Book Image

Mastering PhoneGap Mobile Application Development

By : Kerri Shotts
Book Image

Mastering PhoneGap Mobile Application Development

By: Kerri Shotts

Overview of this book

PhoneGap is a useful and flexible tool that enables you to create complex hybrid applications for mobile platforms. In addition to the core technology, there is a large and vibrant community that creates third-party plugins that can take your app to the next level. This book will guide you through the process of creating a complex data-driven hybrid mobile application using PhoneGap, web technologies, and third-party plugins. A good foundation is critical, so you will learn how to create a useful workflow to make development easier. From there, the next version of JavaScript (ES6) and the CSS pre-processor SASS are introduced as a way to simplify creating the look of the mobile application. Responsive design techniques are also covered, including the flexbox layout module. As many apps are data-driven, you'll build an application throughout the course of the book that relies upon IndexedDB and SQLite. You'll also download additional content and address how to handle in-app purchases. Furthermore, you’ll build your own customized plugins for your particular use case. When the app is complete, the book will guide you through the steps necessary to submit your app to the Google Play and Apple iTunes stores.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
Mastering PhoneGap Mobile Application Development
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Pixel densities


Devices of many different screen dimensions dominate today's mobile landscape. Some are small with 4.5-inch screens and others are quite large with 6-inch screens. Tablets, of course, are even larger at 7 inches, 8.9 inches, 10 inches, and so on (the recently released iPad Pro is 12.9 inches).

To further complicate matters, the resolutions of these screens are also very different. The physical dimension of a screen tells you very little about how many pixels it contains—a 4.5-inch screen might have a resolution of 320 x 480 pixels or it might be 640 x 960, or 1280 x 800. Slightly larger screens may have significantly more pixels – a 6-inch phone may have a resolution of 2560 x 1600.

Most developers are used to thinking about pixels as discrete units over which they have direct control. In other words, the developer has the idea that they can determine the color and brightness of each and every pixel on the screen individually. While it is indeed possible to control each pixel...