18 Mobile Frameworks and Development Tools for Creating iPhone Apps
Categories: Design, Featured, Resources, Tools, iPhoneization
Loading ...
Loading ...
The world of iPhone application development is evolving rapidly, and developers have a growing list of development tools from which to choose. I’ve created a list (incomplete I’m sure) of some of the more popular tools and frameworks.
I have only used a few of these, so I won’t vouch for usability. If you know of any that I should add to the list, please let me know.
iUI
iUI is a user interface (UI) framework for Safari development on iPhone. It combines JavaScript, CSS, and HTML for development of web apps that look and feel like native iPhone apps
License: New BSD License
iPhone-Universal
The UiUIKit (Universal iPhone UI Kit) is a collection of HTML examples of what can be done with CSS3 and Safari’s Webkit
License: GNU General Public License v3
iWebkit
iWebKit is a file package designed to help you create your own iPhone and iPod Touch compatible website or webapp. The kit is accessible to anyone even people without any html knowledge and is simple to understand thanks to the included tutorials. In a couple of minutes you will have created a full and profesional looking website.
License: GNU General Public License v3
jQTouch
jQTouch is a jQuery plugin for mobile web development on the iPhone, Android, Palm Pre, and other forward-thinking devices. Features include: easy setup, native WebKit animations, image preloading, callback events, flexible themes, swipe detection.
License: The MIT License
Magic Framework
Magic Framework is a native iPhone UI imitator and HTML5 db interface built in html/css/javascript. It’s useful for online websites or on-device Webkit-based applications looking to imitate the native iPhone UI and/or use native storage without having to write native code.
License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License
WebApp.net
WebApp.Net is a web application micro-framework has been designed to mimic the actual iPhone and iPod Touch graphic user interface. It combines JavaScript, CSS, and HTML for development of web apps that look and feel like native iPhone apps.
License: New BSD License
XUI
A simple javascript framework for building mobile web applications. XUI strives to be a framework for first class mobile device browsers such as WebKit, Fennec and Opera with future support under consideration for IE Mobile and BlackBerry.
License: The MIT License
Rhodes (Ruby and gems required)
Rhodes is an open source framework for building native apps for all major smartphone operating systems. These are true native device applications (NOT mobile web apps) which work with synchronized local data and take advantage of device capabilities such as GPS, PIM contacts and camera.
Rhodes allows you to write your views in HTML and compile the application down to a native application for each device OS. A single set of source written with Rhodes can be compiled to run on all major smartphone devices, providing access to native device capabilities such as GPS geolocation, PIM contact reading and writing, and camera image capture.
License: Commercial ($500 – unlimited users)
Sproutcore (Ruby and gems required)
Sproutcore is an HTML5 Application Framework written in Ruby. The Mobile framework contains views useful for building applications that run on an iPhone, Android or Palm Pre device.
License: The MIT License
Project Page
Download: (available as a Rubygem from github)
QuickConnect
QCiPhone allows you to use native iPhone behaviors without needing to know Objective-C or the native iPhone API. You create your interface in HTML and CSS and then implement you application logic in JavaScript.
License: The MIT License
CiUI (CNET iPhone UI)
CiUI was written by Vladimir Olexa of CNET after researching other frameworks to create an iPhoneized version of CNET. CiUI was greatly inspired by Joe Hewitt’s iUI, but with a few differences:
1. AJAX calls are performed after a page slides
2. DOM doesn’t get overloaded with “pages” as they load. Instead, two DIVs are constantly being reused
3. Page titles are set on the source page, not on the destination page
4. Only specified “a” tags are assumed a part of the UI
License: The MIT License
PhoneGap
PhoneGap is an open source development tool for building fast, easy mobile apps with JavaScript. If you’re a web developer who wants to build mobile applications in HTML and JavaScript while still taking advantage of the core features in the iPhone, Android and Blackberry SDKs, PhoneGap is for you.
License: The MIT License
LiquidGear
LiquidGear is a PhoneGap fork for developing iPhone applications using javascript and html. No need to learn Objective-C. LiquidGear runs as the middle man between your iphone hardware and your web app, giving you access to native iPhone functionality such as, accelerometer, gps, photos, calendar, and more.
License: The MIT License
Safire
Safire is an open source framework written in HTML/CSS/JS
License: The MIT License
Modelbaker
ModelBaker is an application development tool (Mac only). It is a visual editor that requires minimal coding skills, and supports MySQL, Ext JavaScript framework and PHP (up to PHP5). ModelBaker can be used to create web applications that are accessible from PC, Desktop and webkit based mobile devices.
License: Commercial
Cappuccino
Cappuccino is an open source application framework that uses a new programming language called Objective-J, which is modelled after Objective-C and built entirely on top of JavaScript. Developers can create web applications that work on all browsers, including Webkit.
License: License: GNU General Public License v3
TapLynx
TapLynx is a proprietary SDK create simple native apps from rss feeds. It displays displying text, photos and videos and supports ads, video pre-roll and sponsorship for potential monetization. Intel Mac only, XCode required.
