Web or native? Or better both with ionic?
First of all, these applications are intended to offer the best of both worlds, web and native, with a shorter development time (time-to-market), and without undergoing the complexities associated with each OS. This is the promise of ionic.
By the way, these are above all web applications that benefit from a unique and especially generic technologic stack: HTML + CSS + JS, regardless of the type of device (desktop, mobile…) and regardless of the operating system (Android, iOS, Windows…).
This is the famous write once, run anywhere
But these applications are also able to take advantage of the native experience. Applications are integrated, reliable and above all interoperable with native equipment and services such as:
- GPS geolocation
- camera
- strong authentication by fingerprints or face recognition,
- a payment API for example
- …
So, hybrid or Progressive Web App?
Ionic as future proof as the web
ionicframework.com View website
It is interesting to note that whatever standard best suits your needs, ionic provides you with a suitable solution. Thus, you can choose to develop Mobile Hybrid applications or Progressive Web Applications (PWA).
But then, what type of applications to choose? Jnesis is there to guide you because the universal solution does not exist. Nevertheless, let’s give you some insights.
Hybrid application
First of all and to put it simply, a hybrid application is a web application converted to a native application. It may therefore be published in the respective public or private app stores, or distributed directly (Android only).
It should be noted that the field of hybrid applications has evolved very rapidly in recent years. Where Adobe PhoneGap was still the only option a few years ago to convert Web applications, the Apache Cordova Open Source version has since given birth to multiple implementations. But with ionic capacitor, ionic goes further and goes beyond the framework of the native mobile. This way your web applications will be able to run in any environment: Native desktop, Progressive Web App (PWA)….
Finally, thanks to the plugins offered by ionic / capacitor, the application will be able to integrate with the vast majority of native equipment and services.
Progressive Web Application (PWA)
More recently, Progressive Web Applications (PWA) have appeared. They are not converted into native applications but take advantage of the new features of modern web browsers that now offer secure gateways to the hardware and services of the device.
Above all, these are web applications that behave like mobile applications, so they are more engaging than traditional web applications and appear fully integrated.
To summarize here are some of the characteristics of PWAs (non-exhaustive list):
- work totally offline (store information and perform some basic processing)
- accessible via shortcuts and application libraries
- appear totally headless (without a graphical browser interface) and start with a splash screen (home screen) like any native application
- receive server notifications (push notifications)
- access the camera, GPS,…
Which javascript framework for Ionic?
If ionic privileged angularjs at its origin, one of ionic’s strengths today is its total independence from the web framework. Its integration with the Web Components standard makes the developments totally web framework agnostic:
- ionic with react
- ionic with angular
- ionic with VueJS
- or possibly no framework at all !
An all-in-one development toolkit
Whenever possible, Jnesis first priority are vertical solutions because they offer you an immediate return on investment (ROI).
On Ionic applications, we focus on efficiency thanks to the continuous integration.
Finally, thanks to Ionic Studio, developers can also take advantage of an integrated development environment.
Choose to work directly with an official ionic partner
Jnesis is one of ionic’s official partner in Europe, with astrong technical know-how around ionic development andassociated services, but also back-end (java, node.js, …)
Feel free to contact us for any request for development, training/coaching or consulting. Our teams of ionic specialists will be happy to answer you.