5 Day Cross Platform Mobile Mapping Application Challenge

• android
• iphone
• mobile

Well, I’m now officially out of the corporate world and Sidelab has been in business for a week now . On the cards for this week are 5 days of non-chargeable work (eek) that I have allotted to determine whether a mobile mapping application can be implemented using some of the iPhone and Android mobile development toolkits that are currently available (PhoneGap, AppCelerator, RhoMobile, etc). Targeted platforms at this stage are iPhone and Android only.

To add an extra layer of complexity I will be doing this using the deCarta Mapping Platform rather than Google Maps, as I’ve had some experience with the deCarta platform in the past and found it to be technically very good.

To get started, here is the rough schedule I have worked out for the week:

Day One and Two – Identify Best Fit for Purpose Cross Platform Toolkit

• High level investigation implementing mapping application in what I believe are the current top three cross-platform mobile frameworks:
  • PhoneGap
  • Appcelelerator
  • Rhomobile

  Basic goal is to have a simple tiling map display implemented using each toolkit. Ideally in the deCarta platform.

• Identify potential barriers for later-stage implementation, and push the boundaries a bit.

Day Three – UI Toolkit Investigation

• Investigate most suitable HTML UI toolkit for implementing a slick UI that behaves itself on both iPhone and Android. Current candidates are:
  • jQTouch
  • iUI

Day Four – Push “Most Promising” Platform
Based on the results of days one to three, push the selected development framework plus supporting mobile web UI (if required – would be of little use in Appcelerator) to try and anticipate future problems that might occur in a cross-platform approach to a mapping application.

Day Five – Compare back against deCarta Native iPhone API
deCarta do have an iPhone API available as a Beta – available from their devzone (registration required). Some comparisons will be done against the general feel of the iPhone native application vs a cross-platform alternative to determine if and where usability is compromised using a cross-platform approach.

I’ll be attempting to post an update of each day / phases results so if you wish to keep up-to-date with progress, please subscribe to the Distractable feed.