Creating cross-platform app for my website

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Hey guys, some quick questions.

I have a PHP website which I'd like to build an app for on Android and iOS.

I'm a PHP developer myself but haven't got any experience with app development. I'm gonna outsource this but I need some answers first to make a good decision.

If the right person comes along, maybe you'll be the one to develop this with me.

1) Is there a cross-platform way to create the app so it would work both on Android and iOS? I'm looking at things like PhoneGap | Home and Cross-Platform Mobile App Development for iOS, Android - Corona Labs but not sure if that's the right choice.

2) Considering I already have a working site, can the app make use of the back-end code or does everything need to be re-written?

3) Which programming languages are primarily used/recommended for such a project?
#programming #app #creating #crossplatform #website
  • Can only respond to your second question.
    'Considering I already have a working site, can the app make use of the back-end code or does everything need to be re-written?'

    Back-end should always be written only once. Now I have no idea how experienced of a Php developer you are, but if you build up your applications correctly, it should be structured in multiple layers. I'm sure you have already heard of the MVC architecture before. The Model(your application's data center and business logic) should obviously be written only once since that can not change in the same application. But the more important thing is that the Model should not care of what you or any other part of the application does with the requested data, it does not care of the language either.

    I'm sure you were expecting yes/no answer but it's not that easy. The short answer: if the web app is written correctly then the app should be able to use it.
    This is a very long topic, but if you are interested please look up MVC architecture, Separation of concerns, Dependency injection and RESTful programming. These are just a couple of keywords to get you started, you will find a TON of information on the internet (for free). However if you get stuck at some point or you need help in learning these, feel free to throw me a PM.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • Thanks.

      I'm aware of MVC and have been using it for the last 2 years or so, but unfortunately this is an older website which was one of my training projects when I started a few years back, and it turned out to get a whole bunch of niche users.

      However, it was built with no framework at all. The procedural code is good enough to be manageable, I used includes and requires to make sure I don't write the same code over again, but MVC it is certainly not.

      So I take it there is no choice but to rewrite a lot of it for the app.
      • [1] reply
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