I have to build a mobile app that's needs a high level of reactivity. I thought to use meteor.js just for my back end and build the app using native technologies. Can this work?
Yes it can, but you need to evaluate how reliable it will be.
If you're thinking about using JavaScript to write your native app (e.g. React Native) then you have good NPM packages that can help you with this task. For example:
https://blog.meteor.com/leverage-the-power-of-meteor-with-any-client-side-framework-bfb909141008
But if you're thinking about writing completely native code for iOS and Android and still have a DDP connection to use everything from Meteor you'll need to find a third part library written for your platform.
I've tried this in the past and had a bad experience. Once Meteor started getting updates the library broke and my app would not work anymore. This means you would need to find a well maintained project that is always up to date.
I hope I could help a little. It's not a simple decision, but if you research hard enough you can find out what's the best way to do it.
I advice you give it up if you wanna an app with high reactivity and high performance.
Related
What is the fastest way to move (migrate app) from Ionic to NativeScript with the least efforts?
Without rewrite old AngularJS controllers and services.
And using NativeScript with AngularJS not Angular 2.
I need to re-write UI with CSS (replacing HTML with XML) only.
Question is: Does this applicable? or there is no option but to re-write whole app!
If yes, what the path that I have to follow to make it?
The story if you want to know why I want to do this:
I have a mobile application that based on Ionic (ionic 1 with AngularJS), Ionic is really nice platform to build app, but a lot of headache specially with performance challenges, in my App I have a really an issue with this through many devices, until I found NativeScript which is really awesome, so I'm thinking about move my current live app from Ionic to NativeScript.
Until now, as I see seems I have to re-write whole app from scratch, but this is costly and not an option for me, I was searching in internet and found no clear answers, even in documentation they seems only using Angular2 with TS (which is better but not have time for this now) or just plan JavaScript.
This is good side reference: Lost in hybrid app frameworks like Ionic, Cordova,
Simply put you can't. Angular 1 is dependent on the DOM. With NativeScript there is no DOM. Which is why you have performance issues in the webview. You need to just bite the bullet and rewrite it with ng2 you'll thank yourself later. The webview is your downfall with your performance on Cordova and to get away from that you'll have better performance and the perf benefits you get with ng2 are also very nice. Heres a link with some good info on ionic 2 to NativeScript but that's as good as it gets. Because you can't easily from Cordova webview app to native UI like NativeScript or react native. https://www.thepolyglotdeveloper.com/2016/05/converting-ionic-2-mobile-app-nativescript/
Here's someone who just went ionic 2 to NativeScript and commented on the slack channel https://nativescriptcommunity.slack.com/archives/general/p1471789794013989 join the slack channel for some really awesome community help if you decide to do it.
I need to make a webApp with a good framework.
Actually i have been working with angular and i think that it can be not enought to my app because it is going to have a lot of work in the part of the client so i have thought in react.js or meteor.js.
Finally, i think that i am going to use meteor.js because it can make in the server and make the client to be with less work, but i want more opinions about it to decide what framework use.
In my app i will need to create a scenary with objects where the user is going to be able to move that objects in the scenary, so it can be a lot of work for the client.
Their all good frameworks and will have their ups and downs whatever you're building. I would suggest to use the framework you're most comfortable with.
This may help to choose: http://todomvc.com/
I have been developing phonegap applications that need to make updates oftenly. The problem is pushing a new ipa to iTune Store take too long. So, I uploaded the application source codes(minified javascript) to my server and download it from application and "eval" the minified js files. But i feel using eval has limitations and also not the right way. So, can someone tell me the right way to accomplish this.
thank you so much.
I'd love to have something like this as well. You're already ahead of me w/your eval() approach - but I'd have the same concerns as you there. Here's what I'm aware is out there on this topic - hope this helps?
IdeaPress(?)
I just recently caught wind of this one - not sure how feasible but it claims to do exactly what we'd like. I have to say the main site looks a bit flaky but I will definitly be checking this out to see if it's feasible or not.
HockeyApp?
