WebSharper lets you leverage the JavaScript runtime to run your code on mobile devices. There are three broad approaches to mobile development with WebSharper:
- HTML5 Applications
- WebSharper.Mobile
- Adobe PhoneGap / Apache Cordova
The simplest way to get started with mobile is to create HTML5 applications that would run on a mobile device via a browser.
Pros:
- It is easy to get started
- Your app works on every platform, mobile or otherwise
- Your app has access to some of the APIs via HTML5
Cons:
- Your app is not considered a "native" app - less convenient to start
- It cannot be distributed through a Store
- Your app has no access to native APIs that have not yet made it into the HTML5 standard
Fully typed extensions are available for two popular JavaScript frameworks for mobile development: JQuery Mobile and Sencha Touch. They provide customizable and themeable UI elements to use in your HTML5 app designed for mobile touchscreens.
WebSharper.Mobile peforms two functions for your JavaScript/HTML5 app:
-
Provides a native wrapper - a thin native app that launches the browser on the mobile device and yields control to your JavaScript/HTML5 code
-
Makes more APIs available to your app
Consider using WebSharper.Mobile if your application requires the extra APIs, or needs to have a "native" wraper for Store distribution or user convenience.
Pros:
- Builds native apps
- Provides More APIs than HTML5
Cons:
- Only available for Windows Phone and Android platforms
Since the 2.5 version of WebSharper, WebSharper.Mobile is available as a separate project.
Links:
- WebSharper.Mobile homepage with downloads and more information
- WebSharper.Mobile manual
We have plans to support building PhoneGap/Cordova applications with WebSharper. Similarly to WebSharper.Mobile, PhoneGap provides native wrappers and uniform API for mobile HTML5/JavaScript applications. In addition, it has the following advantages:
- Works on every major mobile platform
- Support from Adobe
- Comes with useful tooling such as PhoneGap Build