Mobilindustrin är under ständig förändring vilket har lett till en fragmenterad marknad somsmåföretag har haft svårt att etablera sig i. Småföretag har haft problem med att utvecklakvalitativa applikationer till olika mobila plattformar. Anledningen är att det varitresurskrävande att utveckla native applikationer till flera plattformar och underhålla flerakodbaser. Till följd av detta har mindre företag oftast valt att utveckla webbapplikationer för attleverera tjänster som når ut till många konsumenter. Hybrida ramverk har på senare år etableratsig som en potentiell lösning för att utveckla mobila applikationer med högre prestanda ochfunktionalitet än webbapplikationer och samtidigt möjliggjort för utvecklare att dela kod mellanolika plattformar. I denna studie intervjuades anställda på tre mindre företag för att identifierakrav som småföretag anser vara viktiga vid val av ramverk för applikationsutveckling. Utifrånkraven jämfördes tre hybrida ramverk för att ta reda på vilket som passar småföretag. Resultatenvisade att småföretag är olika med varierande behov och att det inte finns ett specifikt ramverksom passar alla. Däremot konstaterades det att alla tre hybrida ramverk som jämfördes i studienvar tillräckligt sofistikerade att implementeras som potentiella lösningar. Med det sagt ärhybrida ramverken inte kompromisslösa. Applikationer som utvecklas med hybrida ramverkuppnår ännu inte samma prestanda som native applikationer och är inte plattformsoberoende isamma grad som webbapplikationer. / The mobile industry is constantly changing, which has led to a fragmented market that smallbusinesses have difficulties to successfully establish in. Small businesses have had problemswith developing qualitative applications for different mobile devices. The main reason is theresource intensive process to develop native applications for multiple platforms andmaintaining the different codebases. Thus, smaller companies have usually chosen to developweb applications to deliver services to a more widespread target audience. Hybrid frameworkshave established themselves as a potential solution for developing mobile applications withhigher performance and functionality than web applications, while allowing developers to sharecode between platforms. In this study, employees of three smaller companies were interviewedto identify shared requirements held by small businesses to select a framework for applicationdevelopment. Based on the requirements, three hybrid frameworks were compared with thepurpose to identify which one was most suitable for small businesses. The results showed thatsmall businesses are different with varying needs and that there is no specific framework thatsuits all companies. On the other hand, it was found that all three hybrid frameworks comparedin the study were sufficiently developed to be implemented as potential solutions. With thatsaid, hybrid frameworks are not without flaws. Applications developed with hybrid frameworksdoes not yet achieve the same level of performance as native applications and is not platformindependent to the same extent as web applications.

Målet med detta projekt var att utforma ett tidsrapporteringssystem åt Online CC AB för att effektivisera deras kunders tidsrapportering. Systemet är en webbapplikation som ska användas till att rapportera in tid som framdeles kan exporteras till valfritt lönesystem för lönehante-ring av personal. Detta system är grunden för ett framtida, fulländat system som har utökad funktionalitet. Produkten togs fram med Ex-treme Programming samt testdriven utveckling. Under utvecklingen jobbade utvecklingsgruppen med välkända och beprövade metoder för att säkerställa ett system av hög kvalité. Webbapplikationen nyttjar moderna teknologier och ramverk för webbutveckling – inklusive Microsofts ASP.NET MVC 4 och Entity Framework. Det visade sig att apputveckling är ett diffust område där de senaste verktygen inom verksamhetsgrenen inte förhållandevis förenklade arbetet. Ett system som fungerar såväl på mobila enheter, i form av en hybridapplikation, som stationära enheter, som webbapplikation, krävde att utvecklings-gruppen var erfarna inom respektive områden. I slutet av projektet var inte alla ställda krav uppfyllda - men eftersom vi använder oss av testdriven utveckling så är systemet fullt operationsdugligt. De krav som implementerades, gjordes det till fullo. Till sist så kan det visa sig att de senaste teknologierna och ramverken inte alltid är de bästa att nyttja. Mer beprövade metoder och teknologier kan i vissa fall vara mer lämpliga. / The goal of this project was to design a timesheet system for Online CC AB in order to make time reporting more efficient for their customers. The system is a web application that is to be used for time reporting in-which, later on can be exported to a salary system of their choice for salary transactions of personnel. This system is the foundation for a future, all-in-one system with extended functionality. The product was produced using Extreme Programming and Test-Driven Development. During development the development team worked with well-renowned and well-tried methods to ensure a system with the utmost quality. The web application utilizes modern technologies and frame-works for web development – including Microsoft’s ASP.NET MVC 4 and Entity Framework. It’s shown that app development is a diffuse field in which the latest tools within the field do not comparatively simplify the work. A system that works on as-well as mobile units, in the form of a hybrid application, as stationary units, in the form of a web application, demands the development team to be experienced within respective fields. At the end of the project not all requirements are met – however due to us using Test-Driven Development, the system is fully operational. Those requirements that were implemented are done so fully. Furthermore, it’s shown that the latest technologies and frame-works not always are best-suited for usage. More well-tried methods and technologies can in some cases be more appropriate

