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I am new to Andorid. i am developing an app that uses Google Map API and calls web services and transfers data through socket IO. I m wondering it can be implemented as Native app or cross platform app. I searched a lot. But i cant get the correct one. Tell me Which is simple and why why not the other one. Thanks in advance

ImMathan
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IMO if you like to build a high quality application on Android, then don't ever take the cross platform path (like Cordova). You will surely face performance issues especially on old devices.

The only advantage I see of a Cordova application in your use case, is that you are going to write the client and the server in the same language.

So to summarize:

  • If you want a high quality application then go for the native path.
  • If you want to rapid develop your application and don't care much for quality/performance, or you want to produce a fast prototype as a proof of concept then go for the cross platform path.

In case you chose the native path see this question for available Java WebSocket client implementation.

Community
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Ahmed I. Khalil
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  • Thanks. I am going to choose native one. But can u Provide me some tutorials having android native + node js. – ImMathan Jan 09 '14 at 12:04
  • Sorry, but what do you mean by tutorials ? It is a simple client-server communication. Your nodejs server is going to listen to a port for websocket connections. And your Android client will connect to the server through the port that you specified in the server using the Java WebSocket client library. – Ahmed I. Khalil Jan 09 '14 at 12:13
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I would recommend Xamarin. Yes, it does cost money, but if you plan on possibly moving your app to iOS at any point in time you won't have to port your code over to objective-C. Not to mention you're using C# the whole time! I would recommend giving the free trial a shot.

bgregs
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  • Thanks. But i had developed some cross platform apps in cordova phonegap and faced lots of issues. The performance also not that much good. So i decided to go for native application. – ImMathan Jun 06 '14 at 18:26
  • This is native though. Phonegap just allows you to install your javascript and html files to your phone. Xamarin actually compiles the C# in to native code. Your apps will be pure java or objective-c after they compile. I agree, phonegap and appcelerator are not the best, but that's also because they're not native. Just google Xamarin and you'll see what I mean. – bgregs Jun 06 '14 at 18:31
  • Sounds good. By use of xamarin can i use external libraries like gottox socket io library. That libraries was developed in the java. How can i import and use it? – ImMathan Jun 06 '14 at 19:03
  • You can use external libraries and they're are quite a few through NuGet packages. I just searched really quick for gottox and couldn't find it, but that doesn't mean it's not out there. There are a lot of guys that are constantly porting these libraries over to c#. I did find about 10 different socket io libraries for use though. I haven't had any problem finding external libraries to fit my applications. – bgregs Jun 06 '14 at 19:13