Book Image

PhoneGap Beginners Guide (third edition)

Book Image

PhoneGap Beginners Guide (third edition)

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Table of Contents (22 chapters)
PhoneGap Beginner's Guide Third Edition
PhoneGap Beginner's Guide Third Edition
Credits
Credits
Foreword
Foreword
About the Authors
About the Authors
About the Reviewers
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Preface
Free Chapter
1
Introduction to PhoneGap
Introduction to PhoneGap
About PhoneGap
PhoneGap and Apache Cordova
Choosing an operating system for development
Mobile web versus mobile app
Installing dependencies
Installing PhoneGap
Setting up your development environment
Time for action – setting up Android using PhoneGap 3.x
Getting started with Android and JBoss
Time for action – using JBoss Developer Studio
Getting started with iOS and Xcode
Getting started with Windows Phone and Visual Studio
Summary
2
Building Your First PhoneGap Project
Building Your First PhoneGap Project
The structure of a PhoneGap application
Using the PhoneGap CLI
Cordova events
Time for action – the Hello World example
WebKit debugging – Chrome, Safari, and Opera
Gecko debugging – Firefox
Internet Explorer
Debugging workflow
Building and deployment
Summary
3
Mobile Frameworks
Mobile Frameworks
Building native UI for the mobile
Achieving a native look and feel on iOS
Choosing mobile frameworks
Time for action – developing with jQuery Mobile
Selecting a framework
Summary
4
Working with Plugins
Working with Plugins
An introduction to plugins
Exploring the Device API
Time for action – accessing the Device API
Custom plugins
Summary
5
Using Device Storage and the Files API
Using Device Storage and the Files API
Application data storage
Time for action – reading and writing data on the LocalStorage
Time for action – populating a local database
Database limitations
Understanding the Files API
Time for action – listing folders
Time for action – reading and rendering an image
Time for action – downloading and saving a file
Summary
6
Using the Contacts and Camera APIs
Using the Contacts and Camera APIs
The Contacts API
Time for action – searching device contacts
Time for action – adding a new contact
Camera API or Capture API?
Accessing the camera using the Camera API
Time for action – accessing the device camera
Time for action – controlling the position of the camera roll
The Media Capture API
Time for action – manipulating images with a canvas
Summary
7
Accessing the Device Sensors and Locations API
Accessing the Device Sensors and Locations API
Introducing device sensors
Accelerometer
Time for action – handling device orientation with JavaScript
Compass
Time for action – using the Compass API
An introduction to geolocation
The PhoneGap Geolocation API
Time for action – showing device position with Google Maps
Summary
8
Advanced PhoneGap
Advanced PhoneGap
Using the Globalization API
Localizing your app
Time for action – rendering localized messages
Adding multitouch gesture support
Time for action – implementing gesture support
Handling click delays
Summary
9
Getting Ready for Release
Getting Ready for Release
Exploring JavaScript compression
Time for action – compressing files using the Closure Compiler
Time for action – using UglifyJS
Time for action – optimizing JavaScript with RequireJS
Comparing compression tools
Using template engine compression
Time for action – compiling a template using Pistachio
Creating fluid, multiple app views
Using hardware-accelerated transitions
Porting web applications
Summary
10
A Sample PhoneGap Project
A Sample PhoneGap Project
What's in the app?
Creating the project
Scope for improvements
Summary
The JavaScript Quick Cheat Sheet
The JavaScript Quick Cheat Sheet
The getElementById() method
The getElementsByTagName() method
The getElementsByName() method
The alert method
The toString() method
The parseInt() method
The getDate() method
The onclick event
The ondblclick event
The window.location object
Selectors using jQuery
Publishing Your App
Publishing Your App
Publishing on Google Play
Publishing on Blackberry World
Publishing on the Apple App Store
Publishing on the Windows Phone Store
Summary
Related Plugin Resources
Related Plugin Resources
Summary
PhoneGap Tools
PhoneGap Tools
The PhoneGap Developer App
The PhoneGap Desktop App
Summary
Index
Index

Compass

The PhoneGap Compass API allows you to obtain the direction that the device is pointing to. The compass is a sensor that detects the direction or heading in which the device is pointed and returns the heading of the device in degrees using values from 0 to 359.99. The Compass API works similarly to the Accelerometer API; in fact, you can read the current device heading or you can define a watcher in order to continuously read the heading value.

The Compass API is available on the compass property of the navigator object and exposes the following functions:

  • compass.getCurrentHeading: This reads the current compass heading through a handler

  • compass.watchHeading: This reads the compass heading at a specific time interval through a handler and returns a reference to it

  • compass.clearWatch: This stops a previously defined time interval reading handler

The getCurrentHeading and watchHeading functions accept very similar arguments; the only difference is the last argument of the watchHeading...

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