline
• Use PhoneGap to hook into advanced Android features -- including the accelerometer, geolocation, and alerts
• Test and debug your app on the Web under load with real users, and then submit the finished product to the Android Market

This book received valuable community input through O'Reilly's Open Feedback Publishing System (OFPS). Learn more at http://labs.oreilly.com/ofps.html.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jonathan Stark is a mobile and web application consultant who has been called "an expert on publishing desktop data to the web" by the Wall Street Journal. He has written two books on web application programming, is a tech editor for both php|architect and Advisor magazines, and has been quoted in the media on internet and mobile lifestyle trends. Jonathan began his programming career more than 20 years ago on a Tandy TRS-80 and still thinks Zork was a sweet game.

Product Details

• Paperback: 184 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1 edition (October 4, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1449383262
• ISBN-13: 978-1449383268
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 0.4 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #556,336 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #87 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > Languages & Tools > CSS

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Intended for iPhone, not Android February 19, 2011

By Stephan Wiesner

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I really ask myself whether the author even bothered to test his "app" on a real Android device.
The truth: it does not work. The app is based on JQTouch and even the demos on the JQTouch homepage are intended for iphone and do not really work on Android (I use Samsung Galaxy S, currently the Android bestseller).

The screenshots in the book are not taken on an Android device and I just can't make the pages look like they do in the book. Neither in Chrome, Firefox, and certainly not on the Samsung (they do look different on all three browsers, though :-)

JQTouch would be great and the webapps actually look great on my iphone - but not on Android.
So if you are looking into real cross plattform developing, you might want to skip jqtouch (and this book).

34 of 41 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Opened my eyes October 16, 2010

By Anthony Lawrence VINE™ VOICE

Format:Kindle Edition

I had bought an iPad when they were first announced. I had the expressed intention of creating some very specific apps; I did not need Wired Magazine to tell me that mobile apps are the future.

My plans were delayed by Apple's delay in releasing a new iPad OS. I didn't want to waste a lot of time struggling with things in the original OS that might become easier in the next.

I'd rather not struggle at all. As I have gotten older, the thrill of twisting C and C++ to my will is far less alluring than it used to be. Honestly, there is no allure left at all: I saw learning the Apple API as an onerous but necessary task. I was not looking forward to it.

Then this book arrived and opened my eyes. Yes, there is that "Android" in the title, but this is really about building device agnostic apps and I saw that long before the author off handedly mentioned iPhones in Chapter 7. Yeah, baby - if you think I was reluctant to learn Apple API's, well, that's nothing compared to how I feel about futzing around with Java to drive Android stuff. No thank you. But CSS and Javascript? That's different.

Not that I still don't have a learning curve. I have done very little with CSS or Javascript because of browser quirks. I realized that Jquery could smooth a lot of that out for me, but I just did not have enough of a need to invest any time learning that either. Mobile apps provides that incentive.

This book opened my eyes to a lot of possibilities I was just not aware of. For example, I did not know about the Web SQL Database abilities in HTML5. The author said that rocked his world; well, it rocked mine also.

I am looking forward to sitting down and playing with the ideas this book has exposed me to. This really changes my plans, and this is one case where I am very happy to veer off course. Jquery, here I come!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great overview of making an web app that works on Android phones. December 16, 2010

By Scott C. Koon

Format:Paperback

This book is the Android counterpart of "Building iPhone apps using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript" and covers much of the same material. It explains how to mark up your HTML page to support the Android mobile browser, as well as covering some basic JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. It shows how to build and submit a native Android app using the Phonegap too.

One of the the aspects that I appreciated about this book was the focus on incorporating lttle touches in your web application that make the application feel more like an Android application. Chapter 2: Basic Styling includes a section on adding the Android look and feel and the chapter on Animation adds extra features. Noting that when Android users drill down into a list, the page slides off to the left. The book also includes sections on using client-side storage to allow your application to be used offline.