#trigger.io

I'm a fan of HTML for building mobile apps. Its incredibly quick and easy to build simple apps. I already know HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Lots of other developers do too, so it's easier to find people to work with than native platforms.

When I recently started working on a mobile project, I used Codiqa to build a mockup of the app interface and generate HTML and Trigger.io and TestFlight to turn that mock into an app running on my iPhone.

Get Creative With Your Mock

Codiqa makes it easy to create app mocks.

Sign up for Codiqa basic account so you can build more than 3 pages and export your mock as HTML

Build an awesome mock by dragging and dropping

Optional: customise your app by creating a theme with jQuery Mobile Themeroller and uploading it to Codiqa

Download your mock as HTML and unzip

From Mock To Mobile In Minutes

Next, I used Trigger.io to create an app from the mock HTML and TestFlight to release it to my phone.

Install Trigger.io's tools

Create a directory for your new app

Run forge create (See Trigger.io's OS-specific instructions for more detail)

Replace the contents of the src dir Download HTML from Codiqa to the src dir of your new app

Rename app.html to index.html so that Trigger knows it's your start page

Change your app's config to include your package name and point to your provisioning profile (there's an example local_config.json here)

Run forge build ios to compile the app

Run forge package ios to generate an IPA package file for iPhones

Distribute Your Mock App

Once you've followed these steps, you can upload your build to TestFlight and push it out to your testers.

To deploy apps to iPhones, you will need an Apple developer account and a provisioning profile. TestFlight have a good resource on preparing a build for distribution through TestFlight. Also, Handshake have a good overview of Testing iOS Apps with TestFlight.

looked up various domain extensions

browsed the trigger.io documentation

read some stuff about backbone.js and iscroll

read some stuff about grid layouts (i.e. 960gs)

* Simplest way to build Apps for windows phone - trigger.io - cloud compile competitor to phonegap.... pretty cool but $299 a month is a bit steep...

* If you havent taken a look at leap motion before this video is just awesome... Imagine 3D maps utilizing this technology :)

* lead engineers as product owners... curious to hear people's thoughts on this, i know i have a lot of my own.  The biggest one being that it is really, really hard to find someone to fill this role and then even harder to get someone to accept this type of role because quite honestly this is a ton of work.

Over the last weekend I made a step in direction that is getting more and more interesting - mobile app development. I built a very simple Android app that actually solves a real life problem (although minuscule) and am willing to share my experience with you.

Smartphones are getting more and more popular and this trend is not going to slow down any time soon. According to Trigger.io people are spending more time using mobile apps than browsing web and mobile expansion is progressing with enormous speed.

I was meaning to create a mobile app for quite a while and finally had right technology, skillset, mindset and amount of free time required - all at the same time.

The goal

My goal was to build an app that:

is NOT a "Hello World!" type app

solves a real life problem

is fairly simple to code up

The problem that I decided to solve is the fact that people in the UK use different unit to describe bodyweight (stones) than the country where I grew up (kg). One example use is climbing gym: can this person easily belay me or if I can belay her? I know my bodyweight in kilograms and my friend knows her bodyweight in stones and none of us remembers exactly how to convert from one to another (True story!).

(And yes, I know there is a ton of unit conversion apps, thanks :) )

On the beginning I was planning to write a native app for my phone (Android device), but a while ago I've read about ways to utilise my existing skills (html/js/css, among others) to build my first app, without knowledge of the nitty gritty - great!

Pick your weapons

I decided to go with Trigger.io to achieve my goal, as I wanted to spare myself endless hours spent on configuring environment (as opposed to PhoneGap/Appcelerator). These guys provide you with the environment that just works and don't restrict you too much - perfect for a beginner. I also didn't want to go out of my comfort zone too much, so decided to use tools that I actually knew and used before.

Trigger.io provides you with a pleasant environment, where you don't have to touch command line at all! It works as an app within your browser, from localhost. I do understand that a lot of folks may prefer "hacker-style" black terminal over Trigger's clean and minimalistic web app, but for me clicking a button that i can see instead of typing a command is a much better experience, especially at the beginning. 

I particularly like built in wizard for "config.json" file. I don't have to refer to manual to find a section that needs to be added to achieve certain thing, all I have to do instead is just check few boxes and fill out input fields. Voila! 

I decided to use HTML5 Boilerplate, Zepto.js and Twitter Bootstrap to build it. You can see the source of WeightConverter on GitHub. 

You can also download .apk file and install it on your phone.

Here's how the app looks like:

Let me share with you my observations after this brief experiment:

The pros of using Trigger.io

staying in your comfort zone (tools/technologies)

really easy to set up

very fast development cycle

it's free

The cons of using Trigger.io

staying in your comfort zone (tools/technologies)

app is considerably slower than native apps (at least on my low end Android device)

constant access to internet is required (while developing)

you can't access all native features (eg. you can't send or intercept a text message, register intent etc.)

Verdict

Even after just a few days I can see that Trigger.io is going to be a valuable tool in many cases. It was a very good experience and I will probably develop more apps using it. On the other hand I've already noticed missing features that made me consider switching to Appcelerator or fully native code.

All in all, I can totally recommend Trigger.io. You should give it a shot if you ever considered developing mobile apps.

Did you use Trigger.io or any of it's competitors? Did you create an app using it? Share with us in the comments!

If you read this far, you should follow me on Twitter.

Trigger.io - cross-platform app framework The simplest way for web developers to build native iOS, Android and web apps using a single HTML5 codebase.

Trestle - Powerful Cloud Services For Your Mobile Apps Use Trestle's RESTful APIs to power your applications Simple integration with both mobile and server apps