Building IOS App via phonegap

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    I’ve created many websites in WordPress but want to build a ‘native’ app (without learning Swift etc…) Lots of companies are charging (several hundred pounds) for what appears to be exporting the wordpress (or similar web-application) site into phonegap (or similar) and then creating the package I can take to app store. This seems to be something I can do for no cost albeit a bit of hardwork. Has anyone had any experience of this? Any advice welcome. Thanks.

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  • Hello. I think what you are asking is not technically possible, as PhoneGap doesn’t appear to be able to parse PHP; the foundation that WordPress is built upon. What you would want to do is to build an HTML/JavaScript front end which would act as the interface to your WordPress installation. This tutorial is a little old, but should provide you with a good starting point.

    https://www.sitepoint.com/building-a-phonegap-app-with-a-wordpress-backend/

    Thread Starter lrymill

    (@lrymill)

    I appreciate the link you sent, but how do you account for plugins / services like these?
    https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/worona/
    https://uncategorized-creations.com/

    I believe that both of those are creating HTML/JavaScript pages that interact with the WordPress REST API to display your content. Per the Uncategorized-Creations page:

    Thanks to the WP-AppKit REST API, you can display any WordPress content in your app. No code required - unless you want to ;-) - the plugin lets you pick the app's content in the WordPress admin.

    Which would suggest that their WordPress plugin provides the API functions that make their mobile application possible. Same thing with Worona, which seems to require you install their plugin and utilize their builder interface to create your “native” mobile app.

    Realistically, the Worona offering looks to be an excellent platform. They say that it will be free forever, and so long as you can navigate the mire of submitting your applications to their respective stores, you should be able to get away with a mobile app for your WordPress site for free.

    Hi everyone. First, quick disclosure: I am part of the WP-AppKit project.

    To answer the original question, I’d say that there 2 possibilies to create a mobile app connected to WordPress :

    • You can encapsulate your responsive website in a container distributed as an app
    • You can create an app that will interact with WordPress through an API

    I wouldn’t recommend the first one as some features such as offline management can’t be achieved. However sometimes you have to use it as reproducing some functionalities that WordPress plugins provide can be very hard (think of e-commerce cart for example).

    Now regarding the API based solution, there’s many ways to do that:

    • You can use the WordPress REST API or any other REST API including one you build yourself
    • You can use native technologies (such as Swift or Java) for the app itself or create hybrid apps (ie. written in JavaScript). Famous solutions are ReactJS, AngularJS… Then you’ll encapsulate your web app in a container using Cordova to be able to access native device functions and distribute your app in app stores

    A quick word about WP-AppKit:

    • We chose to create a dedicated REST API part because the WP REST API didn’t exist and we kept it because mobile apps needs specific endpoints. For sure, at some point in the future we will use the WP REST API.
    • We don’t use mainstream JS frameworks such as ReactJS. We propose a specific theme approach (close to the WordPress one but in JavaScript). The idea is to ease the pain of creating JS based apps.
    • We rely on Cordova and are compatible with PhoneGap Build, a cloud compilation service
    • WP-AppKit is free and open source
    • You can discover its features (notably offline mode) here: https://uncategorized-creations.com/features/

    At last, whatever solution you choose please remember that building JavaScript apps has a steep learning curve (I know that many people are saying otherwise, but believe me, it has a steep learning curve). Also remember that building apps (hybrid or not) is a very different (and exciting) world (think animations for example). So you have to decide if you want a packaged solution (ie. an app builder) or a technical base to start with and you may tweak later.

    I wish you the best for your app ??

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
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