PhoneGap AppStore Approval | Hacker News Reader

PhoneGap AppStore Approval

blogs.nitobi.com

57 pointsnreece26 comments

I guess all they care about is blocking the flash to iPhone compiler.

Apparently, since their own header site talks about cross platform compatible code. This makes somewhere between 0 and negative sense, considering Jobs basically said "read Gruber" and Gruber said all kinds of things about why cross platform platforms were bad for apple.

I...I... I'm really damn confused by this.

Nothing in PhoneGap is against the TOS. It's a wrapper around HTML and JS, providing in WebKit's javascript engine access to system services. In that sense, it's not against the part of the TOS which says specifically you can use Webkit.

"providing in WebKit's javascript engine access to system services"

Yes, it's almost as if it were some kind of "intermediary" or "translation layer".

Right. One written in Objective-C, likely using the native iPhone UIWebView container and thus able to run Javascript, all supported languages.

We'll have to see how this pans out. The language in 3.3.1 puts Javascript and the Cs into two separate categories with regard to access to "the documented APIs" and taken at face value would appear to rule out Phonegap.

(and yes, I have looked at their source and know how it works.)

The clause in question is somewhat ambiguous. PhoneGap could be seen as a "compatibility layer" that allows you to "link against" APIs that aren't normally accessible to JavaScript:

"only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs"

But I'm glad it sounds like Apple will allow it.

From the very beginning Apple have been ok with the ultimate cross-platform applications, web technologies. PhoneGap is a wrapper for web applications.

The reason PhoneGap is ok but Flash is not ok is that nobody controls web technologies, but Adobe controls Flash. PhoneGap developers are not writing for the "PhoneGap platform," they're writing web applications with a thin wrapper.

To be perfectly honest, I expect Apple to bring out their own wrapper at some point so that applications written with HTML5 and local persistence can be monetized in the app store.

Prediction: Lua and Unity3d are allowed too...MonoTouch and Flash stay banned.

Why MonoTouch?

Also, it would be interesting to not only get a list of Unity3D apps together, but ones on other translation/framework platforms as well. Anyone working on this?

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1259988

I hope Appcelerator's Titanium gets this approval too. Superficially it seems similar enough to PhoneGap in how it works, with the added advantage of native UI widgets on mobiles.

Seems very different. Titanium translates code into native widgets. PhoneGap just wraps everything in a webkit, and provides the scripts to power the apps using web ui components.

I wonder if the PhoneGap people just cold asked Apple if their framework was okay. If so, have any other iPhone developers done this? Maybe someone who isn't even trying for cross-platformness, like someone using Lua in a harmless way. There's a lot of mystery surrounding this; wouldn't it be a thing if some of it could be cleared up by just asking?

Not that anyone should feel safe.

Nitobi, who's post we are discussing, are the people behind phonegap.

I doubt this will ever happen.

If Apple clarifies that only Flash is evil through an offical statement of acceptance for other technologies, they make themselves vulnerable to antitrust and free-market jurisdiction, at least in Europe.

IANAL.

But I have the nagging feeling that the best PhoneGap users can hope to archive — is a silent allowance.

I wrote my first app with phonegap. I loved it at first but moved to Titanium because PhoneGap (UIWebView) is really slow. Now doing native. Can someone point out a phonegap app that isn't trivial/doesn't suck?

Also, it's a lot of work to do even simple things like, say, have your search field stay at the top when you scroll. http://cubiq.org/scrolling-div-for-mobile-webkit-turns-3/16

What about titanium, any news?

No news. I'm sure HN will be the first to know.

This is a good sign, no doubt. But I'm still pessimistic about Titanium on iPhone. I've stopped all development until I know for sure my apps will allowed on the AppStore.

I may continue dev anyways though since Android support is pretty nice. But iPhone was the focus and now its very much up in the air.

I am also pessimistic about Titanium on the iPhone, as the seems to be in the same boat as Adobe, etc.

I am following your same path with using obj c for iPhone development, but using Titanium for Android, and Blackberry when support for it is release this summer.

Not a surprise. PhoneGap is written in Objective C, and Apple has no beef with Web technologies, otherwise they wouldn't make the UIWebView control available to iPhone developers. Indeed, there are many formatting situations that demand you use it.

Of course, PhoneGap just give an easy access to developers to the WebView component, but it's still a native Obj-C application.

doesn't the new tos only effect os4 sdk applications ?

I don't mean to be the grumpy sceptic, but how do we know that's a credible claim? There are no names mentioned, no specifics, no emails presented. On the other hand, if you were to be the skeptical kind, Nitobi, fearing the unthinkable - abandonment of their hard work - could have fibbed a little, they'd have every incentive to do so.

Some confirmation would be nice, just saying.

I have no reason to think they fibbed, I have no reason to believe they would do something like that, I'm just saying there's a claim, would be nice to get specifics. Making an app takes a lot of time and effort, reassurances are nice to have.

Is it not Flash? Then it's probably ok.

What!? We all know whats going on...

Interesting that Jobs complained 'sub-standard apps', and then allows PhoneGap? I think PhoneGap is a great tool and should be allowed, but look at some apps made with it. They feel chintzy to me. Navigation bars and toolbars don't stay on screen when you scroll for instance.

I don't think that's really a big deal, but the logic doesn't work if that's your reason for 3.3.1 and blocking flash.

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