[javascript] Build mobile web applications with Sencha Touch

Build mobile web applications with Sencha Touch

An HTML5 mobile JavaScript framework for WebKit browsers
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/library/wa-senchatouch/index.html?ca=drs-#resources

Overview

In the software development world, two important trends are increasingly important: mobile application development and standards-based HTML5 web development. The learning curve for either type of development can be steep. Developing a native mobile application often requires knowledge of specific platforms and skills, such as Objective-C for iPhone and Java™ for Android (and these are only two platforms). HTML5 development has gained traction lately because it is standards-based. While vendors are working rapidly to incorporate and comply with these early specifications, HTML5 is still rather immature.

The recent release of Sencha Touch 1.0 fuses the cutting-edge worlds of mobile application development with HTML5 web development to form a simple, accessible framework for building mobile web applications. In this article, learn everything you'll need to know to start working with the Sencha Touch framework.

Sencha Touch

Learning to build mobile applications—especially from the perspective of a web developer—can be troublesome. A variety of platforms to choose from and technologies to learn are available. HTML5 support, though gaining momentum quickly, is still not quite ready to be used for complex web applications, particularly line-of-business applications.

Sencha Touch combines the rich platforms of HTML5 and mobile web application development into a happy medium. The framework is developer-friendly and similar to using the Ext JS JavaScript framework. If you have moderate to advanced JavaScript experience, then Sencha Touch is approachable. If you already have skills as a JavaScript and CSS developer, Sencha Touch can immediately turn you into a mobile application developer, too.

Sencha is a company with a core commercial product offering, but it also supports open source software. Sencha Touch 1.0 is free for both personal and commercial use.

Frequently used abbreviations

Ajax: Asynchronous JavaScript + XML
API: application programming interface
CSS: Cascading Style Sheets
HTML: Hypertext Markup Language
JSON: JavaScript Object Notation
SDK: software development kit
UI: user interface