License: Commercial ($3,499)
jPint
jPint is a set of css and JavaScript libraries designed to allow developers to build web apps that emulate the native iPhone ui. By the looks of it, development has been discontinued for jPint.
License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License
November 3rd, 2009 at 6:45 am
18 Mobile Frameworks and Development Tools for Creating iPhone Apps…
The world of iPhone application development is evolving rapidly, and developers have a growing list of development tools from which to choose. I’ve created a list (incomplete I’m sure) of some of the more popular tools and frameworks….
November 4th, 2009 at 5:59 pm
I just discovered this new framework/platform today:
http://developer.yahoo.net/blog/archives/2009/11/build_native_yq.html
Cheers.
November 4th, 2009 at 6:18 pm
Thanks Josh, this is the second one I’ve been turned on to since this post. Good find.
November 8th, 2009 at 12:34 am
Hey! Thanks for the mention – I created Safire.
The best version is the svn version, so if you could link to that, that would be amazing!
http://code.google.com/p/safire/source/checkout
you need SVN to check out a copy, but it’s worth it!
November 8th, 2009 at 8:14 am
Thanks Auston, great work man! I’ve changed the download link as well.
Cheers,
Chris
November 8th, 2009 at 11:15 pm
[...] Mobile Frameworks and Development Tools for Creating iPhone Apps [...]
November 9th, 2009 at 4:09 am
[...] Read Full Article Share and Enjoy: [...]
November 21st, 2009 at 5:17 am
[...] Inhalte auch mal anders rausspucken. Bei iPhoneized.com gibt es eine hübsche Übersicht – 18 Mobile Frameworks and Development Tools for Creating iPhone Apps. Categories: am [...]
November 23rd, 2009 at 6:01 pm
[...] November 2009 24. November 2009 Kein KommentarAm 23. November 2009 bei delicious gespeicherte Links:18 Mobile Frameworks and Development Tools for Creating iPhone Apps | iPhoneized –500 Internal Server Error – 500 Internal Server ErrorDas könnte Dich auch [...]
November 24th, 2009 at 4:40 am
Hello @all.
I write on my masterthesis and will start today with a comparison about mobile frameworks for iPhone development.
Please feel free to add properties, frameworks and hopefully more features http://komparable.com/133/mobile-frameworks-for-iPhone-WebApps
Thanks.
December 16th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
[...] die Attraktivität für den mobilen Safari-Browser. Zu den unzähligen Web-Frameworks (’18 Mobile Frameworks and Development Tools for Creating iPhone Apps‘) gesellt sich still und heimlich das ‘PastryKit’ (möglicherweise noch als [...]
February 13th, 2010 at 12:21 pm
Missing ItsNat in this list.
http://www.itsnat.org
ItsNat is Java based AJAX web framework with a very strong commitment with mobile web.
iPhone 2.0+ is supported and all of these mobile browsers (all including AJAX):
Android 1.0 r2, BlackBerry JDE 4.6+ (Flip, Bold, Storm etc), Bolt, Fennec 1.0a1 (a.k.a FireFox Mobile), Pocket IE 6 (Windows Mobile 6 and 6.1), IE Mobile 6 (since Windows Mobile 6.1.4), Iris 1.0.8+, Minimo 0.2, Motorola Symphony 1.1, NetFront 3.4+, Opera Mini 4.x, Opera Mobile 8.6x (WinMob and UIQ), 9.5, 9.7 and 10, S60WebKit (since S60 3rd), S40WebKit (since S40 6th), Palm Pre webOS, QtWebKit of Qt for Embedded Linux (Qt v4.4) and Windows CE, SkyFire 1.0 and UCWEB (Java and WinMob).
February 23rd, 2010 at 10:26 am
There is also http://www.meishimo.com
The easy to use framework is open source and runs on all webbrowsers.
There is a mobile Rss Reader and other usefull plugins. The themes are easy to change.
April 3rd, 2010 at 2:10 am
Can someone suggest which framework is the best for build once runs many-where? I think the biggest prob in mobile apps industry is that there’s just TOO MANY DIFF platforms/OS out there. Even Samsung is coming out with new OS called Bada. Will PhoneGap be the best for this multi-platform role?
April 3rd, 2010 at 2:15 am
How bout http://www.mosync.com/?
April 22nd, 2010 at 4:19 am
We’re getting there Mel, apart from output ports to java me, symbian, windows mobile, andriod, moblin, we have iphone and blackberry in the lab. Expect iphone support in the next featured release MoSync SDK 2.4 at large this summer. For the brave, iphone support will show up in nightly builds shortly.
Mosync is a c/c++ mobile development environment and virtual platform released under GPL v2 license.
April 29th, 2010 at 1:16 pm
I can’t believe Titanium from Appcelerator (http://www.appcelerator.com/) didn’t make this list!