72 lines
4.1 KiB
Plaintext
72 lines
4.1 KiB
Plaintext
page.title=Web Apps Overview
|
|
@jd:body
|
|
|
|
<div class="figure" style="width:327px">
|
|
<img src="{@docRoot}images/webapps/webapps.png" alt="" />
|
|
<p class="img-caption"><strong>Figure 1.</strong> You can make your web content available to
|
|
users in two ways: in a traditional web browser and in an Android application, by
|
|
including a WebView in the layout.</p>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
<p>There are essentially two ways to deliver an application on Android: as a
|
|
client-side application (developed using the Android SDK and installed on user devices as an {@code
|
|
.apk}) or as a web application (developed using web standards and accessed through a web
|
|
browser—there's nothing to install on user devices).</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>The approach you choose for your application could depend on several factors, but Android makes
|
|
the decision to develop a web application easier by providing:</p>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>Support for viewport properties that allow you to properly size your web application
|
|
based on the screen size</li>
|
|
<li>CSS and JavaScript features that allow you to provide different styles and images
|
|
based on the screen's pixel density (screen resolution)</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
<p>Thus, your decision to develop a web application for Android can exclude consideration for
|
|
screen support, because it's already easy to make your web pages look good on all types of screens
|
|
powered by Android.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Another great feature of Android is that you don't have to build your application purely on
|
|
the client or purely on the web. You can mix the two together by developing a client-side Android
|
|
application that embeds some web pages (using a {@link android.webkit.WebView} in your Android
|
|
application layout). Figure 1 visualizes how you can provide access to your web pages from either
|
|
a web browser or your Android application. However, you shouldn't develop an Android
|
|
application simply as a means to launch your web site. Rather, the web pages you embed in your
|
|
Android application should be designed especially for that environment. You can even define an
|
|
interface between your Android application and your web pages that allows JavaScript in the web
|
|
pages to call upon APIs in your Android application—providing Android APIs to your web-based
|
|
application.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Since Android 1.0, {@link android.webkit.WebView} has been available for Android
|
|
applications to embed web content in their layout and bind JavaScript to Android APIs. After
|
|
Android added support for more screen densities (adding support for high and low-density
|
|
screens), Android 2.0 added features to the WebKit framework to allow web pages to specify
|
|
viewport properties and query the screen density in order to modify styles
|
|
and image assets, as mentioned above. Because these features are a part of Android's WebKit
|
|
framework, both the Android Browser (the default web browser provided with the platform) and
|
|
{@link android.webkit.WebView} support the same viewport and screen density features.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>To develop a web application for Android-powered devices, you should read the
|
|
following documents:</p>
|
|
|
|
<dl>
|
|
<dt><a href="{@docRoot}guide/webapps/targeting.html"><strong>Targeting Screens from Web
|
|
Apps</strong></a></dt>
|
|
<dd>How to properly size your web app on Android-powered devices and support
|
|
multiple screen densities. The information in this document is important if you're building a web
|
|
application that you at least expect to be available on Android-powered devices (which you should
|
|
assume for anything you publish on the web), but especially if you're targeting mobile devices
|
|
or using {@link android.webkit.WebView}.</dd>
|
|
<dt><a href="{@docRoot}guide/webapps/webview.html"><strong>Building Web Apps in
|
|
WebView</strong></a></dt>
|
|
<dd>How to embed web pages into your Android application using {@link android.webkit.WebView} and
|
|
bind JavaScript to Android APIs.</dd>
|
|
<dt><a href="{@docRoot}guide/webapps/debugging.html"><strong>Debugging Web Apps</strong></a></dt>
|
|
<dd>How to debug web apps using JavaScript Console APIs.</dd>
|
|
<dt><a href="{@docRoot}guide/webapps/best-practices.html"><strong>Best Practices for Web
|
|
Apps</strong></a></dt>
|
|
<dd>A list of practices you should follow, in order to provide an effective web application on
|
|
Android-powered devices.</dd>
|
|
</dl>
|
|
|