Web and WebWorks Development

[shea08]

Hello,

I am porting a java(BB OS) app to web works.  Because I am doing it in HTML 5/ JS I thought it may be a chance to get some other platforms for free, like Android, iOS, etc.

so I looked at phonegap.  The only API from phonegap that I would use would be the filesystem api, so it doesn't provide much value to me.

The other item I was Sencha Touch, which seems to office some additional functionality as well, but I am not sure how much I would get out of it either.  

The app I am porting basically allows a user to select a local file, or PIM item, and send it to a remote server. Communication with remote server is done via TCP/XML. (not soap).

SHould I bother with PhoneGap and Sencha?

[shnuffy]

PhoneGap is very simiular to plain vanilla WebWorks, and actually just uses the WebWorks SDK for it's hooks. If you want to get something for free (e.g., Android) go for it.

No direct experience with Sencha, but I don't think Sencha compiles to native code like WebWorks (and through it, PhoneGap). I believe it's just a "look and feel" framework.

[shea08]

Thanks for the reply.  I think I'll continue with WebWork, and then use PhoneGap if I decide to go to other platforms.

[interfaSys]

What you will get from Sencha is shorter development time because you wouldn't have to rewrite the functionnalities that they offer out of the box. It's much more than just a GUI builder. You may have to add lots of patches though, depending on how broken things are on Android and BBOS.

Mastering Phonegap could help you deploy your app to multiple platforms faster, but you could also just modify the loaders yourself if you don't plan on using lots of native APIs.

And Webworks is not native code. It's pure JS and CSS.