Book Image

PhoneGap By Example

Book Image

PhoneGap By Example

Overview of this book

Table of Contents (17 chapters)
PhoneGap By Example
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

What is Crosswalk and why we need it?


When we develop with PhoneGap/Cordova, we use the standard WebView that the system provides for us. The situation is not bad with iOS. WebView in iOS from version to version works almost the same. There are only small changes and improvements provided for now.

However, with Android, the situation is totally different. In the different variations of the platform, different versions of WebView are used. There are differences in:

  • JavaScript API

  • CSS properties support and syntax

  • Specific interface that renders flow

Many other differences and odds can also be found.

This is where Crosswalk is very handy. Like WebView, it uses the latest version of Google Chromium. Crosswalk adds the following benefits:

  • Same WebView on all Android 4.x platforms

  • Available Chrome DevTools

  • Great performance of JavaScript, HTML, and CSS

It is like running a Google Chrome instance in your native mobile application.

Here are several other benefits helpful for us:

HTML5 feature

Without the...