Beginning Mobile Application Development in the Cloud

Richard Rodger is the CTO of FeedHenry Ltd, a company specializing in bringing the first tools to develop cloud based applications for mobile devices. He is currently a member of the W3C Web Applications Working Group, which defines the standard for mobile widget applications. Wrox Beginning guides are crafted to make learning programming languages and technologies easier than you think, providing a structured, tutorial format that will guide you through all the techniques involved.

• Introduction xxiChapter 1: Introducing Cloud-Based Mobile Apps 1How to Build Mobile Apps in the Cloud 2Using Your Existing Skill Set 2Determining What Tools You Need 3The Skills You’ll Learn 4Two Big Ideas About the App Industry 4Web Apps and the Future 5The Cloud as the Future 6Getting Started 7Using JavaScript Functions 7The WebKit Browser Engine 20A Colorful Little App 21Introducing the nginx Web Server 25Summary 29Chapter 2: Mobilizing Your App 31Building a Touch-Sensitive Drawing App 32How to Draw on the Screen 32Drawing in Response to Touch Events 39Applying the DRY Principle to Your Code 46Using the Amazon Cloud 52How Geography Affects Amazon AWS 54Using the Elastic Compute Cloud 54Deploying Your Mobile Web App 61Deploying Your Mobile App to the Instance 65Summary 67Chapter 3: Building Mobile Web Apps 71What You Can Do with Mobile Web Apps 71Locating Your User 72Responding to Device Orientation 74More Features for Later 76Installing Mobile Web Apps on iPhone Devices 76Installing Mobile Web Apps on Android Devices 77Introducing jQuery and jQuery Mobile 78The jQuery Library 78The jQuery Mobile Library 83Building a To-Do List App 91Summary 108Chapter 4: Enhancing Your App 111Using App Caching 112Handling Touch Events 115Touch Events 116Gesture Events 118Embedding an Interactive Map 127The Google Maps API 127Providing an Application Icon and a Startup Screen 131Summary 132Chapter 5: Building Apps In The Cloud 135Server-Side JavaScript 136Introducing Node 136Installing Node 138Using the Node Package Manager 141Introducing the MongoDB Database 144Cloud Analytics for Your To-Do List App 150Doing the Math 150Organizing Your System 152Collecting the Usage Data 160Submitting the Usage Data 164Charting the Usage Data 167Summary 174Chapter 6: Use the Cloud! 177The Classic Cloud Architecture 177The REST Approach 178Cloud Databases 179Introducing Amazon SimpleDB 180The SimpleDB Approach to Cloud Storage 180The SimpleDB API 181Putting the To-Do List App in the Cloud 182Introducing the simpledb Library 182Building a Command-Line Client 188Working on Cloud Time 196Running a Cloud Server 198Synchronizing with the Cloud 203Summary 209Chapter 7: Enhancing the User Experience 211Creating a Classic Tab Bar Interface 211Implementing the jQuery Mobile Solution 212Using the iScroll Solution 216Enabling Mobile Audio and Video 222Playing Audio in Your App 222Playing Video in Your App 226Launching Apps from Your App 230Launching a Web Browser from Your App 230Launching a Phone from Your App 230Launching SMS from Your App 230Launching Mail from Your App 231Launching Maps from Your App 231Launching YouTube from Your App 231Summary 232Chapter 8: Working With the Cloud 235Storing Content in Amazon S3 236The Architecture of Amazon S3 236Using Amazon S3 238Signing In with the Cloud 247Building Large-Scale Apps 255Getting the Big Picture Right 256Using the Cache! 258Summary 271Chapter 9: Creating Hybrid Apps That Run Natively 273Introducing Hybrid Apps 274The PhoneGap Project 274Building Hybrid Apps 275Building an iPhone App 275Understanding Code-Signing 276Building an Android App 283Using Device Features 288Lifestream, a Photo-Blogging App 294Uploading Pictures 295Storing Pictures on Amazon S3 306Summary 310Chapter 10: Building a Photo-Blogging App 315The Architecture of Lifestream 316Building the Server 317Laying the Foundation 317Enabling User Following 333Uploading and Posting Pictures 336Completing the Lifestream App 345Supporting User Accounts 346Integrating Social Network Identity 357Summary 368Chapter 11: Working With Cloud Development Services 371Getting to Know the Mobile App Development Platforms 372Using the FeedHenry Platform 373FeedHenry Technology 374The FeedHenry Development Environment 375Deciding to Use FeedHenry 376Using the Appcelerator Platform 377Appcelerator Technology 378The Appcelerator Development Environment 379Deciding to Use Appcelerator 380Using the appMobi Platform 381appMobi Technology 382The appMobi Development Environment 383Deciding to Use appMobi 384Summary 384Chapter 12: Going Social! 387Using the Twitter API 388Working with the Twitter API Usage Limits 390Using the Entities that the Twitter API Exposes 390The Parts You Need 391An App for Direct Messages 395The Design Process 395Getting the Hygiene Factors Right 399The Code Structure 404OAuth Without a Server 413Calling the Twitter API 421Event Consumers and Producers 425Summary 431Chapter 13: App Stores 435What You Need to Publish Your App 436Icons 436Splash Screen 438Screenshots and Orientations 439App Metadata 440Working with the App Stores 440Building Your App for Release 441Summary 452Chapter 14: Selling Your App 455Determining a Marketing Strategy 456Building Apps for Others 457Using Apps to Promote Your Business 458Selling Your Own Apps 460Choosing Tactics for Promoting Your App 462Standard Tactics 463Expensive Tactics 465Guerrilla Tactics 466Summary 468Appendix: Exercise Solutions 471Index 505