Examensarbetet har utförts på Lawson, som idag gör en satsning mot de mobila användarna. Då det idag finns många olika typer av enheter, webbläsare och operativsystem utvecklas det mobila applikationer till varje plattform vilket medför stora kostnader och längre utvecklingstider. Den här rapporten är skriven i syfte att se över vad det finns för möjligheter att använda ny teknik som HTML5 och CSS3 tillsammans med ramverket jQuery for mobile för att utveckla webbapplikationer. För att visa på funktionaliteten och vad man kan göra så har två exempelapplikationer tagits fram och testas på flera olika plattformar/enheter, bland annat en iPad och en Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9. Koden för dessa applikationer finns som bilaga i rapporten. Målet var att se över vad det fanns för stöd för swipes, enhetlig native-design/känsla, kunna använda enhetens kamera och GPS. En hel del, bland annat swipes, GPS och lokal lagring, går att lösa med HTML5 och jQuery for mobile. Men vill man komma åt ännu mer hårdvarunära funktionalitet, så som kamera, så behöver man lägga på ett ramverk, i mitt fall valde jag att utöka arbetet och även se över ramverket Cordova. Det ramverket gjorde att man kunde komma åt kameran i mobilen. Slutsatsen av undersökningen är att det går att göra mycket med jQuery for mobile som bygger på webbtekniker som JavaScript, HTML5 och CSS3. Men för att få hårdvarunära funktionalitet behövs det användas en annan typ av ramverk, t.ex. Cordova, som erbjuder ett API mot själva hårdvarufunktionaliteten. För att den funktionaliteten sedan ska fungera måste applikationen kompileras, på samma sätt som en native-applikation. Dock så använder Cordova samma teknik som ramverket jQuery for mobile, så kostnader och utvecklingstid kan hållas nere. Vid små applikationer fungerar det utmärkt att använda denna teknik men vid större kan man behöva göra lite fler prestandatester innan man säkert kan avgöra om tekniken är lämplig.

The primary purpose of this study is to determine in which technology we have to develop an application depending on the features that we would like to include, in order to deliver the best value for a good price to the customers. Consequently, in this research we have described the capabilities, performance and limitations that we have found while using the different technologies. The empirical part of this study was conducted in the first semester of 2014/2015 at the Linnaeus University in Växjö (Sweden), supported by Softwerk Company. In conclusion, the thesis shows that the user experience with native apps is always better than using the web-based technologies, especially using maps, although the time and effort spent to develop them is higher. Cross-platform solutions can be very useful for simple apps, and also if the developer does not have a lot of time to develop them. The problem with this last kind of applications is that the performance is less than the native ones.

Developing an application for several platforms can be time consuming because each platform has its own operating system and different developing language. Cross-platform development makes it possible to develop an ap-plication that will work on several platforms. This report will evaluate this kind of development by doing a case study for the company CGI. The case study will evaluate which cross-platform methodology is the preferred choice for this specific vacation booking application I developed for CGI. The different methodologies I studied were web, hybrid, interpreted and cross-compiled. The preferred methodology for this vacation booking application I developed was in this case the hybrid alternative. When selecting this methodology I also chose two different tools and those two were Icenium and jQuery Mobile. The purpose of this report was to find out if cross-platform development can be a substitute to native programming and by evaluating and developing cross-platform I found out that it can be a substitute if the application is not to complex. In this specific case I also believe that hybrid development is a good substitute to native development for this kind of applications.