HockeyApp (possibly dead-end now). I thought there used to be a pretty clear solution for PhoneGap devs to integrate the HockeyApp API/feature set with their mobile apps but a recent Google search on this is turning up much less than I would think - so maybe it's a dead end now? http://goo.gl/GQOv5o
org.apache.cordova.file
This requires more work and I haven't pushed far enough yet to see if it truly could be a means of updating the app post-app-store-deployment. But based on what I've read if you're just updating code for your WebView you shouldn't have to worry about App Store rejection or anything. Related tutorial
Testflight App Testing (Apple)
I haven't gotten to play w/this yet but sounds like it could be promising for at least the beta/testing phase of development. I, like you, need a solution for end-users, not app testers, but I'll still be looking into this soon as it might replace me having to maintain my own over-the-air app installs for the best/testing periods.
I've been working with Node+Express for a while now, and I'd like to start looking for a strong structure for building average to huge web apps, but which could also be used (and not be too much overkill) for simple websites.
I've been taking interest for backbone, but I'm looking for something much more "complete" already. I Know backbone can do everything with the right plugins and by respecting the best practices, but what I'm looking for is something more "strong" as is and from the start, like AngularJS, CanJS or Ember (maybe CanJS is the best compromise between flexibility and conventions althought all of this can be mostly subjective).
Just to be sure to keep into the best practices, even if I must stick to an opinionated FW.
Now, before choosing anything, and because I'll be using Node in the backend, so full JS, I'd like to know if there is a framework which would deliver client+server MVC capabilities, or if I must use Node/Express in the back and something else for the front.
Other info that may be useful, I'd like to code in CoffeeScript/LESS, and keep HTML as is (so no Jade-like stuff). If I'm not asking too much, I'd like to use this technology for all of my projects, which will be targeting also mobile phones, as websites (for sure), and sometimes even as Phonegap-based apps. Maybe this becomes hard (Meteor doesn't support Phonegap for it's client-side part for what I've read, maybe Derby ?).
Also, I must point out that I'm not asking anything subjective like "what is the best between ..." but simply if full client+server MVC JS framework exists, and if yes, which ones meets those needs.
rendr (backbone with server-side support)
meteor (very real-time oriented)
Meteor and DerbyJS seem great but very real-time oriented, I am not going for those.
I think I'll use TowerJS which seems to have really great features (live JS/CSS injection in browser when files updated, live node files reloading without restarting, pre-built development, staging and prod environments, MVC+ORM client+server-side, Redis for temp data and Mongo for DB...).
For Phonegap projects, I'll keep tower server-side and I'll find something else for the client, maybe simple backbone.
Take a look at the ExtJS 4. Also there is Sencha Touch 2 for mobile app development. Both of them has strong support for MVC.
sails.js is the most popular node.js MVC framework nowadays, and has a huge and growing community.
Meteor is also a great tool; my experience with the extjs community is that they are not very welcoming (rtfm noob! type of stuff).
I was really amazed about's meteor.js features and ease of use, im really falling in love with it. I just wanted to know if you expert guys think it is stable enough for using it in production for a medium sized project.
Thanks for your advice!
Update Nov 2014:
Meteor 1.0 was just released, this is the first ready for production version finally, more on meteor check out this link
6 months with Meteor has the best answer to this question I've found so far.
Here are a few excerpts:
Meteor can’t be used for all real-world apps just yet. Meteor doesn’t have server-side rendering yet, so it’s not ideal for sites that need to load very fast (like e-commerce
sites) or work on underpowered devices (like older mobile phones).
...
So I would say right now Meteor will be a perfect choice for a few apps (anything that strongly depends on real-time interactions), a great choice for most of them, and a very bad one for a few specific cases.
It sounds like Meteor is definitely promising and particularly well-suited for real-time essential web apps, however it's not production ready for all web apps at the moment. At the time of writing this meteor is at version 0.7.0.1.
It's hard to answer this, because use cases vary so much.
I have an in-house application running on Meteor, which is basically a web-based SMS client with address book, fully integrated with our custom, in-house CRM. The Meteor app has 25 simultaneous users, and has been used to send or receive 70,000 SMS messages over the past 5 months, with total downtime measurable in minutes (which was due to network outages, not a problem with the application or framework).
There are definitely missing features, but assuming the features you need are implemented, the framework can be stable enough for production.
Really depends on what you're doing and how many users will connect to it. Using the current version 0.6.x you will need to tweak things that maybe Meteor devs are going to tweak, like MongoDB operations. Also, many packages are going to be released in future that will help a lot some work you are going to build yourself right now (for e.g. the IronRouter that C. Mather is building is very complex to build but very useful if you need complex operations in your app, like subscribing automatically in certain views, building forms etc)