PhoneGap is an application framework that enables you to build native applications using HTML and JavaScript. Think of PhoneGap as a web view container that is 100% width and 100% height, with a JavaScript programming interface that allows you to access operating system features. The main issue developers used to face with Apache Cordova/PhoneGap was the setup of the development environment and the dependencies with other IDEs. Since version 2.x, however, things have changed dramatically and now the setup is pretty straightforward. This chapter covers setting up your development environment.
In this chapter we will:
Get an overview of the history of Apache Cordova/PhoneGap
Learn how to configure your development environment configuring all the dependencies
Learn how to create a new project using Eclipse, Xcode, and Visual Studio
Learn how to create a common code base without using the CLI (Command Line Interface) tool released with the version 2.0