Mobile devices and mobile computing have made tremendous advances and become ubiquitous in the last few years. As a result, the landscape has become seriously fragmented which brings lots of challenges for the mobile development process. Whilst native approach of mobile development still is the predominant way to develop for a particular mobile platform, recently there is shifting towards cross-platform mobile development as well. In this thesis, a survey of the literature has been performed to see the trends in cross-platform mobile development over the last few years. With the result of the survey, it is argued that the web-based approach and in particular, hybrid approach, of mobile development serves the best for cross-platform development. Using the hybrid approach, a prototype application has also been developed and built into native application for different platforms. This has helped to get a better insight about the domain of cross-platform mobile development and its main advantage of the unification of the development and testing process. The results of this work indicate that even though cross platform tools are not fully matured they show great potential and reduce the cost associated in developing native mobile applications. Cross-platform mobile development is equally suitable for rapid development of high-fidelity prototypes of the mobile application as well as fairly complex, resource intensive mobile applications on its own right. As the upcoming future trends and the evolution of HTML5 continues to redefine the web, allowing its growth as a software platform, there remains great opportunities for cross-platform mobile development and hence provides an attractive alternative for the native mobile development.

This thesis has taken part as an experimental development within the Learning Ecology through Science with Global Outcomes project. It introduces the area of cross platform mobile application development and provides a possible solution for tackling the current fragmentation of mobile devices and platforms for data collection. During the process, a mobile data collection prototype was designed, implemented and deployed on Android, iOS and Windows Mango by using standards and web standards such as HTML5, CSS3, XForms and JavaScript. The deployed prototype was then tested with users in order to collect the necessary data to help answer the questions that were formulated. The results indicate an ease of use of the prototype in relation to cross platform development and also shows potential benefits such as less code and time. Cross platform development provides a way to counteract the current fragmentation between mobile platforms.

A problem with having a fast and wide production of different platforms for mobile devices is that you can’t code for one and deploy on all devices at the same time. This thesis is focused on cross-plat1form development environments for smartphones and mainly to see what options there are on the market. This report will investigate how well a cross-compiler solution compares to hybrid cross-platform development. To do this we took a closer look at their architecture and then compared this with the results from different tests made. All the tests were made on the same smartphone to ensure fairness between them. All the tests strive to be as equal as possible even though the languages might differ from each other. The tested frameworks were PhoneGap, Qt, Unity3D and GameMaker. The different tests were about performance, power consumption, difficulty in accessing web browsers to perform HTML parsing and lastly to see if the platforms can access different native APIs such as the camera and accelerometer. The previously mentioned topics were compared between all the frameworks. We also compared the documentation found on their webpage to figure out which is the easiest to get started on.

Today more and more objects in our daily lives are getting connected to the Internet. This phenomenon is called the Internet of Things and is a way for physical things such as cars, buildings or even bus stations to get access and communicate with other objects using the Internet. The problem is that for every Internet of Things device, an application is often needed in order to communicate with these devices. Developing mobile applications in a separate programming language for each operating system can be an expensive and time consuming task. In this thesis, we implement and evaluate a cross-platform mobile solution for users to interact with smart things using the advantages of web technologies. To compare previous findings in this area, two literature reviews has been performed to find out which is the state of the art on cross-platform mobile development frameworks and smart-things technologies used for interacting with physical objects. The result is a mobile application developed using PhoneGap and jQuery Mobile that interacts with iBeacons, where students inside a university building can get directions and schedules for different rooms. The application received good results from a couple of usability studies, and performed well when measuring its performance. The outcome shows that web technologies that exist today are a viable solution to native mobile applications in terms of interacting with smart things such as tagging technologies.

The aim of the master thesis is to assess frameworks that are used for development of multiplatform cell phone applications supported by HTML technology. The theoretical part is focused to current market analysis, mobile access issues and the issue of difficulties in specific cases of their application. Analysis is followed by choice of evaluation criteria for setting the most appropriate architecture. Selected evaluation criteria will be used as a tool for detecting of the optimal technology's possibility, which is the most appropriate possibility for development of basic cell phones applications. The practical part is focused to choosing of new evaluation criteria, which helps to create specific questionnaire research. The confirmation or refuse of the hypothesis set up the level of criteria's severity. Based on criteria there will be selected and analysed six of the most used hybrid frameworks. Two of the frameworks with the highest ratings will be tested by real basic cell phone application. The conclusion of the thesis will be follow up by tested frameworks. The frameworks will be described and measured by the author's development experiences.